A selfish kind of life

Final week in Australia! [Vacationtime 1/x]

beelikej — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 17:40:56 GMT

In March and April I went on a businesstrip to Australia. Before work I spent a day in Sydney with my brother and his family who live in New South Wales, then I had a weeklong meeting followed by a 4-day workshop in Victoria (with a weekend in between where I met up with a fandomfriend in Melbourne and did touristy stuff:-).

When work was done, I flew to Western Australia for a week of old fashioned traveling around on my own. (The big difference with my backpacking days Down Under being that I now stay in hotels instead of hostels;)
I managed to see and do so much each day, that I had to split my vacationreport into several parts. Here's the first picspam; exploring Perth and a daytrip to Rottnest Island, where I got to see quokkas!

FR03APR2026 Vacation Day 1: Traveling to Perth

Packed and ready to go; I drive to the airport with my GBR colleagues G. & A. - along the way we make a fanboy stop at Pin Oak Court, which is the original out-doors setting of the Australian soap-opera Neighbours.

Fans of the tv-series will recognize this as Ramsay Street where all the Neighbours live. I remember watching the original series of Neighbours back in 1985 which ran for about a year before it was transfered to another network in 1986, after that I slowly lost interest. (My favorite Australian series in the eighties was Sons & Daughters, that was big before Neighbours).
I was mostly fascinated by the funky lemon-trees in the street :-)

At the airport I said goodbye to G. and A. (we all had different destinations in Australia). I had to check in my own bag (do not like that, but I am getting better at it).
Had a slow cooked chunky beef pie for lunch, which was scrumptious. Unfortunately the photo of that and the equally delicious chai latte failed, so you get a picture of the plane instead :-p

Glorious view of Western Australia *heart eyes* and a welcome by the Whadjuk people, the Traditional Owners.

It was a four and a half hour flight, and a three hour time-difference with me traveling back in time; so that was not confusing at all, pfff.
Lovely art all around at the airport and at the Perth trainstation.

It was only a short walk (and a slightly steep climb for this flatland girl) from the station to my hotel. I dumped my backpack and went for an evening walk; on Barrack street I passed Perth Town Hall with it's lit clock tower on my way to the harbour.

The impressive landmark Bell Tower has a futuristic sci-fi design; it is 82.5 m. high and holds the 12 royal bells of London's St. Martin-in-the-Fields that were given to WA in 1988 to commemorate Australia's bicenennial.

Along the waterfront there is a lot of information on the history of its development. Across the Swan River you can see South Perth.

Tile on William Street of a black swan, the official state bird emblem of Western Australia. I get some food at Hungry Jack's (AUS version of Burger King) to eat in my hotel room.

SA04APR2026 Vacation Day 2: Elizabeth Quay & Matagarup Bridge

G'day! This is the first day in a while that I can sleep in a little and take my time for breakfast. I treat myself to scrambled eggs, sausage, toast with butter, tiny blueberry muffin and chocolate roll with juice and milk. I also have some fruit!
I read up in my Lonely Planet and make sort of a plan for today, starting with a walk through the city.

I walk along Murray Street Mall, one of the two long pedestrianised shopping streets, to Forrest Place; on this square there is a poem about the swampland that was here before. The visitors centre kiosk is decorated in Aboriginal art.
Other streets in the city centre have wide side walks, it is the best Australian city for pedestrians! I saw Perth Town Hall by daylight this time; the building in Victorian Free Gothic style was built by convicts and free men between 1867 and 1870.

I walked down Barrack Street to Elizabeth Quay, and saw the Bell Tower shining in the sunlight, just as cool as by night :-)

At the waterfront (with that view across the Swan River of South Perth) I made arrangements for a boattour tomorrow. Then I wandered around the water for a view of Perth CBD (Central Business District).

Sculptures by Jon Tarry (2015): the swan with a cygnet nestled in its feathers, symbolises the work of Bessie Mabel Rischbieth (1874-1967), a champion of children's rights and a social advocate for the rights of women and Aboriginal people.
The first of many glorious bridges I come across in Perth is the Elizabeth Quay Pedestrian Bridge (Design by Arup, 2016), an 22 metre high S-shaped suspension bridge offering pedestrians and cyclists a 360-degree view of the Swan River.

On the other side of the bridge stands a 5-metre tall cast aluminium sculpture: First Contact by Laurel Nannup (2016), inspired by the Noongar people’s initial encounter with European settlers as distant sailing ships appeared as giant floating birds on the horizon.

OOooh, I spot a pair of black swans!
Part of In This Life Together (2019), a community mural designed by Melski (Mel McVee & Tash Alibegovic) depicting native flora and fauna, it was painted over 4 days, involving over 500 people. (It is 60m long x 4m high)

Spanda (2016) a 29-meter-high abstract sculpture by Christian de Vietri, it is designed to look like waves of activity, rippling water, and the cycles of life.
A final full view of the Swan Bell Tower (2000), designed by architect William Hames.

I visit Perth's oldest building: the old court-house was designed by E.w. Revelley and built in 1836, close to the original river foreshore.
The chairs in the court were decorated with a swan emblem.

In Stirling Gardens I came across more artworks: Boonji Spaceman by Brendan Murphy (2025) was created for the city of Perth (There are currently six cities in the world that have their own spaceman).
Kangaroos (1998) by Charlie Smith and Joan Walsh-Smith.

Back in the city centre, I walked through London Court, a Tudor-style arcade from 1937, between St. George Terrace and Hay Street Mall, another great pedestrian area.

I got some food and drinks at Woolworths and then tried to find Wolf Lane, a back alley full of street art. The map in the Lonely Planet confused me, but I eventually found it, hidden right across from my hotel, haha! What I'm sharing here is a mere selection of all the awesome I saw.
Duck & Donkey - artist unknown
Cheeky Sparrows - Jackson Harvey, Australia (2024)

Left: Hope by Ketones6000 (Jerome Davenport, 2025; the piece wraps around the building, see below)
Right: in the background: Abstract by Maya Hayuk, Ukraine (2014)
+ Untitled mural by Hyuro, Argentina (2014)

Left: Seahorse by Alexis Diaz, Puerto Rico (2014)
behind that, on the corner: the silver ballons that are part of Hope by Ketones6000.
Right: Wolf Mural (updated) by Steven Buckles, Australia (2024)

Left: Inside your head there is a heart by Steven Buckles aka Hurben, Australia (2024)
Right: City Labyrinth and Gecko, both by Liam Dee (2024)

(To find more for yourself, check out the Perth street art interactive map.

After that longer than expected artwalk, I had a break in my hotelroom before walking to the station to catch the free yellow CAT bus to the West side of Perth.
(In the background sculpture Grow Your Own, aka The Cactus by James Angus(2011).
I got off at Arden Street Park and walked to the Matagarup Bridge.

Matagarup Bridge between Burswood and East Perth is a steel cable-stayed bridge with intertwined arches, that can be interpreted as ribbons, swans or Wagyl serpents. Design: Denton Corker Marshall architects (2018). I LOVE IT!

The bridge also features in my video
Bridges in Perth [AUS 2026] :-)

It's a 400 m. long pedestrian (and bicycle) bridge leading to the Perth (Optus) Stadium, where a lot of people were walking to for the Australian Football match.
There is an option to zoom down on a zip-line. For me just walking across and the view of the river and Perth was already exciting enough. I made so many photos *happy sigh*.

From the bridge I walked to Victoria Gardens and got on the Yellow Cat back to the city centre.

Since there was still a lot of day left, I decided to go to Elizabeth Quay again and catch the ferry across the river. Look at my happy faaaaace.

Going underneath the pretty Elizabeth Quay Pedestrian Bridge across a very wide part of the Swan River towards Mindeerup, gateway of South Perth.

Massive Frill-neck Lizard by Iredale Pederson Hook (2019), an origami-inspired sculpture (behind it is a Numbat).
Cute meerkat sculptures, looking at Perth CBD: Mends Street Mob by Mikaela Castledine (2019, crocheted polypropylene, stainless steel).

I sat reading below these trees filled with Rainbow Lorikeets, can you spot them? They were very noisy, but a lovely background sound :-)
I read until it was dark, enjoying the changing view on the city across the water.

Walking around in search of food I found this sculpure, part of a group Promenading Emus by Russell Sheridan (2019).
The Virgin Bellini Mocktail with peach purée, ginger ale and grenadine was a disappointment, but the Cheesy Garlic Pizza was delicious.

After one last look at Karl Kep Ngoornd-iny (Fire and Water Dreaming) the Mindeerup sound and light show (Designed by Yondee Shane Hansen), I got on the ferry back.
Saw a fascinating bird next to the boat: a Nankeen Night-Heron.

Look at the moooooon! Back at Elizabeth Quay; such lovely lights.

What an awesome day, I saw so many things!

SU05APR2026 Vacation Day 3: Rottnest Island (Wajuk: Wadjemup)

When I planned today's trip to Wadjemup (Rottnest Island), I was told there were beaches there, so I figured I put my bathing suit on just in case I would get an opportunity to swim ;-)
The boat left from Barrack Street Jetty (I walked there from my hotel).

First part was an hour long relaxing rivercruise with a gorgeous view of the Swan River.

There was an audio guide talking about the history of the area an the sights along the way. I loved the build of a new bridge we passed.

The river flows into the Indian Ocean, where the waves get a bit wilder.

From the coast it's about half an hour to Rottnest Island.

There's a lot of people visiting the island, but I did manage to find some quiet spots on my short walk around the Thomson Bay Settlement.
These military barracks from 1844 were converted into cottages in 1864.

The Rottnest Prison Bell on Signal Hill (this one is a replacement of the original from 1864 that was removed in 1902).
For more lazy exploring, I get on a tourbus

This tour drives me all around the island, with gorgeous views along the way!

Jeannies Lookout, the southern most point of the island.

The Rottnest Island Lighthouse from 1896 stands at the highest point of the island.
Crocodile Rock in the back (can you see it?) with also a hidden hippo behind the rock in the front.

Eagle Bay (apparently a good place to spot seals, but I didn't see any, aahw)
Herschel Lake (salt pans & wetlands)

Back at the Thomson Bay Settlement, I buy some food and souvenirs before I walk to the North side of the island.
I pass Lomas Cottage, built around 1850s and later used for the island telephone exchange in 1901; it now serves as the Wadjemup Museum for Children.
Saw some gallahs!

Yay, spotted my first quokka: can you spot it? It's rolled up like a fluffy ball, sleeping under the tree.
Found The Basin beach!

First I sit down for lunch: I bought a potato pie (with mashed potato and beef, still warm!) and orange juice.
Then I go for a dip in the Indian Ocean, wahey! The bottom is rocky and the water doesn't reach much higher than my butt, so it's not real swimming, more a bit of floating, heehee.

On my walk back I spot more quokkas and I even manage to capture that enigmatic smile!
I join a guided nature walk to the Garden Lake.

A small trail leads us to an area with a whole group of quokkas, check out my video below!

Rottnest Island, continued

It's a lovely area, I also spot birds and these intriguing treetrunks.

But the main attraction are of course the quokkas, very adorable, especially when they hop!

After the guided walk, I go on a short hike on my own; I climb to Vlamingh Lookout, named after the Dutch navigator Willem de Vlamingh, who visited the island on 30 December 1696 and named it Rottenest Island (Rat's nest in Dutch, because he mistook the quokkas for rats!).

The lookout offers a 360-degree view all over the island and features a monument with a central sundial and inscription.

I climb down, back to Thomson Bay Settlement, see more quokkas along the way (I made so many photos y'all). I come across this Beacon for Land Spirits, before I walk to the port to catch the ferry back to Perth.

Waves are bit more choppy on the way back and it's busy on the water; there are a lot of huge ships.

Gosh, I so love being on a boat. It's another hour and a half of bliss across the ocean and then back on the Swan River.

Hello Perth! I manage to capture the perfect view of the Spanda sculpture in between the Elizabeth Quay Bridge, woohoo!.
I end the day in the hotel restaurant with a Turkish bread burger with cevapi beef sausage and fries. Bon appétit!

Another splendid day :-)

To be continued with a trip to Kalgoorlie and more days in Perth...

J.

Previous AUS2026 posts:

Day 1 & 2: flying to Sydney [LJ]

Day 3: Sydney Opera House [LJ]

Day 4: Ferry & Swimming with family [LJ]

Day 5: Flying to Victoria & Birdspotting [LJ]

Day 6: Australian Football in the MGC [LJ]

Day 7: Underground Goldmine [LJ]

Workweek 1: tech meeting & fruitbats! [LJ]

Saturday: Fangirlmeet-up Daytrip Melbourne [LJ]

Sunday: Riverboat tour & Aussie Beer Museum [LJ]

Workweek 2: tech workshop & a sightseeing tram! [LJ]

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Worktrip to Australia! [Weeks 2&3]

beelikej — Mon, 18 May 2026 22:12:01 GMT

Little over a month ago I came back from my businesstrip and additional travel in Australia. I meant to follow up my first picspam sooner, but as per usual I got distracted by work (and fandom! I'm currently crazy about Heated Rivalry and there is a lot of meta out there to enjoy :-p)

Anyway, here I finally am again to continue with my travelreport! During the workweeks I mostly only make pictures of food, but there was also an evening we went looking for bats and an afternoon on a sightseeing train. In the weekend in between I traveled to Melbourne to meet up with fellow SPN fangirl and on the Sunday I went on a boat tour with other delegates, so there are plenty of touristy photos as well :-D

Oh and on day two I got to wear my raincape for the first and last time this trip! There were a couple more days with rain (and even one massive thunderstorm), but I was indoors then. Overall the weather in Victoria was dry and a lot cooler than I expected, often low 20s Celcius.

How cool is my colourful cape? :-D

Workweek 1: tech meeting & fruitbats on Wednesday evening!
Meeting Day 1

We start the first day of the meeting with a Smoke Ceremony, where herbs are burned in a bowl and everyone cleanses their faces and feet (shoes) in the smoke. After that, we continue with the regular Monday program of the agenda and updates of the past few months. There's a stand-up lunch at noon.

Obviously I have seconds at lunch ;-)
For dinner we sit down in the hotel restaurant, I order a Mushroom Pizza

For dessert I have a Lemon Poset and after preparing for tomorrow I spend the rest of the evening in the bath with my e-reader (Luck in the Shadows - Lynn Flewelling).

Meeting Day 2

I have three proposals to present (including yesterday's homework) and I'm very happy to grab some snacks with tea in the morning break.
There is another stand-up lunch at noon.
Due to sidebars with other delegates I don't get any food in the afternoon break, hrmpf.

There's a storm during the meeting (love these stained glass windows) and I need my raincape even for just the short walk back to the hotel.
When we drive into town for dinner it clears up and the sky is gorgeous.

We sit down in a pub in town (Lazy Moe's) where I have a Strawberry Kiss mocktail and mash & chips with a massive Classic Parma (a massive breaded schnitzel topped with napoli tomato sauce and melted cheese).
After dinner we go for a walk in the park to spot fruitbats; we don't see them, but we sure can smell and hear them in the trees!

Meeting Day 3

Hey, a breakfast photo: it's a hot cross cinnamon bunn with milk.
During the morning break I grab an omelet muffin with my tea.

A variety of snacks for the stand-up lunch. Love the beef and red cabbage combo! (Also: big fan of pies in any size:-)

After the meeting we rush to the park for the fruitbats that were making such noise yesterday evening and we couldn't see in the dark. Wahey, we find a whole bunch of them hanging in the trees.

Some of the bats are already awake enough to fly around, very cool!

We'd love to hang around in the park longer, but we have a hosted dinner to go to. Of course when we leave loads of bats start flying as the sun sets. *sighs*

The meeting's official hosted dinner is in a converted church.
First course is Baked Halloumi with ratatouille and salsa verde. (I only eat the chees ;-))

There are lots of speeches in between the main course and dessert.
Mediterranean braised chicken, Moroccan couscous and heirloom carrots (well, that's what the menu said, but I don't think that's couscous, they look like chickpeas to me, and the carrots were unrecognizable as well. Chicken was okay)
Dessert: Callebaut chocolate pudding with chocolate sauce and hazelnut praline parfait.

