Schiermonnikoog

If you would like to see a part of The Netherlands that you have never seen before, I would like to give you an idea. In the north of The Netherlands you will find some islands. They're called "De Waddeneilanden" There are Dutch ones and German ones.

Big ones, small ones. Some of them are famous for their sheep & cranberries, others for there natural enviroments. Some are very touristy-like, others are more for people that look for peace & quiet.

A few weeks ago I went to Schiermonnikoog with my English husband, his mum and dad and my mum and dad. It's one of the smaller islands. When the water is very low, you could even walk from the island to the mainland and vica versa. The village on the island is tiny and has old houses. (from 1700/1800) It's like walking through an open air museum. The little shops are adorable and there is even an old fashion candyshop! The boattrip is also an event itself. If you ae lucky (and we were on the way back) you will spot some seelions. A great day out, even when it rains!!!

One of the other islands that I can recomment as well is Ameland. It's a bit bigger and has on either side a little village. If you want to go more touristy-like you can visit Terschelling or Texel.

Have fun exploring a different part of The Netherlands.

Low water? You can walk to the mainland. It's going to take you hours and you will get wet! Don't do the walk without a guide. When the water comes in again you're in big trouble!!

Candystore!

A great weekend in the countryside of Holland

My husband has a new hobby...

He discovered our camera and what you can do with it.

I'm afraid I will not see that camera again!

We were invited to the lovely home of Vally&Koos in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. We spent a great weekend with them. It was a relaxing, entertaining and fun musical weekend. We walked & talked, sailed, played music and took loads of photos

Vally&Koos thanks for a great weekend!

Here you can see some of the 350 photos we took :D

This is me... or at least my ear...

As i said, my husband has a new hobby...

Since I lost the camera to my husband,

Koos was so kind to let me use one of his camera's

We sailed on the Hennie H and had a real Hennie H experience...

Vally showed me how to play a mandoline, it was fun!

I played around with B&W photos and worked on grey scales..

Simone's amazing world of TEA part one

Tea in Berlin....
Tea on the train to Berlin...Tea makes me tick!!

Parade of the Easter eggs!!

This is how they decorate shoppingcenters in Berlin for Easter.Isn't it beautiful?

A nice day out!

You just need two people, a sunday, and a walk... and you will get a great day out in your own city!!

Since I had to work this saturday, I only had one day weekend this weekend. You may think I want you to feel sorry for me, but that's not the case. Because of this I even appreciated my sunday off even more.

There was an 'end of summer' market near my work and we where there to do some activities with the kids.

What do kids like the most?? That's an easy one to answer... eat cakes and decorate them.

So on friday I baked 60 cupcakes and we decorated them on saturday with the kids. They loved it!

All said and done about the saturday, let's go to the sunday....

Since I had to get up on saturday even earlier then on a normal workday 'me myself and my soon to be husband' decided to stay in bed at least for the whole morning to make sure we slept enough for the rest of the week. Unfortunately our neighbours didn't agree. They decided to start drilling into the ceiling of our balcony at 9 o'clock in the morning. I love my neighbours and we also had several DIY jobs going over the years, so I couldn't be mad at them. So we decided to get up, have breakfast and loads of tea and watch some episodes of our most cherished serie we watch at the moment: "Castle". After having seen the last episodes of season 2 we decided it was time to pretend to do something. That didn't go so well, so we ended up watching a movie of Sherlock Holmes from 1988. After seeing this movie it was time to do something active and get some fresh air while we where at it. So we went for a walk.

Normaly that could be a walk through hour neighbourhood, or a walk at the beach. This time we decided to have a walk alongside the great river that runs through our city. So we climbed the bridge, looked at one of my favorite harbours in Rotterdam (Veerhaven) where great sailingships are docked. And then we went onto the park near the Euromast. When we came closer to the Euromast we saw that people were about to abseil from the Euromast. We also heard people laughing and having fun. This could only mean one thing.... minituregolf!!! We decided to have a go. The first half of the game I was beating my 'soon to be husbands' ass... unfortunately he did mine, the second part of the game. Makes you wonder who won?

Well, it wasn't me!

Definitely have to go back one day to kick his ass!

After the minituregolf we took a watertaxi back to Hotel New York. Sooooooo coooolll!!! I once have been on a rescueboat taking the waves with enormous speed, well this was almost just as cool! The trip was way to short. Ah well, means we'll have to do it again one day !

A great day of fun!

Beach Volleybal

Today I did something I swore I would never do....

I always told people that I was willing to do a lot, but there was one thing I would never do...

Go to the BEACH in the summer time!

Not that I dislike swimming in the sea, or relaxing and reading and doing absolutely nothing....

I would never say no to that! No unfortenately it's my really sensitive skin... and my head. I can't stand being in the heat for that long. I get a terrible headache.

But today was a historical moment... Simone went to the beach!

My brother and one of my best friends were playing Beach Volleybal in Hoek van Holland.

