The Birthday Girl

It happens to be Astrid's 63rd birthday today.  Not that we're counting, of course, but at 9 years my junior, we laugh about how she's always catching up.  HA!

So, this is a SHOUT-OUT to my Partner in Crime, Dancing Queen, Lady of the Polder, best friend, wife...and love of my life.

 Surely you remember this from our Amersfoort trip a couple of weekends ago.

Yup.  She's the one and this is HER day.

Now, how about something fun!

When I saw this on Facebook a month ago, it had ASTRID written all over it.

One-eyed Stuart is actually her favorite Minion, but this one is close enough.

(I have since discovered the copter also comes as Stuart!)

So I ordered it without blinking an eye...and gave it to her early.

Do I know her or what!

We don't usually give gifts to each other...saving our money for eating out and traveling.
But this was an exception too good to refuse.
Every time it crashes, she repairs it and starts all over again.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Lady of the Polder!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

And now for a heads-up about what's on my plate these days.  I've started my Dutch Weathervanes book and am up to my ears in gathering them in from myriad files these last almost 8 years.  

Which is another way of saying I'm not processing travel images right now.  Just weathervanes.

So, wish me success as I try to figure it all out.....  I want to have the finished book waiting for me when we arrive in America for our annual October trip!

My 70th Extravaganza

First of all, it didn't start on my actual birthday, which was yesterday.

It started almost a month ago when I began to color again,

wanting to get back into that rhythm for my new decade.

Interestingly, on my birthday yesterday someone sent me this link on Facebook:

"It's official--grown-up colouring keeps you calm!"

I can so agree.

And since friends know this about me, look at one of my gifts received from England last week.

It's only 5"x7," making it a great travel book.
Thank you, Anne and Quinn!

Another English friend, Bill, custom made this card for me.

Bill and Ange were here with us two years ago, in June.

We're both Gemini.  :)

Then, surprise of surprise, a package arrived from sister Ruth 

with these 2 placemats and matching napkins.

She had already shown them on her blog, which I had seen,

little knowing they were for ME.  What a sneak!

(In fact, I clept these images from there.)

Remember, it wasn't even my birthday yet!

On Thursday, I gave myself the gift of eating at our nearby Malle Molen (Silly Mill).

Every Thursday evening they have "what the pot serves" for €7.75, including dessert.

A long story short, Astrid finagled with them to serve one of my favorites of theirs:

chicken with cream cheese and bacon.  How could I say NO to that.

 On my actual birthday, yesterday, I opened the laptop to this.

I don't remember that they've ever done this before.  Have they????

But then, Microsoft did just buy Facebook, right?!
Big Brother is watching me!

At 2p we went to Jeroen and Eva's for supposedly only birthday koffie and Astrid's famous appeltaart.

But it ended up becoming a BBQ, along with Astrid's ex, Jaap, and Eva's parents.

6.5 hours of birthday celebration.

It so happens that Eva's 25th birthday was 2 days before mine.

Another Gemini.

It was a perfect day for eating outside and taking photos.

Jeroen and Eva have been together since 2009, like Astrid and I.

And they bought me new felt pens for my coloring!

 Their cat, Mitzie, was her own person, at 11 years, doing her own thing.
The life of Riley, showing us how it's done!

This morning, the day after, I lined up all my cards thus far,

and the Kopke port that Jaap gave me for the occasion.

 And then this early evening, Astrid pulled out all the stops and treated me to a dinner outing
at our favorite Greek restaurant overlooking our city's main canal.
Orestis (top-left) is the host with the most, young and industrious,
the one who bought the flowers for the grand occasion.
He knew it was my 70th from previous planning with Astrid.
And our favorite waitress (bottom-right) knew exactly how to make everything just right.

Together, the 3 of them planned a 4-course dinner for us.
They didn't know that leg of lamb is pure bliss for me,
as well as stuffed sea bass, both of which Astrid and I shared.
And for dessert, obligatory baklava with ice cream!