Art blob (we think it is a wombat?) in front of the restaurant and streetart on a nearby wall.

Meeting Day 3

In the morning break we celebrate that it's the 50th tech meeting, yay cake!
In the evening our AUS delegate invites us to a BBQ, this includes a taste of kangaroo meat!

Meeting Day 4

A stacked bun with meat and an egg at the morning break.
Lunch snacks and a rainbow :-)

Afternoon break sweet treats.
Right after the breaking I get in the car with G. & A. to explore a nearby reservoir where we hope to find kangaroos in the wild. I don't know what this metal structure is.

We decide to walk anti-clockwise around the reservoir, it's beautiful, but we don't see any animals, except for birds.

After about an hour's walk we are nearly back where we started and just when we think it's not gonna happen anymore, we run into a whole group of kangaroos, woohoo!

Ofcourse we have to stop at this roadsign on the way back into town and also for this amazing view of galahs and a cockatoo up in the tree *hearteyes*

We sit down for dinner in town: Pulled Pork nachos with a Fruit Lemonade Mix Mocktail (lychee, strawberry, raspberry, lemon, lime, lemonade, soda water) and for dessert: Passionfruit cream (biscoff buiscuits, passionfruit, meringues and whpped cream). Omnomnom.

Day 8: Fangirlmeet-up Daytrip Melbourne

After breakfast I move my backpack and other bags to my colleage T.'s car, as I will be moving to another hotel tonight.
Then I take only a bag with a book and get on the bus to the station to catch the morning train to Melbourne to meet up with fandom friend !

After she picks me up at Southern Cross station, we take a tram to Queen Victoria Market where we sit down for lunch.

My "Soggy Burgers" are served with gloves, as these mini cheeseburgers are soaked in sauce and impossible to eat without making a mess. The glove may look silly, but it's very effective :-D

After lunch we stroll around for (my) souvenirs - I did not get this slightly creepy koala cushion o_O.
Victoria Market is right in the middle of the Melbourne Business District with it's big buildings.

After I say goodbye to Duxk, I stroll through Flagstaff Gardens (and admire pretty sculpture The Court Favourite by Paul Montford (1930) - check out that carved elephant head on his baton) and walk to Docklands, the fancy harbour area.

I find a bench near the water to read for a bit and discover the main character has just walked the same route into Docklands, haha! (Tigers & Devils, written by my friend Kennedy)
Look at these funky sculptures.

I'm tired of walking and decide to take the old Circle tram that goes all the way around the city centre (for free!). It's lovely, but none of the seats offer a view, so it's mostly a nostalgia ride.

I get off for a short stroll along Yarra River, before I walk to the station.

I get on the 17:30 train. What a lovely day!

My colleague T. picks me up from the station and takes me to my new hotel (which is closer to the location where I will be workshopping the following week). There is a jacuzzi in the corner of the bedroom :-O

Sunday: Riverboat tour & Aussie Beer Museum

Breakfast. My room has view of the main road through town, but even though there was a lot of traffic, even during the night, I slept very well.

We go on a road trip with a whole bunch of international colleagues! The others had discovered these painted silos near Werrimull yesterday when I was in Melbourne and they wanted to do a detour today just to show me, so sweet <3 Gorgeous artworks by Jimmy Dvarte depicting all kinds of Australian animals.

Can you guess what we will be doing next? When I saw this poster it brought back memories of my mom and I watching this Australian TVseries about a couple on a riverboat... We are going on a steamercruise along the Murray River!

It was lovely and relaxing.

I love being on the water.

*happy sigh*

After that we explored The Port of Echuca: an open-air museum tracing the history of this 19th-century river wharf, very interesting.

I had Fish & Chips for lunch with a large Caramel Milkshake.

Our roadtrip continued to a very different kind of museum: The Great Aussie Beer Shed & Heritage Farm Museum!

Besides the 17,000 beer cans from Australia and around the world, there is a collection of collections on display, all sorts of Aussie Icon paraphernalia. It is a very entertaining place.

At the end of the afternoon the group split up and D, G, A and I drove to the Geographic Centre of Victoria. Geonerds unite!

We ended the evening with icecream (Two flavours: Cake Batter + Honey Comb stuffed with Maltezers, a Chrunchie and TimTams) and a final view of the fruitbats (They went crazy from fireworks that were being tested for the Good Friday parade)

Workweek 2: tech workshop & a sightseeing tram on Tuesday afternoon!
Workshop Day 1

The guys dropped me off at my motel and I went for a short walk to stare in awe at the cathedral nearby (see daytime view below).
Monday breakfast had been delivered in my room the evening before.

My walk to the workshop takes me past the cathedral, what a great view.
For lunch we went to a local bakery, I had a beef pie and a Vegemite cheeseroll, omnomnom.

In the evening I did some adulting: laundry in a top loader without instructions, eeep!

It was still light when I walked into town to meet up with G. and A. for dinner. I had a Deep Blue Mocktail (apple and pineapple, apparently) and Bunja's Style Fried Rice with a combination of meats.

Again we ended the evening with icecream: I went a little overboard with the mix-ins: too much candy, oomph. (Flavours Australian Vanilla + Rainbow with gummy bears, colourful Funmix and a Karamello Koala)

Workshop Day 2

Another big breakfast: I can leave the dishes in the cabinet behind the servery hatch to be picked up by staff.

A scrumptious lunch from the bakery again: a Victoria bun and a potato pie (with mash and beef inside and a fried potato in its crust!)
I worked with G. today on post-meeting homework and we managed to finish early. We then snuck out of the office for a touristy tram ride. Along the way to the starting point, we stopped at Pie Face for a sweet berry pie snack.

This vintage 'talking tram' will take us through town while telling us about the local history. We had the tram all to ourselves and had a lot of fun :-)

The tram rides all along the main street (it passes my motel as well) and beyond. It's a hop-on/hop-off system, but we stayed on the tram the whole route.

It has stops at the city's landmarks and two turning points where the driver gets off to manually turns the trolley poles around, so they correctly connect to the overhead lines, very cool to watch.
We finally get off when we get back in the town centre, to get some souvenirs.

On my walk back to the motel, I come across an interesting sculpture at the side of the road: After the Procession by Maggie Fooke (1993).
In the evening a whole bunch of us meet up for dinner (delegates from USA, AUS, DNK, GBR, NLD). I have Spaghetti Carbonara with Ginger Ale.

Workshop Day 3

I stopped ordering breakfast, as I have left-overs from the first two this week that will keep me going for the rest of the week!
Another lunch from the bakery in town: custard tart and pizza!

The entrance to my motelroom with the servery hatch next to the door.
I have dinner in an old gold rush hotel (1897) with D, G. and A.: Chicken & Chorizo Risotto. I never had the latter in a risotto, but love the combination!

Workshop Day 4

For yesterday evening's dessert we went to the ice salon again, but this time i have a Loaded Shake: Caramel Coma (caramel ice cream, crunchie, caramel syrup and hot caramel fudge).
A simple breakfast this morning (that milkshake lived up to its name;-))

Final day of workshopping, so last day at our favourite bakery as well: I have a vegemite cheeseroll to say goodbye.
These were the quote benches we sat down on for all our lunches.
It was another awesome work week.

To be continued with a week in Perth, Western-Australia, where temperatures are a lot higher!

J.

Previous posts:

Day 1 & 2: flying to Sydney [LJ]

Day 3: Sydney Opera House [LJ]

Day 4: Ferry & Swimming with family [LJ]

Day 5: Flying to Victoria & Birdspotting [LJ]

Day 6: Australian Football in the MGC [LJ]

Day 7: Underground Goldmine [LJ]

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Worktrip to Australia! [Week 1]

beelikej — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 22:26:58 GMT

A week and a half ago I returned from an extended businesstrip to Australia; I added some personal time before and after the two week international meeting. I made over 2500 photos while traveling through New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia, so there will be several picspams over the next month(s) ;-) This is week 1 of my trip.

I first flew to Sydney where I walked around for a day trying to stay awake to fight the jetlag and I spent a day with my brother and family.
The weekend before work I went to an Australian Rules Football game in Melbourne and visited an underground gold mine, both together with a bunch of colleagues from all over the world.

Day 1 & 2: flying to Sydney

I left home on Monday afternoon. This is the man in the clock in the Schiphol Airport Terminal, where I had Dutch poffertjes and chocolate milk for dinner before getting on the plane to Singapore.

I flew with KLM and the flight started with dinner; I had the Chicken with spicy bell pepper sauce, steamed rice and broccoli. Soon after, I went to sleep.

It takes over 24 hours to get from Amsterdam to Sydney with a transit in Singapore on Tuesday evening.
Breakfast was served right before we got to Singapore for my transit; it was a mini Baguette with an Egg patty and cheese, with fruit and yoghurt.

I had about three hours until the next flight, I had lunch (dinner according to local time): Salt Bread and a Chai Latte. I read until departure.

There are two stages to boarding in Singapore with pre-boarding through another bag-check to get into the official boarding area.
I stayed awake for dinner and dessert: Beef with rice and vegetables, strawberry short cake. I tried to sleep a little bit more.

Day 3: Sydney Opera House

A mini-breakfast was served (Lattice pastry with egg, spinach and cheese), right before landing around 07:00 local time on Wednesday morning. Sydney, I am in you (and it is warm)!

After getting some money and a travelcard, I took the train into the city centre. Loved the old style look of this station.
I had added a day-stay to my hotel room, so I could check in right away to freshen up.
Even though I had slept most of the flights, the bed did look tempting. I resisted though to adjust to local time right away!

The hotel was not that fancy, but my toilet had a heated seat and no lever, but a remote control to flush! There were also buttons to spray water front and back and to blow dry down below, heehee.
(Yes, I tried them all ;-)
I dressed for warm weather and got on the tram to Circular Quay to then walk to The Rocks, one of the oldest neighbourhoods of Sydney.
Photo of the Museum of Contempory Art with the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the background.

I sat down at the Tea Cosy: a savoury scone and honey comb drinks (first a latte which I thought was tea, but turned out to be coffee, so then I had a milkshake instead :o). The cafe offers community knitting and crochet to finish while enjoying this calm corner of The Rocks neighbourhood, very cute. (I just sat and ate and relaxed)

After lunch I strolled back to the harbour, where I walked around enjoying the famous view:

I had booked an afternoon tour of the Opera House, as an incentive to stay awake. Can recommend! The interior of concrete and wood is very impressive. I posted more photos of the inside on my Instagram

From inside you can see the second building's cool shape and ceramic roof tiles up close. You also have an amazing view over the harbour from the indoor and outdoor balconies!

After the tour I had dinner at the Opera bar; there were seagulls eyeing my food, but I managed to eat it all myself, unlike an unlucky woman next to me, who lost her fish and chips to several birds!
I had a Cheeseburger ~~with lettuce, tomato, onion~~, Westmont dill pickles, burg sauce & fries.

In the evening I went to see opera Madama Butterfly, which I enjoyed from a seat on the back row with a perfect view, even though I kept nodding off and missing bits: one moment there was a wedding and the next a guy was singing with his chesthair out! No longer able to fight the jetlag, I left during intermission in favour of sleep.

I did have a short evening walk around the quay before grabbing a tram to the hotel.

Day 4: Ferry & Swimming with family

On Thursday morning I took the elevator down to get a breakfast box at the hotel coffeebar. As I'm not used to soaking my cereal in milk, I just nibbled on that dry and drank the milk instead ;-D.

I took the tram to Circular Quay and walked around the Harold Square Tank Stream Fountain (by Sculptor Stephen Walker, 1981) waiting for my brother J. and nephew R.
While they got a coffee and snack at McDonald's (or Macca as they say in Australia) I stayed behind to take a couple of photos of this ibis that was preening its feathers :-D

We got on a ferry to Watsons Bay, which offers a spectacular view of the Sydney Harbour *heart eyes*

From Watsons Bay we strolled to Camp Cove beach where we sat down with a lemon drink and ice cream.

We walked a tiny part of the South Head Heritage trail, starting on the 1870s cobblestone road, past the Historical cannon and up to Lady Bay Beach.

Then we walked along the modern asphalt road to the Gap and hung out at the AhirAvina lookout before grabbing a bus to Bondi Beach.

We sat down for food at Glory Days Bondi, I had the Savoury Stack: double pancake, scrambled eggs, bacon & maple syrup with orange juice.
After lunch we walked along Bondi Beach to Bondi Iceberg Ocean Baths.

We spent about an hour swimming (my brother did laps, my nephew mostly just tried to keep warm, I floated, swam and hung on the edge to enjoy the amazing view. It was a great afternoon :-)

White cockatoos up in the tree on our walk to the busstop.
We took the bus all the way back to Circular Quay, took the tram to the trainstation, where we picked up my sister-in-law G. Then the four of us walked to Darling Harbour for dinner.
I had Fish & Chips with a mocktail: Violet Sunset (peach syrup, luchee syrup, lemon juice, cranberry juice, soda water, house-made butterfly pea syrup)

Afterwards we found a lovely spot near the water where we enjoyed an icecream,
I had two scoops: Ube flavour (purple yam) on top and Dragonfruit with Lychee on the bottom.
A lovely end to a great day with my family :-)

Day 5: Flying to Victoria & Birdspotting

On Friday morning I took the train to the airport, where I had to check my own bag, which I find nervewracking. I want professional staff to handle this for me, please!

On the tiny plane I sat right next to the propellor, which looked cute when it was not in motion, but went wonky once it started spinning. For my sanity I assumed this was just a trick of the eye, haha!

Funny thing is that you don't really see the propellor when you take a picture, so I had a good view of the clouds and the world below.
Even though it was a short flight, we did get served a snack: a sandwich with ham, cheese & pickle relish.

Thrilled I could take a photo of the plane and I also liked that we just climbed out and walked along the stopway to the tiny terminal, where a few minutes later the cart with luggage was just pushed in for everyone to get their own luggage.
My Australian colleague D. picked me up from the airport and dropped me off at the fancy hotel (where I was welcomed on the tv-screen by name)

Lots of pillows on my Kingsize bed (You think there is enough? ;-) I even have a terrace!

After I had dumped my backpack, D. came over to take me to a nearby lake for some bird watching: up in that tree there are Galahs and the big bird in the grass is a Purple Swamphen.

Can you see the Rainbow Lorikeets between the leaves?
Back in the hotel I met up with more international colleagues (from NLD, AUS and GBR) for dinner: a Meatball Sandwich (toasted garlic bread, beef & pork meatballs, tomato sugo, provolone cheese, basil pesto mayo and rocket) with chips and ginger ale (listen, that was already my travel drink of choice before it became the fashion ;-)

Day 6: Australian Football in the MGC

Saturday breakfast: a massive bowl of granola with fruit and a dollop of yoghurt.
D. came to pick me up to catch a train to Melbourne. Halfway another AUS colleague S. and his partner got on the train as well. From Southern Cross station we got on a tram to...

The MGC stadium! There we met up with GBR colleagues G. & A. and together we went to see an Australian Football Match.

We watched home team Richmond Tigers vs the Gold Coast SUNS.
Got myself a snack in between the 2nd and 3rd quarter.

I rooted for the Tigers (I was introduced to this team years ago thanks to a wonderful bookseries Tigers & Devils, written by my friend Kennedy (whom I met in the CSI fandom back in the day).
The team lost, but it was great to experience a game plus I bought myself this cool scarf as a souvenir.
G. droves us back in his rental car and we had dinner at the hotel: Pork Belly Bao Buns, mmm.

Day 7: Underground Goldmine

After breakfast on Sunday (a seeded bagel with jam), a whole group of international colleagues (from USA, DNK, NLD, AUS, GBR) went on a tour to a gold mine!

This was 61 meters underground!

