Berlin...

So, today I would like to show you three collages of pictures taken in Berlin. We have been there many times since one of my husband's best friends has lived there just about his whole life. We love visiting him and we love history so what is not to like?

We had fabulous weather which was a good thing since I had hurt my back a day before we got there. By the time I got out of our car after nine hours or so I could barely move! Moving around seemed the best way to ease up the muscles so walking it was and there is tons of walking in Berlin I can tell you! So glad that worked out ok in the end... (it did take a week to completely disappear though)

While in Berlin we took an underground tour of two old bunkers. One was a bunker from the 2nd World War and the other was one from the early 1970's when we had the huge Cold War threat going on. Thank goodness neither bunkers were ever used for their intended purposes because boy, those were scary places, especially with several people underground for many days... I was not allowed to take pictures there so I have nothing to show you from that event...

The last day in Berlin we went to the following 'museum': (text borrowed from the internet)

Hohenschönhausen Memorial Center (Stasi prison museum)

Between 1951 and 1989 East Germany's Stasi secret police used this site in Hohenschönhausen as a detention centre / prison for unsentenced suspects. Holding mainly political prisoners, it was infamous for its regime of physical and psychological torture meted out to inmates. Following the fall of the Communist regime and the disbanding of the Stasi the prison was converted into a memorial museum, the Gedenkstätte Berlin-Hohenschönhausen, on the initiative of former prisoners.

The prison was originally established in 1945 by the Soviet NKVD, the forerunner to the KGB as an internment camp ('Special Camp Nr. 3' ). This camp was closed in October 1946 but the cellar was converted into cells and served as the main detention and interrogation centre for dissidents and other undesirables. It was taken over by the East German Stasi in 1951. By 1960 / 61 a new prison building had been constructed using prisoner labour; following the construction of the Berlin Wall many attempted escapees were held here. As well as the prison facilities the Stasi also ran other operations on the site, such as a workshop for forgeries. Much of the area around the prison was a forbidden zone.

Now this was a seriously intimidating place far in the Eastern parts of Berlin. Very interesting indeed, especially since our friend's wife was born on the East side and was 23 when The Wall fell. This all made it come much closer to home...

We felt that all this history was very important to show our kids and so on our way South to Munich we decided to stop by Dachau, one of the Nazi concentration camps. G. and I had visited Sachsenhausen, Auschwitz and Birkenau before we had kids but this one was new to us. It just never seizes to amaze us, in a negative way of course...

Well, enough serious stuff for now. More pics tomorrow of lighter subjects!

People Are People...

Are you ready for this?  {smile}

I've started composing some themed photo collages of our Europe Tour and would like to start with the 'People' part of our trip. Meeting these people again (let's call them friends and family shall we?) was one of the main reasons of going to Europe in the first place of course.

We borrowed my dad's car (Thanks again Dad!) and stayed only with friends along the way, some of whom we hadn't seen in 13 years or more! We hit it of again right from the start and it felt like we had spoken to them only last week!

Here they come: (click to enlarge!)

We really wanted our kids to taste the flavor of Europe so to speak and staying with our friends and seeing how people live over there really made that happen.

Both kids were born in Bavaria and Master C. felt quite connected with everything German. He is not one for change and I think the 'Deutsche Grundlichkeit' really struck a cord within him...

Here are some pics of Master C. and Miss M. doing stuff together:

Master C. taking it all in:

And Miss M. having a blast everywhere she went:

Spending a whole month together as a family 24/7 might make for some tense situations in some families but not in ours; it was wonderful to enjoy so much quality time together...

So, that was the first part of my themed collages, I hope you enjoyed them? Next up are, in no particular order: Castles, Beer, Berlin, Paris, Landscapes and Cars, to name but a few...

The Route...

It is 4 am  (yes, that is very early in the morning!) and I am once again wide awake sitting behind the computer. At least I do have quite a few hours of sleep behind me now and that makes all the difference...

I thought I'd show the main route we took this last month. It took us from Holland (Muiden, Arnhem, Amersfoort, Utrecht, Zaltbommel and Paterswolde) to Germany (Berlin, Starnberg, Andechs, Garmish-Partenkirchen, Neuschwanstein and Ettal), a little side tour through the Alps in Austria, France (Paris), Belgium (West-Vleteren to an abbey where they brew the world's number 1 beer, but of course I've forgotten the name now...) and back to Holland for another week of small side trips.

Wow, I get just tired reading about it all! [wink]

The Beer!

Made by Miss M., 23 July 2011.

I'm too tired to make a whole collage at the moment but this picture of the Eiffel Tower is a fun teaser of all the sights we saw whilst in Paris don't you think? We were even there for the last leg of the Tour de France!

Here they come!

I have a great picture of the yellow jersey guy who won the the whole tour

(of course I have forgotton his name as well. I can only blame the jet- lag...),

but I will show you that one later.
We were standing on the Pont de Tolbiac for those of you in the know...

Right, I'm going to attempt another couple of hours of sleeping time now, wish me luck...

PS Darn it! I just checked the link I added to show you our route and it doesn't work! Well, I guess that with the aid of an atlas and my description you can pretty much figure out where we were...

 

We Have Returned!

Helloooo!   {smile}

We have had an absolutely amazing trip where we've seen and done everything we had set out to see and do and more! For now I will give you this little Dutch impression...

Open -Air Museum in Arnhem...

8 July 2011

Sweet isn't it?

