In One Week...

Since we were five years old, Yvonne and I have been the closest friends. In one week (!!!) she will be flying over from Toronto to stay with me in the heart of Amsterdam! I cannot wait to...

Ps. Check out my happy list featured today on the Rockstar Diaries!

Sail Away

We just arrived home from a 3-day mini vacation in the Northern province of Friesland. This week the beautiful city of Lemmer was hosting a sailboat race, and we were lucky enough to have some local friends show us around! We feasted on home-made french fries, watched the sailing races from a boat on the bay, got a little seasick, lounged on the beach, drank Dutch beer, sang traditional folk songs, ate nougat from the carnival, and marveled at the beauty of the yachts.

Spectators watching the races

There is so much more from our trip that I want to post, but it's late here and I'm sunburnt, tired, and wind-blown from the fierce winds of the Ijsselmeer.

Here are some photographs of the boat race in Lemmer yesterday afternoon. Each boat is marked with the symbol of the town it's racing from.

Lemmer

Summer in Italy!

It's time for the second installment of Life Abroad's "Summer Around the World" Series, this time featuring the delicious Italian blog "Ciao Down". Em and GC are an adorable couple from San Diego/New Jersey who moved to Italy to experience life abroad. Their blog is filled with the most delicious food photography and chronicles their adventures throughout Italy and the rest of Europe!

Emily was kind enough to tell us how Italians celebrate summer!

Emily in Italy!

Where do you live?
Bologna, Italy during the year, and in the summertime we escape to a little beach town along the Adriatic called Fano.

What is your idea of a perfect summer day?
A table set up in the shallow end of the sea, with some beach chairs set up around it for you and your friends. Then having the beachfront barista delivering your drinks directly to you in the water. That's the perfect summer day.

What is the summer weather typically like in Italy?
Italy in general can be extremely hot in the summertime. Most Italians escape to the seaside to avoid the heat.

Is there a special summer food that defines your country?
Prosciutto melone (meat wrapped around cantaloupe) and cozzo e vongole (buckets of mussels and clams). Also, Aperol Spritz (Aperol with Spumonte or Prosecco).

GC "ciao-ing down" on some cozzo e vongole

What do people in your area of Italy do to "beat the heat"?
All the Italians in Bologna escape to the beach for the entire month of August. If you come to Bologna at that time, all the stores are closed and it's just you and the tourists, it's a ghost town. All around Italy it's more or less the same thing, everyone escapes to the beach.


Please list five things visitors to Italy should experience this summer.
~ The Amalfi Coast
~ Granite di limone
~ Movies in the Piazza
~ Notte Bianche's - The summer party that cities in Italy throw
~ Any seafood dish cooked on the coast

Prosciutto melone

Thank you Emily and GC for giving us a view of summer in Italy!

A Day at the Park

In front of the Jachthuis St. Hubert

Yesterday Gabriel and I spent the day at De Hoge Veluwe National Park near Apeldoorn, in the province of Gelderland. After deciding he wanted to spend the day in nature, Gabriel scoured through my Lonely Planet guidebooks to find the perfect place to day-trip. De Hoge Veluwe National Park is the largest park in the Netherlands, and is filled with beautiful marshland, forests, sand dunes, and drift sand. With 42 km of hiking trails and numerous bike trails, it makes a great spot for a day spent out enjoying the Dutch landscape (although the landscape looked more like the Canadian north than that of typical Netherlands!)

Near the dunes and drift sand in the park

The best part of the day was when we discovered that the park has FREE white bicycles that you can ride along the trails. At each of the three entrances, you can pick up a bike and ride it, depositing it at any of the many bike racks in the park. Since we had packed a picnic lunch in our backpacks, and I also brought along my camera, I found a bike with a baby-seat for my backpack to sit haha!

Riding the park's free white bicycles

We spent the day riding through the evergreen forests, stopping to have a picnic on a sunny patch of pine needles, resting against a fallen piece of timber. After that we headed to the game observation deck, where we tried to spot the wild boar, elk, deer, and mountain goats that frequent the area (although we didn't see any!) We stopped by the Jachthuis St. Hubert, a hunting lodge that was built in the 1930s by a wealthy German-Dutch couple. They also built the famous Kroller-Muller art museum, which houses more van Gogh paintings than the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, and is located in the heart of the National park. We didn't visit the museum, but enjoyed lounging on the grounds of the hunting lodge, watching the wildflowers sway in the breeze and the lilypads float along the lake.

Gabriel relaxing by the hunting lodge

Our bike ride took us roughly 4 hours, through dunes, trails, and off the beaten path. By the end of our ride, we were exhausted, and took the opportunity to stop into the nearby town of Hoenderloo at Cafe De Zaak for a tosti and some Spa Blauws.