Look: shiny! (besides gold, there's also iron and pyrite in these rocks)
Alexandra Fountain (William Vahland, 1881), this Victorian ornamental design was built as a symbol of the rapid development and consequent wealth of this town, as a result of the successful gold fields.

We (D, G, A, T and I) got lunch to eat in that birdpark I had also visited upon arrival on Friday and did some more birdspotting (Ibis up in the tree!)

We also visited the local botanic gardens before doing some breakfast shopping for our workweek. (Because breakfast at the hotel restaurant is just too much to handle early in the morning;-)

To be continued!

J.

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From the Land Down Under to the Land of Art

beelikej — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 14:19:30 GMT

Hello y'all,

I'm back from an extra long businesstrip to Australia! It was two weeks of work and I added a week and a half of personal time because it was an opportunity to visit family and friends. Once I've sorted out my photos, there will be many picspams, you have been warned :-D

I returned in time for a new round of Land of Art! Here is an invitation to join and create for all sorts of graphics challenges each month and earn points for yourself and your team. A new phase has just started, this on will run until July. If you click my Land of Art TAG, you can see examples of graphics I made for past challenges.

Check out the FAQs & Rules to find out more. You can apply for a Team here

I'm in team SteamPunk, if you mention my name, I get bonuspoints :-)

Looking forward to fiddle with graphics again. (But first I will start on those travel pictures!)

J.

Graphics for Land of Art Phase 24 Part 3

beelikej — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 14:12:26 GMT

Here are the final sets of graphics I made for the year-long Phase 24 of , that rounded up last month. I handed in Golden Tickets for Challenges 27 and 30, but managed to create stuff for all other challenges, even while I was traveling for work (On those long lonely nights in the hotel ;-)

Challenge 23 - On The Hunt
A phase-long challenge with several different requirements of sets of graphics, created by both teams for each other (I contribued 6 hunts). You would get extra points if you did the other team's hunt. I ended up doing 11 hunts from the other team and 9 hunts of my own SteamPunk team.

5 Icons of characters played by the same actor/actress

Orphan Black:: Sarah Manning, Alison Hendrix, Cosima Niehaus, Helena, Rachel Duncan

5 Icons of People with white hair

Helen Mirren, Lucious Malfoy, Miranda Priestly, Spike, Victor Nikirorov

A Wallpaper with at minimum one Vampire click for full size

Angel(us) & Spike (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Find a coloring page featuring the theme 'winter' but it must be colored using only 'shades of red'

2 Sigtags of Characters with dark eyes

L (Death Note), Willow (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

2 Sigtags of Characters wearing a mask

Soldierboy The Boys, The Comedian (Watchmen)

2 Sigtags of Characters with Green Eyes

Harry Potter, Dean Winchester

2 Sigtags; Pick one fandom: a good character, and an evil character
Type Specifics - 2 - Sigtags (300x150)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tara (Good), Sweet (Evil)

2 Gifs: Choose a fantasy fandom, and create with one or more characters using magic
Type Specifics - 2 - GIFS (Minimum 400x200)

Yennefer (The Witcher)

2 Gifs of Characters using a Bow & Arrow

Theseus (Immortals), Katniss (The Hunger Games)

2 Gifs featuring female characters doing a kick move
Type Specifics - 2 - GIFS (Minimum 400x200)

Krystal (Orphan Black), Buffy (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

2 Sigtags of Captains from Different Fandoms

The Real Captain Jack Hartness (Torchwood), Captain Kathryn Janeway (Star Trek)

2 Gifs of Characters in the sky (flying, floating, falling, etc)
This was one of my own hunts :-)

Homelander & Ryan (The Boys), Willow & Tara (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

1 Header of a team that fight crime or supernatural things

Sam, John and Dean Winchester, and the Impala (Supernatural)

1 Header of Character as both a child and an adult
Type Specifics - 1 - Header (ex. 800x300)

Dean Winchester (Adult: Jensen Ackles, Child: Dylan Everett)

1 Colorbar with 5 characters that dress in black
Type Specifics - 1 - Colorbar (500x150-300, 5 icons + text)

Holly Golightly (Breakfast at Tiffany's), Black Noir (The Boys), Sandy Olsson (Grease), Neo (The Matrix), Allison Reynolds (The Breakfast Club)

1 Picspam with 4 actors/actress with blue eyes

Paul Newman & Robert Redford (The Sting & Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid), Amy Adams & Patrick Dempsey (Enchanted)

1 Panorama with One Character from a costume drama

Charles Brandon, the 1st Duke of Suffolk (The Tudors)

1 Fanmix Featuring some sort of transportation (stock or fandom), including a minimum of 5 songs related to transportation.
This was also one of my own hunts :-)

Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Baby (the Impala)

Challenge 24 - TV Time
Can only use TV Shows. For each piece created, you add another character. I chose to do headers with only characters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer... and managed ten (10!)! Click for full size.
1. Faith Lehane

2. Vamp Xander & Vamp Willow

3. Buffy, Angel, Spike

4. Angelus, Darla, Drusilla and Spike (William the Bloody)

5. Rupert Giles, Cordelia Chase, Xander Harris, Willow Rosenberg, Buffy Summers

6. Giles, Dawn Summers, Faith, Buffy, Willow, Xander

7. Spike, Anya Jenkins, Tara Maclay, Giles, Buffy, Xander, Willow

8. Tara, Dawn, Spike, Buffy, Xander, Anya, Giles, Willow

9. Willow, Oz (Daniel Osbourne), Giles, Cordelia, Xander, Buffy, Angel, Spike, Drusilla

10. Oz, Willow, Giles, Buffy, Tara, Dawn, Spike, Xander, Anya, Riley Finn (Captain Cardboard)

Challenge 25 - Crossed Paths
Create art using a minimum of two characters from two different fandoms. This is Crossover Art. I made four posters

Challenge 26 - Movie Madness
- Can only use movies. Panorama art - It's optional to cut it into icons / Typography - Must use a quote in your graphic. I used images & quotes from King of New York

Challenge 28 - Pass it On! was a collaboration challenge, where you made base graphics that other people could add elements to. As that involves other creators, I'm not sharing those.

Challenge 29 - Clue Posts
This challenges ran for a couple of rounds, for most of the clues given I handed in Golden Tickets, as I didn't have a clue about the answers ;-) But in one round I could provide an open answer to the challenge: There are many different actors and actresses that get confused for each other. Can you create art with up to four sets of doppelgangers. I made four picspams. Click for full size
Terence Stamp & Malcolm McDowell

Jennifer Garner & Hillary Swank

Debi Mazar & Fairuza Balk

Henry Cavill & MattBomer

Challenge 31 - Animal Association
Create art pairing characters with animals. I created 5 Tumblr Graphics with Supernatural Characters.

Dean Winchester: Chipmunk & Sam Winchester: Moose

John Winchester: Bear & Mary Winchester: Puma

Charlie Bradbury: Red Squirrel

Challenge 32 - 12 Days of ___
I created Bookmarks for 12 Days of Snow (A fandom collection)

1. Snowy River: The McGregor Saga / 2. Buffy the Vampire Slayer / 3. Due South

4. Doctor Who / 5. Gilmore Girls / 6. Harry Potter

7. Orphan Black / 8. The Hunger Games / 9. The Boys

10. Supernatural / 11. The Witcher / 12. The Walking Dead

Bonus HungerGames ;-)

Challenge 33 - Tag It!
This was a challenge to create icons & sigtags upon requests. I made several sets for other Land of Arters, I'm only sharing the set I made for myself: 5 icons

Looking forward to Phase 25, that will start in April!

J.

In case you missed them, here are my earlier posts of Phase 24: part 1 / part 2

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Go to bed with a book (or at least someone who's read one)

beelikej — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 11:45:39 GMT

Hello! In the old days this post at the top of my LiveJournal & Dreamwidth would be called the "comment-to-be-added-post", these days it's a sticky post; I make a new one every year:)
My journal is not locked; you are welcome to read all my posts. I am a hermit, but I do like to interact here with fellow fangirls or passers-by and I encourage you to comment on any of my posts at any time. (I especially love responses to my artposts; it's NEVER too late to tell me what you think of those *grins*)

If you find my journal's dark background hard on the eyes:

you can watch any page on LJ and DW in your own journal's style by adding ?style=mine behind the url.

or if you add ?format=light, you get the standard lay-out with the white background.

(If the url already contains a questionmark, use an ampersand (&) instead:)

Also: I made a step-by-step post on how to back-up your LJ [DW]

Despite my occasional use of harsh language and posts about sensitive or personal subjects, I chose to not put an age warning on my journal. I will not censor what I choose to share online. I'm a green left voting atheist woman, HEAR ME ROAR!

I was an active participant in several fandoms, as a moderator and artwork creator; there are links in my sidebar if you want to explore any of the fancommunities I played in:)
If you're curious about my creations, you can check my Artmasterlists, that are also on top of my LJ & DW. I made so many fanworks over the years, I had to split the list in two:
Artmasterlist 2010-2018 [DW] | Artmasterlist 2019 and beyond [DW])

To remind myself there is more to life than being online,
I keep my booklist at the top of my LJ. That's ironic, Alanis.

What I'm reading in 2026
How this list works: Book(s) I am in the middle of | ~~Books I have read~~ + date | link to review (or credit;) | DNF = Did not finish (gave up)

MY 2026 BOOKLIST
Left over books from 2025 (and before)

Terra Ultima - Raoul Deleo (December 2022)

Christmas Books - Charles Dickens (2022 Birthdaygift from T.)

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde (Kickstarter Black edition, February 2023)

~~Het Onofficiële Kookboek voor Harry Potter Fans - Tom Grimm~~ (2023 Birthdaygift from Mom) 03 JAN. skimmed; now a bookshelf book

Powers of Darkness (The Lost Version of Dracula) - Valdimar Ásmundsson (May 2024)

De Grote Van Gogh Atlas - Nienke Denekamp & René van Blerk (August 2024)

~~In Mijn Ogen Draag Ik Wolken - Forugh Karimi~~ (June 2025) 13MAR.

Bookshops & Bonedust - Travis Baldree (June 2025)

Wings of Fire - Jonathan Strahan and Marianne S. Jablon (September 2025)

Three Men in a Boat/Three Men on a Bummel - Jerome K. Jerome

~~Blood of Tyrants [Temeraire book 8] - Naomi Novik~~ (September 2025) 17 JAN.

~~League of Dragons [Temeraire book 9] - Naomi Novik~~ (September 2025) 31 JAN.

This Way Up - Mark Cooper-Jones & Jay Foreman (Sinterklaas 2025)

Hoe Vond Je Zelf Dat Het Ging? - Jip van den Toorn (Sinterklaas 2025)

The End of Alice - A.M. Holmes (2025 Bdaygift from T.)

You Are But Dust - Hannah Clayton (2025 Bdaygift from T.)

At Swim, Two Boys - Jamie O'Neill (2025 Bdaygift from Mom)

Narcis - Judith Fanto (2025 Bdaygift from Mom)

Added in January:

At Swim-Two-Birds - Flann O'Brien (2025 Bdaygift from J.)

Gadsby: A lipogram Novel - Ernest Vincent Wright (2025 Bdaygift from J.)

Cartographical Curiosities - Gillian Hill

Added in February:

~~Fourteen Days, A Collaborative Novel - Authors Guild Foundation~~ 22 MAY

Added in March:

The Summer War - Naomi Novik

Niets is echt gebeurd - Joke van Vliet (Bought for Bookweek 2026)

~~Ik zou uw dochter kunnen zijn - Doortje Smithuijsen~~ (Bookweek 2026 Essay) 10 JUNE

~~Piaggio - Hendrik Groen~~ (Bookweek 2026 Gift) 29 MAY

~~Lonely Planet Australia~~ 4 APR.

Added in April:

Short Shift Saturday (org. It's Harder for Girls) - Gavin Casey (Bought in AUS second hand bookshop)

Rereads:

~~What If - Randal Munroe~~ (from 2015) 3 MAR.

~~Luck in the Shadows - Lynn Flewelling~~ 19 APR.

~~Stalking Darkness - Lynn Flewelling~~ 11 MAY

Traitor's Moon - Lynn Flewelling

That's 11 BOOKS read this year!

Happy Reading! ~ J.

What I read in 2025 [DW] / 2024 [DW] / 2023 [DW] / 2022 [DW] / 2021 [DW] / 2020 / 2019 / 2018 / 2017 / 2016 / 2015 / 2014 / 2013 / 2012 / 2011 / 2010 / 2009 / 2008
My old archive of alphabetized book reviews / Readingcommunity thej2bee LJ

Worktrip to Zadar, Croatia

beelikej — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 21:31:31 GMT

Last week I went on an international worktrip to Zadar in Croatia, a country I never visited before. When I was traveling Europe back in the 1990s, Croatia was still part of Yugoslavia and that whole area was in the middle of a civil war. (Croatia declared independence in 1991 and the last occupied areas were restored in 1995).

My Dutch colleagues and I flew into big city Split and from there drove to Zadar, which is about 170 km to the North. On the way we stopped at Vransko Jezero (Lake Vrana), a nature reserve, where we spent the late afternoon bird-watching before driving on to our hotel.
On Sunday I explored the old city centre of Zadar with my British colleagues and we caught the ferry across the Zadarski Kanal to climb to a viewpoint in Preko, on the Ugljan Island. Back in Zadar we saw one of the most amazing sunsets EVER.

The conference took up most of the time from Monday to Friday and it was dark early, but I did manage glimpses of a few more of the famous sunsets. During the week I had to present quite a few briefs. I had a side meeting with the delegate from Sweden on Monday evening, but on Tuesday evening we all got to go into town for a guided walking tour in the dark. On Wednesday I swam in the -very cold- seawater pool, just before the fancy hosted dinner. Best thing on Thursday was the green apple icecream I had for dessert. On Friday I went to a supermarket, that's always exciting in another country ;-).

After a very fruitful week we traveled back home on Saturday, with a short stop at the Krka river viewpoint for a final goodbye of Croatia.
I made tons of photos, here's a selection (check out the sunsets!!!).

Day 1: Travelday(s) from the Netherlands to Croatia
Actually my travel started on the Friday before, because the Saturday flight left too early for me to get there by train on time, so I stayed in a hotel overnight, which was only a 7 minute busride away from the airport.

I was very proud I once again managed to fit my laptop bag inside my backpack, making it much easier to carry all my stuff. The hotelroom was nice and cozy, but very hot, pff.

It was a massive, funky hotel with neon lights all over and floors divided by letters. There were four (4!) restaurants, I picked the 50s styled bar and got loaded fries with beef and pear, delicious! Was glad I carry my own plastic spork everywhere, because it was served with a gross wooden fork. *shivers*

See? Massive!
Saturday breakfast: orange juice, scrambled eggs, a pancake with Dutch sugarsirop, a chocolate pastry, yoghurt & cornflakes.

Bit of a surprise at boarding: I was moved to an emergency-exit seat with extra leg-room!
Only a two hour flight, but we did get a snack (two slices of wheat bread with eggsalad) and I did a bit of reading before dozing off.

Hello Croatia!

Sights on our drive from Split to Zadar. I was relaxing in the back seat :-)

Our lunch stop: M. and I had a massive mixed-grill that could have fed five people (yes, we finished all of that *grins*) Miješano meso: kotlet, kobasica, pileći file, 4 čevapa (Mixed meat: cutlet, sausage, chicken fillet, 4 kebabs)
Around 16:00 (4 p.m.) we reached nature reserve Vransko Jezero (Lake Vrana) were we went bird watching.
With two bird-nerds in our group we discovered a lot, I had a great time :-)

After that nature walk we drove around the lake from Crkvine to Kamenjak on the other side, were we got out of the car again and started climbing following these crosses to the top that lead to tiny Crkva Svih Svetih (Chapel of All Saints)

We took the educational path to the viewpoint, learning about the karst relief, also known as 'the stone desert'. Under the influence of water, steep limestone cliffs are gradually transformed into cracks, crevices and vertical cuts resembling furrows in solid rock. The karst of Kamanjak is unique because various developmental karren stages are present simultaneously and over time merge with one another.

