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Before moving here, I was never so aware of the variation that one could have in cleaning products. There are so many options, and it's also a bit tricky to figure out which of the eco-friendly options (should you prefer them) work better among the rest. Here's a starter guide to help out... For really powerful cleaning that's not eco-friendly, but does the job: Bref (any type) and Bleichmittel (bleach) are my go-tos. Persil is great for laundry detergent. DM brands are excellent value as well. For eco-friendly cleaning: Ecover's quality is excellent. Frosch is also very good, and picking up quite the following outside of Europe - most of their products are even made in Germany / Austria! Don't forget to load up on "waschlappen" for scrubbing... For room-by-room cleaning: Kitchen: Ceramic cooktop scraper: you can buy a small tool (I found one at Tchibo ) to scrape food off the cooktop, then scrub it clean. Don't use steel wool, I learned t

One of my new favorite cities... Bordeaux was a beautiful destination to do a bit of city-wandering, playground-visiting, and good-food-eating. If I could go back and rent a car, and explore a bit more outside the city, I could have easily filled up a week. Day 1:  We stayed a bit outside the city at the Mercure Le Lac , since we were tag-alongs to a scientific conference, but right on the tram line - 20 minutes straight to the best place in town, the Miroir d'Eau . On a sunny day, nothing beats people-watching with an ice cream here, or if you have kids, letting them splash and run around. We spent hours here, every day. When the kids got tired, we wandered around the city and let them chill.  We got ice cream here  and wandered over to window shop at Rue Ste Catherine.. then called it an early night to head back up to the hotel.  Day 2 :  We wandered about the Basilica of St Michael and I browsed the flea market for some gorgeous antiques and knickknacks. It was en rou

We recently returned from a very relaxed 5 day trip to Porto, Portugal. Although flight times were a bit on the odd-hours side, we chose Ryanair - 50% cheaper than any other airline to fly, even with car park and seat reservations! We used the extra savings to rent a car & car seats (I'm quickly becoming a fan of Enterprise. They consistently have the lowest prices, and this time even installed the car seats for us!). For 700 euros, we had flights and a car for a family of 4, not bad. The car came in handy as we stayed a little outside of town at a gorgeous apartment by the marina. There was plenty of parking and a Lidl within short driving distance - plus the hosts left us a few bites & port, a fun surprise! You can easily Uber around as well - it's by far the cheapest and fastest method of transport, even compared to driving in and paying for parking. Porto really felt like a great value for excellent food, tourist activities, and parking in town. If we'd ha