Happy Birthday to moi!

And now this from my Big Sis in England, Lisl, making 70 sound like a good number.

Tomorrow I fly to England to spend the week with her and Michael in Bath,
with Astrid joining us on Wednesday.
It's my birthday gift to me!

That's why I've called this big number an extravaganza!
A gift that just keeps on giving....

BIG 6-0 Birthday Celebration in Huizen, NL

That would be Astrid, of course, who turned the BIG 6-0 last Sunday.  HELLO!  And YES, we celebrated.

Astrid loves to find good deals through the Dutch VakantieVeilingen (vacation auction) site, so for her birthday, we had a hotel and 3-course dinner in Huizen for less than half price.  How can you say NO to that!

So, off we went last Sunday morning, with a route already mapped out (another thing she loves to do) on the back roads of Holland.  The destination that day, Huizen, was only only 66 km from home taking the fast route.  But, no, we weren't in a hurry.  Once we got off the main road, we stopped at every Dick-Jane-and-Sally weathervane...which you'll see at the end of this post.

But this is a start at the Trompenburgh, a 17th-century manor house in 's-Graveland.

Believe it or not, Astrid's brother knew the son who lived there when they were both 14,

going to the same school in Hilversum, nearby.  Remember that Astrid grew up in Hilversum. 

After that, it was already time to eat lunch, which we did at the nearby 't Bruggetje in Loosdrecht.

We knew we'd have a big dinner, so "light" was the vote.

Astrid knew there was a water tower in nearby Bussum, from 1897.

In 2001 it was sold to an engineering firm that turned it into an office building!

Remember that we were stopping for weathervanes all the time, before and after...

but soon we drove into Huizen, our destination for the day.

Astrid learned to ski there on those green slopes...on grass, yes.

In her day, Huizen had 4K people; today they have 41K.

And before we could say "Jack Sprat," there was our Fletcher Hotel with a HUGE weathervane.

It was opened in 2012 and is quite the complex.

Our room was in the side tan building (left-middle), overlooking the harbor.

All of this was right in front of our very eyes.

And because we had plenty of time before dinner, we took a walk to the harbor head.

We wanted to see the big water of the IJsselmeer lake,

and watch some of the boats sail into the harbor.

Then it was time to eat, and boy, were we ever looking forward to it.

(In the middle-right image you can see the building where we stayed.)

As Astrid says, we had the best seat in the house.

Her appetizer was mussels, mine was lamb...like we were both in heaven.

Our main course was beefsteak and salmon, which we shared, with au gratin pototoes and frietjes .

Dessert was crème brûlée (for me) and a caramel delight (for Astrid).

After all, it WAS her BIG 6-0.

After dinner we took a nice walk around the Fletcher complex...

and enjoyed our breakfast the next morning, part of the cost of the stay.

WOW.  How can you beat that.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

It was a new day, the day after, and we were off to nearby Muiden to see the castle Astrid had known as a child (next post).  But on the way, she wanted to stop at the Jewish cemetery in Muidenberg that she had never visited while growing up.

It's the second oldest but largest Jewish cemetery in the Netherlands, from 1642.

What is it about cemeteries?

Since we couldn't read Hebrew, we made up our own stories.

We had seen so much before finding the castle.  We were short of eyes!

Can you imagine seeing a camel out in the middle of nowhere (top-left)?

How about a school sign telling you to slow down (top-right).

Astrid told me the (bottom-left) fur-ball was spit out by an owl, with parts of a field mouse still in tact.

And one of the 50 weathervanes that didn't make any of my following collages is the troubadoor.

Are you ready for all the vanes we saw in the space of two days?

Yes, I separated them into themes.

The boats first...some of which just blow my mind, in 3-D.

Animals and fish.

 Birds.

And everything else.

One is even "gone with the wind," as Astrid so cleverly says (top-2nd-left).

Next up will be the castle we saw before heading back home....

