Doorwerth Castle

After our Tour d'Europe we had another 2 weeks of holidays left.

We celebrated my birthday, had friends over for diner, BBQ'd a lot and enjoyed being back home.

The second week Mr. Abacaxi & Hortelã Junior went on a week long summer sailing camp so Mr. A&H and I filled the 'no child' days with exploring the Netherlands a bit more. Thus we headed to the eastern part of the Netherlands, to Winterswijk . A lovely town with a nice atmosphere and surrounded by lots of green space where we followed parts of the Scholtenpad . It was hot, but the wind made in bearable. Of course Senna came along and she just loved to run back and forth and I guess she tripled the distance we walked!

At night we had a nice diner in the garden of Restaurant Stad Munster, I can absolutely recommend the place!! Food is delicious, atmosphere is cosy, dedicated personnel and the price is right!

After a good night's sleep, we headed out in the direction of Doetinchem where we shopped a bit and had a lovely lunch at an even lovelier place: Met Liefde by Robbert (pictures by iPhone and inside...):

The menu (glued on the inside of old newspapers, talking about re-using!):

 And then we continued our trip to our hotel in Doorwerth, near Arnhem.

After coffee & cake near the waterfront, we went out for a hike and enjoyed the view of the neighbourhood and Doorwerth Castle.

Wishing you all a nice & sunny weekend!

Away...

After a busy week at home, we decided to go away for a couple of days.

So we booked a hotel on Monday afternoon and left on Tuesday morning: to the Dutch North Sea Coast!

And guess what? The weather forecasts promised us lots of rain & a real storm...
 

We decided to drive via Belgium to the province of Zeeland (in the south-west of the Netherlands). And our first stop was the idyllic Veere. Unfortunately, it was raining cats & dogs and too windy to even think about getting out the camera :) I was happy I could get myself from the car to a little 'brasserie' without any accident!!

But even in the rain, Veere seems to be very beautiful, lots of historic buildings and nice restaurants & shops. Definitely a place to visit again in spring and/or summer.

Then we continued via several bridges belonging to the Delta Werken / Delta Works that are built to protect the land from the sea (this is where the North Sea Flood in 1953 took place). Impressive works, I have to say!

And so we got to our final destination: Rockanje. After a cup of tea the rain stopped and the sun all of a sudden appeared: time for a walk along the beach. Look what a beautiful sunset:

The next morning we went for a run on the beach, followed by a well-deserved breakfast :)

And then to the 'Maasvlakte' where we admired some big container ships arriving and where the wind mills were on full speed (because of the storm, remember?):

In the afternoon we went to Brielle, a fortified city, very charming and beautifully maintained:

By the way, the hotel was in American Lodge style:

Cosy, isn't it?

But, holidays are over, it's back to reality as from tomorrow :)

Have a great week!

Back home...

It's been a busy couple of weeks: clearing out the house, donating lots of stuff, packing boxes & cleaning.

The movers arrived on Monday afternoon, August 22, in Versailles and the trucks were packed on Tuesday 5pm. Unloading in the south of The Netherlands started on Wednesday 9am and was done by 5pm again.

What a difference it makes when you don't need to pack or unpack everything as sea freight:))

So you can imagine what the last couple of days looked like: yes, unpacking & finding a place for everything (which seems to be a mission impossible!!).

But, in about a weeks time, we went from this:

To this:

Thanks to some well-appreciated, colourful bunches of flowers from friends & family

Time for some more unpacking now!

See you later this week!!