The 'Tweener Week

Someone from my other blog asked me what 'tweener meant but I know you know:  this is the week between Christmas and New Year's.

 It's a hiding-place week, like where the soldiers hid in the Valkenburg caves during WWII.

Except minus a war, maybe we can whoop it up a bit till normalcy returns?

Actually, start with me 2 days before Christmas, when I took my walk around our citadel walls.
Our temps are still hovering around 40F here in the Netherlands...not too conducive to the holiday spirit.

At the inner harbor, he at least dressed for the season, don't you think?
I wanted to know if he had family with whom to celebrate?
Or had his wife died the year before...as we often see here in our senior complex?

Gelukkig Nieuwjaar and Prettige Feestdagen were everywhere.
Happy New Year and Happy Holidays, snow or no snow..

My €10 fake tree, after my first 2009 Christmas here, is still going strong.
Year after year it reminds me of how quiet she is...the Christmas spirit.

We celebrated with Astrid's Jeroen, Eva and Jaap 2 weeks before...at Jeroen's house.
Then we celebrated here with Femke and Jeannette the week before.

Quiet celebrations.

 ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Then on Christmas Day Astrid and I celebrated our 5th Christmas here, eating out at 4 p.m.
See that overhang on our Gorinchem canal, top-right?  That's our Greek restaurant.
We watched the day grow dark there, with festive lights all around...our gift to each other each year.
And then we took a walk...to see the lone man on his houseboat across from the restaurant...

Astrid set up her tripod all along the way to take time-lapsed pics...
while I checked out my new camera for hand-held night shots.

Christmas night in our inner city is so...quiet.

How many times have I said that I love our city!

 How can you get more festive...and quiet...than that!

  ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

That was Wednesday.  A bit of rain fell after that and then...Voilà!  Yesterday, Saturday, surprised us with SUNSHINE.  It was a glorious day, and like all good Dutch, we went out-n-about to welcome the day.

We drove the backroads on the dijks nearby. 

THIS is for me like Christmas all year around, any day.

Even Astrid was surprised by the hunters.  Pheasants?  Deer?

But look at what I hunted...and found.  It was Christmas all over for me....

As Astrid and I often say, it doesn't take much to make us happy!

 ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

  And now, it comes...the Happy New Year!

Here's to 2014.

The Other Amsterdam

Later this afternoon, Donica and I fly back to Amsterdam on the same Delta flight! How unusual! But that always makes it so much nicer, even if we are sitting in different parts of the plane (her company policy is that employees sit in Business Class since they usually walk off the plane and go right to work!).

Anyway, someone from my other blog asked if I could show some photos of Amsterdam's "seamy" side. So, since I'm doing that there this week, I'll show you the photos all in one swell foop!

This really IS the proverbial and literal "other side of the tracks" behind Centraal Station in Amsterdam. A couple months ago I wanted to go find some more gable stones but had to walk through this section to get there, along the warehouse wharfs.


And of course, I wondered if any people really live there!

And do any kids really play with these toys???

Clearly someone lives here! And they air their laundry just like the best of them.

Some spots really had me walking at a clip. Does this look as creepy to you as it does to me?!
The seed of Chucky?

But as I neared the end of the warehouses, I actually felt I was in New England. And I DID RELAX a bit more!

I even felt some Good Karma and suspected the entire neighborhood had just appreciated in value!

I'm guessing every city in the world, great or small, has it's "other side of the tracks." And we all know what that means. The Great Divide of those proverbial tracks is a challenge to most of us. The Rich and the Poor. The Haves and the Have-Nots. Never the twain shall meet?

Wouldn't we be surprised if someday the divide disappeared altogether!