The view over the lake (and the Vrgadski Kanal + Adriatic Sea in the distance) and my first sunset in Croatia, aaahw.

We arrived at the hotel in Zadar around 19:30 (7:30 p.m.). I had a lovely double room with a balcony (with I will show later). Also: a bath, yay! (You can just see it, in the corner)

After that huge mixed-grill lunch I didn't feel like a full dinner, but I couldn't resist the dessert table :-D. Had orange juice and sour cherry juice with chocolate pudding, a red fruit crumble and chocolate mousse layer cake.

A splendid end to a splendid travelday!

Day 2: Exploring Zadar and the ferry to Preko

I woke up at 6:30 and took a photo of my balcony with its wooden sunscreen. (Around the edges there is a lovely view, which I will share later).
I want back to bed for a while, then had a big breakfast, trying all the things from the buffet: scrambled eggs, tortilla, Bučnica sa sirom (homemade cheese pie), a salty sausage, rice and bread. Also: orange juice and raspberry yoghurt...

... and fruitcocktail, bananabread plus pastries. *rubs belly*

Hotel pool. My room is right in the corner where the buildings meet, behind the two tall trees, on the third floor.
I went into town with my British colleagues. Check out that cool pothole cover with Zadar's coat of arms. Later I also discovered a more graphic, modern version (I will share that in my Instagram).

The old city Land Gate (1543) and the citywall with the marina just outside.
You can walk along the citywall to the boulevard near the waterfront.

Trg Pet Bunara (Five Wells Square), dating back to 1574.
Monument for Baron Ludwig Franz von Welden who established the first public park in Zadar within Bastion Grimani in 1829.

From the bastion looking out over Trg Petra Zoranica with underneath glass some archeological finds of Roman foundations.

The outer wall of the bastion.
The roman pillar on the square was moved there from the forum site (see below) to indicate the beginning of the main street (which has three different names). Behind it the tower of Crkva sv. Šimun (Church of St. Simon, 5th century).

Spotted in an alley off mainstreet.
Crkva sv. Donata (9th century Church of St. Donatus - after a misunderstanding about the name, we called it the Donut church :-D) and the Campanile di Sant'Anastasia (12th century bell tower)

Benediktinski samostan sv. Marija (11th century Benedictine Monastery of St. Maria)
Roman forum, built between the 1st century BC and 3rd century AD under Emperor Augustus. It was the centre of public life, with temples and council chambers.

After walking around through history, we ended up at the waterfront, looking out over the islands across the Zadarski kanal.
We sat down on these marble steps, listening to the soothing sound of the Morske orgulje (Sea Organ) designed by Nikola Bašić. A system of tubes underneath take in the waves that push the air out through openings on the side of the steps and on top of the pavement, creating panflute like music.

Right next to the steps of the Sea Organ is part two of Nikola Bašić art piece: a 22 m diameter circle of solar panels, forming art installation Pozdrav suncu (The Greeting to the Sun), that comes alive at night with a light show. Wikipedia page about the monument.
We continued our walk around the Zadar peninsula to the harbour site; gate Vrata Sv. Krsevana.

We had planned a lunch before our ferry ride, but it took so long to prepare, we could just about have the servers make it a to-go package to take with us on our run to catch the ferry across the street. Made it with our chicken nuggets :-D

Ferry to Preko on Uglian Island.

Passing Ošljak Island.

Statue of St. Michael, the patron saint of Preko (by Antona Jurkića, 2017)

We decided to climb to the nearest viewpoint, about 1.5 km.
We passed lots of olive trees along the way and had a great view of Ošljak Island and Zadar in the distance.

Made it to Vidikovac Napoleonova kapa (Završće), the Napoleon's Hat viewpoint, so named because of the shape of Ošljak Island. Završće was a rest area in ancient times, where farm laborers woud rest on their way back home from the olive groves.

We took the big car ferry back to Zadar (can you spot the viewpoint?)

This ferry doesn't go to the city side, but docks at the bigger harbour in the south. We took a bus to get back to the hotel. Here's my loot from today, including a few Croation euro coins :-)

After a quick fresh up, I met up with A. for a walk along the boulevard to watch the sunset (prepare yourself!).
We came across the statue of Croatian malacologist Špiro Brusina (1845-1909).

And then it was time for... THE SUNSET:

After dark the Pozdrav suncu lightinstallation lit up. I did make a video, but there are too many kids on it, so I can't share it on YouTube. It was a great experience with the sound of the Morske Orgulje from the water and the AMAZING sunset in the background as well. *heart eyes*

A. and I met up with M. and together we wandered through town looking for a place to eat.
Stup srama (Pilar of shame), Erected by Bulgarian Emperor Ivan Asen II in 1331.
Two of the three Roman Effigies, dating back to roman times.

Katedrala sv. Stošije (Anastazije) - Cathedral of Saint Anastasia (12th century)
Dinner: Spaghetti Carbonara and a Sunrise Mocktail.

Dessert: Cheesecake icecream!
I ended the day in a luke warm bath to soak my tired legs and feet.

An excellent day.

Day 3-7: Workweek breakfasts, lunches, and dinners
As I said I didn't have much time to go out, except for dinner (breakfast and lunch were served at the hotel, which was also the site for our conference). So this is mostly photos of food :-)

As promised: the view from my balcony! (6:52 a.m.)
Monday Breakfast: omelet, scrambled eggs, salty sausage, bread and Okruglice sa Šljivama (Plum Dumpling)

Lunch and Dinner: Pizza Gušti (tomato sauce, mozzarella, ham, bacon, sausage, dry neck pepperoni, olives, marinade, basil)

There was a thunderstorm on Monday night with lightning over the islands!

View through the balcony shutter.
On Tuesday morning I have some free time, because there is an optional brief I can skip. (It's mostly a sales pitch for a program I'm not working with;-)
Yesterday evening I wrote some postcards, so I'm off to the post office.

It's about a 15 minute walk.

Uh-oh, what letter do I need to push for the right queue ticket? Fortunately an old lady walks in who helps me out when I wave my postcards at her.
The man at the desk puts stamps on them and stamps them too! (They arrived in the Netherlands on Thursday already!)

Zadar coat of arms in colour!

Tuesday lunch with desserts, mmmm.

Tuesday sunset on the city side (From the hotel coridor)
and on the water side *chinhands*

A guided walking tour through Zadar: Kapetanova kula (Captain's tower) at Five Well Square (level 1+2 from 13th century, level 3 - 5 from 18th century.
Our guide sneaked us inside Crkva sv. Šimun (Church of St. Simon) to see the reliquary of St. Simon, held aloft by two bronze angels cast from captured Turkish cannons. (Crafted in 1380 by Francesco from Milan, a goldsmith living in Zadar).

Crkva sv. Donata (9th century Church of St. Donatus) and Roman forum by night.
Picture of Mary with Jesus child in the wall of Crkva Gospe od Zdravlja (Church of Our Lady of Health)

Tuesday dinner: Double Cheeseburger & Pomfrit
Dessert: two scoops of icecream: Badem (Almond with pistachio, honey, oranges, figs & sesame) and Kruška (Williams Pear)

Wednesday breakfast.
My laptop bag, ready to work!

Wednesday lunch with desserts.

At the end of today's meeting we walked out to the beach for a group photo. I snapped some photos of the beautiful water.

I spend the extra half hour free time in the icecold seawater pool at the hotel. I swam for half an hour, very refreshing, great to clear my head from the workday :-)

Fancy hosted dinner with four courses:
1. Prociutto with cheese, walnuts and almonds
2. Risotto with chicken and cheese
(Drink is sour cherry juice, nice!)

3. Main course: gnocchi with beef and gravy
4. Dessert: Chocolate mousse cake

Thursday breakfast and lunch (I mixed orange juice with cherry juice, nom!)

Lunch desserts.
Dinner: Lasagne with Orangina \o/

Thursday dessert: green apple icecream :-)
Friday breakfast.

Friday lunch with desserts.

A sunset walk along the beach.

*happy sigh*

An evening visit to the nearby supermarket: fun!
My groceries/souvenirs.

Friday dinner: Ćevapčići, prženi krumpir, ajvar (Croatian sausage, fries, bell pepper sauce)
Dessert: lavacake with vanilla icecream and whipped cream with chocolate sauce.

Day 8: Views while traveling back home

Sunrise! Breakfast (the dumplings are filled with strawberries this time).

All packed and ready to go.
Legstretch stop at the river Krka viewpoint.

West side view of bridge.
Sculpture Gospa od Puta (Our Lady of the Way) by Kruno Bošnjak and Vena Jerković.

East side view of bridge (I love bridges, okay)
View of Skradin.

Extraction Mine.
Airport: our flight to Amsterdam leaves at 12:30.

We have to walk to our plane!
My luggage in the overhead compartment (I bought some more souvenirs and put my jacket in a shoulderbag, on top of my laptop, that I have to bring on board)

No extra leg-room this time.
But a lovely view of Croatia at lift-off.

Slices of wheat bread with cheese and mayo(?).
Flying over the Alps.

The Netherlands!
Chocolatemilk, a croissant and cinnamon bun on the train home.

What a wonderful week!

J.

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Graphics for Land of Art Phase 24 - Part 2

beelikej — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 12:16:19 GMT

In between travels and work I do still participate in Land of Art. (In case you missed it, I posted Challenges 1, 2, 3 and 7 in May.)
I'm currently in the middle of a whole bunch of Autumn challenges for Phase 24, which I will share at the end of the year. I had to hand in Golden Tickets for challenges 11 through 14 due to lack of time, but below are all the graphics I managed to make during the Summer months!

Challenge 16 - 20in20 Icons
Themed icons; these were put up for votes per category and I actually won favorite a few times!
BFF (Best Friends Forever) & Bright Colors

My colourful balls icon won 3rd place!

Black & White + Color & Black & White

My icon with Lily Munster won 5th place!

Blend & Boxes or Blocks

My 4 squares Boxes or Blocks icon won 1st place!

Changed Background/Cut-Out & Close Crop

My swimming Close Crop won 5th place and the colourful eyes Close Crop won 1st place!

Duplicate & Eyes

My Duplicate tree won 2nd place!
My Eyes icons won 1st (blue) and 3rd (brown) place!

Faceless & Favorite Color

My flying hair Faceless icon won 1st place and my red hood Faceless won 2nd place!

Levels & Negative Space

My lone women Negative Space icon won 1st place and my hand scream Negative Space won 3rd place!

No-Eyes & Off Center

No-Eyes Jensen Ackles won 3rd place!

Pale Colors or Muted Colors & Profile View

The Profile of Henry Cavill won 1st place and the butterfly Profile won 2nd place!

Scenery & Sepia

My Scenery bridge was tied for 3rd place!
Sepia Mr. Darcy won 5th place!

Text & Texture

The Never Enough Time Text won 4th place!
The unicorn rainbow Texture won 5th place!

Tiny Text (unreadable) & a Back-up Icon (guess the category;-)

Challenge 17 Finding Easter Eggs: Coloring pages
This was a gamble game where I scored 120 points! I also did the Golden Ticket Challenge for this one and colored some Easter oriented coloring pages :-)

Challenge 18 Working at the Zoo: Bookmarks
Click for full size

Challenge 19 Fandom Actor Association: Gifs
This challenge was connected to an association game which started with a character and then you choose a character within the same fandom listed, OR you choose another fandom that the actor/actress is from.

Andy Serkis (Gollum - Lord of the Rings)

Orlando Bloom (Will Turner - Pirates of the Caribbean)

Marisa Tomei (May Parker - Spider-Man movies)

Emma Thompson (Elinor Dashwood - Sense and Sensibility)

Emma Thompson (Agent O - Men in Black)

Challenge 20 Heading to the Top: Headers
Headers for our different teams and Art communities:

Challenge 21 To be Continued: Fanmixes
Create art using moments within fandoms that were cliffhangers.
Click for full size

S1Ep22 The West Wing – “What Kind of Day Has it Been” (2000)

S5Ep22 Buffy the Vampire Slayer – “The Gift” (2001)

S01Ep09 Grey's Anatomy - “Who’s Zoomin’ Who?” (2005)

Challenge 22 Oceanic Waters: Sigtags (Gifs)
Sigtags are signature graphics, that we use to sign for challenges; I made 3 gifs and 1 still, all from Ocean with David Attenborough:

J.

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My vacation up in the air in Wuppertal & Duisburg!

beelikej — Sat, 20 Sep 2025 13:39:02 GMT

In my second week of Summervacation (about a month after my first), I traveled to Germany for a few days. First to Wuppertal, where I wanted to ride the Schwebebahn, the oldest electric elevated railway with hanging cars in the world, built between 1897 and 1903. On my way back I planned a stop in Duisburg to climb Tiger & Turtle, an art installation rollercoaster staircase! In between I spent time reading on the train and in the bath. I also visited a sculpture park. Of course I made a ton of photos (about 800), here is a selection to share all the views from up high :-)

Day 1: Traintravel to Wuppertal

Around 8:15: Bye bye bicycle, hello first train of the day.

Changing to an international train (09:48) and again to a local train in Rhein, Germany (10:30).

One final change in Hagen (13:32) and arrival in Wuppertal a little after 2 o'clock in the afternoon!

Tadaah! I get very excited when I see the Schwebebahn cross the square in front of the station.

There are old photos of the Schwebebahn all around, I love it; the built started in 1901. I cross under the track on my walk to the hotel.

From the Wuppertal (valley of the Wupper river), I have to climb the Johannesberg (mountain). I come across artwork along the way: Zufuhr-Skulptur by Tony Cragg (1996). There are a lot of sculptures from Cragg all over Wuppertal; there is an art track on the Johannesberg and he has his own huge sculpture park, which I will visit later.
My hotel is right next to a swimmingpool, yay! Worth climbing for ;-)

I have a lovely room with a cosy corner, where I sit down for a while to finish my book, before venturing into town.

You can see it in the mirror: there is a bath which I will enjoy tonight.

Around 17:30 I walk back down to Wuppertal, there is convenient pedestrianbridge to cross the busy road.

There is also a great view of the Schwebebahn, I get so giddy seeing the blue cars floating by.
The hotel provided a walking route past some sights, I'm doing half of it on my way to dinner. This sculpture is titled 'Ein neuer erfolgreicher Tag' ('Another successful day' by Guillaume Bijl, its nickname is "Krawattenmann" (Tie man)

View from Friedrich-Ebert Straße on the Neue Kirche or Sophienkirche (1858).
The Mahnmal für die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus (Memorial to the victims of National Socialism) Der Mensch sei Mensch with a sculpture by Herbert Vohwahsen in front of it. In 2011 names of 3100 victims where added to the back of the memorial.

Water sculpture by Carlernst Kürten in Deweerth'scher Garten.
Painted figures in Obergrünewalder Straße by artist Maurycy (POL1980)

Had to eat here, I like the pun, well done Burger King Whoppertal :-D
Had a basic burger and fries, but the drink was very cool: Summernade mit Zuckerwatte! Lemonade with strawberry cotton candy, yes, that fluff is supposed to go into the drink...

... for a fun coloring effect and interesting flavor combo, I liked it a lot!
There's a open air opera performance in front of the Basilika St. Laurentius (1825). I enjoy it for a bit until the amount of smokers annoys me too much and I walk back to my hotel.

Along the way I enjoy a beautiful sunset and the lit up Schwebebahn!

Day 2: Schwebebahn! Suspension Train!
Today is all about the Schwebebahn in Wuppertal. Based on a system invented by engineer Eugen Langen, construction was overseen by master builder Wilhelm Feldmann. The first part of the railway came into operation in 1901, the final stop in Oberbarmen opened on 27 June 1903. The Schwebebahn is still operating today! The track is about 13 km long and it takes about 30 minutes to go from beginning to end.

I was wondering what the floorpattern on my hotel carpet was and discover the artpiece on the wall; how funky is that skyline of Wuppertal?!