Viking's Grand European River Cruise: Vienna, Austria

Viking River Cruise, Day 12:  Vienna, Austria (Facebook collage)

(click any collage to enlarge)

If you remember my last post, you remember that we woke up to snow once entering Austria on Day 11.  So it shouldn't surprise you that we had snow in Vienna the next day, Day 12!  Vienna is Austria's capital and largest city.

 AND...it was Viking Idun's first birthday!  But more on that later.

Vienna was an all-day stop...morning, afternoon and evening...with lots of ground to cover.

First off in the morning was a nice bus tour all over the major part of the city.

We sat in the back of the bus, I on one side, snapping away...

...and Astrid on the other side, seeing things I couldn't snap, like the Parliament building and the city hall.

It was a good solution for the pass-through, short of eyes.

And yes, we saw lots of snow!

We even saw the Easter Bunny, this Wednesday before Easter Sunday.

 Once off the bus near city center, we started a walking tour with our guide,

The one place that stood out was the Spanish Riding School for the Lipizzan horses.

(The middle image of the man with horse is Astrid's!)

 But it was the Cathedral of St. Stephen we were dying to see, consecrated in 1147.

We had seen it's 450-ft. steeple peeking around almost every corner as we walked towards it.

Before entering the cathedral, we admired Sylvia Kummer's Rose of Jericho sculpture nearby.

Have you ever seen a Jericho rose in real life?  It's amazing.

Then inside....

How many times have I said these cathedrals are like museums to us!

With so many tourists inside taking pictures, I would think it'd be hard to worship.

But of course, the tourists don't take pictures during the services, which makes it feel better (read less guilty).

Once we were outside again, we saw the window cleaners.

Can you imagine that job!

And right there where we were standing, watching the cleaners on the cathedral,

the horse and carraiges were lined up for the us tourists.

One in particular really caught my eye:  the Horse Whisperer!

If we had been willing, we could have taken a buggy ride out-n-about.

It was more fun, and cheaper, to watch and take pictures.

But we did go into a souvenir shop to buy a Christmas-tree ornament.

What do YOU think of when you think of Vienna?  Mozart was everywhere!

Lots of impressions of Vienna...

...like these fur coats.

Astrid says some of these coats are as old as the women wearing them.

Would we see them in America these days, I wonder?

Do you like to people watch?

Impressions.  Impressions.  Impressions.

And again.  More impressions. 

And then it was time to go back to the boat for lunch, which we did.

And that's when the birthday part of the day got fun.

 We were all invited outside after lunch to have our pictures taken...including the staff.

(Astrid took these 4 images above.)

If you squint, you can see me holding the first 'P' of HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

(image taken from the Viking Facebook page)

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

As if that wasn't enough excitement for one day...after the birthday pics, we headed off to the nearby St. Francis of Assisi church that we could see from the ship, just a short walk away.

 What a gorgeous piece of architecture on a glorious sunny afternoon!

It was consecrated in 1913 and thus seems very young to us now.

It was just as gorgeous inside.

And very bright and open and cheery...for a Roman Catholic church.

I think the younger the church is, the lighter?

And lucky for us, we had it all to ourselves,

except for Denise and Linus, our shipmates, who joined us.

Now THIS is what I could get used to.  A good way to end my day.

I say MY day because at that point I went back to the boat as Astrid went off on her own back to a canal to take graffiti pics.  We both needed our own "me" time again.  I'm 9 years older, remember.  HA!

 And when I returned, our boat was a happy camper, too, getting another bath.

Others went back to the city that evening for a paid Mozart and Strauss concert.  Others surely went back for the Vienna night life, since our ship didn't leave port till 12:30 a.m.  We were both very happy to just stay put.

Vienna didn't "do" that much for us, if you really want to know the truth.

Was it too overwhelming...or do we just really prefer OLD city centers?!?!

Or maybe we just need to go back one day and spend much more time?