Ascension weekend: Spring cleaning and some fun!

(And some rather interesting facts and photos about my shoes- way at the bottom!) ;-)

April and May are great in the Netherlands! There are several days off due to holidays and it's always nice to have a small break from work. Of course what I still don't understand is why do we have Christian holidays considering that I still have to meet a Dutch person who is really religious...still, this is not the purpose of this entry ;-) so I'll proceed to share with you what I did during Ascension weekend.

The real day off was on Thursday and at Canon we had an extra day off...this meant a nice long weekend :) For this occasion I decided to stay in Amsterdam, take some time to relax at home, go to the gym and do something productive and maybe have some fun in the evenings.

Well I have to say that it all worked out wonderfully!

THE FUN

I managed to do something fun each of the evenings. And you will be able to see some photos with some descriptions here.

However I wanted to tell you a little more about Friday evening. Aissa and me decided to go to the 80s party in Hotel Arena. Hotel Arena is a disco in Amsterdam and the third Friday of every month they organise an 80s party with all the old songs...it's always so much fun. People dancing, singing, the 3 big screens showing the videos of the songs or old TV commercials of those years. It's always a blast! You will see some of the photos of the evening and you can also see a video of Push It from Salt n Pepa and Like a Virgin from Madonna. Something interesting for the non Amsterdammers: Hotel Arena is one of the many old churches that is now a disco. Considering that not that many people go to church anymore, they had to do something useful with those big contructions...discos or concert halls is the perfect use for these old churches, the accoustic is great! If you look close enough at some of the photos you will see a Fresco with Jesus and his disciples...just on top of the DJ. In Peru that would be considered a sacrilege...but hey, this is the Netherlands!

Spring Cleaning

I decided to be productive this weekend by doing some Spring Cleaning. Don't even think that it was in the whole house...it was just in my bedroom. And if you think that I finished...you are well mistaken...oh Lord, do I have a lot of crap!

I have realised that before settling down in Amsterdam the moving around countries and houses was not that bad...it was the perfect opportunity to get rid of useless stuff and to sort out belongings. Well, I've been living on my house for over 3.5 years now...and the amount of stuff I have managed to accumulate is unbelievable.

Ok if you know me very well (and maybe even if you don't know me that well) you know that I'm rather girly and I just LOVE accessories...the amount of jewellery, scarves, hats, gloves, hand bags, make up and such other paraphernalia was rather amazing. And of course lets not talk about the amount of bags full of clothes and shoes that will go to charity...so I entertained myself during the day doing that....and I need another long weekend to finish :-s

I don't have photos of me in the mess this weekend. However I think that you will find rather amusing (or shocking...up to each one of you) some photos that Laurent took of me last year when I was organising my shoes on a day I was rather bored as I had been ill for over 2 months...yes I was shocked! After throwing away about 10 pairs of shoes I was left with 69 pairs...and that was last September...there are some new in the collection ;-)

What can I say: I'm Caterina and I'm a "shoeaholic" ;-)

Feliz Dia Mamma!

Spanish version below/Version en español debajo
Second Sunday of May it's Mother's day in several countries. I know for a fact that it is in the Netherlands. However, just like some other holidays, it's not really known, some people think it's a commercial day and it's not really celebrated. Well, let me tell you that at the time I'm writing this, being 14:30 Peruvian time on Mother's day...your call won't be able to go through at this moment if you want to call to Peru. Mother's day in Peru is almost as important as Christmas celebrations! All kids (youngs or adults) will try to do their best to celebrate that woman who brought them to this world: their mother.

As this is the case, I decided to dedicate this week's blog to my mom. Just wanted to share with you some few photos I found in a box here in Amsterdam (most photos are in Peru as you can understand) and to tell you a little about my mom :)

My mom's name is Lupe and I call her by the Italian word: Mamma. My mom, being a cancer is totally devoted to her family and her 3 girls: Francesca, Antonella and me. She's the typical "mother hen" who has always been there for us, doing her outmost for us.