Breakfast: the bread in Germany is much denser than I'm used to, but with the scrambled eggs on top it is lovely. For seconds i try the pancakes with cherry jam.

It's time to get on the Schwebebahn! This is the rather futuristic looking Ohligsmühle station, just across the pedestrian bridge from my hotel. I buy a 24h ticket.

From the Ohligsmühle station you see an old Art-deco bridge. I only take the Schwebebahn to the next stop, Haubtbahnhof, for a quick visit to the touristinformaton center, where I get a guide with all the stations.

Schwebebahn trains run every five minutes, in both directions. The tracks run above the Wupper river (except for four stations downtown). Get ready for a Schwebebahn picspam!

So giddy I got a seat at the back of the train, which has a full sized window for a grand view.

I travel all the way to the end of the line at Oberarmen/Berliner Platz, where I watch the train turn (Check out my YouTube playlist of the Schwebebahn!)

After enjoying the mechanics, I get on the Schwebebahn again to ride it all the way to the beginning at Vohwinkel.

*Happy sigh*

The Sonnborner Eisenbahnbrücke (railroad bridge, built in 1839, broadened in 1911) is the only structure that goes over the Schwebebahn.
Right after, the track bends away from the river to continue through the Sonnborner Straße; the support structure is no longer straight, but has softer round curves.

I hang around Vohwinkel station to watch the trains turn around. I also buy a souvenir magnet.

See that little orange red box on the wall of the station? That's where you stamp and validate your ticket, which I didn't realize I had had to do, until now. Oops! After correcting that, I get back on the Schwebebahn.

Now that I've ridden the whole line, I know where to look for specific sights: just beyond Adlerbrücke station, in the direction of Alter Markt, there is a sculpture of a tiny elephant down in the river. On July 21, 1950 young elephant Tuffi (4 years old) jumped out of the moving suspension railway during a trip to advertise the circus in town; she got away with only a scratch on her bottom (and lived until 1989).
I get off at Werther Brücke station, one of the original Jugendstill buildings still standing. I walk all around it and take loads of photos *chinhands*

From the Schwebebahn you can also spot a few murals, it's hard to photograph them! These hands are part of an artwork that wraps around the building, it's based on a photo by Anne-Chritine Poujoulat of a dance performance "Cafe Müller" and painted by Case Maclaim.
I travel back to the Haubtbahnhof to do the second half of that walking tour the hotel gave me. This is the former Abeler Clockmuseum in the Poststraße decorated with a massive Glockenspiel from 1951. On the corner of Schwanenstraße is a worldclock by Georg Abeler (1962). The museum was closed in 2016.

My favorite fountain EVER: luscious Jubiläumsbrunnen (Jubilee Fountain) by Leo Müsch (1900) in front of the Rathaus Elberfeld at Neumarkt, is said to be a replica of the 1767 Neptune fountain in Trient (Trento) by Francesco Antonio Giongo, but I think the Müsch design is a much more interesting version with life-like, lascivious bodies and -ehm- intriguing groin areas. If you ever joined in the debate about mermen and (ichthyo)centaurs, here are some sculptures to study :-D
Also: look how the figure on the left is holding that fish by its gills. Amazing details all around.

Zuckerfritz by Ulle Hees (1979), sculpture of Fritz Poth (1831-1906), who used his wheelbarrow wheelbarrow to run errands and transport packages. His fondness for sweets earned him his nickname 'Sugar Fritz'.
My lunch at Torri Eiscafe: tosti hawaii and a hot chocolate.

Funny façade face at Willy-Brandt-Platz.
Final part (officially the starting point) of my walking tour: Kirchplatz with a sculpture to commemorate the care for the poor by Hans-Joachim Camphausen (2011) based on the original bronze memorial by Wilhelm Neumann-Torborg from 1903, that was melted down in WWII. In the background CityKirche Elberfeld (1690, restaured in 1953, converted in 2001).

Oooh! Back in my hotel I found chocolate in my 'no need to clean the room bag' that I had hung on my door this morning.
Bought some snacks myself on my walk.

After sorting out my souvenirs, I went for a swim in the Schwimmoper next door; it was very loud with kids' swimminglessons and lots of teens all over the place, but it was great to cool down in the water.

After a relaxing read, I went out for dinner. I found a typical German restaurant Wagner am Maüerchen, where I enjoyed a Schnitzel 'Pfifferling' (chanterell mushroom) and Bratkartoffeln (fried potatoes)

I went back to Torri Eiscafe for a delicious dessert: a Flipper (vanilla icecream with orangejuice, cream, amarena cherry & sauce)

What an awesome day!

Day 3: Sculpturepark Waldfrieden

Two round of breakfast again :-)

When I got back to my room, my 'no need to clean the room' baggie was already filled with chocolate!
I spent the morning in the bath with a book (from the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik). Bliss.

The afternoon was all about sculptures (and walking, so much walking).
I found some more art on the Johannesberg: steel 'Rondo' by Alf Lechner (1998) in front of the Stadthalle (1900) and wooden 'Elastisch schwebend' by Claus Bury (2001).

With another 24h ticket, I get on the Schwebebahn again, look at it gooooo! (View from Ohligsmühle station)

I get off at Landgericht (another Jugendstill station).

After taking yet more photos of the Schwebebahn, I walk/climb to Skulpturenpark Waldfrieden.
Tony Cragg, a British sculptor living in Wuppertal, bought the abandoned Waldfrieden property in 2006 and turned it into a Sculpture Park, with a large permanent collection all around the park grounds and changing exhibitions of international artists in several huge glass buildings.

On the climb towards the actual entrance to the park, there are already several sculptures by Tony Cragg: Bulb (2000) and To the Knee (2008).

In the park, there's first a lush garden with several sculptures, here are my favorites:
two adorable sculptures by Joan Miró: Femme (1981) and in the back Personnage (1978) (see my Instagram for a close up)
Draped Seated Woman by Henry Moore (1957) - this is Cast 1 of a series; I saw another version (Cast 5) in The National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia (see post April 2023)

Then there's a long winding trail through the woods, taking you past loads of sculptures.
Dancing Column by Tony Cragg (2008).
Babel Variationen II by Peter Buggehout (2025)

Helter by Thomas Virnich (2015) + detail, look at that texture!

One of the indoor Line of Thought exhibitions by Tony Cragg: "there are many more things that don't exist than do exist”. These exhibitions run until January 1, 2026.
With the high glass windows and surrounded by trees, this also feels like you're still out in the park.
The yellow Sculpture in the back is Conversion from the Industrial Nature series (2020).
The Wooden sculptures are called Lost in Thought; I was baffled by their intricate construction.

Irruption by Eva Hild (2011)
Tongue by Not Viatal (2010 and in the background, next to the bench Chinese Horse by William Tucker (2003) and in the middle Mixed Feelings by Tony Cragg (2012)

Another favorite: 3 Gurken by Erwin Wurm (2012) [Three pickles!]
Also: rotating-mirror-horizontal by Mischa Kubali (2023) *waves*

Mariana W's World by Jaume Plensa (2012) [See also my Instagram onArt Zuid Amsterdam 2025]
Big Psycho 10 by Erwin Wurm (2010) [Which I also saw at Art Zuid Amsterdam in 2021, see DW post here (+LJ)]

After the final indoors exhibition of Tony Cragg glass sculptures and sketches, I stroll back down to the Schwebebahn at Landgericht and decide to ride it to the end station again before going into town for dinner. Wheeeee!

Finally managed to take a photo of the Herz Jesu Kirche (near station Völklinger Straße).

From Ohligsmühle station I walk through the Laurentius straße for an unrestricted view of the Basilika St. Laurentius (1825), but the stage is still there from Sunday evening's opera performance.

I have dinner at Italian restaurant Nonna di Mia; Steinofenbrot (bread) as a starter and Lasagne as a main. I'm too full for dessert!! But I did have two huge glassed of the pink summerlemonade with dragonfruit, raspberry and lemon, omnomnom.

Day 4: Tiger & Turtle rollercoaster staircase

Final hotel breakfast: 'Essen ist ein Bedürfnis, Genießen ist eine Kunst'
(Eating is a necessity, enjoying [food] is an art).

My ticket from yesterday is still valid, so I take the Schwebebahn to the station. One final pretty view.

I get a trainticket and travelplan to Duisburg. Bye, Wuppertal.

Hey, remember that The Sonnborner Eisenbahnbrücke (railroad bridge, built in 1839, broadened in 1911), the only structure that goes over the Schwebebahn? My train goes over it! One last look at the Schwebebahn, aaahw.

After about half an hour, I change trains in Düsseldorf and another half hour later I arrive in Duisburg, ist Echt!

I take the subway/tram, which I find a little confusing because the end station has different names on the plan and on the board, but I figure it out, yay!
St. Bonifatius Church (1911).

The tramstop is called Tiger & Turtle and there are signs pointing in the right direction. The rollercoaster is visible on the top of the Heinrich-Hildebrand-Höhe, there's a winding road leading up to it. Pfff, more climbing.

But look how cool!

There are two sides leading up to the loop, I start with the long way around, walking up and down the stairs to reach the loop.

This is the view from the highest point, with the loop in the background. Amazing view. There is a bit of wind, and when I lean against the railing to take photos, I feel the structure vibrating.

Made it to the loop!
I walk back down and then take the other way around, which is a lot steeper (I call the longer part the turtle, and this short climb the tiger, like a tiger's jump;-)

From this end you get a good view of the winding up and down parts of the structure. Wheeee!

An hour later I'm back at the tram, where I can buy a ticket at the machine to go back to the station.
Ha! A miniature trainset at the Duisburg Haubtbahnhof, cute.

I get a German curry Wurst (Sausage) with fries to go. Fortunately it was packed to stay warm, because there's a lot of running back and forth to catch the train. Right before it was supposed to arrive, there's an announcement that it moved from track 1 to track 12, but when all the passengers get there, it says to go to yet another track (track 11, not on the same platform) and there the board says to go back to the first track where the board now redirects to track 11, but there is a warning on the platform to not enter that train. But when I see people already in there, I manage to check the route on the inside board and it does have my destination on it, so I jump on right on time, pffff. I'm very sweaty from all of that, but I find a seat and I have a (still) hot meal, so I'm fine.

I change trains in Vierssen (Germany) and Venlo (The Netherlands), where I sit and read for an hour and half until peak hours are over and I can continue with my discount card for the final leg home.

Finished two books this trip, starting in Mary Shelly's Frankenstein on the way back.
Check out my final souvenir loot.

I had a marvelous time.

The End.

J.

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My summervacation in a Watertower near the Wetlands

beelikej — Sun, 03 Aug 2025 15:23:36 GMT

A travelpost unrelated to work! I scheduled two separate weeks for my summervacation. For my week in July, I wanted to travel to Spijkenisse in the South-West of the Netherlands, to visit The Bridges of Europe, an applied arts project by Robin Stam (2011-2013) who actually built the non-existing bridges that are featured on the backsides of Euro banknotes. When I checked out if there was anything else worth visiting nearby, I found a watertowerhotel in Dordrecht (the oldest city in Holland, 1120) from where I could explore wetland area The Biesbosch, that was also on my wishlist!
I had a lovely couple of days; I read on the train, cycled around on my rented bike, went on ferries and boattrips, and was spoiled with views and bubblebaths. On my way back I stopped in 's Hertogenbosch, birthplace of 14th century artist Hieronymus Bosch (aka Jheronimus or Jeroen), so I got some culture in as well. Here is a massive picspam of all the things.

Day 1: Eurobridges in Spijkenisse & Cycling in Dordrecht

I took me about 2,5 hours to reach Spijkenisse by train and tram/subway, from the station it's a short walk to the neighbourhood with the banknote bridges. They represent architectural styles from various periods in Europe's history. In the front you can see the yellow 200 euro bridge with behind it the blue 5 euro bridge.

These bridges are made from a concrete base with coloured concrete panels placed on the sides and most of them are bicycle or pedestrian bridges, so they are not as huge as they appear on the Euro notes (designed by Robert Kalina 1996). I posted pictures of all of them on my Instagram. Mission accomplished!

I walked back to the station, took the subwaytram to Rotterdam and got on a train to Dordrecht.

In Dordrecht I rented an OV-bike with my traincard. Of course I first cycled the wrong way and ended up near the harbour, ahem. But I was very impressed with that bridge structure and happy to have discovered it.

The right route took me through a lovely park area and I was thrilled to spot the watertower hotel through the trees!

My suite was on the 8th floor (the owner is the only one allowed to go higher up) and had amazing views AND A BATHTUB. There was also a lovely restaurant on the ground floor, but that was closed on Mondays, so I had to cycle to town for food.

After freshening up, I got on my bike for a short look around Dordrecht before dinner. This old town is definitely worth a more extensive visit, I was charmed by the architecture and history.

Dordrecht Minster or Church of Our Lady (Grote Kerk of Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk) and Leuvebrug

The Church started as a chapel round 1100, so dates back to the very beginning of Dordrecht.
Catharijnepoort (1652), one of two remaining city gates.

Huis Bever-Schaap (1658, probably built by Martinius van der Pijpen), Willem van Beveren ('beavers') was married to Cornelia Schaap (Sheep), hence the beaver and sheep in the family crest on top. No explanation on the hugging mermen on the wall though.
I had dinner at Bregje, where you can get a three-course meal for only 19,95 euros! I added freshly baked bread with garlic and a couple of mocktails (Passionfruit Nojito and a Twisted Ginger Ale), so I spent a little more than that. Worth it!

Starter: carpaccio with cheese. Main: pork tenderloin wrapped in bacon, with vegetables and fries.

Dessert: Passionfruit Trifle (passionfruit icecream, vanilla-mascarpone mousse, biscuit and meringefoam)

I cycled back to the watertower in about 30 minutes.

Ended the day in a bubblebath (salty caramel foam) and finished Mort by Terry Pratchett.

Day 2: Whisperboat through the Biesbosch wetland

View from my 8th floor suite :-)

More views: from my window up top and from the restaurant below.

Freshly prepared breakfast with warm bread, a boiled egg, squeezed orangejuice, yoghurt & strawberries, and custom made tea (Earl Grey with steamed milk and sugar).
View from my window towards the wetlands; can you spot the water in the distance?

A heron on top of the lamppost!
I got on my bike to cycle to the Biesbosch wetlands.

Crossed the Nieuwe Merwede river by ferry!

On 18–19 November 1421, the Saint Elisabeth's flood flooded large parts of southern Holland, causing Dordrecht to become an island. Even after the land was gained back over the years, subsequent storms turned the surrounding area into a fresh water wetland, the Biesbosch.

Just as I crossed the bridge to the Biesbosch Museum (hidden in those grasscovered pyramids) it started to rain. It didn't last long, but a good opportunity to try my new poncho :-)

I visited the museum about the history of the area before getting on a boat to explore.

It was a glorious boat tour, the boat was silent, but unfortunately the captain did.not.stop.talking. Interesting stuff, but a bit of quiet in between would have been even nicer; I was exhausted from all the information.

Back at the museum, I went on a short walk, found a bench to sit down for a late lunch and managed to finally enjoy nature in silence, pfff.

Cycled back, spotted swans on the way to the ferry.

Sat down for dinner at the hotel: burger and fries.

Dessert: vanilla, pistachio and raspberry ice cream and sorbet with whipped cream.
Saw the sunset from my room *chinhands*

Day 3: Bubbelbaths, more cycling & Walking through the wetlands

Another scrumptious breakfast, excellent choice to put the hot egg on the warm farm bread, mmm.
No plans today, but bubblebath and a new book: Temeraire by Naomi Novik (UK title, the original USA title is His Majesty's Dragon, first book of the Temeraire series)

I have lunch at the hotel: farm bread with apple, goat's cheese and honey.
Then I go to the 7th floor viewing platform to walk around the water tower.

See how the stairs don't connect to my 8th room floor?
Fortunately not a lot of people visit the platform; it also offers a great view of my room, haha!