If you are looking to experience nature in a country with such a high population density, a trip to Hoge Veluwe will definitely satisfy your craving. We truly felt like we were up in Northern British Columbia, and on our drive out to Gelderland, we felt that the highways looked exactly like those leading up to Muskoka in Northern Ontario. A beautiful day and another fun Dutch adventure :)

Fairytale Town

This house with the straw roof dates to 1647

I've always loved reading fairytales, and often imagined living in a fairytale town with a bakery, patisserie, market, etc. You know, the kind of town where people hang out of beautiful little cottages shouting "goodmorning!" to the citizens as they trot around, arms filled with baskets brimming with fresh bread and colourful flowers...

I'm happy to report that such a place does exist, and it's located only 20 minutes from the heart of Amsterdam. Abcoude (pronounced Op-Cow-Duh) is exactly the type of fairytale town I just described. Cobblestone streets, meandering canals, drawbridges with a 2 euro fee for passing through, an ice cream parlour with tiny little cones, a sweet shop that bakes fresh tarts and cookies and leaves them out to cool in the windows, a fish stall set up on a corner, a sandy playground, homes overflowing with flowers, and fields dotted with lams and cows. It's beautiful.

My past weeks working as a nanny have given me ample time to walk around Abcoude and explore. What I've really noticed, above the picturesque fairytale look of the village, is the friendliness of its citizens. Children will surround me in the playground, asking if I want to buy an ice cream from their imaginary stand, an elderly woman taking her daily walk along the canal will stop to watch us feed bread to the duckies, and a dignified white-haired gentleman will stroll with me through town explaining all about the history of the village and the stories behind the various buildings (like how the church, built in the 1400s, still has prison cells in it!).

If you've ever wondered if towns still exist where people ride bikes with little wicker baskets attached, collecting their daily shopping from individual independent stores and saying hello to everyone they pass...they do here in the Netherlands...

Summer in England!

When we first moved to the Netherlands over a year ago, I was fascinated by how the Dutch celebrate summer. I loved watching people sunbathing in the open parks of Amsterdam, dining at outdoor cafes, and flocking to the North Sea for a day at the beach. In fact, on hot summer days, I often ask myself "do people here work???" because the neighbourhood is packed with locals who take days off specifically to enjoy the sun. Love it.

My fascination with the differences between Dutch summers and Canadian summers led me to wonder what summer is like in other parts of the world. Thus, Life Abroad's "Summer Around the World" Series was born.

Today I'd like to introduce my first feature blogger, the lovely Saskia from the blog Saskia's Spot. Saskia lives near London, England with her husband and cat. Her blog is filled with beautiful photography (she's an incredibly talented photographer that inspires me on a daily basis...seriously, her photos are amaaazing) and daily musings about life in England. Plus she's Dutch, so of course I have a soft spot for her blog :)

Saskia in the summer

Grab a cuppa and a crumpet and take a look at how Saskia celebrates summer across the pond in glorious England!

Where do you live?
On the outskirts of London, UK.

What is your idea of a perfect summer day?
I would start in Selfridges food hall, shopping for some delicious bites to eat later that day. I would grab an ice cream and wander around Soho before walking to Hyde Park. There I would lay down a blanket and picnic with my husband. Bliss!

What is the summer weather typically like in England?
Not so great at all. It's normally mild but rainy, unfortunately.

Is there a special summer food that defines your country?
Strawberries and cream! Yum!

What do people do in England to "beat the heat"?
This isn't a problem for us! If we are (unusually) enjoying a gloriously hot summer then no one here wants to beat the heat at all! Everyone seems to make as much of it as possible, having bbqs, drinking beer, eating ice cream, sunbathing, dressing in skimpy beachwear and of course getting horribly sunburnt!

Please list five things that visitors to England should experience this summer.
~(This is for next summer as it's unfortunately finished now...) Wimbledon
~Picnicking in Hyde Park
~Rowing on the Serpentine
~An open air theatre performance at the Globe or Regents Park Theatre
~Visiting Brighton for the day - the perfect English seaside resort!

Saskia's summer photography

Thanks for participating in the first installment Saskia!

A day around the castle...

Kasteel de Haar

Last weekend I had planned a surprise trip for us to visit a nearby castle in the Netherlands: Kasteel de Haar. I had heard that it was the largest and most fairytale-like castle in the country. Unfortunately, it rained most of the weekend, so we weren't able to visit! Today we finally got the chance, and after a week of keeping the location a secret, Gabriel was dying to know where we were going!

