A meet-Up with Ayush in Venlo, NL

This post has been languishing in the wings since 7 November of last year and comes out now in anticipation of another meet-up with Ayush 3 weeks from now.

And who is Ayush, you ask!

Ayush Basu is a fellow Shutterchancer from India, living in Singapore.  He posts at AYUSH.

Do you remember that Astrid and I first met as photo-bloggers at Shutterchance?

Astrid posts at Picturit.  I post at Hart & Soul.

When we found out that Ayush works in Singapore for OCÉ, a Dutch Canon printing company,

and that he often comes to the Netherlands to lend his expertise,

we made the arrangements to hook up with him where he stays, in Venlo, 135 km SE of us.

We met Ayush at the train station, where we also parked our car.

As you see, we arrived at 11 a.m. and left shortly after 3:30 p.m.

And because 11 a.m. is definitely koffie-break time, we stopped at the city hall

in city center to chat and get to know each other better.

In fact, that's when he graciously gave this wee interview,
just because I wanted our Shutterchance friends to hear everything straight from the horse's mouth.
He has also met Ray from Thailand, whom also we met last year in England.
Let's just say we all get around!

Once we got all that settled, we started walking around city center.
This is when I realize how many statues are everywhere, all over this country!
But have you ever seen one that is loaded with already-chewed gum???

At one point we walked to the harbor on the Maas river.
Venlo is near the German border in the province of Limburg.

Astrid calls this "subsidized art."   You see it everywhere here in the Netherlands.

But as you already know, there is art in one form or another everywhere you look.

See what I mean?!

Walking back into city center from the harbor, I asked if we could see the church I had seen.
Of course, there was more "art" to see along the way.

And yes, the church was open.
St. Martin's Church was first built in 760, rebuilt in 1410 and then in 1610, the current church.

Backwards and forwards in the nave...my prerequisite shots!

Then...lots of impressions.
Can you tell that this is a Roman Catholic church?

The artwork in these churches always blows my mind.
I did not grow up with it in Dad's Baptist church!

But THIS is what actually speaks to me...a soulful alcove/niche that seems set aside.

On that note, we found a delightful Thai café and enjoyed good food and drink.
"Please enjoy Chang beer responsibly."  And we did.

Even in early November the street lights were on for the holiday season approaching.
It was a good way to end the day, walking back to our car...
and saying Good-Bye to a new friend.

Ayush is a genuine, conscientious, kind and attentive gentleman!

We made him promise to tell us when he'd be back in the Netherlands
so that we could return the hospitality favor here in Gorinchem where we live.
And THAT is now.  He's here for a month and plans to visit us on March 12-13,
God willing and the creek don't rise.

Stay tuned....

ENGLAND 2012: Clent Hills, Blists Hill and Ironbridge

Remember when I gave you an England-trip teaser a couple weeks ago, showing you images of our Shutterchance bloggers' meet-up?  It so happens that was the next day after our Glastonbury-Cheddar Gorge day (last post). 

So, here we go again, bright and early Monday morning, with host Chris driving us first to pick up Lisl and then Chad (and car) and then Bill.  As you'll soon see, these are all important people!

It so happens that Bill, Chad and Chris are the Three Stooges of Shutterchance since 4 years ago (long story).  Astrid had visited them alone then (another long story) and had eaten bacon butties in the Clent Hills where Bill worked.  The Legend of the Bacon Butties has gotten bigger and bigger each consecutive year, to the point that it was promised I would finally get to try one this year.

 And I did!  All 6 of us did.

As bacon butties go, these are purported to be some of England's best.

You wouldn't want to eat one every day, mind you, but GOOD is an understatement!
(Bill is the one in the red shirt with black vest.)

From the bacon-buttie café, we hiked to the top of Clent Hill,
the most popular of the Clent Hills.
We needed that.

Talk about a view!
Close to a million vistors a year come to see these hills,
"making them Worcestershire's most popular non-paying attraction."

There are Four Stones at the top of Clent Hill from the 1750s related to Lord Lyttelton.
But it's the Three Stooges that matter to us:  Chad, Bill and Chris (bottom center).
You may remember that Chad and Chris have been friends since childhood in Bath
(from my post on Bath last year).

We could have gone home right then and there.

But no, we were just getting started....

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

From Clent Hills, we were off to Ironbridge to meet up with fellow Shutterchancers at the Blists Hill Victoria Town.  

 Remember the Baker's Dozen?  That's Lisl in the top-left corner.

And the video of what fun we had?!

But THIS was the setting of this open-air museum, recreating the "sights, sounds and smells

of a Victorian Shropshire town in the late 19th and early 20th centuries."

All complete with period dress!  I love these reenactments.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

And because we were in Ironbridge, after all, our original group of 6, like when we started out the day at Clent Hills, ended the day visiting the bridge for which the city is named.

 This iron bridge happens to be the first arch bridge made of cast iron ever built in the whole wide world.

