February Snow One Week in the Netherlands

Because we never know IF or WHEN it will happen, you can imagine how thrilled we were to finally get snow, even if only for a week.  Frost is one thing, which we saw in January, but snow is another thing altogether! 

We awakened to snow on Sunday morning, 7 February, as predicted.  

I didn't even go out that day except on our balcony and then on the walkway in front of our apartment.

Astrid had covered our car the day before, to protect it in our courtyard.

I took this from our 1st-floor walkway, looking down into the courtyard.

It was heavenly for me, and, if that was all I had, it would have been "fix" enough.

But lucky for me, the next day I walked home from grocery shopping and got more.

Another "fix," even though with the wind chill I barely made it home!

Seriously.

The following day, Tuesday, Astrid drove us along the dijk in nearby Vuren.

Besides seeing the snow, she wanted me to see the high water of the Merwede river on our north bank.

You can see the flooded fields, with the Loevestein Castle across the river.

This is when an outsider understands why the Dutch need locks to control their water.

So much of the area around us is below sea level!

The dijks are also important to keep out the water but are also picturesque.

When I saw the swans, Astrid knew she needed to stop.

Remember, this was 5 days before Valentine's Day.

And remember that swans mate for life!

Our English friends have lamented that we don't have hills for sledding,

but who needs hills when you have dijks!

Don't you love the winter willows!

Not much snow but enough to create some nice scenes.

We drove a bit further out into the polder to find sheep.

(No wonder we like wool for winter, right?!)

It was a splendid day, full of many snow "fixes."

On Wednesday we had erwtensoep, served up in the courtyard for 50 of our residents.

From where I stood, I looked back through our birch tree to our apartment side.

(Our apartment is one floor down to the left of the tree trunk.)

On Friday morning, after 5 days of temps around 20°F, we drove to scout out skating spots 

for Astrid, first in Giessenburg (top row) and then in Brandwijk (bottom row).

That afternoon she went back to Brandwijk to get her skating fix.

 

But one time wasn't enough, so she went back on Sunday to another spot on the Giessen river.

THAT was her real fix for skating this winter, as her video shows.

Then just like that, after Sunday, Valentine's Day, the temps immediately went back up to the 40°s F.

The winter violas outside our front door sprung back to life!

So, from Sunday to Sunday, it was like a February winterland miracle 

inserted into the calendar for all who needed their fix.

Snow in the Lingebos Forest, Vuren, NL

Actually, this is the tail-end of our Christmas-market vacation at the beginning of December, when we went to Maastricht, Aachen (Germany), and the Rolduc Abbey.

We left the house on Friday, 8 December, with snow beginning to fall here in Gorinchem, NL.  All I could think of was "OH NO!  We're going to miss the snow!"  Wrong.  We had it while on our mini-trip south and then on our way back home, Monday, 11 December.

The further north we drove, on our way home, the more it snowed.  And without blinking an eye, we both decided to forget everything, once home (shortly after lunch), and drive out to the nearby Lingebos "artificial" forest in Vuren.

We wanted to WALK IN THE SNOW!

And when Astrid found out that her son Jeroen was let out of work early, because of the snow storm, she invited him and DIL Eva to come join us, if they could.  And they did!

We met up at the entrance of our walk, near where we parked.

It was snowing cats-n-dogs.

The Lingebos is a recreational park of 115 hectares (284 acres) "built" in the late 1960s.

The last time we were there it was the autumn of 2015, at which time we both said,

"If it ever snows again, we HAVE to walk here in the snow!"

Promises made and promises kept!

The snow was wet and gloppy, sticking to the trees.

The blustery wind helped.

Can you tell how much fun we had?

Astrid (red) and I (blue) felt like colorful birds having a heyday.

(The umbrella was to protect the camera lens.)

And because they are special to us, I loved capturing Jeroen and Eva.

After all these years (8+), they are as crazy in love as we are, which we really enjoy seeing.

If ever anyone asks for an example of CARPE DIEM, this is it for us.

We totally seized the day and will hold the memory for years to come....

...until the next time it snows?  We're holding our breath!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

And now another "seize the day" is on our doorstep:  Brother Nelson, the oldest of the 8 kids in my family, arrives here on Sunday for a week's vacation.  He wrote us on 22 December to say he had vacation days to use by the end of January or lose them.  He turns 76 the day he arrives...and yes, he still works!