I remember when the 3 of us where still at school my mom would drive us around Lima (huge, chaotic, lots of traffic) taking us to all our activities: ballet, gym, English lessons, French lessons, gymnastics, piano,swimming, dancing....you name it! She would pick us up from school and take us to our friends. When we were even younger she would dress us in matching clothes!

We are all grown up and 2 of us live abroad...but you would be amazed at how close we are. Regardless of the distance she is still there for us, ready to give us sound advice and just a phone call away with her motherly voice and concern.

Mamma, happy mother's day, I really miss you! Thank you so much for always being there!

Version en español (sin acentos a proposito)
Segundo Domingo de mayo es el dia de la madre en varios paises. Se que es definitivamente en Holanda. Sin embargo, al igual que otros feriados, no se conoce realmente, algunas personas dicen que es un dia comercial y no es realmente celebrado. Bueno, dejenme decirles que en el preciso momento donde escribo esto, las 2:30pm hora peruana en el dia de la madre…su llamada no entraria si quiesiesen llamar al Peru. El dia de la madre en Peru es casi tan importante como la Navidad. Todo los hijos (jovenes y adultos) siempre trataran de hacer todo lo posible para celebrar a la mujer que los trajo al mundo: su mama.

Como este es el caso, decidi dedicarle el blog de esta semana a mi mama. Solo quiero compartir con ustedes algunas fotos que encontre en una caja aca en Amsterdam (la mayoria de fotos estan en Peru como pueden entender) y de contarles un poquito sobre mi mama :)

El nombre de mi mama es Lupe y yo la llamo con la palabra en italiano: Mamma. My mama, al ser cancer es una persona totalmente dedicada a su familia y a sus tres hijas: Francesca, Antonella y yo. Es la tipica “mama gallina” que siempre ha estado alli para nosotras, dando siempre lo major de ella por nosotras.

Recuerdo cuando nosotras 3 estabamos todavia en el colegio, mi mama nos paseaba por toda Lima (enorme, caotica y con mucho trafico) y nos llevaba a todas nuestras actividades: ballet, gimnasio, clases de ingles, clases de frances, acrobacia, piano, natacion, baile…y muchas mas! Nos recogia del colegio, nos llevaba donde nuestras amigas. Cuando eramos incluso mas pequegnas nos vestia siempre con ropa que hacia juego!

Somos ya adultas y 2 de nosotras vivimos en el extranjero…pero se sorprenderian si supieesen lo cercanas que somos. A pesar de la distancia siempre esta alli para nosotras, lista para darnos un consejos a tan solo una llamada de distancia con su voz y preocupacion de “mama”.

Mamma, feliz dia de la madre. Realmente te extraño! Muchas gracias por estar siempre alli. Ti voglio tanto bene mammina! Caty

Weekend in London

I'm currently involved on a big project at work that involves working with an English agency based in London. We needed a 2-day meeting with our Account manager and it was held in the Canon office in London. As it was on Thursday and Friday (ok, I conveniently planned them close to the weekend ;-) ) I decided to stay there to enjoy a little of London and to visit some friends.

The meeting was rather successful and packed with lots of information. Unfortunately I was getting a cold which got worse while sitting on the plane for almost for almost 3 hours on the plane on the way there. It's a joke sometimes how those annoying delays on planes make a 40 minute flight become such an long trip.

However, regardless of the bad cold, on Friday at 15:30 I bid good bye to Christiaan (my boss) in Terminal 4 at Heathrow airport and made my way to catch the Heathrow express that would take me to Paddington station in the centre of London!

Most of you know that I lived in London for 9 months in 2002 and that I absolutely love it. And of course I have been to London many times after that either for business or to visit friends (or a combination of both) and of course for shopping ;-) However I hadn't been to London since the end of 2005- I don't count the business trips to Canon UK because when I do that I even stay in the Sofitel hotel in the North Terminal of Gatwick airport!

I know my way very well in London, but was I in for some surprises! I remember that the first day I was in London back in 2002 I was in the supermarket and I was amazed to see that the prices had the same "numbers" but they were Pounds instead of Euros. Everybody knows that London is one of the most expensive cities of the world...but God it feels like inflation hit them in about 50%!!!