Construction began in 1775 and is now open only to pedestrian traffic.  

 Standing on the iron bridge, you have a great vantage point from which to see the Ironbridge village
and the Ironbridge gorge.  Population around 2500.
And that's where we ate one of England's specialties:  steak pies!

From bacon butties to steak pies...with lots of blogger camaraderie in between.  How can you beat that!

Collaboration

It's my turn at Vision and Verb again today and because of a series of incredible adventures in England recently, I've decided to start off with Meet-Ups!

Forget the fact that YOU don't have a clue who they are!
They're all fellow Shutterchancers and 4 of them are new from when we were in England a year ago.
The man in the center with Astrd and me is Chris, our host for the six days there.

Chris was the one who finagled with everyone to meet up at Dudley's Black Country Living Museum a week ago Sunday, 4 September. Many have become like family to both Astrid and me. We have The Three Stooges. We have The Three Muskateers, of which we are two, plus Tracy, top level, third from the left.

The extra-special treat was having CherryPie show up, from Vision and Verb.
She visits me at SC and makes the second V&V blogger I've now met.
This is what I mean by Collaboration!

So, on Sunday a week ago we went to Dudley...

...but stopped first at Bill's to meet his family and swap cars and drivers.
Bill and Chris are two of The Three Stooges. See how fun it is to collaborate?
And how lucky for us to meet Ange (Bill's wife) and two daughters, plus cat.

The meet-up at the Black Country Living Museum (BCLM) reminded me of Oslo's outdoor Folk Museum last April, remember? Except that this one is all about what the Black means: think industrial SOOT. Anything that made a city black back in its day is what this living museum is all about.

Not that everything was black, mind you...




...but there were certain dead give-aways if you paid attention.

Like the blacksmith's shop, for instance. Hot and "black." Poor guy.


The glass-etcher's corner of the world was brighter and cheerier.


They even had a delightful little chapel right in the center of things.
In an age of Black, that seemed appropriate.

There came a point at which we all had to eat and everyone knew exactly where....

Chris had been telling us this place offered the most authentic Fish-n-Chips he's ever eaten.
It's the beef drippings, you see. Enough cholesteral for the rest of the year, right?!


While waiting in line, we watched fellow SCer, Richard, start a conversation with these two gentlemen, who became excited about becoming famous. So many photographers wanting to take their picture!
We're still not sure about the story behind them....


Once we all found a place to sit and eat, Penny whipped out a cake she baked that morning for Chis,
whose 63rd birthday was the day before.
One ingredient at a time, she soon had the toppings ready for our dessert.
The birthday boy was delighted to no end...and couldn't stop talking about it.


By then it was definitely time for another walk!
I'm used to canal boats here in the Netherlands...but these are so narrow.


I especially loved watching Astrid and Bill getting the lay of the land.
What a great venue for seeing industrial Britain's past!


By then, almost everyone went on their way for the day.
A few of us remained behind to view some last-minute displays....


...and then said Good-Bye to a fabulous outing together.

I guess you had to be there but this is what Collaboration is all about when it comes to the WWW. It still amazes me that we can actually meet each other...if we're lucky!

That's how I feel about CherryPie, too, over at my Vision and Verb today....

**********
ADDENDUM (Wed. 9/14): I just made my first YouTube! HA!
It's all people shots from the day for posterity (and to see if I could do it!).

The Norwegian Bloggers

Because our 6-day sea voyage was bookended by THREE sets of Norwegian bloggers, that is where I will start this odyssey of our Norway trip.

Three sets. Three couples. 4 Norwegians. One American. One Filipino-Spanish. And if you add in Astrid and myself, another American and one Dutch woman.

The incredible power of virtual reality becoming real!

1. Renny and Diane: Oslo

The first weekend we spent 4 nights with Renny and Diane in Oslo.
He's Norwegian and she's American, from New York, now in Oslo for 12 years.
One main reason for showing their housing complex is the color...one of THE Norwegian basic colors for houses. Very hard to miss!


If you can't take a joke....!
Our first full day in Oslo was a SUNNY Friday, and while Diane worked, Renny took us out to see the sights. We walked out of the parking garage and immediately 'dealt' with these two lovelies, sculpted by Skule Waksvik.
What a way to start off our day!


Oslo's city center is right on the harbor where all the big crusie ships dock. I remembered it well from the Scandinavian cruise Donica and I took back in 2006. Nothing had changed.
Town Hall's two towers; the sculptures; the Nobel Peace building; the open fish market.


We had already decided ahead of time to take the hop-on-hop-off boat cruise that came with our free 72-hour/3-day Oslo Pass.



Renny and Diane had already hosted a big Blog Gathering last year, attended by our very own Vagabonde, amongst others. Thanks to that event (which we were unable to attend), we got some of our own freebies AND free Oslo Passes. THANK YOU!

