DAM, DAM, DAM: VolenDAM & AmsterDAM

Ah, yes! Life has been very busy in the CS household these past weeks.

It still is. This weekend, we're off to a cousin's reunion in Amterdam... And the partners are invited, too. Lucky me :)

We had hardly came back from our Egypt holiday (OX is still working on the photos, but getting there), that we were picking Ma & Pa up from the Basel airport. They stayed with us for 3 weeks and we had us a great time (and plenty of Ma's home cooking! Yum!)

So, then. Back to our Amsterdam trip with Chris and Bob trip before we move on.

Saturday, July 12:

After having taken Chris and Bob through some Amsterdam-ish nightlife on their first day, we thought it would be a good idea to show them to a more idyllic side of Holland. Our first idea was to take them to a beach like Scheveningen or Zandvoort, but since we weren't sure what the weather would turn out to be, we decided that Volendam would be a good choice.

Volendam is a typical fisherman's village and a popular touristic attraction in The Netherlands. It's known for its fishing boats (tjalk, or Dutch barge) and the traditional clothing; the pointed bonnet probably being the most recognizable accessory.

Before entering the village, however, we saw this beautiful old windmill (this one's for Ginnie ) and we just had to stop to take a few pictures. How idyllic is that?

We parked the car and walked throught the village and along the harbor taking in the beautiful settings. The view on the lake was beautiful, and don't you just love the house fassades? No wonder it's such a touristic attraction!

Anyhow, while our poffertjes (another culinary must - fluffy tiny pancakes typically served with powdered sugar and butter. I had mine topped off with a shot of Amaretto liqueur. Mmmmmmm!) were being prepared, Chris and I went trough the shop looking basically at everything and nothing. It was jammed with hand-crafted goods and other typical not so hand-made souvenirs.

Chris found a really cute hat. But honestly, I'm not sure whether I prefer Bob wearing it - cuz she can wear just about any hat and looks great.

What do you think? I think it suits him pretty darn well, no?

Then we saw one of those old mechanical organs. They're beautifully hand painted and very well kept. Think back! - those of our generation and older, of course. I can remember filling cards with my brother to "feed" the computers to punch holes through them in order to be able to read what was on the card. Kind of the same thing, no? Punched holes through cards will hit the right note. Fascinating. I wonder how far back these prehistorical CDs go.

Anyway, after eating our way through Volendam, we decided to take a drive to Amsterdam and have an aperitif at café on Rembrandtsplein, where Harry also took a picture of "The Night Watch" figures portraying one of Rembrandt's most famous paintings.

After that we had a lovely tapas dinner at the Kelderhof, followed by the obligatory nightcap at "Harry's office", where we took this nice picture of Bob, Pierre (the owner) and Chris.

The next morning, time came where we had to say goodbye. But not without a shot of Amaretto in Chris' coffee!

After breakfast came an unexpected bottle of champagne to celebrate new friendship. And then, the time came to really say good-byes, but were still, looking forward to seeing Dale.

The highway was free of traffic, so we drove fast,

... and faster...

And we made it home safely. Home sweet home.

From Summer to Winter in 24 hrs!

Sooooo-de-li (That’s Swiss-German for: Soooooo).

After a hearty breakfast of fresh bread, cold-cuts, cheese, jam, butter, yoghurt and fruit (insert a couple of eggs for Orange-X here) early the next day, we made our way to the cable car station that would take us up to the Klein Matterhorn Station at 3’820 meters above sea level(12’533 feet) where we bought our tickets.

Unfortunately, the weather was doing pretty much what it wanted (not what we wanted). At Zermatt’s 1’862 meters, the sun was shining and the temperature was about at 24-26°C (high 70’s°F). However, the skies up in the heights were covering up fast. They said: “-1°C (30.2°F) at the top." … Brrrr! Since Chris had not brought any closed shoes - and in this case, even a pair of sneakers would have not been safe - we had made sure that both had adequate footwear before we left Basel.