I made over 2000 (!) pictures and of course I will not be able (nor do I want to) show them to you all, but I think I will make some more of these themed collages to give you an impression of our travels.

I will take it slowly because boy, that jet-lag is a killer. We came back last night and I haven't slept a wink since...

Happy to be back in blog-land!

Adieu, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye!

My dad's balcony... (2005)

View from my dad's balcony...

This castle is only a one minute walk away from my dad's house.
In fact, it is right at the end of the street in the first photo...

Well my friends, the time has come to bid you adieu!  This is where we will be, starting Tuesday and I can't wait.

Hope to see you all again in August!  {smile}

What A Day!

Wowie, we're experiencing gorgeous weather over here today and tomorrow is going to be even nicer!  "Purrfic!" as Pop would say on 'The Darling Buds of May'...  {smile}

G. had his last work day today and I finished my last lessons at Little Bit. I had so much fun there today. The first rider I ever worked  with 3 years ago came back for a lesson. She is 8 years old now and has grown so much. She remembered my name immediately and still is one of the only ones to pronounce it correctly.  ~wink~

Now I finally have that vacation feeling in me: Yes!

Here some beautiful pictures from more flowers in the yard. I used the Av-setting this time so I could determine my own focal point instead of the auto-focus....

Focus on the  little bud...

Focus on the right flower....

And oh yeah, the Swedish lady came by with her kids yesterday afternoon and we had a great time! They stayed until almost 7pm and we just chatted the whole time. She is from Skane for those of you from there, Monica and Viveka!  ~wink~

Right now this vision below is waiting for me so I'm off....

Cheerio!

Like I said earlier this week, there is not a lot going on over here. We're basically just sitting around (not G., he's still at work) waiting to start packing and travelling and chatting, lots of chatting...  {smile}

I did make some nice close-up pictures once again from some lovely flowers and plants in the yard. Go and have a look...

I just looooove those Ranunculas! As stunning as Poppies I think, but unfortunately I don't have any in my yard...

Well, this afternoon I will have a visit with the Swedish lady from last week and her two young children. It will be nice to get to know someone new.

Little Bit is tomorrow for the last time until the middle of August and then it is time for some serious cleaning and packing.

I can't wait to show my photographs of Holland, Germany and France. I love photographing buildings and there is just soooo much history there.

I'm certain I will get another blogpost in before we leave but I am not sure if I will have the time or opportunity to blog while we're over there. Keep checking in now and then I would say and I will do the same with your blogging adventures!  {smile}

Butterfly!

While I was wandering around the yard, with my camera for company, I came across this huge yellow butterfly...

He or she was very quick and this is the only picture I got. Pretty cool though!

I also found this wasp and a little lady bug...

These pics were not taken with those extra macro filters that I recently purchased, just the plain automatic macro setting on my camera.

And look what else I found lurking on the street? {smile}

I cropped this picture and added some text but for whatever reason it isn't showing up right now. Oh well, you 'get the picture'!  ~wink~

RV-Time...

Unfortunately both my Little Bit lessons were cancelled this morning so I decided to finish off my cut & paste project from yesterday. Tadaa!

Wasn't that fun!  {smile}

Cucumber Time...

In Holland we call this time of year 'Cucumber Time' or the 'Silly Season' as my dictionary calls it. Simply said, there is not much going on here in the CowRoad region. Our trip is only days away but not yet close enough to start packing for real. (although I've packed my suitcase several times over in my head of course)

I've packed away all my sewing stuff and with that, all of my creative mojo has left the building also. I don't even feel like doing any embroidery or photography either! I did make some more lovely flower photo's last Sunday I believe so I guess I can show you those. Here they come...

This weekend Blogger told me I had reached my 1 GB limit on photo storage for this blog and that I could upload no more: shock horror! I've managed to delete some pictures for now so that I still have some room for publishing but I think that after our vacation I will have to pay up for photo storage. Apparently it will cost me only $5 for 20 GB so that will not break the bank but still...it just feels funny to have to pay for storage like that...

I've bought enough memory for my camera to take around 5000 pictures (and I am sure that will actually happen!) so I will definitely need that extra storage space!

I'm now also resizing all my pictures that you see here to a smaller size so that they won't take up so much room. Hopefully they still look good?

In other 'news', our local strawberry fields have finally opened up for picking! G. and Miss M. were there for only 15-20 minutes and picked 8 1/2 pounds!!!

We ate quite a few them right away and the rest are now in the freezer for when we come back. We will be coming back to our place  in August, doesn't it look lovely in the sunshine? (of which we had exactly one day in total again...)

Aha, yesterday I received my tulip lens hood so hopefully you will not be seeing any of those light spots in my pictures again...

We'll be having housesitters in our house during the time we are away to look after the yard and more importantly, our dog! This way she will have the least amount of stress and our house will be lived in and secure.
Of course I want the house to be sparkling for when the house sitters arrive on Sunday but if I start cleaning now I will have to do it all over again on Saturday: what a conundrum! (love that word)

Well, enough ramblings for today. I'm off again to Little Bit this morning which always cheers me up!  {smile}

Share More Love...

Hello all, I hope you have survived the weekend? We finally had some lovely weather yesterday and we spent it outside, reading, weading and mulching: wonderful!

I just came across this crafty post on How About Orange and immediately printed out the calendar/ scene below: I Love it!

The post originally came from the Curiosity Group website and they're designing one of these cut-out calendars for every month. Obviously I'm a little late in finding it but how much fun is this? {smile}

I'm off doing some cutting and pasting now...