Showing posts with label The Netherlands. Show all posts

Sunday, December 26, 2010

On a mission

I've been to The Netherlands more times than I can count.....been to Schiphol Airport (near Amsterdam) on a handful of ocassions..assaulted their Starbucks and not once have I ever seen this mug:

Now I'm hell bent on finding it!

Thirty Minus Two

Remember when you were little and how excited you'd get when your birthday was comin up? Your parents would plan out a fun party with all your friends and family, lots of presents...all that good stuff?

I guess that fades once you get older.

My birthday was yesterday...and it didn't feel like it was all that special. In fact, it felt like any other day. I ran errands all day... from Belgium to Germany, back to Belgium. Then from Belgium to The Netherlands and back. Fun fun fun. At least I got a call at 5:30a from my Dad wishing me a Happy Birthday...BS'd for about an hour with him, then I was off for my long drive. Is it sad that my husband and son didn't say anything till almost an hour and a half after I was up to say, "Happy Birthday!", and that only happened because my Dad said really loud on the phone, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Kiddo!". When it was my husbands birthday back in August, the second he woke up, we sang the birthday song for him and had breakfast was already ready for him. For me? I didn't even have a hot chocolate or nuthin'. Not even a card. Correction, John made a card for me off of the computer late last night. My bad.

After the whole day, I ended up buying myself a 360 Kinect:

Just in case you don't know what the Kinect is, it's a sensor that's added onto the Xbox unit. Sure, they have a little camera system you can use to chat with people, but, it kinda sucks:

Hence why I upgraded to the Kinect. It's a sensor system that actually has face recognition, it doesn't need a remote to work (YOU are the remote). All in all, it's pretty awesome. Here's a video that'll explain it better than I can:

Once I got home and settled in, we got it set up with the xbox and programmed it...I gotta say, it's pretty awesome! We tried out the Kinect Adventures game that came with the sensors (Johns inlove with it) and it's super entertaining. It even takes pictures while you're playing the game (I wish I could figure out how to import them to my computer!).

Here's some other games I'm interested in getting, ya know, once they're available to buy (they're all workout type games):

Another thing I purchased was this cute little sign I found in the Shoppette at Schinnen:

It's rather fitting for our house :)

So, my birthday was rather mellow. Lots of traveling for the sake of being helpful and for being a friend, being considerate of my family and getting grocery shopping done for them... not really much of an "Erika Day". Given, I received well over a hundred "Happy Birthday" wishes from various people on my Face Book wall (thank you, by the way). Then again, if the lovely social networking site hadn't reminded them, would they have known any better?

So, yeah. Happy Birthday to me.

Sorry if I seem so pouty, but, I'm rather disappointed.

Dutch (Sand)Castles

After editing well over eighty pictures from Sunday, I can finally start writing a blog, LOL.

Eric, John & I went over to The Netherlands to check out Castle Hoensbroek, which was built around 1250. Our main reason for checking the place out was because they have this awesome sand castle exhibit and several of my friends had recommended seeing it. After viewing their pics, I figured it'd be cool to check out.

In the process of buying our tickets, we added on access to the castle cause you can actually go in there and walk around, check out some of the rooms in addition to some of the things that were left from it's original tenants.

The view when you're walking from the parking lot into the castle foyer:

I was really diggin' the house crest and the window.. trying to be artistic and what not...

Once you bought your tickets and cleared the little shack that sells them, you can get a view of the actual castle:

Makes you kinda imagine what life was like back in the day. I mean, this must have been really impressive back in the 1200's when people were arriving via horse drawn carriage.

Once I was done being a paparazzi to the castle, we made our way into the second foyer where you actually go inside. You can feel how old the place is because of the old old cobblestone, the navigation sign in the middle of the foyer, even the old barrels they had set up with a laundry line of clothes:

When go you inside, you pretty much walk through a cafe to get to the castle stairwells. Lemme just tell you this.. they are NOT meant for people who are over 5"7. John and I didn't have any trouble getting through the corridors and narrow stairs, but Eric felt like he was having to shimmy his way through since he's 6"3. The stairs in this place reminded me of the old castles in England that I checked out.. VERY tiny steps, low ceiling and if I was any wider, I probably wouldn't have made it through, lol. We finally found a little room to pop into and check out...sadly, all the stuff was in Dutch, so I had no idea what any of the information said. BUT, some of the things in there were pretty interesting:

Little knight!

After the claustrophobic stairs and rooms, we made our way over to the larger parts of the castle where people used to entertain guests and such.

The coat rack outside o the ballroom.. impressive, hunh? LOL

Ball Room:

The view from the ballroom:

I fell in love with this room! The wall had green damask fabric all over it! The whole pattern was continuous throughout the whole room..even the curtains!

From there, we walked through another hallway that took us to a Tea Room that was set up as if there was an event in there. On the way, I fell inlove with this mirror.. I totally want it!

A view to the foyer:

The Tea Room:

The ceiling in the Tea Room:

There was a small room to the side of the Tea Room.. kinda looked like it was meant for writing letters and such, but the only thing in there that peaked my interest was this trunk, lol. I want it!!

We were done trollin' through the castle and wanted to make our way over to the sand castle exhibit that was just outside of the foyer. I guess they build all the sculptures around mid June all the way till the end of October. HOW do they get those to stand for so long!?! I figured will all the rain we've been having lately, it would've destroyed the sculptures! I mean, some of these things have ALOT of detail, so I could imagine the rain ruining then, ya know?

Outside of the exhibit:

My absolute FAVORITE sand sculpture! Neuschwanstein Castle! This thing was HUGE!

Here's a pic of us infront of it just to get an idea of how large it was:

Eric & John

Eric and I

There were just tons and tons of awesome sculptures at this place!

I'm guessing this was supposed to be a witch burning?

Torture chamber:

Horses grazing:

This shady character is rollin' with some people in the back of his wagon...although, the guy sitting to the side doesn't look all that nice either.

This gal is probably thinking "WHEW! Close call!"

This totally makes me think of home. Back in Monterey,California, the county seal is a Cypress tree..I mean, I know this isn't a Cypress tree or anything, but it looks like it's from the seal.

The Paleis Het Loo! I've yet to see the actual palace in person, but apparently it's in The Netherlands somewhere and has been converted into a museum. Yet another thing to add to my "To Do" list.