Half way up we were told that we had to wait because the winds were too strong. We had already had rain and wet snow, and it was getting worse. So, we went for a hot chocolate and waited. After 20 minutes, the skies cleared up again (how fast it can change) and we could continue our ascent. It was breathtaking to see all the crevasses, the steep, rocky and sometimes icy slopes. You really have to know what you’re doing if you climb up here by foot, even in summer.

However, once we reached our destination, the Klein Matterhorn station, we realised two things: a) the panorama platform was closed for repair and b) we had a freeking snowstorm up there! It was like a Canadian blizzard. Look!

And we wanted to show them the Matterhorn?? HA! FOR.GET.IT! The best the weather would allow us to take was this. We saw only the lower part of the great mountain!

Anyhow, we walked to a provisional kind of “restaurant”. While we were warming up and recuperating from the thin air enjoying a coffee, we noticed that Chris was not doing well… at all. During her first visit back in 2003, the heights had been no problem for her, but in the meantime, she had her thyroid gland taken out because it was hyperactive. And then, Chris’ heart started pounding like crazy (low oxygen, probably) and she panicked – which did not help. So, we had to get her down again and fast! However, the winds had stirred up a storm in the meantime and we had to wait. Luckily, after about only 15 minutes, we could start our descent and at mid-way, she felt better again and the weather had changed to friendlier skies. Look at those views! Isn’t it beautiful up there?

By the time we were back in the village again, Chris was fine and we were back to a sunny, warm 26°C (78°F), so we took a few pictures in Zermatt and had a late lunch. We then made our way to the hotel to pick up our things, took a taxi back down, paid our parking fee in Täsch: a whole CHF 7.00 for 24 hours! Not much by Swiss standards, and drove back to Basel.

Once at home, we threw in a few washes in and were ready for the next adventure: the following day, we were off to Amsterdam.

So, folks. That’s where I leave you until the next entry. We're going on holidays to Egypt this Thursday for 2 weeks (Yippee!!!!!)and I doubt that I'll find much time to catch up, so have an excellent time!

Unforgettable Moments

“Unforgettable” is what's playing on OX’s iPod right now as I type. How fitting! Those moments were unforgettable.

I can’t believe that two weeks have passed already – not to mention the thousands of driven kilometers, hundreds of photos and short nights! My best friend, Christiane and her adorable husband Robert a.k.a. Bob are back at home with their two boys. We had an incredible time with them and I will be writing many posts about the time we spent together. But let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

We picked them up from Basel Airport Friday, July 4th and let them settle in. Once they had put their luggage in their room, we met on the terrace for a welcome drink and snacks. I was hoping they had been able to get a bit of shut-eye on the flight, but no such thing. Both were way too excited to sleep. They didn’t care. There would be enough time to catch up for the lack of sleep – so they thought ;) ! Only Bob went for a short nap before dinner (I’m sure the drinks helped) but Chris did manage to wake him up for a late dinner. OX prepared his chicken-strawberry salad and added a few chicken wings on the BBQ. Yummy!

We even had an extra guest: Buddy. Buddy is a hedgehog that has been visiting us regularly for the past 5-6 weeks, or so. We feed him small portions of dry cat food - we don't want him to stop hunting for his food- and plenty of water. He actually eats out of our hand and he brought friends, too, but he's the only "bold one" and lets us scratch his chin. Ain't he just the cutest little flea bag?? ;)

Once the bellies we filled, our friends were quite ready for a nap. That was a good thing, too, because we had invited Thomas and Nicole for dinner the next evening and our two travelers should be more or less fit.

On Saturday, we did a few groceries, and then we just hung around in our back yard and chatted until it was time to prepare the dinner. I marinated a nice pork filet for the grill while OX prepared his sate and Indonesian fried rice. Our guests arrived on time and Thomas was really happy to see Chris and Bob again. I think he hadn’t seen both together since 2000, or so. Thomas is my Ex, as most of you already know, and still we get along very well.

Nicole was immediately taken up into Chris and Bob's friends' circle. Later, we turned up some mood music and at some point, the iPod played salsa music to which Tom and Nicole just had to dance.