When I lived in London a Tube single ticket (for the ones who don't know "The tube" is the way the London underground is referred as) costed £1.90. Well, I was horrified to see that it now costs £4.00 !!!! (that is about US$ 8.00). Of course they now also have another system with the "Oyster Cards"...but I won't bother you into the details. Lets just say that just making my way from Heathrow into town I had some incidents and shocks with the prices...the 15 minute ride from Heathrow to Paddington was £15 (US$30)...anyway, I won't go on, but you get the picture.

As I had some time to kill until 17:30 when I was going to meet Carla in Liverpool Street Station, I decided to get off in Oxford Circus so I could do a little window shopping in Oxford Street where I didn't lose ANY time and bought the most beautiful pair of white sandals ;-) ...ok, I'm getting sidetracked again. By the time I was back in the Tube on the Central line going only about 5 stops from Oxford Circus to Liverpool Street...it was rush hour on a Friday. Oh MY GOD!!!! Had I forgotten how crowded the tube can get. The amount of people, all squeezed like tuna in a can, the door opening, then closing, the "mind the gap" voice in every station, everybody with their iPODs and reading their books or newspapers, nobody looking into anybody's eyes. And then when leaving the carriage walking with a pack of people, everybody looking for the long escalators: stand on the right, walk on the left, people walking and just walking and wanting to go home!!

I remember that I have always heard that some people like London but they feel overwhelmed by it. I always said that that was nonsense for me. After all I come from Lima, a massive, over 8-million-inhabitants, chaotic and noisy city...so I felt pretty much at home in London. But I guess that back in 2002 I had only been in Europe for a couple of years. After being over 4 years in a row in Amsterdam...where I cycle to go everywhere, where it takes not even one hour by bike to cross the city, where I don't have to fight with anyone to get a seat in the bus in the morning on my way to work, which is outside Amsterdam and it takes me half an hour (I guess it's also because I go to work rather early and I miss the rush hour)....I was REALLY overwhelmed by the whole chaos!!! I really missed my bike! ;-)

Of course on the other hand...London is London. And I was positively overwhelmed in the shops with the choice of things....so many nice things, so many things to choose from....too expensive though ;-)...and of course the amount of things to do: concerts, theatres, musicals, opera, ballet, museums. So as you see London and me have some kind of love-hate relationship, which is great because it's a "long distance" love affair anyway ;-)

I eventually found Carla and we made our ways to Chelmsfort, Essex just half an hour by train outside of London where she lives. We had a very nice evening the 2 of us, Julien (her husband) and Italo who joined us after work all the way from Kingston (about 1.5 hour away).

The next day we had already made our plans for the day. After breakfast Italo, Carla and me decided that the 3 of us would head into town. It was rather nice to be among Peruvian friends, speaking Peruvian slang, catching up and remembering our time at university. Of course Carla and my plan was to go shopping...Italo was happy to come along. I guess Julien was very smart as he went to play golf...and I have the feeling that Italo must have thought why on earth did he go shopping in London with 2 women!

On my defense, I did exactly what I said I wanted to do. I only went to 2 shops that I really like and that I had planned on going. Of course I won't forget Italo's shocked face when I came out of the second shop with only a tiny little carrier bag: "Over an hour for only THAT?????"...hey, doesn't he know that we women have to try everything before choosing the first thing we tried on?

After an afternoon of shopping we went for some coffee and rest in Starbucks while we waited for 19:30. We had tickets for a concert in St. Martin in the Fields, the church in Trafalgar square. While I lived in London I used to go a lot to that church on Saturday evenings as they always had lovely concerts. Just on Monday last week I received their newsletter and I saw that that the Belmont Ensemble was having a Candle night concert of Vivaldi's 4 Seasons...so I proposed Carla and Italo to get tickets.

