So much for the holiday...

The first week of work after my one-week holiday is over and it was marked by 'busy, books, no blogging'. The pictures of my holiday make me smile. I am very happy having spent quality time with family and friends. It gave me new energy, renewed power. And of course I want to tell you all about it! So here we go...

I spent last weekend in Germany, Köln (Cologne)to be more precise, with Sarah and Henry. Well, that is to say that I visited Sarah, who did not know that I was taking Henry along. Henry and I left for Köln on Friday afternoon. It took us some extra miles (due to 2x horrific sense of direction), but 2x Louise Attaque, 0.5x Manic Street Preachers, 1x Mano Chao, 1x Noir Désir, 1x Dezerter, a couple of traffic jams and 1 headache for Sanne (blame it on Dezerter!) further we finally arrived. Once at Sarah's house Henry put himself on the ground, acting as a beggar, just around the corner of the street. I rang Sarah's doorbel, greeted her and asked if she could give me a hand taking my luggage out of the car just around the corner... and of course there she stumbled upon Henry! I'm glad that she could appreciate the joke! We had a good laugh.
That evening the three of us went out for dinner in a little Thai restaurant. The food was delicious and we had an absolute blast with the cocktail served in a bowl with three long straws. We had fun with loads of rum (two bowls!); I laughed so much! The pictures will say it all, so CLICK HERE if you want to see more...
The next day we had a slow start, guess why... However, eventually we got out into the city. Our tourguide Sarah advertised the city as not particularly beautiful, which I agree on. I think we got a bit spoiled living in other old cities like Kraków. Fortunately Köln has one absolutely great feature. No, it's not the Dome you see advertised on the Internet; it's the Chocolate Museum! Oh yeah! I never got to see the famous Dome of Köln, but I did spend good quality time in the Chocolate Museum. Yummy!
Walking to the Museum, we went through a street where there was a street fair. People were out, music was playing and German popular culture was all around. The funny thing is that practically all stereotypes Dutch people have about Germany were out on the street, including the music. Of course I had to tease Sarah with this and for the benefit of all of us I took some pictures, that you will find HERE among the other pictures of Köln.

Before I went to Köln, I spent some days with my parents in Netherlands' southern most province Limburg. This province is - both culturally and geologically - very different from the rest of the Netherlands. The more Bourgondic life style, the strong Catholic influences and the hilly landscape make it very distinct from the Protestant North of the country where geometrically shaped fields stretch untill the far horizon. It was nice to be in this bit of 'foreign Netherlands', especially since I had not been in Limburg for over ten years.
It also was long ago since I had last been on a holiday with my parents, but it was nice to be the only child around for a couple of days. My parents made sure they spoiled their oldest daughter for the time she was there! We visited the city of Maastricht, hiked in the surrounding, went out to restaurants, etc. All very pleasant. Also, I got completely hooked on the wirlpool in the apartment my parents had rented. Bliss! You can see the pictures by CLICKING HERE.

During the days in Limburg I took my parents to the nearby American War Cemetry, where 8,300 American soldiers who died in World War II (WWII) are honoured. I had intended to go on the 11th of September, as a symbolic gesture, but unfortunately that didn't work out. So we went to the cemetry one day later. It is a very impressive place, at a beautiful location with peaceful surroundings. There were more visitors than I expected and my parents and I spent quite some time in this place. On the walls where the soldier's names were listed I looked for the family names of my American friends, but did not find any of them. While reading some information, an old man who stood next to me adressed me in the Limburg accent that is difficult to understand for my more nordic ears. "Is this your first time here?", he asked me. I nodded as a response. "I go here often", he said. "It's quite something", he continued, "nowadays we blame the Americans for everything, but back then they came and saved us. Should not forget that". Respectful silence.

I think the pictures will say it all. CLICK HERE to see my impression of the cemetry.