Gosh, it's so pretty up here.

At the end of the afternoon, I decide to cycle to the Biesbosch again, this time to do a nature hike on my own. I follow part of the cycling network of the Netherlands (route 42/43 for those interested)

I park my bike and follow the walking trail.

I have no experience with walking trails, and am surprised how hard it is to follow and see the actual trail.

I did manage to get lost, so I had to track back, and then got lost again! I was very relieved to eventually find the bicycle path, even if it wasn't were I was intended to end up, at least I knew where I was, pfew.

To calm my nerves from that adventure, I chose to walk down the track a little bit to a hidden bench with a view of the water that I had discovered at the start of my long hike. I sat down to read for about an hour and then I saw a kingfisher fly by! That made me so very happy :-)

I got hot food at a nearby Donër Kebab: when I ordered to go, the guy gave me all separate boxes with a pita bread, shoarma meat, sauce and vegetables. I created my own meal (without the vegetables) and ate my dinner with my feet in the cool bath. I had also bought a drink and dessert at the local supermarket: lemon Fanta and mandarin cheesecake (Skyr).
Afterwards I filled the tub with warm water and bubbles again for a long read in the bath. (Foam was apple crumble scent this time)

Day 4: Art & Food in 's Hertogenbosch (Hieronymus Bosch & Bossche Bollen!)

Final day, another delicious breakfast, no photo, instead look at that mosaic on the bar!
Time to say goodbye.

Bye water tower hotel suite.
I brought my bike back to the station and got on the train to 's Hertogenbosch (aka Den Bosch)

Dragonfountain! (1903 Jules Dony) - 's Hertogenbosch was nicknamed 'Marsh Dragon' during the Eighty Years' War (1568-1648) by poet Joost van den Vondel (1587-1679).

On the right: one of the pylons on the side of the Wilhelmina brug, depicting the long history of Den Bosch: 1559, the first bisshop (sine onere nihil = "nothing without effort") and the 1566 Beeldenstorm (Iconoclastic Fury) - the outbreaks of destruction of religious images that occurred in Europe in the 16th century.

Yay, my first Hieronymus Bosch sight! This figure is depicted on one of his triptychs: the Hell part of the Garden of Earthly Delights.
St. Jan's Kathedraal (St. John's Church, 1220)

Bronze statue of St john the Evangelist, patron Saint of 's Hertogenbosch (1964, Mari Andriessen) with an eagle on his shoulder.
At then end of my short walk through town I reach the start of a very special boat tour along the old Binnendieze waterway, that runs through and underneath Den Bosch.

I have time for a quick sweet bite before getting on the boat: Zomerbubbel (Summerbubble: sparkling water with elderflower, mint and strawberries) and a raspberry cheesecake.

Along the waterway there are more figures from Hieronymus Bosch's paintings, full of symbolism.

We sail underneath old monasteries.

See that low tunnel in the citywall? We just came out of that with our boat!
On the right you see watergate 'Groote Hekel', originally this was the most important water inlet in the city walls. To prevent unwanted visitors, the openings could be closed by iron portcullises. The pins of these resembled 'flax hekels', hence the name.

Whatever you think of when you see this creature, yeah, that's exactly what Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516) intended :-p

The captain of our tiny boat, dropped me off at the Hieronymus Bosch Art Center in the former St. Jacob church.
As I arrived just before the hour, I first sat down for the Astronomical clock, a reproduction of the one that was there in Jeroen's time, depicting hell and heaven.

All through the church there are massive figures from Hieronymus Bosch paintings (I only found the name of one creator: Nanda van Alebeek)

There was also a section with reproductions of sketches of Hieronymus Bosch.

My favorite triptych: The Garden of Earthly Delights (Dutch: De tuin der lusten), named after the center panel. When the panels are closed you see the Creation of the World.
Opened, the left panel shows The Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, the right panel is The Hell.
I have the middle part as a curtain on my front door and even after years of looking I still haven't discovered every figure.

I took the elevator up to the viewing tower of the art centre.
Back in the city centre: a statue of Hieronymus Bosch in front of his house/workshop (second building from the left corner)

Last but not least, I visited the Bossche Bollen Experience, a tribute to the chocolate pastry that 's Hertogenbosch is famous for.

It was an interactive mini museum with chocolate tasting in between!

I loved their hilareous take on Hieronymus Bosch, replacing fruit with Bossche Bollen. The ticket included tea and a treat, woohoo!

Adorable building too <3
More Adam & Eve in streetart!

For dinner I started on the waterfront, but unfortunately had to move inside of the restaurant when I discovered they had opened the deck for smokers, yuck.
I did enjoy my ribs and fries eventually.

Got icecream outside (green pandan, orange guave and white chocolate with raspberries) before taking the train back home (yay, more reading!).
My loot!

The End; for now it's back to work (But there will be another summervacationweek in September:-)

J.

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Graphics for Land of Art Phase 24 Part 1

beelikej — Sun, 25 May 2025 18:59:35 GMT

The only creative community I'm currently involved in is no longer at Livejournal:
Land of Art has moved to Dreamwidth!
Good thing I have already been (t)here for years as well ;-)
If that is the incentive you wanted to join in, come on over! Phase 24 continues for all of 2025 with new challenges to create graphics every couple of weeks. Fandom is optional. With your graphics you collect points for yourself and your team (and you can also earn Golden Tickets, which you can use when you want or need to skip a challenge)

Go here for FAQ!
Should you decide to sign up, please mention my name (so I score 5 points for me and my team SteamPunk)
You can apply for a team here!

Due to travel (for work) I missed a few challenges and I handed in Golden Tickets for a couple of them as well, but here's what I made so far for Phase 24:
Challenge 1 - Signatures Here
10 Sigtags (300x150 pixels)

Challenge 2 - Stocking Holidays
3 Bookmarks (300x800 pixels) with a Holiday theme:
Sint Nicholaas (Dutch 5th December, like Saint Nick with presents and also with poems)
Sint Maarten (Dutch 11 November, like trick/treat, but with lantarns and singing)
Saint Valentine's (14 February)

Challenge 3 - Hide & Seek
Think of a theme and create a banner (500x200) for it

Challenge 7 - Frenemies
Frenemy meaning: a person with whom one is friendly despite a fundamental dislike or rivalry.I made three Headers (800x300 pixels) featuring Yuuri Katsuki (JP) & Yuri Plisetsky (RU) from Yuri On Ice!

Challenge 15 - Promotion
A demo on combining images into a graphic, featuring The Bride of Frankenstein (1935).

Come over to play in Land of Art!

J.

Want to see more of my graphics? I did a big artpost on these at the end of last year: Phase 22 + 23

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Worktrip to Abu Dhabi: FOODpost [4of4]

beelikej — Sun, 18 May 2025 10:39:57 GMT

In my previous posts about this businesstrip to Abu Dhabi in April I already showed some glimpses of the food I enjoyed over there. I didn't even get to try all the delicious things that were served, because it was a LOT! There were massive fancy buffets for breakfast and dinner in the Al Rimal restaurant of the hotel, lunch was served at the conference hall and that buffet was just as enormous. There was so much food on offer, there were even platters full of pretty bites during the morning and afternoon breaks. I was spoiled for choice!
This picspam includes photos of my filled plates, once or twice I started munching before I took a picture, so there are some half full plates as well :-D I often went for seconds (and yes, that means extra dessert(s) too). I was surprised with some treats in my room, and below I included dinner at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam (did not eat my greens). The midnight meal on the plane there is missing, because I was eating that while half asleep. I did save the passionfruit cheesecake dessert and had that for breakfast upon arrival at around 7 a.m. ;-)

There are over 100 photos, so I didn't add any comments, the hover-over text shows the date and time of each meal. Enjoy!

ALL the food in Abu Dhabi, April 2025

Last but not least: warm cheese and turkey croissant with unsweetened lemon juice on Zayed International Airport, and hot lunch on the plane back home.

The End.

J.

Previous Abu Dhabi picspams:
Day 1: DW / LJ
Day 2: DW / LJ
Workweek: DW / LJ
Summary in ten photos on my Instagram

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Worktrip to Abu Dhabi [3of4]

beelikej — Sun, 27 Apr 2025 15:55:30 GMT

This is a relatively short picspam to give an impression of my work week. It was a very succesful week; I had a lot of proposals to present, and I'm happy to say all of them were approved, yay! (Just a majority of votes is not enough, you need a consensus of all nations. We have a lot of technical meetings to streamline proposals all through the year, but decisions are made at these biannual in person meetings. One of my proposals required finetuning at three of these meetings to finally get full approval!).
In between work we were spoilt rotten with great food and facilities. At the end of each workday, a whole bunch of my international colleagues and I would meet up at the outdoors pool, where we'd hang until closing at 7 p.m. Then we would get dressed and spend the evening at the restaurant for scrumptious buffet dinners. Some chose to sit outside, which was too warm for me; I prefered the indoors section. Different colleagues would join me every night.

I must say this eating arrangement inside the hotel made for a very relaxing week, as we didn't have to have discussions every evening about where and when to eat and with whom and how to get to the restaurant. (There were three other restaurants in this fancy hotel, but most of us chose the included dinnerbuffet;-) There was an abundance of food from all over the world, including very fancy desserts; everyone could eat whatever and how much they liked. There will be a bonus foodpost for the finale of my trip to Abu Dhabi.
Photos below are a glimpse of food and work, an eveningwalk to the mosque and views from the plane home.

Abu Dhabi, Workweek April 2025

I got up extra early to have time to enjoy my breakfast; different types of melon, scrumptious breads, all sorts of cheese bites and of course a hash brown. I ate the fresh strawberries with my mango yoghurt, yum.
Then I went back to my room to freshen up and get my laptop before walking to the conference hall (I could walk indoors all the way from my room, so I could stay out of the burning sun all day, wahey!).
This first fancy hall was the breakroom, where snacks and drinks were available during our morning and afternoon breaks; the conference room was behind that tiny door in the back.

You could see the Grand Mosque from the breakroom! Lunch was served in another room nextdoor.
I had flatbrad, fried rice, mixed grill and -on this first day- camel lasagne (very delicious).

Yes, there was desert for lunch as well: I had all sorts of goodies, favorite of the day was Gulab Jamun, deep fried dough balls drenched in warm honey, mmmmmmmm.
After work we stayed at the pool until sunset, when I walked to the beach at Khor Al Maqta (the grand salt water canal) for the view.

The view at the pool is also lushious (not the poolbar).
For dinner I had mashed potatoes, some scrumptious bread, grilled cauliflower, carrot and parsnip with all sorts of tender meat bites.

My desserts and second desserts; too many delicious things to chose from, (this is not even everything that was available). My favorite is the bit that looks kind of gross on photo; warm date pudding, mmmmmmmm.

Conference day two: I hardly have time on my own during breaks, as a lot of people usually approach me with questions, but I managed to sneak in fruitbit snacks this time :-)
In the afternoon break I discovered the floor had glitters in it!

I took me a couple of days to finally discover a shortcut from my hotelroom to the pool. Can you see the dust in the air? The next morning the alarm went off for a sandstorm! No harm for us, but the midweek joined workdinner was moved from outside in the garden to indoors for safety.
For breakfast I tried guave milk, which I liked a lot! (Also Hasbrowns, potato croquets, meat- and cheese snacks, melon and a bow tie croissants <3

Another yummy lunch with an overload of desserts. I also had Mountain Dew (which made me nostalgic for the eighties when I first tried that during a visit to the USA). The bowl is filled with umali, a warm breadpudding.

Before the midweek joined workdinner there were ceremonies in this massive room with fancy chairs and a carpet that looked like sanddunes in a desert!
And for my final dinner dessert, there was actual gold leaf on the chocolate mousse!!!

On our last evening a group of us went on an evening walk; this is the hotel by night.
As you may remember from my unplanned walk on Saturday afternoon (see Abu Dhabi picspam part 1, DW / LJ), the Grand Mosque is across the highway from the hotel.

We were very carefull crossing in the dark. There was even more traffic than by day!

But this view of the lit up Mosque was well worth it. What a lovely farewell sight.
The next day my colleague T. and I took a taxi to the airport, where we did some final souvenirshopping; did not get the life-size camel ;-)

Flying back to the Netherlands; final views of Abu Dhabi

Bye Emerates! Hello clouds *chinhands*

Hello the Netherlands, hello Schiphol airport!

On my train home I once again had a first class compartment all to myself and I enjoyed the bread with filet americain and egg, and a Dutch chocolatemilk I had bought at the airport supermarket.

Home sweet home, check out all the souvenirs for myself, family, friends and the office. Yes, I also took some goodies from the hotel (their shampoo smells soooo good)

This was the final travelpost, but I will share some photos of the hotelbuffet later!

J.

Part 1: DW / LJ
Part 2: DW / LJ

Summary in 10 photo's on my Instagram

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Worktrip to Abu Dhabi [2of4]

beelikej — Wed, 23 Apr 2025 21:28:14 GMT

Day two of my worktrip to Abu Dhabi started with a citytour with a small group of international colleagues. First stop was the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, where we spend some time walking around outside and inside. After that, we were driven to and through the citycentre and visited the Heritage Village (where I had briefly been yesterday, see my day 1 picspam in DW / LJ). We also went to see the fancy Emirate Palace Hotel and the trip ended in a dateshop, where everyone bought a bunch of treats before we returned to our own hotel and spent the rest of the day in the pool and at the beach. What is my life?

Below are 46 photos day 2, if you want to see a 10-image summary of my whole week, see my Instagram post :-)

Abu Dhabi, Sunday 13 April 2025

I asked one of the chefs for a cheese omelet, it was delicious. There is so much food to choose from, this is a quick breakfast due to limited time (the rest of the week I gave myself more time in the mornings just to be able to have a big breakfast *grins*)
We entered the mosque complex through the mall(!!!) underneath(!!).

There's a walkway with inclined autowalks to take you to the garden en mosque. I loved the shadowshapes of the skylights.

The Grand Mosque was constructed between 1994 and 2007 and was inaugurated in December 2007.

There are lots of lovely views and everything is decorated with flowers.

So pretty.

The women in our group had to cover up and wear a headscarf, which I knew beforehand, so I had bought myself a graphic geodata design scarf and I had practiced at home to make it a less awkward experience. That didn't work, it made me feel uncomfortable and I will not ever understand the randomness of religious rules, specifically for women. I was in nice company though, so I could at least enjoy the tour.

The minarets are 106 meters high with a gold glass mosaci crescent moon on top. Marveling at the big flowers in marble.

All the windows were amazing too.
The floral patterns were inspired by flowers that grow in the Emirates' desert climate. The flowers on the walls are 3D relief.

The main prayer hall houses the world's largest hand-knotted carpet (Guinnes World Record!) made by 1200 artisans, it took two years to create. Its design reflects an intricate islamic medallion. The carpet is 5400 m2, weighs 35 tons, and is made of a mix of wool and cotton.

Gorgeous details everywhere.

The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is the country's largest mosque; it has 82 domes and I found the one corner where I could fit the whole building in one photo (0.6 wide lens;)

So. many. rules. for. women.
Driving from the mosque to the city there is still a lot of dessert nearby.

See the big flagpole from yesterday? We're at Heritage Village, an outdoor museum about the history of Abu Dhabi. We get a full tour of all the old nomad homes.

A big contrast with the big new city in the background!
Yay, a manholecover with Abu Dhabi written on it and one colleague was willing to stand on top of it with me; see, I have friends (I do, I do!)

Heritage Village is lovely, I was glad I had bought my souvenirs the day before, so I could now focus on all the sights.
There are also tiny musea; I liked the section with the old books.

From here you have a great view of the city skyline.
The sign made me giggle: Abu Dhabe Do's :-D

There were also tiny shops where people showed different arts and crafts.
And another museum, this one had all sorts of archeological finds.