A typical building in Haarzuilens

Kasteel de Haar and the nearby hamlet of Haarzuilens, are only a 25 minute drive from Amsterdam. If you're visiting the area, you can easily reach the castle by bus. Kasteel de Haar dates to the 1500s but was restored in the late 19th century. The village of Haarzuilens is kept in the castle colours, and all the homes, restaurants, and stores have red, green, and white detailing. After eating lunch in Haarzuilens and watching the weather flip from rainy to sunny to rainy again (how typically Dutch!), we headed out to the castle. It took us about 20 minutes to walk there, and on the way we passed beautiful fields with cows, bulls, and sheep. When we reached the castle, we realized that a Huis & Tuin (Home and Garden) festival was going on, and that admission had spiked from 8 euros to 14 euros each. That didn't even include admission to the castle, which would've put us back another 10 euros, so we decided to skip the castle for today. We walked back, a bit sad that we couldn't see the castle and the surrounding grounds, but happy to have gotten the chance to take a nice walk in the sun.

Walking to the castle!

We hopped back in the car and drove around for the next two hours, enjoying the Dutch countryside and stopping off in Vinkeveen, another cute little Dutch town, at the Ijsbeer (Polar Bear) restaurant for some coffee and appelgebak (Dutch apple cake served at most traditional cafes).

Koffie en appelgebak (geen slagroom...we're on diets!)

On our drive we passed through green pastures filled with grazing animals, saw gardens filled with bountiful hydrangea plants, looked at beautiful Dutch homes with thatched roofs, and were amazed at how in some places, the water level was higher than we were! It was a beautiful afternoon, and we really enjoyed seeing more of the Netherlands that we hadn't seen before. It always amazes me how, in such a small country with so many people, there are still tons of open areas filled with farmlands, pastures, and forests.

I hope everyone had wonderful weekends as well!

Photo Entry: Around the Block

A quick post tonight, showing some of my recent photography around the neighbourhood. I love this city, and could easily find a million things to take pictures of every time I'm on a walk. There are always people asking for their photograph to be taken, and whenever I'm out shooting, I always meet some interesting characters (such as the two men pictured above, who literally begged me to take their photo in Sarphati Park).

Picnic

This weekend, in a patch of sunlight, we had a picnic in the Amsterdamse Bos (Amsterdam Forest).

Blueberries, Old Amsterdam cheese, potato salad, tuna sandwiches, dates and pomegranate juice.

Food just tastes better outside on a blanket, doesn't it?

We fed the duckies pretzels, and watched three men flying an enormous kite.

Gabriel had a tiny nap. I amused myself with the camera.

Hopefully we'll be back in the forest for many more picnics this summer.

There's also an open-air theater nestled deep in the woods, signaled by a string of globe-like fairy lights down a dark path.

Wouldn't it be magical to see a play in the evening, in the middle of the forest? Too bad I don't understand Dutch....

First Steps

Yesterday, the baby I'm a nanny for, took her first steps.

With me.

Her pride was incredible.

I'm so fortunate to have witnessed this moment, but only wish that her parents could've been there as well.

Happy Weekend!

After a long work-week, it's so nice to sleep in and enjoy a lovely breakfast with Gabriel. We have so much to do this weekend, including....

• A surprise day-trip that I've planned for Gabriel (will write about next week!)
• Watching Bruno
• Much-needed workouts at the gym
• Picnic in the Amsterdamse Bos
• Koffie and Appelgebak (coffee and Dutch apple cake) at a brown cafe in A'dam

Wishing a wonderful weekend to all of my blogger friends!

Mango's Beachbar

The Dutch love the beach. Such a small country, yet because of it's great location on the North Sea, the Netherlands has miles and miles of wide beautiful beaches. I've written about them before here, here, here and here.

Last weekend (when it actually felt like July in the Netherlands...now it's more akin to October), Gabriel, Christian, and I took the train to Zandvoort Beach. We had just gotten back from Mallorca, and basking in the hot Dutch sun seemed like a nice way to ease us back to reality.


The beach was the busiest I've ever seen it, with almost every inch of sand taken up by sun-bathers. To the boys' delight, most of the women on the beach were topless. Dutch people are notorious sun-worshippers, and most people here seem to have such beautiful golden tans against their flaxen-hair. Unfortunately, the country also has one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world.

Mango's Beachbar, Zandvoort

After a great afternoon relaxing and swimming in the sea, we decided to go to my favourite spot on the beach, Mango's Beachbar. In front of the looming dunes on the beach, you will find beachbar after beachbar. Mango's is great because it has the feeling of a Cuban broken-down bar. It's shabby chic in the most perfect mix. If you didn't know it, you'd actually feel like you were in the Caribbean.


They serve some great tapas, as well as Mexican food. I guess it's a mix of all Latin countries? We really loved snacking on the nachos, dates, and shrimp while sipping mojitos! From the faux-crumbling walls, to the white and turquoise peeling furniture, Mango's is a slice of paradise. They have huge beachbeds and loungers set up, and numerous seating arrangements so that everyone can have a place to relax. They were playing Mana, a popular Mexican band back in the 90's, and a wedding was taking place in one of the buildings at the bar.


We were planning on going back to the beach this weekend, but with this chilly rainy weather, I guess Mango's will have to wait.

Click here to visit their website.