Just as I expected it was beautiful. Nothing really fancy just this really talented musicians playing delicious music. Just some easy listening Barocque: some Vivaldi, some Mozart and some Bach...perfect 2 hours! I would have loved to take photos or to film, but it wasn't allowed. However I sneaked out my camera and covered it with my scarf just for the audio...so you can hear a little of the concert by clicking in any of the following links: Mozart - Salzburg Symphony No 2; Bach - Air on G string and Vivaldi - The 4 Seasons, Spring.

After the concert Julien joined us for dinner and eventually we headed back to Chelmsford after midnight on the last train. On the walk from the station to Carla's house I was reminded again of what surprised me back in 2002 about British people...my God why do they drink SO much? I know that I have already told this to several of you but I need to document it on my blog: First of all, I have never in my live have seen as many people being drunk at the same time in the street as in Britain- but when I say DRUNK I mean TOTALLY wasted! Second of all...British define how much fun they have according to how drunk they get...I take it as still an interesting cultural aspect. And of course, another typical characteristic: what kind of super genes do English girls have to be able to walk with tiny clothes, no jacket, no socks and sandals when it's bloody cold is entirely beyond me! Another interesting aspect ;-)

On Sunday I was positively surprised by a lunch invitation from Marco van den Berg and his girlfriend, Annette. I met Marco in a seminar in Mannheim, Germany back in 1998 just before he went to Peru for an AIESEC project. We've met some other times includding New Year's 2002 in Peru again and the last time we saw each other was in Paolo's farewell party in Zurich...I was really very happy to see him and Annette again. It was a very enjoyable lunch!

After lunch Marco drove me to Heathrow and after only about 45 mins delay I managed to land at Schiphol airport a little before 20:00. All in all, regardless of the cold (and cough I caught on Saturday) and regardless of the weather (it seems that spring is gone and rain is here to stay this week :-s...good for the plants though...) it was a really, really nice weekend. Met some old friends, did some shopping, went to an excellent concert, went down memory lane (Arnaud, Martin and David...I kept thinking of our time in London!) and as I said before, that's the way to keep the love on this long-distance relationship with London...lets see each other only every once in a while to keep the "honey-moon" period!

For a few photos of the weekend click here, can you tell that the weather is crap again? :-s ...so much for my new sandals ;-)

Queen's Day

April 30th is a little like the Dutch National holiday as it is "Koninginnedag", which means Queen's day. It is the day the whole country dresses in Orange and celebrates the Queen...at least that's how it should be...if you click here and read below you will find out more about this popular festivity in the Netherlands.

This is actually my 7th Queen's day. My first was back in 98 when I did my traineeship in Mannheim Germany and that was my first time EVER in Amsterdam...little did I know then that I was going to end up living in this city.

This Queen's day has actually felt more like a Queen's week. As the day itself was on a Monday, we had a long weekend to celebrate and as the weather is still really nice to us, lets say that the anticipation of the long weekend and the wonderful weather made it all more special.

Warmondstraat 148hs' maiden 2007 BBQ

After checking the weather forecast earlier last week, Laurent (my flatmate for the ones that don't know) decided that it was about time for us to do the first BBQ of the year. We first decided to have something small but somehow we ended up being 12 persons as apparently everybody was excited about being able to have a BBQ.

We had an interesting combination of people: 3 Spaniards, 4 Dutch, 3 Peruvians, 1 French and 1 Mexican...everybody except 2 knew how to speak Spanish...so that language was widely spoken through that nice evening.

Ruben, my really good Spanish friend, decided to make Sangria for the occasion. Little did I know that he was going to get so carried away. He made about 7 liters of Sangria...but as we were all really responsible people who had to be at work the next day. We only drank half of it...without counting the wine of course.

If you keep reading, you will find the link for the photos of that really nice evening!

The Start of the weekend: Farewell, Beach and another BBQ

The long waited Friday came and it started with some nice drinks in the bar of the "Hotel Arena" where Ruben hosted his farewell drinks as he will be moving to the South of the Netherlands where he will start working in some weeks. We had a really nice time, sitting outside, having a nice chat and having some drinks.

