Happy Birthday To Me! {smile}

Yay, it is only 8:30am and I already feel like a Birthday Queen!

Look what I received this morning:

A super zoom lens! I really missed this item on our trip and I can't wait to try it out...

From the kids I received (upon my own request) the Zumba Fitness DVD  for the Kinect! I already tried it out and my heart is still racing...  [wink] I took lessons last year but my ankle (which I broke the year before that) wasn't happy with all that movement. I did like the music though so now I'm giving it a second chance from the comfort of my own home...

And yes, I'm aiming to get the same bod as on the DVD case... (not!) Oh, and maybe the long hair too! (I just cut it all short again yesterday)

Several very yummie bath bombs from Lush were also received but I haven't had the chance to take fun pictures of them yet.

In a couple of hours I'll be meeting up with Tif again after quite a long hiatus (she was also away for a month) and hopefully we'll enjoy first some great thrifting and then a great Indian lunch: Yahoo!

Tour De France & Beer! (what a combo...)

Hello again! I was going to post these pictures tomorrow but tomorrow is my 45th (!) birthday!  {smile}

I'll first be celeberating this momentous occasion with a visit to Value Village (second hand store) and lunch with Tif and in the evening we will be celebrating my Dutch aunt and uncle's 50th wedding anniversary so lots of celebrating all around!  {smile}

So, on July 24th we were in Paris to actually witness the final leg of the Tour De France! Now I am not a Tour fan at all and I don't think the rest of the family is either, but the final leg, in Paris??? So of we went to the 'Pont de Tolbiac' near the 'Parc de Bercy' to find ourselves a good viewing spot. We found one since we were ridiculously early and there was hardly anybody else there. We actually ended up standing on that same bridge for 4 hours (!) but the weather was gorgeous and it was just fun to live the moment.

We had heard that the caravan preceeding the actual Tour would hand out goodies but no such luck! (I think they kept all the goodies for the people on the Champs Elysees...) That was a bummer but Miss M. managed to get a signed photograph of Raymond  Poupilard (that was not his real name but something close to it) a famous retired Tour person and she bought a fun Tour umbrella and we got two t-shirts also...

The Caravan was crazy!!!! Just like an American parade or a Dutch carnival celebration. My personal highlight was a guy in a speedo (so French! [wink]) dancing around a stripper pole: hilarious!!! ('Dorothy, I don't think we're in America any more...')

Anyway, here are some impressions...

And the final arrival of the peleton...

The peleton wizzed by in a matter of seconds so I didn't actually see anything since I was right behind the camera of course (it was in sport's mode so it clicked and clicked and clicked).

Do you see Mister Cadel (the winner) in his yellow jersey in the middle? I'll add a close-up...

I'll leave you with some lovely beer pictures in celebration of my Birthday tomorrow: Cheers!  {smile}

Paris, Je T'aime... (but not really)

Well, here is my Paris post. I've been procrastinating posting on this one because, and I can only whisper this, I didn't really enjoy Paris...

I know, I know, everybody simply LOVES Paris but I just didn't get it. This was my second time visiting and I really tried but to me it was just a big and very crowded place with yes, very beautiful buildings but that was about it. Of course it didn't help that we reached Paris after already a lot of sightseeing and driving around first Holland and then Germany so I'll grant you that.

Anyway, enough negativity, we did see beautiful  buildings, the weather wasn't bad at all and we had quite a few good times as well so here it goes....

Le Marais, Place des Vosges, Notre Dame etc.

The Louvre

The Sacre Coeur

Montmartre area

And of course the Tour d'Eiffel:

And one more...

The pictures in these last two collages were made by Miss M. She and my husband went there for the evening and had a great time together. She makes great pics don't you think?  {smile}

I think the best time I had in Paris was the first day we were there and we visited Le Marais. Our friend Frederique, who had graciously lent her appartment to us (!), showed us around and we had lunch together before she took the high speed train down to Le Provence.

This must be the way to go for me the next time; with someone who knows where to find all the special little places, not all those tourisity ones. Within 5 minutes of her place we found this cute little embroidery shop with lots of specialty linens etc.

It really was tiny, but I bought three pieces of linen and some old 'De Fil en Aiguille' cross-stitch magazines for 1 Euro each! Lovely!  {smile}

Tomorrow some shots of the last leg of the Tour de France. Yes, we were there!

Cars, Castles, Ships and Old Dutch Tiles...

Whilst in Holland we kept on running into these cute little Fiats! So of course I had to take pictures of them too. Love the one in the middle especially!  [wink]

In Berlin we saw a few Trabants but not as many as we used to. I barely cought the lime green one racing around the corner near the Stasi Prison: it's a station wagon! And of course 'George' needs no additional words...

  

We also visited several castles in The Netherlands: the 'Muiderslot' in Muiden (in the same street where my dad lives!), 'Loevesteijn' near Woudrichem and a city castle in Zaltbommel. Aren't they just splendid?!

And of course we saw plenty of sailboats old and new and we particularly liked the old flat bottom ones that are so well known in my dad's area around the IJsselmeer...

On the bottom right you see the 'Batavia', a replica from the 17th century VOC era (East-Indian- Company in the colonial days) that lies in Lelystad.

And here some beautiful Old Dutch Tiles which always catch my eye when I come across them....

As always, for more details please click on the pictures to enlarge them ...

Meanwhile At Home...

The jet- lag seems to have finally disappeared and the creative forces have returned! Painting is in progress:

This bright red paint is for one of my mid- century tables which was due for a bit of a makeover. It is taking multiple coats so the final pictures will have to wait for a while...

I've also been painting the tv room. The painting in this house has never been satisfactory due to the fact that all the doors and trimming are wood color. (Yuk!) I think any color looks at its best with a nice bright white trim around it but no such luck here. I've been struggling with the colors in this house since day one and I don't think I'll ever be satisfied but one can always try. This is what it looks like right now...

The photo's show the blue color more as grey but is more duck- egg- blue-ish in reality. I wanted to be able to add more blue and red in this part of the house, but with all the orange tones this just didn't look right. Now I can though!  {smile}

I ran out of the blue paint so I still have to do a second coat on half the room but is is just about done. Time for...

Toodeloo!

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!