I love volleybal, I love them... so my boyfriend and I went to see them today.

So I've been putting on jeans, a t-shirt and a lot of sunblock hoping all of that would help me not to get sunburned. And luckily it did help. And even my head was ok at the end of the day.

We cheered we laughed, we had a lot of fun and the breeze was very welcome after a couple of hot days in Rotterdam. My boyfriend (being English) turned temporarily into a German... He started building a mountain of Doom around him until you could only guess where his legs were... kids!!

It was a great day. Coming home was not so great though... when my brother decided to go to the toilet, he forgot there was still a lot of sand inside his swimmingshorts!

So after they all left we could hoover the whole house again...

Oh yes, that was what I didn't like about the beach as well, SAND SAND SAND SAND everywhere!!!!

Sailing!!

Finaly!! We went sailing again.

We were planning it for ages, taking weekends off especially for sailing. But everytime there was something why we couldn't go. Boat needed repairing, or the weather was teribble!

But today was perfect! It was nice and warm, nice breeze, so the best place to be is on the water. Nice sun, great breeze...water...Simone Happy!

We took the boat out around 3.30pm. Which turned out to be a perfect moment, because the sailraces on the lake just ended. We sailed around a bit on the motor untill the lake was not as busy anymore, and then we pulled the sails up! Always a great moment. No motor, perfect silence... the only thing you'll hear is the sound of the wind playing with the sails. It's a magical moment...... it really is......

My boyfriend has started to enjoy sailing since he knows me and liking it more and more everytime he get's the chance to be on the boat. He is a great captain. He likes to steer the boat. He always liked it better when the motor was on, but since last year he starts liking sailing as well. Now he's figured out how it works with wind and sails and stuff, he actually likes it a lot. Since this was the first time this year, he had to get the feeling back a bit. After playing with the wind and watching the sails, I think he got it back again. Must be, because he had a wide grin on his face. These moments it's always difficult to persuade him to let some one else have a go as well. He loves it!

Hope there will be more great moments this summer, so we can take the boat out. Hopefully we can take loads of friends with us again as well. The traditional girls-day-out-on-the-boat is already planned!!!

I'm shocked!

I'm shocked!

We had an amazing weekend, but still... I'm shocked!

Who can come up with this?

It all started great! Me and my lovely boyfriend went to see my cousin and her husband and two lovely girls. They normaly are in beautiful Friesland, this time we could find them in Groningen. Not the city Groningen, but the Groningen area. To be more precise... Jipsingboertange. You must have heard of this place. It has at least 3 houses, hihi... !!

Groningen is a lovely part of The Netherlands, and the last couple of years I have started to apreciate it even more. My cousin has the cutest cottage there on a campingsite. She invited me and my boyfriend to stay with them for a weekend, so we decided to Invade Jipsingboertange.

The first day we had a great day, walking through the woods. The kids loved it as well, so did my boyfriend. We enjoyed the lovely weather and were surprised that we were so lucky with it. Weatherforcast wasn't so great for this weekend. After playing in the "speeltuin" with the two lovely girls, great dinner, amazing 80ties movie, briliant romantic walk on a dark campingsite with my boyfriend, it was time to sleep.

This part was the part I wasn't looking forward to. My cousin had told me that the mice loved this place as well. Mice are ok, but not running around me when I'm sleeping on the floor! My lovely Stuart Little had promised me that he would protect me from any mouse invasion that would take place during the night, but once his head touched his pillow he was snorring like a happy kid. As far as I know, no mouse invaded... but it wasn't my best night of sleeping either! The next morning we had an early breakfast, because of course a 2 and 3 year old are not going to let you sleep till oh let's say... at least 8?

But the day started really nice. A gezellig breakfast, two very awake girls... 4 sleepy adults, great start of the day! The only thing was that it was raining cats and dogs. So we spend most of the morning in the little cottage, watching the snorkels and smurfs, sesamestreet. It was great! But we also wanted to go out and enjoy the area of Groningen. When it stopped raining we made our way to our cars and drove off to Ter Apel, to have a look at the amazing old monestry and have a walk in the old forrest.

When we arrived at the monestry we had a walk around it. It looked amazing. I made some pictures and we were enjoying the view. Until..............

And this is really true!

We saw a woman with her trousers down, sitting on the grass outside the monestry, where everybody could see her, pee-ing!!! I was shocked, we were all shocked! WHAT THE ???

I have to say, I'm all for pee-ing in nature. When you really have to go and there are no toilets... please, I insist... water the plants... But go at least somewhere private! Behind the bushes, a tree? But this! She was sitting in the middle of the field, no trees, bushes... nothing.... Her kid was standing next to her and her husband was 10 steps away with another kid. Great example!

After this we had a short walk in the forrest next to the monestry. Unfortunately we couldn't go for a long walk because there was a lot of rain waiting for us to surprise us. We ran back to the car and spend the rest of the afternoon in our lovely little cottage!