Later, between the two courses, we took a small break and Christiane sang for us. She has the voice of an angel. Now that’s what I call entertainment! First a dance show, then food, then music and then more food! It can’t get much better than that, now can it? Look at the proud husband!

It was a wonderful start to a great two weeks! More to come. I’ve already spent all afternoon editing photos and by no means all of them just yet, but I had to put something on the blog! Enjoy!

A travelling we will go...

Just a short note to let you know that our visitors from Canada, Robert and Christiane, have arrived safely last weekend. Today, we are off to Zermatt and then Amsterdam.

It might take a while, but we'll be back with a few stories soon, I assure you.

........Stay tuned!

Roxane and CS take over Paris (part 2)

So you're waiting for part 2?? Really? If you don't know what I'm talking about, read part 1 here. There we go. Up to date, now?

We took our purchased and uncorked bottle of wine (we were pretty sure that there wouldn't be a corkscrew in the room, so we had it opened in the store) up to our room, picked-up two glasses from the reception along the way and once at our destination, I poured us a generous amount of wine. All while chatting away, Rox downloaded the pictures she had taken onto her laptop, we both checked our e-mails and the glasses were re-filled. At some point, however, the excitement of meeting-up after such a long time, her still being half-jetlaged, a LOT of walking and the thrill of being in Paris took over, we finally decided to shut-up and hit the sack around 1.30 am.

After getting barely enough sleep, but at least a long, hot shower, we went down to the lovely breakfast room where we grabbed a coffee and a bit of fruit before we would hit the road. We wanted to see more of the city, but from a different (and more relaxing) perspective. In the lobby of our tiny hotel, I found a leaflet about cruises on the Seine. But before that, we had to move hotels. Yep. Our hotel was fully booked for the second night, so Rox had been given another address only 5 minutes walk away.

We dropped our belongings at the new hotel and went for a little bit of shopping for Roxane's kids. After the puchases completed and dropped off at the hotel, we took the Métro to "La Cité" which is none other than the island on the Seine where you will find the famous cathedral of Notre-Dame and the Palais de Justice.

From there we went on a sightseeing cruise. Yes, I know, very touristy, but we had to do it... the lazy way.

Here are a few photos of what we saw along the way.

A side view of the Louvres Museum

Rox and the Eiffel Tower

Alexander III Bridge

The Musée D'Orsay

The conciergerie (the prison where Marie-Antoinette was kept until she was beheaded)

You'd think this is Amsterdam, right. NOT!

Finaly. The Notre-Dame-de-Paris Cathedral from the Seine in the haze.

A Zouave at the Pont de l'Alma

After the boat ride, we went to visit the Notre-Dame-de-Paris Cathedral. It's quite impressive, but I wonder what this person had to do with the history of it all. Starbucks was involved?? Who knew?!

After our visit, we decided it was time for a drink, so we wandered through the small streets and alleys of lively St-Germain area and had us a nice aperitif. The waiter was kind enought to take our picture.

We were slowly getting hungry, but we couldn't make up our mind where to go. We looked at a few small restaurants in an alley leading to the St-Germain boulevard and they all looked so inviting. Decisions, decisions.

We found a tiny, but very inviting restaurant and ordered two glasse of champagne and a menu du jour, which turned out ok, but not the best. I must say that it was a very friendly service and easy going. What the hell. We were there to get together and have a good time... which we definitely had. Whithin such a short notice period, we both didn't have the time to look up gastronomy in Paris!... But we were happy. Isn't that what counts?

Rox: Here's a special cheers to you and thank you for having kept in touch all those years as well as for the great time in Paris. I'll never forget it. I miss you, my friend, and hope that the kids will enjoy their football (soccer) dresses. See you soon in Canada (or Europe again?)!

PS: I will upload all picts on on my picasa web site and add the link asap, but I've been working on the pictures all afternoon and I'm zonked. Not to mention that I have another post coming up (Oranje weekend) and that Christiane and Robert are coming over for two weeks this Friday from Canada. We'll be going to Zermatt (Switzerland) and Amsterdam with them. Wheeee! Aren't I lucky?

