Wow, it has been three weeks since we last posted a blog. Apologies! Life has suddenly been a bit hectic lately. Hope you enjoy this catch-up post on the last few weeks =)
Three weeks ago today we went to see Bryan Adams live at a venue called The Ahoy Rotterdam. Wow! What an fantastic concert! He may be 52 but he still knows how to rock it. He played mostly older hits, we were surprised at how many we knew all the lyrics to!, and also some newer songs. We were also surprised at the average age of concert goers. You know you are getting old when an artist whose music you grew up with is 52 and the crowd is mostly in 40+. The Ahoy is quite a nice venue and easy for us to get to. It looks like they always have a good line-up of concerts, especially in the Spring and Summer. Other concerts lined up for the year are Snow Patrol, Paul McCartney, Il Divo, Michael Buble, Cesar Millan (the dog whisperer), Disney on Ice and the Spanish Riding School. It is so convenient having such a venue close by.
Surprise! Was how my birth-weekend started. Michelle and Graham had arranged a surprise visit over from London with Justin so that we could spend our birthday together. They arrived early on Saturday morning and we headed to our local park for a picnic. We were blessed with about 10 beautiful days over the time of the Londoners visit; clear sunny days with little wind and temperatures reaching up to 18˚C. The Saturday of our picnic was the best weather of the weekend. It was so nice to sit in t-shirts soaking up the sun watching the ducks swim in the ponds and the flowers open. What a great start to the weekend.
In the evening Justin and I went to see the Cirque du Soleil show Corteo live in Amsterdam. Unfortunately we were unable to get extra tickets for Graham and Michelle but they were happy to veg on the couch after a super early start and long day in the sun. Wow, what an amazing show!! Seeing a Cirque du Soleil show live is so much better than watching it on TV. The acrobatics are incredible, these people have no fear! All the music is played live and there is a lot of interaction with the crowd. But they also think out of the box with the acrobatic acts, it is not just gymnastics. They are really creative and daring, it is amazing to watch. This is so much more than a standard circus. If you ever have the opportunity to see a live Cirque du Soleil show, don’t hesitate, just go and enjoy!
Sunday was another bright and clear day, a bit breezy but still pleasant. We decided to spend the day gazing at Spring flowers =) We took a train to Leiden and then a bus to Keukenhof where we hired bicycles and went cycling through the flower fields. It was still early in the season so there were no tulips flowering in the fields yet but the daffodils and hyacinths were flowering giving fields and fields of yellow, purple, pink and white. We cycled around the fields also along some dunes near Noordwijk beach where we also had lunch. After cycling around for about 4 hours we handed the bicycles back in and then went into Keukenhof where we did see open tulips =) The gardens were really nice and quiet with few tourists, it will be much busier soon. After wandering around the gardens for a while we headed back to Leiden station for a rare Starbucks coffee treat! Sunday evening was spent chillaxing on the couch at home =)
Graham and Shell on the tram to the Rotterdam park
Playing bat n ball and frisbee in the park..... (Wow, he is wearing shorts!)
......and picnicking in the park
Our hired orange bicycles
Twins cycling through the flower fields
Fields of colour! Purple, white and pink hyacinths.
Gerbera's at Keukenhof
The Keukenhof windmill
Fresh hot stroopwafels!
It wouldn't be Holland without them
Hot house display area in Keukenhof
Stepping stones on the lake
Swan gazing
On Monday we decided to make a day trip a bit further out and went to Antwerp for the day. The day was spent enjoying the sights of the old town, the shopping streets of the new town, soaking up the sun, having a traditional Belgian lunch (beef and beer stew and chicken pie type dishes) and tracking down the best chocolates and beer in the town! All the museums are closed on a Monday but next time I would really like to visit Rubenshuis where Pieter Paul Rubens lived and worked from for the last 29 years of his life. Next time…
Tuesday arrived clear but breezy and along with it our 30s =) The last few days had been quite busy so there was a slow start with tea in bed and then skype chats with some family and then we headed into the city to find real Dutch pancakes for lunch. There was a visit to the market, a bit of shopping followed by drinks on the water near the Erasmus Bridge before heading home and making it back to the train station for Michelle and Graham to make it to the airport in time.
Thanks for coming to visit us!! Was really nice to have you guys to stay. Our spare room is empty again =( Come back! And then the nice weather was over too =(
Statue of Pieter Paul Rubens in the Groenplaats in Antwerp
Shell and Bron in the Grote Markt square in Antwerp
Statue of an ogre outside the Maritime museum in Antwerp
Storage sheds at the Port
The Brabo Fountain in the Grote Markt
No jackets today! Spring has arrived!
A Belgian specialty being washed down with a Belgian beer
The Birthday Girls and their birthday hats
Pancakes for a birthday lunch
A few drinks alongside the Maas river and the Erasmus bridge at the end of a busy weekend
This weekend was Easter. Good Friday is not a public holiday here, some companies have the day off and others don’t. So Justin had to work but I had the day off. Friday was the best weather of the weekend and then it was back to cloud, wind and rain. The last few weeks have been pretty busy so we mostly took it easy this weekend. We were invited to one of Justin’s work colleagues for Sunday lunch. They were the first people we were friendly with when we arrived here last year. They have had twins in the meantime but we still hang out. We had a lovely afternoon with them having lunch, going for a walk and playing board games. Not much happened the rest of the weekend apart from pancakes for lunch on Saturday =)
Inbetween the Londoners visit and Easter weekend I have been applying for a British Visa, again. Oh yay, my favourite! It is a bit of an exercise which involves a day trip to Dusseldorf as there is no UK visa office in the Netherlands, how ridiculous. But hopefully they will approve my two year family visa and then it will be worth it. Sometimes I feel these things are just a money making racket but anyway.
We have our Chilean friends Joan and Mayira coming to stay the first weekend of May and we have booked flights to join them in London the weekend after when they are staying with Graham and Michelle. It will be nice for the 6 of us to be together and also to see Michelle and Graham’s new place =) And then it is off to Venice for a long weekend =) Looking forward to seeing everyone and a week’s break!
Over our birthday weekend it was also our one year anniversary of moving to the Netherlands after our big European trip. A blog on life in the Netherlands is surely to follow, one day… soon… I hope!
Hope you had a good Easter and ate lots of good SA treats like hot cross buns and marshmallow eggs! Have a good week!
x
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