So I'll be absent from this blog next week while we fill up the days "entertaining" him.  Did I mention that he lives in Holland, Michigan?  It's about time he sees the real Holland, don't you think!

Happy New Year 2015, the Dutch Way

Just for the record (since this is part of what In Soul is about!), we got snow 2 days after Christmas.  We didn't have it at Kinderdijk this year but we did at least get it...something that doesn't happen every year in our neck of the world.  I was ecstatic.

We woke up Saturday morning, December 27th, to this.

It fell down wet and gloppy, at 34-degrees F, the entire day.

On the left, I'm looking out our back balcony; on the right I'm standing at our front door
(1st floor up) looking into our senior-living courtyard.

This gives you a feel for the "wet and gloppy."

The next day, Sunday, we walked around town to see the fun of it all.
How's that for ending an old year!

As we walked around, the nearby bakery had their New Year's kiosk up,
full of oliebollen and apple/pineapple beignets.

Astrid ordered our stash on the spot to be picked up on Wednesday...yesterday.

YUP, in time for Old Year's Eve, as the Dutch call it.
It's a Dutch thing to eat oliebollen and beignets the day before the New Year.

So we did...last evening and again today on this first day of 2015.
It only happens once a year, so eat up, Folks!
(We even got to bed and asleep by 1 a.m. after the fireworks toned down.)

HAPPY NEW YEAR again!

The Snow & Ice Sculpture Festival, Bruges 2014

First of all, happy 2nd Christmas Day from the Netherlands...an official, national holiday!  We're still full of yesterday's drive to Kinderdijk to see the sunrise between 8:15-9:15 a.m.  But that's my next post.

Today it's a gift of WINTER from when we went to the Christmas market in Bruges, Belgium, on Saturday, November 29th.  I wanted to make this a separate post because...well, just because.

Since our hotel was in Ostend for our 4 nights, we decided to take the train to Bruges,

only 15 minutes away.  It was a no-brainer for the car and parking and hassle.

Ostend's train station from 1913 is gorgeous!

Astrid had already researched the Snow & Ice Sculpture Festival in Bruges before our trip.

It is literally just outside the Bruges train station.

It was a no-brainer to see it, even at €15/€13 each, because of the theme:

Ice Magic:  The Land of the Hobs, based on JRR Tolkien's Hobbit stories.

Where do I start?!  The Magic was everywhere.

Do you see a wizard?

Photography was challenging, not only because it was cold (-6° C = 21.2° F)

but because the lights kept changing color.

Do you recognize anything from the Hobbit stories?

The dwarves and trolls and goblins, for instance.

This archer was one of my favorites, even though he didn't come out well.

 The detail was incredible.  This is all ice, Folks...

...except for the chandelier, I assume
(300 tons of crystal-clear ice and 400 tons of snow in 12,000 sq. meters of space). 

It was so C.O.L.D. we had to stop for some hot Glühwein midway through.
Seriously.  It's been a long time since my hands have been that cold.
Have you ever been to an ice bar to get warm?  HA!

It was easier to get chummy with the natives once we got warm(er).

But Astrid was the true hero when she was willing to do the ice slide.
The left image was one we bought for show-n-tell (why not!), since we're both in it.


And lucky for me, I actually caught her!  You get the feel of it, don't you.

After the show (totally worth it) we then walked into Bruges for the Christmas market,
which I've already shown you here.  It was such a beautiful day.

By 5p we were ready to go back to Ostend, catching the 5:29 train, from where we started.
Look how the tents were lit up for the snow and ice festival.

It all really was magical and we're so glad we did it.
Merry Christmas, everyone!

Footloose and Fancy Free

At this time of the year????

Yes, at this time of the year!

That's what my post is about at Vision & Verb today....

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Speaking of Vision & Verb, we've had a Holiday Gallery up of greeting cards

whose profit  helps fund KIVA businesses around the world.

In our 1.5 years of giving back like this, we've been able to give 52 loans of $25 each,

21 of which have been paid back in full.

Talk about sustainable!  The money paid back goes into another loan.

WOWSER!  Please allow me to be darn-tootin' proud of our little "enterprise."

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

These three images below are my gallery (5 x 7) greeting cards this year,

all taken last winter:

Did someone say snow???

Does anyone have some to spare???

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?