After 1am some of the guys went to the disco but I decided I wanted to take it easy that evening as I had an important date the next morning: me and the sun in the beach ;-)

Indeed at about 9:30am Aissa sent me an SMS letting me know that she and a friend who was over for the weekend were already getting ready for the beach...so I jumped out of bed and got ready for it. This time we decided to go by train and not by bike as I had to be back not that late that day- Italo was landing about about 6pm and I had to be home to welcome him.

We had a really beautiful day in the beach. It was not as warm as the last time but it was warm enough for us to enjoy a beautiful time lying and getting tanned and just relaxing. And it was not that hot that it was too crowded. This time we went to Zandvoort which is a little closer than Bloemendaal.

What to do that evening? That was the question that everybody was making themselves...my phone kept rining the whole day. It was Saturday but everyone wanted to take it easy as we still had 2 whole days ahead of partying. So finally we decided to have a BBQ at my place. As I was at the beach Joost and Geert Jan were really nice and bought all the stuff for the evening. We spent a really enjoyable evening in my garden with Joost, Geert Jan, Aleks, Italo, Johannes (a friend that was visiting Aleks) and me of course.

The other interesting thing is that we still had the Sangria left from the previous BBQ...you can imagine that after 3 days in the fridge the fruit had absorved all the alcohol and the Pisco that Ruben added for an "extra taste" did the thing to it...otherwise ask either Geert Jan or Italo who became very healthy and finished all the fruit ;-)

For a video of that evening click here and for the photos of the 2 BBQs and some of the beach click here.

Queen's Night - DAY and NIGHT

Queen's night is the start of the Queen's day celebrations, however, as it was Sunday we started celebrating early that day. Joost invited us to go with his boat around Amsterdam once more. And we were more than happy to come along. There's not much to say as you can just see it for yourself in the photos.

I will add though that we had quite some beers and wine...and we were almost 4 hours under the sun...so you can imagine the results. By the time we were back on steady floor Italo and me actually still had to visit some people in the Vondelpark. Our first stop was by the "Picasso fish" where Petter and some friends were also enjoying the sun with some more wine and beers and finally by the exit of the Amstelveenseweg where Stephi and some friends were doing the same.

When we got back home at around 18:30 we were rather tired...even though I hadn't had as much alcohol as Italo (you must have seen his photos) ;-) haha we just had time to get ready (Italo managed to have a power nap) and we headed off in our bikes into town.

We met Joost, Aleks and Johannes in an Indian restaurant close to Nieuwmarkt for dinner and then we headed in to the stage in that area where we met some more friends. There was a really cool group playing 70s music, for a taste click here. There were 2 main singers a girl and a guy...the way was an unbelievable showman...he made us laugh with his dances, movements, the way he sang. We had a blast until after 1am. You can view the photos here.

When the music finished we had quite some discussions whether we should go ahead and keep partying. However after the confussion, the people, the beer, the bikes, the amount of people and the fact we wanted to enjoy Queen's Day...we decided to get home. Which was a good thing cause we only got to bed at about 2:30am

D Day: Queen's Day!

And we made it to the climax of the weekend!!! It was Queen's day! Queen's day is a very particular celebration and even though I'll describe it here, you will see the pictures and the videos you won't be able to get a full grasp of it unless you live it...so all the ones that have never had the chance to live this are very welcome to come and visit me on April 30th 08!

First of all there's the market. This is the only day of the year where everybody can sell whatever they want. Dutch people sometimes even sleep on the floor in the streets to make sure that they get good spots where they can sell their stuff the next day. You can find some rather interesting things, like old books or CDs, but you can also find SO much crap. And the most amazing thing is that things are sold!!! One of my Dutch colleagues even told me yesterday that the guy selling next to her sold a bike for €5 and she bought it and then sold it for €15! It's really funny to see all these things.

Then there's the amount of activities going on. Every single bar, pub, restaurant has a big party in the street. Everybody wears orange which is the national colour (as the Dutch royal family is from the House "van Oranje"). There are stages almost every block with musicians, bands, singers, DJs...it's very hard to describe that a whole city becomes like a big fair.