BUT because there was still ice on the Oslo fjord, the hop-on/off boats (with wood bottoms) were not able to run. Instead, we took a two-hour fjord cruise in a boat with a metal bottom that could break through the patches of ice. It was worth every minute, giving us a foretaste of the longer voyage to come the following week. It was a great way to get many of the city's highlights. You can see Renny's take on it here.


After a full day on the town, we rendezvoused with Diane after her work, and stopped to buy fresh cod for dinner on our way home. Our appetites were more than ready for the typical Norwegian meal Renny and Diane served up for us, joined by Tor and Anna, the last set of Norwegian bloggers.

I'll get back to Tor and Anna later because we stayed with them the following weekend after our sea voyage. But it was wonderful to meet them at Renny and Diane's, to share the camaraderie that had been building for weeks.


Renny and Tor are both computer/IT wizzards, so you can just imagine how we all started going 100 mph on our different ways of uploading and sorting through all our images.
And that's saying nothing about the fact that Renny is THE consummate Blogger's Ambassador, championing the making of blogs and not war!


Diane's blog had been in hibernation for 3 months because of her social work stress. Babysitting these two gerbils who adore her was her lifeline. But it appears she became freshly inspired by our visit and started blogging again here after we left.
I love it when we can feed off of each other, don't you?!

By the way, that's her youngest son, Kyle, sitting next to her...and still living at home....


...and since he also was such a gentleman in welcoming us to his home, we got involved with his life as well.
His RUSS 2011 life! That's all about his high school graduation and the rite of passage they all go through, including this uniform, worn by the girls, too. That's another story altogether...but very Norwegian!
We got our education.


On a foggy Saturday, we were off again to see the Kon Tiki and Fram museums, all minus Anna. We had already become one big happy family. Too much like fun!


Then to the Norwegian open-air Folk Museum without Tor. Just the 4 of us.
See how Renny immerses himself into the lives of other people (bottom left image above)? He's like that...a friend to anyone and everyone from anywhere.

Are you still following this...and noticing that this is a post about the people more than about what we saw! But I'm still trying to whet your appetite for the posts to come. HA!

Our last full day, Sunday, before our sea voyage, was spent relaxing and visiting the Oslo Opera House. I'll talk about it more in another post but it's the only opera house in the world where you can walk up to and on the roof. Incredible, especially in the fog.
Thanks to Diane we had a lovely tour of the backstage inards.
And surely you didn't miss Tor, at 6' 6", waving his arms.


It really is an awesome construction!


Can you tell how much we enjoyed each other?
Thank you, Renny and Diane.

2. Charles and Odd: Bergen

Totally unbeknownst to us, we found out another blogger, Charles, lives in Bergen, the end city of our sea voyage. And since we were staying there overnight, before our next day's train ride to Oslo, we made sure we hooked up with them.
Charles is Filipino-Spanish and Odd is Norwegian, now married for 2 years.


Charles met us at the port, helped us take our luggage to the YMCA, and then we were off to meet Odd for sights of the city.


Lucky for us, Charles insisted on making us a Thai supper, and Odd insisted on a movie for our wonderful evening together. It was short but sweet. Friends forever.
Thank you, Charles and Odd.

The next day we were off on the 7-hour train ride to Oslo, west to east, across this incredible country called Norway. And that takes us back to Tor and Anna....

3. Tor and Anna: Oslo

It so happened it was Tor's 66th birthday that Sunday, April 10. Two month's later it'll be mine, so we have long ago decided we are long-lost twins. And why not!


Lucky for us again, we had a splendid meal prepared for us by Anna.
An avocado-caviar appetizer followed by a potato-fish casserole and home-grown berries with ice cream.
True Norwegian cuisine.


While eating, we found out that Anna had hand-painted not only the dinner plates but an entire set of Christmas plates. Just for fun and pleasure! An artist amongst us.


This is Anna, a high-school teacher of challenging kids! She has no interest in her own blog but clearly keeps herself busy with her collectibles and two Manx cats. I've decided after meeting her that she's an actress!
So much more full of life than I was expecting. Tor, too.


While Anna was off to school the next day, Tor stayed home to show off his neighborhood, overlooking the Oslo fjord...the same one we had crusied with Renny a week earlier.


Then we were off to Drøbak for the rest of the day before flying home.
Nice and relaxing and sunny, just like our first full day with Renny a week earlier.
Drøbak is where Tor's paternal grandmother, Martha, was born in 1882, so it was another special piece of Norwegian life.


And then, to top off the Incredible Adventures of Astrid and Ginnie while in Norway, Tor surprised us and took us to the scenic overview of Oslo from the Ekeberg hill where Edvard Munch got his inspiration for his famous painting, Skrik/Scream. Since we hadn't visited his museum, it was the next best thing.
And what a way to end our trip before driving to Gardermoen airport!
Thank you, Tor and Anna.

There you have it. The Norwegian bloggers. The bookends to our sea voyage. There was no better place to start for me but with them. Norway will never be the same without them!