We continued our tour and made a quick stop at the viewpoint of Qasr Al Watan, the presidential palace across the water.
Then we visited the Emirate Palace Hotel, yes a hotel, but a ridiculously luxiourious hotel. It used to have an ATM that dispensed solid gold bars and they still serve a cappuccino with 24-carat gold. We did not have a chance to try it though (don't know if I could afford it;-) we only walked through.

We also got to enjoy the marvelous views and the fancy toilets :-D

After enjoying the big stairs and fountains for a final photomoment, we were driven back to our own hotel (also pretty fancy).

I got dates covered with pistachio and chocolate as souvenirs for the office.
Everyone met up at the pool for lunch (a shawarma wrap and a smoothie for me) and more and more international colleagues arrived.

There was also a sandy beach next to our hotel, I did dip into the water there for a bit, but it was very salty and I couldn't see my feet, which made me nervous. The sand was very hot and I was relieved when I reached the outdoor shower to cool my feet. After that I spend the rest of the afternoon at the pool until it closed at sunset around 19:00 (7 p.m.)
Then I got dressed for dinner and met up with the gang again at the restaurant.

I asked one of the chefs to prepare my meat of choice, which was perfect (it's gonna be hard to get used to making my own food again)
Tried a big selection of desserts (yes, this is merely a selection, there was TOO MUCH too choose from! I will share a view of the buffet later. *drools*

To be continued!

J.

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Worktrip to Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) [1of4]

beelikej — Mon, 21 Apr 2025 15:40:50 GMT

Well, hello! Checking in with a picspam, because I've been on another amazing businesstrip! I went to Abu Dhabi for work and was fortunate enough to start with a weekend to explore this capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Here's day 1: I took the local bus into town, quickly figured out the place isn't made for walking outside, so I got on a Hop On/Hop Off bustour to see ALL the things :-)

Abu Dhabi Saturday 12 April 2025

Had a night flight, so at the end of the (Fri)day I took the train to the airport. Perk of the job: on public transport I get to travel first class and I had a traincompartment all to myself even! Met up with my co-worker at the airporst and saw a beautiful sunset. Boarding went smoothly, I had a middle seat, which I thought wouldn't matter during the night, but -omg- not ever doing that again if I can avoid it. Had some sleep, had some food. Arrived around 6:30 a.m.

A colleague from Germany arrived around the same time and had offered us a ride to the hotel in his rental car, very convenient! The temperature outside was 28 degrees Celsius, even early in the morning, pfff. (In the Netherlands it had been around 14 degrees)
Saw impressive structures along the way: the circular disk building of Aldar HQ is 121 meters tall, has 23 stories in a diagrid structural design. (MZ Architects, 2010)

Driving across Maqta Bridge, with a view of the 842m long Sheikh Zayed Bridge (Zaha Hadid) which is featured on the 100 dirham Emirati bill. In the water you see the Al Maqta’a Watchtower (early 19th century)
Arrived at the hotel and to my surprise the room was already available! I had prepared to just leave my backpack, but now I could properly freshen up before heading out! I got an amazingly huge room with a cornercouch.

I have never seen a bed this BIG! (and it was comfy too!). Lovely simple design with an archway in the hallway.

Not shown, but the bathroom had a massive rain shower and loads of fluffy towels. I learned later that housekeeping came around twice (2 times!) a day, it's a very fancy hotel. The building resembles a stingray; the photo is the big garden (looking at the back of the stingray).

I had breakfast (will do a separate post on all the luxurious buffets) and enjoyed the cool of the hotel, before asking for directions to the nearest busstop into town. (I had purchased a public transport Halifat card at the airport).

At reception they said I shouldn't walk to the busstop and offered me a ride on a golfcard to the hotel's gate (a fifteen minute walk away). How fancy! The busstop was just outside the gate.

Buses are very much like at home with a convenient location screen and announcements of busstops. Different was that the front section was reserved for woman traveling alone or families if needed. Men on their own then had to move to the back of the bus. The trip to town takes about an hour.

I get off near the mall and even though I only have to walk 300 meters I realize quickly I should avoid any walking if possible. It simply is too hot to move in the sun; that's why there is hardly anyone out in the streets. I'm glad I had already made an online booking for the Hop On Hop Off Bus, so I can start my exploring sitting down right away :-)

The full circle around town with an audio tour would take 1 hour and 50 minutes, but as the name says: you can hop on/hop off the bus as often as you like. I get on around 12:20.
First part of the tour was Saadiyat Island; here you see another bridge being built.

Great views over the water from the Sheikh Khalifa Bridge.
The three grey cube like buildings with the different designs together form the Abrahamic Family House, consisting of a mosque, a church and a synagoge. In the distance you can see the white wings of the Zayed National Museum which will open in 2026 (Foster + Partners).

The intricate dome design is the Abu Dhabi Louvre museum. Nearby the local version of the Guggenheim is being build. There's a lot of construction going on in Abu Dhabi.

This is the start of the Corniche area; a large boulevard along the water. Across the water at Mina Island a whole new neighbourhood arises. In the distance you can see the marina with some very tall buildings, we'll get to those later;-)

I hop off the bus at the Heritage Village stop, I will spend more time here tomorrow, so for now my focus is on the huge flagpole nearby, next to the Abu Dhabi theatre.

This peninsula is also the place where you have the best view of the Abu Dhabi Skyline!

I only walk into Heritage Village to buy souvenirs, this means I can focus on the cultural sights tomorrow;)
The marina with on the right the massive pink arched Rixos Marina Hotel and on the left the Sky Tower of the Marina Mall.

From the mall you can see how massive that flagpole next to Heritage Village really is!
I get off the bus again for a shop and lunch stop in the mall.
In front of the mall stands a shiny swordfish sculpture (unknown artist).

Only western food at the foodcourt, I opted for Popeye's, specialized in fried chicken en spicy fries. My menu included a (dry) biscuit bun and i had a Mountain Dew, which I don't remember having since the late eighties on my first visit to the U.S.A.!

Fun street art from the Hop on/Hop off bus and the Pearl & Ship sculpture in front of the breakwater.

Skyscrapers.
The Founder's Memorial is a garden, visitor centre and monument in honour of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (first president of UAE from 1971-2004). In the Sanctuary Garden stands The Constellation, a collection of 1,327 geometric shapes suspended on 1,110 cables, which combine to form a three dimensional portrait of Zayed. (Designed by Ralph Helmick)

The falcon is the national bird of the UAE. IN the background of this roundabout you see buildings from the Qasr Al Watan, the presidential palace.
The brown busstops have air conditioning!

In the middle of town still stands the Qasr Al Hosn, a fort built in 1761 (Mohammed Al Bastaki) It was painted white during a restauration in 1976.
In the middle of Al Ittihad Square stand several sculptures symbolizing Emirati hospitality, from left to right: the dallah is a coffee pot with a long spout, the gülabdan is a sprinkler containing rosewater (a few drops of which are poured over the hands of those who have just finished their meal), the mabakhir is used to burn incense (offered to each visitor on departure).

I quite like the architecture of Abu Dhabi, there are a lot of different styles.

After a last round of bridges to and from Maryah Island, I'm back at the first stop of the Hop On/Hop Off bus main tour at 16:20 (4:20 p.m.). I just have enough time for a quick visit before I head back to the hotel.

This is my reflection and feet on the very shiny floor of the mall. It's massive, with again mostly western shops; the whole city is catering to expats, which is the majority of the people living here.

Wahey, a manhole cover with Abu Dhabi and Arabic on it! Showing off my new sparkly sandals :-)
I get back on another BigBusline for the Hop On/Hop Off bus straight from the citycentre to the big mosque. Instead of an hour on the citybus, this will take only half an hour.
One final view of Fountain Circle.

The name Abu Dhabi means 'Land of the Gazelle' in Arabic, hence the mural in the tunnel!
Often nicknamed “the pineapple buildings”, the Al Bahr Towers feature the Mashrabiya shading system, an unusual covering of 2,000 umbrella-like elements that open and close based on the direction of the sun. The screens' dynamic movement reduces solar gain by over 50 per cent, decreasing reliance on energy-intensive air conditioning and artificial lighting and significantly decreases operational carbon. (Design by AHR, formerly Aedas UK)

I'm on top of an open-air bus on the highway, weeeeeeh!
Another reason for me to take this busroute back is that is goes by the Mangrove Marine National Park.

Such green views!
Final stop of the HOHO bus: the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque

As the bus enters the gate I realize I'm not ending up near the local busstop as I hoped.
Google tells me to walk around to the east side of the mosque for my busstop. I have splendid views along the way.

It's only a fifteen minute walk, but pretty hard in the heat, I try to enjoy the sights and shadows.

But when I find out Google sent me to the wrong busstop and I have to walk all the way back, it's not fun anymore. Instead of walking all around the massive mosque to find the right busstop, I decide it's easier to walk all the way back to the hotel across the big highway. Fortunately the sun is already going down, so it's not as blistering hot anymore (still bloody hot though).

It's not really suitable for pedestrians, but most of the way there is a sort of sidewalk; I do have to be careful crossing the intersections and highway exits. From the viaduct I can see the hotel in the distance.
Upon arrival at the gate of the hotel, an employee is nice enough to arrange a ride to the lobby for me, I'm very grateful.
At reception I ask if there is a pool and if it's still open and upon confirmation I rush to my room, put on my bathingsuit and get into the water: BLISS.

Unfortunately I only get half an hour in the pool before it closes, but at least I cooled down a bit from the hot walk! In my room I discover a bowl of fresh pears and treats! THIS IS THE LIFE OF LUXURY!

My souvenirs from today: tile magnets, a camel and redband gummibears with arabic text on the box :-)
I go to dinner (more on that in my food post to come) and meet up with the delegation from the UK who have just arrived.

We have one more free day before work starts; on Sunday we'll take a tour to the big mosque (by car, I'm not walking anymore!!). I'll share pictures in my next post.

To be continued!

J.

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Worktrip to England: London & Windsor

beelikej — Sat, 15 Feb 2025 20:25:53 GMT

Went on a worktrip to England for two weeks(!) in January, I visited London and Windsor on the weekend in between. I already posted a short impression on my Instagram, below is a picspam of all the food in between and after work plus a full report on all the sights on the weekend. The first week was mostly me an my UK colleagues preparing for the second week when delegations from all over world came over to nerd/work together;-)

I traveled by Eurostar train which still required a transfer in Brussels, Belgium on the way to London (due to renovation of the customs building in Amsterdam), but is going directly from England to the Netherlands on the way back. From my hometown the best connection is through Rotterdam.

Day 1: Travelday NLD Home to GBR Work

If I'm on a train for work, I get to travel first class, baby!
The toilets at the Brussels Eurostar waitingroom already get you in the mood for England :-D

Since Eurostar combined with TGV, first class is now called Eurostar Plus (there is also businessclass which is called Premium; same seats, but you get a hot meal).
My cold lunch: A breadroll, smoked trout bowl with giant couscous, golden beetroot and candy-stripe beetroot. Sweet treat: Apple Brownie. I had apple juice and tea with it.

After ariving in London I took the tube and train to my final destination; I checked into my hotel around 19:00 (7 p.m.)
I settled in and then went to the kebab place next door to get a doner burger en fries (chips;-) - I had bought a bottle of my favorite drink (freshly squeezed lemonade) at the M&S food store at Waterloo Station in London.

Day 2: 1st workday

When I was there last December the hotelrestaurant was being renovated (I was there in December for work as well, but only posted on my Instagram), this is the all new breakfast buffet corner, I love this look and the lay-out is much more convenient than before.

Okay, I won't show my English breakfast every day; I did vary them slightly, but they usually at least have the hashbrowns, sausages and eggs, because I don't eat that at home.
I'm only a walk away from work and I love this green roof and all the birds that I pass along the way (there's a park on the other side).

This week I'm going out for lunch with my UK colleagues, today we're going to local pub where I had a classic fish and chips with mushy peas, nom! Also loved the mocktail with raspberry lemonade, orange juice, lime juice, served with orange.

For dinner I tried the hotel's restaurant, which was completely empty. As it turned out they didn't have everything on the menu, but the very nice lady who was doing service listened to what I'd had in mind and prepared a lovely meal of what she could find and even created an amazing combination dessert. She put everything on a tray for me to take to my room, it was perfect!
Dinner: Meatballs Arrabbiata with Garlic Flatbread. Dessert: Warm Sticky Toffee Pudding with warm custard, decorated with strawberry sauce and Biscoff crumb.

Day 3+4: worklunches and take-out dinners

For our second worklunch we tried Chaiiwalla, an Indian Street Food Cafe. I had the (all-day) English-ish Breakfast: Masla omelette with masala beans, 2 lamb bacon rashers, 2 chicken sausage and 2 slice of toast.
After work, I went back there to get dessert: a Ghulab Jamun Cheesecake, I took it back to my hotel together with a Stuffed Crust Garlic pizza from Flamingo Flames.

Our third worklunch was at Amigos: I had a grilled chicken wrap with sweet potato fries and a Maltesers Milkshake.
My dinner was from the kebab neighbours again: Garlic Waffle Bread. I got desserts from the nearby supermarket: strawberry trifles, mmmmm.

Day 5: a Saturday in London

I slept in a little and then got on the train to London. Then went to one of my favorite Underground stations Tottenham Court Road where I took the time to look at all the mosaic walls by E. Paolozzi (1984).

So. Cool.

Right outside Tottenham Court Road station, at Giles Street, there are three immersive art rooms from The Spaces in Between with wrap-around videoscreens. There are benches to sit down to look at the surrounding videos. Recommended.

Check out my vid of The Butterfly Trail

After browsing comic-book and nerd store Forbidden Planet, I walked to Seven Dials market for lunch; a rose custard and white chocolate wheelcake (from Wheelcake Island) with a salty, savoury Kashmiri Chai from the Chai Guys.

Passed the art deco Freemasons Hall (1933) on my way to Theatre Royal Drury Lane, where I booked dinner and a play for the evening.

Came across some pretty details walking around this 19th century playhouse, of which the entrance is nog on Drury Lane at all!

Until the play I have plenty of time for some shopping at the Transport Museum and some reading on a bench at Covent Garden, followed by some exploring of Lincoln's Inn Fields, a park nearby.
Memorial bench of Margaret Ethel MacDonald (1870-1911), feminist and social reformer; she participated in the setting up of the first trade schools for girls in 1904. Bronze statue by Richard R. Goulden (1914)

Gothic water fountain (1861) and sculpture Camdonian by Barry Flanagan (1980) at the corner of Lincoln’s Inn Fields (restored in 2022 by Rupert Harris Conservation).

Lincoln’s Inn Fields; I had hoped to visit Lincoln's Inn, but it was closed for the public, so I walked back to the park and settled on a bench for some more reading :-)

At the end of the afternoon I walked back to the theatre; had to do a little detour to find my way through traffic, which led me past the beautifully lit up Bush House, a grand building from the 1930s before I found the entrance of the theatre in Catherine Street.

Had booked a fancy three-course a la carte theatre dinner in the Grand Saloon, up the red stairs, below the massive dome.

Got drinks (elderflower lemonade + water) and some freshly baked bread with salty butter.

For my starter I chose: Pork terrine (with dried figs, balsamic onions, cornichons).
Main course: Ox cheek bourguignon (with pickled onions, carrots, watercress and mashed potato)

Such cute plates! (See the full design at my Instagram). Dessert was Crème Brûlée.
After dinner I was allowed to enter the theatre through the innercircle.
I saw The Tempest with Sigourney Weaver, the play also had a very impressive set design to show the storm and grim landscape.

Walking back by Covent Garden on my way to the Underground station.
I decided I had enough time to try and visit Battersea Power Station for the Light Festival that was on until 23:00 (11 p.m.)...

I had about 40 minutes to try and see all the light sculptures. This little horse installation is called Never Ends by Luigi Console & Valantina November (ITA)
The Battersea Power Station is also gorgeous to look at!