It is not only the streets and every single square that are really crowded. The canals are impossible. People organise parties in big boats that cruise the canals throughout the days with drinks and DJs.

I read on the news that 500,000 people attended the celebrations in Amsterdam. 215,000 of them actually got to Amsterdam by train...so you can imagine the mobilisation. However it is also unbelievable how well behaved and how peaceful Dutch people are, I also read on the news that they only arrested over 100 people which is the average in a normal weekend in Amsterdam.

I started the day by cycling to Joost's place with Italo and there we met some more people and we made our way to Westerstraat and the Nordermarkt in the Jordaan area. We then walked along the Prinsengracht following the big crowd and stopping in almost all the stages to finish in the Amstelveldt close to Rembrandtplein where there was the "Chemistry" party where about 8 different DJs played from noon until 9pm. We really had a blast!

We somehow walked all the way back to Joost's (it took us about 1.5 hours with a small stop for some food) and there we picked up our bikes and we cycled back home.

Another Queen's day, another wonderful celebration. You should definitely try it sometime!

View the photos and a video of the party!

Just a weekend in Amsterdam

The heat wave left us somewhere during mid last week, however spring is still here (we actually can't believe it...I think I've never seen so many blue skies so constantly in the Netherlands!). Anyway, this means that me and my friends have taken advantage of this and we've had a really nice weekend.

I started with a "pre-weekend" activity on Thursday evening where me and some friends went for dinner to the "Blue tea house" which is located in the Vondelpark. We still managed to make it an early evening so I managed to go work on Friday and in the evening I met a friend in De Pijp to catch up.

On Saturday, my friend Aleksandra was having a housewarming party at 4pm in the north part of Amsterdam.

Now, for the ones that don't know Amsterdam let me tell you that this city has totally spoiled me. I come from Lima a VERY big city where I used to spend about one hour in a "combi" (small bus) to go from home to university every day. I did the same when I was living in London where it took me about 1 hour and 20 minutes to get from home to work (by underground and a bus).

However Amsterdam is a different story. Amsterdam is more like a village than a city...and my life is always around the same areas. After all the Netherlands is the European country with more population density...we are kind of on top of each other, and there are SO many things next to the other. I don't even live in the centre, but it takes me less than 10 minutes by bike to get to the centre (I literally have to cross the Vondelpark). When I have to go somewhere and I have to cycle over 15 minutes I already start thinking it's a little far. 20, means far...and more than 20...it's rather annoying ;-) So yes, I'm totally spoiled here.

Anyway, all this explanation to tell you that Aleks' house was in the North of Amsterdam (behind central station). You have to understand that my view of Amsterdam is a little like the one that Europeans had of the world before Christopher Columbus discovered America. For me Central Station is THE NORTH...and anything behind is some land after the water ;-) haha So having to look for the address on the map and trying to figure out a cycle way...was quite a challenge ;-) However I did manage to get there, I got a little lost but after 35 minutes I got there.

We spent a nice afternoon and evening in the roof top terrace until the sun was gone and we started getting cold. We ended the party in Alek's nice livingroom, having some nice chats, drinking some wine, eating lots of yummy things and overlooking a beautiful view. You'll see it on the photos!

At about 22:30, 7 of us made our way into the centre to Zebra Lounge, a nightclub where Vitor, a good friend of mine was celebrating his 32nd party. Vitor is a real "party animal". He's the friend that whenever I feel like going out and dance or I want to know "what's on" in the Amsterdam night life agenda I call and usually he can put me on the guestlist. It was a really great party, 4 different DJs made a great combination of music, the crowd was great, several of my friends were there. I had a really nice time.

I cycled home at around 3 am...I had been partying and drinking since 4pm if you remember....

You can see a few photos of this by clicking here

On Sunday we had a GORGEOUS spring day! And so I joined Joost, Aleks, Geert jan and Daf in Saxy (the boat). We cruised around the Amsterdam canals while finishing all the remaining food from the party the day before...the people from the other boat were very jealous of our vast variety of cheeses: Brie, Camembert, Goat cheese, Blue cheese, Cheese with Dille, Cheese with Nuts...you got it right?