Note to the readers: With a few exceptions, all these photos were taken with Roxanes' camera, because mine ran out of battery whithin the first hour, or so. I won't go into details, here, but I'll blame it on Orange-X ;) Thanks you Dear, that you made it possible for me to have all these wonderful photographic memories and to share them on the blog. Love ya!

Roxane and CS take over Paris (part 1)

I know that many of you (expecially you, Roxane!) have been waiting for this story. As you can already gather from the title, this entry will be published in 2 posts. Sorry, but we've been busy bees as of late and the European Championships have been taking up some of our time, too :)

My TGV to Paris left at 08:02 that morning and I was so excited that was afraid I would miss it. Of course, O-X drove me to the train station on time and watched and waved as the train pulled away. I was on my way and would soon be meeting Roxane in a small, but cozy hotel in in the Montparnasse area of Paris.

I reached the hotel first and the receptionist was a bit baffled when I announced to her that Rox and I would be sharing the room. The hotel was fully booked, so we had no other choice anyway. But who needs two rooms if you're going to be chatting the night away, right??? "But Madame," she said, "You will have to share a grand lit (double bed). Let me check which room we gave Madame P." I couldn't care less, I told her. We've known each other since we were kids and had many sleep-overs. After checking her computer, we found out that the room had a grand-lit and a single bed. The room wasn't ready, yet, so I left my bags at the reception, went out for a quick smoke and returned to the hotel lobby to wait for Roxane to arrive. I had barely set my butt on the sofa and opened a magazine that I heard a screech of joy coming from the entrance. I dropped everything and we ran into each others arms. It was so good to see her again!

We checked her in, and went for a short walk to discover the neighbourhood. We went in to a few boutiques (Rox wanted to get a dress for her daughter) and chatted away. Around 1pm, we started feeling hungry, so we decided to have lunch at a small café before returning to the hotel to haul our luggage to our room. I had only an overnight bag, but Rox had packed for 2 weeks, so her suitcare was huge, not to mention heavy! Plus, the hotel didn't have an elevator. Luckily, we were on the 1st floor (2nd floor for North Americans).

The room was comfortably large by European standards, but definitely too flowery for my taste, and it had a bit of a strange layout. However, Roxane had managed to wear colours matching the room. How did she know??? Anyway, at first, we couldn't find the bathroom. I had left the door open because we still had luggage standing there and we thought that we'd have to use a "public" shower room. Whaaat?!??! While Rox ran down to the reception to enquire about our "missing" bathroom, I discovered it once I closed the door to our room. You see, when you came into the room, the door opened to the inside, and right behind it, was the door to the bathroom. So as long as the main door was open, it hid the other door. Whew! The view from our room was by no means spectacular, but it was well kept and flower pots were giving the viewer a hint of nature. It made us both smile.

We settled in and unpacked whatever we thought was necesary, and then we were off to discover Paris. We grabbed a map at the reception and asked for direction to the next metro station that would take us to Paris' most popular landmark: The Eiffel Tower.

As we got off the metro and headed towards the tower, Roxane was telling me how identical the replica in Vegas (the Paris Las Vegas) was to the real thing and that it was very big. Once we arrived at the tower itself, however, she was really impressed. I must admit that even after having seen the Eiffel Tower before, it still impresses me, too. Even more so when you stand directly under it. It was already about 3.30pm and our time in Paris was limited to 2 days, so we decided not to go up (the queues were still very long) and instead, just take a few pictures and then walk towards the Arc de Triomphe and then to the Champs Élysées.

We crossed the Seine towards the Trocadéro, turned at the Avenue D'Iena, then through small streets to Avenue Kleber and to the always busy Place de l'Étoile where the Arc de Triomphe stands.

Here are a few picts that we took on the way.

We finally stopped at one of the many street cafés on the Champs Élysées for a well deserved glass of wine before returning to our hotel.

That evening, we had dinner at a lovely, small restaurant close to our hotel. After dinner, we bought a bottle of wine to bring up to our room. We still had plenty of catching up to do! The last time these two girls saw each other was 9 years ago, remember?