It was a really fun and beautiful afternoon. The sun was shining over Amsterdam and the wateer and I actually took out my camera and decided to take all the photos that normally tourists would take and that I never do (as I'm not a tourist anymore) and when I downloaded them yesterday evening, I realised what I already know...I LOVE Amsterdam. It's such a beautiful city, and no wonder I fell in love with it! :)

Look up the photos of my beautiful Amsterdam here (can you tell I love this city?)

And you can also view 2 videos: Prinsengracht and me cycling back home yesterday evening

Starved for sun and warmth: 1st hot weekend in 07

I'll never forget my first summer in the northern part of Europe. It was back in 1998 when I was doing a traineeship in Mannheim, Germany. One day the sun came out and suddenly everybody was half naked, everybody had sunglasses on and going out in the streets, people were SO happy, So cheerful, everybody was sitting outside in the terraces, in the parks, they would cram themselves in tiny little balconies (that I would have never called balconies myself)....summer was here (at least for a day)...and they HAD to enjoy it.

I would have never thought, that some years later...I would join "them" and I would get SO excited as well to get some sun. I guess it's true...you always long for what you don't have, or what you are not sure if you will get. In this part of the world...the world Summer doesn't mean "heat" or the fact that you will be able to wear summer clothes or sandals. Long gone are the days back in Lima, when I would put away all the coats, jackets and anything that had long sleeves; socks and closed shoes. For the past 7 years...I've been chasing the sun and trying to get the most out of it! I now understand why the euphoria, why the need of getting half naked and joining the masses of half naked bodies in wherever part of the city we might enjoy some rays of the long longed God sun! (However, I don't think I will ever join the group of people that feel it's nice to parade around in underwear in public parks!!)

I think there's enough evidence by now to prove to the more sceptics that Global Warming is here, been reading a very interesting special about it in the latest Newskeek. And regardless of the fears and the politics behind, besides the potential scenarios that make me actually wonder if I should invest in a beach house by the Baltic sea ;-)...the fact is that since Friday not only Spring was here but with a breaking record of 28.9 degrees Celsius for the month of April in the Netherlands it felt like Summer was actually here.

On Friday evening I joined Joost, Geert Jan and some other friends for a quick drink in De Pijp...and there was some holiday feeling to people sitting in the terraces or just standing outside with beers, white beers, white wines or Mohitos in their hands.


On Saturday Aissa and me decided that we HAD to go to Bloemendaal, one of the closest beaches to Amsterdam. I have to point out that Aissa is Brazilian and we actually became quite good friends since last Summer when we would get into the train on Saturdays and Sundays ready to make the most out of the beach...we both have grown up by the beach and we definitely LOVE it! However this time we decided to cycle to Bloemendaal (for Non-Dutch pronounce "Blue-mendal"). It took us 1 hour and 40 minutes at a steady pace to ride the 30kms to Bloemendaal and 1 hour and 30mins for our way back. As the Netherlands is so flat and as we cycle almost every day, it was not hard, we didn't get soar legs or were tired, however as we have just plain city bikes...God did our asses hurt on the way back ;-) And we spent a really GREAT day laying down in the sand and feeling the gorgeous rays caressing our bodies!


On Sunday I decided to stay in Amsterdam, however the day was even warmer than Saturday so I actually spent about 8 hours lying in the sun in the Vondelpark. For the ones that don't know, the Vondelpark is a rather big park in the middle of Amsterdam and I happen to live only 5 minutes away from the south exit. Petter, Aissa, Stephie, Paul and Nema joined me....and from 2pm till almost 9pm (when it started getting dark- I LOVE the looooong days) we enjoyed copious amounts of white and rose wine and then some lovely white beer. It was only when I cycled back home that I realised that I was a little drunk and the fact was furtherly confirmed at 4am when I woke up and had a terrible urge for over a liter of water ;-)


All in all a perfect hot weekend, the perfect beginning of the warm season! I look forward to more beach days, more picnics in the Vondelpark and definitely more wine and beers in good company ;-)


For a few photos of Sat and Sun click here and for a 1 min video of my cycling through the park click here.

Easter Weekend

Even though it appeared that I was only just back from holidays, the long Easter weekend was very much welcome! I was definitely happy to have 4 days off.

As I had been so busy planning my trip to Aspen I had totally forgotten to plan something for it, once I was back all flights for short breaks around Europe were already quite full and were already quite expensive so I decided that I would make the most out of the Netherlands.

Italo, one of my best friends who is currently living in Essex UK, came over for the weekend and we organised several really fun activities.

Friday: KEUKENHOF

Keukenhof is one of the world's most spectacular gardens. It's only opened about 6 weeks every year at the beginning of the spring, and it's a real delight for the senses.

Italo and me took a train to Leiden and then a beautiful bus ride among the flower fields all the way to the park.

The place is really stunning. A huge display of flowers, colours, nature. Something really worth seeing if you are ever in the Netherlands at around this time of the year...believe it or not...even though I'm over 4 years here, I had never been there before.

I think that I'll make use of the frase "one image speaks more than thousand words" and click here so you can see the photos!

You can also enjoy Keukenhof videos by clicking here and here!

Saturday: A boat tour in the A'dam canals

On Saturday we did "Saxy's 2007 maiden's tour" in the A'dam canals. Saxy is my good friend Joost's boat. He used this weekend to ensure that all was working ok, to put the engine back on after the winter and to ensure that Saxy is ready for 2007's season. Italo and me met Joost in the Princengracht prepared with wine and some snacks and we were ready for it.

Cruising Amsterdam canals is one of the nicest things to do on a sunny day. Even though I have done it numerous times, I will never get bored of it. You view the city from a total different perspective, you realise that most of the Amsterdam buildings are astonishing and that each one has a special characteristics. It's also nice to see that the other boat "captains" will always greet you when you cross their way- something totally unexpected in a busy city as Amsterdam.

Furthermore, as this was Italo's first time on a private boat...we decided to cruise around the Red Light District. Which gave us an interestinig advantage...I managed to photograph some of the "ladies on the windows" ;-) which is something that you are not allowed to do if you are wondering around the area.

Finally, at the end of the day, Italo and me were cycling back home and we passed along Museum Plein. The sun was out and it looked so pretty...we decided to sit in the field and enjoy the sunshine...and we also decided to take some nice touristy photos.

For photos of the whole day, includding the "ladies from the red light district" click here ;-)

For videos on the the canal ride click here and also here.

Saturday and Sunday: Park, Rembrandt Plein and National Park

Saturday was a really sunny day. Italo and me packed a chilled bottle of white wine and we met Stephie in the Vondelpark. We had a really nice time enjoying the sun. After 2.5 hours we decided to go to Rembrandtplein where Yamil joined us and we had some really decadent ice-creams and a beer.

On Sunday Joost, Geert Jan, Italo and me went all the way to Otterlo to the Hoge veluwe National Park. After parking the car, we walked about 2.5kms towards the centre of the park. There we decided to first visit to the "Kroller-Muller" museum which had an amazing Van Gogh collection and also some impressionists and post-impressionists (my favorites) and a rather impressive modern art from the 20th century collection. This was all in the inside, in the outside they had a quite particular exhibition of modern sculptures.

After the museum visit and after a small lunch we managed to get a hold of 4 of the white bikes which are meant to be for free for the visitors. We decided to go to St. Huber, a small castle, that used to be a lodge for hunters, we cycled about 20 kms to get there...which was rather nice to do in between the forest and the nice scenary which you'll be able to see in the photos. We reached St. Huber, we saw a little bit of it and we cycled back toward the entrance and then we drove back Amsterdam.

For photos of the visit to Hoge Veluwe click here.

For a short video of me trying to get the surroundings while cycling...click here ;-)

All in all a really nice long weekend with beautiful long and sunny days, spring is definitely here....and everybody is really happy!