This is Atlas by Jon Voss (GBR) [A beautiful spot for it; I could walk around it and got a much closer look than when it stood in the canal at the 2023 Amsterdam Lightfestival]
Inside the Power Station hung the colourful Aurora by James Glancy Design (GBR)

Funky sculpture in Power Station Park: Local Vocals by Jesse Wine (inspired by reclining figures of Henry Moore) In the background you can see Parabolic Lightcloud by Amigo & Amigo (AUS) [I made a video! and I also saw this in Amsterdam in 2018]
Another lightwork: Spin Me A Yarn by Studio Vertigo (GBR) [a better presentation than I saw from the boattour at the 2022 Lightfestival in Amsterdam]

In Bloom by Kumquat Lab (GBR), yes I now see those globes look like boobs in the photo ;-D It's a light sculpture with sound, best experienced in the video below; by touching the globes you added tones to the symphony. I had fun making music with the elderly couple that was there :-)
I almost forgot the time, with five minutes to spare I was allowed by the guards to go into the Power Station again to run to the final installation: Spider, which was unfortunately already turned off when I reached it [But this one had had a much better spot on a bridge at the 2018 Lightfestival in Amsterdam

On my walk back to the station I saw the final lightsculpture up close, which was also turned off, but I had seen it working from the distance upon arrival, but decided to skip since it was in another direction and I wouldn't have managed to see all the other light art. Tornado by UxU Studio (TWN) also looked really nice as a regular sculpture in between the wonky architecture of the Battersee Power Station area.
I arrived back at the hotel after midnight; check out all the loot from London!

Day 6: a Sunday afternoon in Windsor

On Sunday I met up with my Australian colleague, who was staying in a town nearby and we took the train to Windsor together. It was a rainy day, but the town still looked adorable.

We walked around the castle together, took some pictures and quickly bought some souvenirs. Me and queen Victoria at Windsor Castle (1070).

Then we found a lovely cafe in the old station building.

We had scones and tea before walking back to the other station for the trainride back to our hotels.

My souvenirs and take-out dinner at my hotel: I had a doner box with cheesy fries and the lovely neighbour gave me some kebab springrolls to try as well!

International workweek
The second week in England was all work and no play, but it was so great to see everyone again and nerd-out together during discussions:-) I was joined by a colleague L. from the Netherlands on her first international meeting. Breakfast and Lunches were not that exciting, so it's mostly photos of my take-out dinners below!

Monday dinner: Deep pan Meat House pizza with Garlic Base sauce
Around 20:30 (8:30 p.m. - I was already in my pajamas) the fire alarm went crazy and kept blaring and turning off; there was much confusion, but eventually everyone walked downstairs (the lifts/elevators were not working, I was on the eight floor...) where the hotelstaff frantically tried to find the key and code to turn off the alarm, because everything was fine, pffff)

Tuesday lunch; Sandwiches, fruit, cookies, crisps and tea :-)
For dinner I took L. out to the pub for some classic UK food.

I had a Caledonian burger with Haggis and actually liked it!
For dessert we had a warm Cookie Dough sandwich with vanilla ice, mmmmmm.

Had to take some photos of the new artwork in my hotel restaurant; it has a concept now!

On Wednesday we went out to Nando's with a whole bunch of delegates. I had a Garlic Churrasco Burger with two flame-grilled chicken thighs and a PERi-Mac & Cheese: cheesy macaroni with a crunchy, garlicky PERi-PERi crumb topping. Drink is a Strawberry & Dragon Fruit Quencher.
Dessert: a Warm Chocolate Pud served with vanilla ice cream and a sweet orange curd that’s got a flicker of chilli. Delicious!

Thursday take-out: cheese & masala beans toastie, aloo paratha with a spiced potato filling and a strawberry lassi shake.
Friday take-out: lasagne with chocolate orange cake.

Foodgifts: homebaked cookies, honey comb goodness and Welsh cakes.
All packed: managed to still get my laptop inside of my backpack and had one big paper bag with souvenirs and goodies.

Last hotel breakfast with fruit!
All strapped in and ready to walk to the train to London.

Train and underground got me to St. Pancras International station on time, where customs and baggage control went smoothly. Eurostar left 40 minutes late.
Good food though: Honey and mustard chicken bowl with cracked wheat, butternut squash and pickled beetroot. Dessert was a chocolate caramel cookiecrumble sweet treat.
With the delay I didn't have to rush at Rotterdam station for my transfer, which was a good thing because my big paperbag was falling apart and now I had time to put the souvenirs and goodies in spare bags and get some food (White bun with croquettes) for that final train home. Last part was with the city bus, I got home around 19:00 (7 p.m.)

It was a very succesful worktrip :-)

The End.

J.

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Booklist 2025

beelikej — Wed, 01 Jan 2025 16:08:47 GMT

This was my sort of comment-to-be-added-sticky-post for 2025.
Now it's just a list of the books I read this year.
You can find my current reading-list on top of my LJ and DW:)

What I read in 2025
How this list works: Book(s) I am in the middle of | ~~Books I have read~~ + date | link to review (or credit;) | DNF = Did not finish (gave up)

MY 2025 BOOKLIST
Left over books from 2024 (and before)

~~The History of Men's Adventure Magazines in Postwar America - Max Allan Collins, etc~~ (on my bookpile for YEARS) 8 SEP.

~~Spotlight [op] Aimee de Jongh - Jan-Willem de Vries~~ 14 JAN.

~~Zwerfgoed - Katinka Polderman & Sophie Reinders~~ (October 2021) 16 FEB.

~~Skulls, Portraits of the Dead - Paul Gambino~~ (2021 Birthdaygift from Mom) 14 AUG.

Terra Ultima - Raoul Deleo (December 2022)

Christmas Books - Charles Dickens (2022 Birthdaygift from T.)

~~Jheronimus Bosch, Visioenen van een Genie - Matthijs Ilsink & Jos Koldeweij~~ (February 2023) 1 AUG.

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde (Kickstarter Black edition, February 2023)

~~De Schone Slaper e.a. verhalen - Jan Vander Laenen~~ (June 2023) DNF* 2 JAN.
*too vulgair and misogynistic; only had 2 stories left to go, but I had reached my limit.

Het Onofficiële Kookboek voor Harry Potter Fans - Tom Grimm (2023 Birthdaygift from Mom)

Powers of Darkness (The Lost Version of Dracula) - Valdimar Ásmundsson (May 2024)

~~De Opoponax - Monique Wittig (FR)~~ (June 2024) 31 JAN.

~~On The Line - The Story of Greenwich~~ (August 2024) 13 FEB.

De Grote Van Gogh Atlas - Nienke Denekamp & René van Blerk (August 2024)

~~Frankenstein - Mary Shelley~~ (November 2024) 23 OCT.

~~Ongemakkelijke Mensen - Elly Biesters~~ (Sinterklaas 2024) 2 APR.

~~Buried Deep - Naomi Novik~~ (Sinterklaas 2024) 28 FEB. Such awesome stories; highly recommended!

~~Moresnet - Philip Dröge~~ (Sinterklaas 2024) 17 MAR.

~~In Memoriam - Alice Winne~~ (2024 Bdaygift from T.) 11 JAN.

~~The Greatest Nobodies of History - Adrian Bliss~~ (2024 Bdaygift from T.) 20 JULY Enjoyable and educational, stories from made up points of view followed by historical facts section. Favorite: The Last Dodo - it made me hold my breath.

~~Herinneringen - Aletta Jacobs~~ (2024 Bdaygift from Mom) 3 MAY

Added in January:

~~The Reading List - Sara Nisha Adams~~ (2024 Bdaygift from M.) 6 JULY

~~Mannen en Andere Tegenvallers [SWE: Norrtullsligan] - Elin Wägner~~ 21 MAY

~~De Trein Waarin Het Regent - Wianda Rozendaal~~ (2024 Bdaygift from J.) 7 JUNE

~~The DNA of Orphan Black - Abbie Bernstein~~ 2 OCT.

Added in February:

~~Mort - Terry Pratchett~~ 28 JUL.

~~Abu Dhabi - Lonely Planet Pocket~~ 14 APR.

~~A Deadly Education - Naomi Novik~~ 3 MAY

Added in March:

~~De Schoft - Marente de Moor~~ (Bought for Bookweek 2025) 25 NOV.

~~Hèhè - Paulien Cornelisse~~ (Essay Bookweek 2025) 8 APR.

~~De Krater - Gerwin van der Werff~~ (Freebie for Bookweek 2025) 7 MAY

Added in April:

~~Feminists in progress - Lauraine Meyer~~ (on loan from M.) 28 APR.

Added in May:

~~The Last Graduate - Naomi Novik~~ 19 MAY

~~The Golden Enclaves - Naomi Novik~~ 30 MAY

Added in June:

In Mijn Ogen Draag Ik Wolken - Forugh Karimi

Bookshops & Bonedust - Travis Baldree

~~De Stilte - Anya Niewierra~~ (Freebee for Zomerlezen (Summerreading) 2025) 10 DEC.

~~Biesboschpad, Voetafdruk van de Elisabethsvloed (walkingguide)~~ 30 JUL.

Added in July:

~~Temeraire [UK-title of His Majesty's Dragon, 1st book of Temeraire series]- Naomi Novik~~ 31 JUL.

Added in August:

~~Throne of Jade [Temeraire book 2] - Naomi Novik~~ 4 AUG.

~~Black Powder War [Temeraire book 3] - Naomi Novik~~ 23 AUG.

~~Empire of Ivory [Temeraire book 4] - Naomi Novik~~ 31 AUG.

~~Was Getekend - Anton Pieck~~ 12 OCT.

~~De Dertig Mooiste Sprookjes van de Sprookjesverteller - Thé Tjong-Khing~~ 3 DEC.

~~Victory of Eagles [Temeraire book 5] - Naomi Novik~~ 2 SEP.

~~Tongues of Serpents [Temeraire book 6] - Naomi Novik~~ 18 NOV.

~~Crucible of Gold [Temeraire book 7] - Naomi Novik~~ 29 DEC.

Added in September:

Wings of Fire - Jonathan Strahan and Marianne S. Jablon

Three Men in a Boat/Three Men on a Bummel - Jerome K. Jerome

Blood of Tyrants [Temeraire book 8] - Naomi Novik

League of Dragons [Temeraire book 9] - Naomi Novik

Added in October:

~~Kroatische kust Dalmatië - ANWB Extra reisgids~~ 1 NOV.

Added in December:

This Way Up - Mark Cooper-Jones & Jay Foreman (Sinterklaas 2025)

Hoe Vond Je Zelf Dat Het Ging? - Jip van den Toorn (Sinterklaas 2025)

The End of Alice - A.M. Holmes (2025 Bdaygift from T.)

You Are But Dust - Hannah Clayton (2025 Bdaygift from T.)

At Swim, Two Boys - Jamie O'Neill (2025 Bdaygift from Mom)

Narcis - Judith Fanto (2025 Bdaygift from Mom)

That's 40 BOOKS read this year!

Happy Reading! ~ J.

What I read in 2024 [DW] / 2023 [DW] / 2022 [DW] / 2021 [DW] / 2020 / 2019 / 2018 / 2017 / 2016 / 2015 / 2014 / 2013 / 2012 / 2011 / 2010 / 2009 / 2008
My old archive of alphabetized book reviews / Readingcommunity thej2bee LJ

Round up of 2024

beelikej — Sun, 22 Dec 2024 22:20:02 GMT

I was going through my blog and journals (as you do this time of year;-), and I noticed I completely forgot to share the stuff I made for Land of Art in 2024. My year was mostly filled with work and travel (which was also mostly for work) but I did manage to squeeze in some creative times. So I figured for my end of year post, I'll just picspam y'all with my graphic designs.

But first, to round up this year properly, here's what I did since the previous journal post in October, with links to my photos on Instagram:

I had a quick weekend in London for a play that was cancelled last minute (but I found another one to at least make the most of my weekend in November)

I built a cabinet for my renovated shower

I went on another businesstrip to England as well, where I didn't really go sightseeing, but did discover a lovely outdoors pool that was decorated for Christmas in December

I celebrated Sinterklaas with my family

Now, without further ado: all the fanart graphics I made this year!

Land of Art Phase 22 - Summer 2024
I handed in Golden Tickets for Challenge 1, 9 and 11. I missed Challenge 3 and Challenge 14 was a puzzle challenge, so no artwork for all of these.

Challenge 2 - Stop & Stare:
You know the expression "loaded look"? Create a graphic with this type of look that 2 characters (lovers, friends, enemies, parents or others) exchange.
Headers: Supernatural | The Boys | Skam

Wallpapers: Skam | Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Challenge 4 - Technique:
Create icons from provided technique list
1. Black & White / 2. Hands / 3. Eyes / 4. Negative Space / 6. Blue Texture

7. Pin Me Up /9. Text Behind / 10. Three Levels / 11. Split Screen/Text /

12. Solid Background / 13. Personification Text / 14. Obscure Crop / 15. No Face /

Challenge 5 - Hide & Seek:
Theme: ACTION - Panoramas of two characters jumping into action:
CSI:S02Ep01-Burked

CSI:S08Ep02-A La Cart

Theme: WESTERN - Fanmix using a Character from a Western that isn't a cowboy.
Joan Crawford in Johnny Guitar (1954)

Theme: POWERFUL - Sigtag templates with 2 screencaps of characters using their powers
All from The Boys:

Theme: ANGST - Sigtag templates of one character experiencing two different traumas
Dean Winchester from Supernatural:

Challenge 6 - If You Believe:
In the first part everyone had to submit songs, in part 2 we chose lyrics from that collection to create graphics; I made headers (800x300 pixels)
SONG: The World I Love - Liu Yuning

SONG: Ranbu No Melody | Melody of the Wild Dance

SONG: Torn - Natalie Imbruglia

SONG: Where's My Love - SYML

SONG: Underwear - Pulp

SONG: Lullaby - The Cure

SONG: If We Hold On Together - Diana Ross

SONG: We Belong - Pat Benatar

SONG: joy. - For King and Country

SONG: Remember to Remember Me - Isak Danielson

SONG: Not a Pretty Girl - Ani DiFranco

Challenge 7 - That's New to Me:
Create art based off of shows/movies that you've watched/played for the first time this year.
Didn't see a lot of recent media; when I checked what I watched this year, I found I was about 5 years behind in catching up with films and series, haha! Also: I discovered a new program to create gifs, so...
2 Gifs of Vivienne Rook in Years and Years (TV Mini Series 2019)

2 Gifs of Elijah Price in Glass (2019 film)

Challenge 8 - Mother's Day:
3 Sigtags: Sarah Connor (Terminator) / Karen (Love Actually) / Joyce Summers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

3 Headers: Celeste Bisme-Lyons (Years and Years) / 2x Sarah Connor (Terminator) [click for full size]

GOLDEN TICKET ART
Karen (Love Actually) Sigtag + Header [click for full size]

Challenge 10 - The Scenic Route:
Create art focused on the scenery of shows / movies/video games.
Se7en

Harry Potter

Brokeback Mountain

Challenge 12 - Call Me Daddy:
Well, of course I played with John Winchester (Supernatural)

S01Ep16 Shadow

S01Ep20 Dead Man's Blood

S01Ep21 Salvation

Challenge 13 - All About That Base:
In part 1 everyone made base icons, in part 2 you chose icons to edit.
MY ICONS
Skam / Game of Thrones / Orphan Black / Buffy the VampireSlayer / Years & Years / Terminator

MY EDITS of other people's icons:

Challenge 15 - Show Me the Pain:
Create art based on a character(s) pain (dirty, bloody, crying, etc...)
All Supernatural!
S07Ep03 - The Girl Next Door

S03Ep16 - No Rest for the Wicked

S03Ep14 - Long-Distance Call

S01Ep22 - Devil's Trap

Land of Art Phase 23 - Autumn 2024
This phase was supposed to last through December and into 2025, but was cut short because everyone is too busy with work. Team challenge 3 is moved to the next phase, challenge 7&8 were not posted. Since LJ reached it maximum of 15 cuts, I'm combining the 6 challenges into two sets.

PH23CH01 - Follow the Leader:
Miranda Priestly [The Devil Wears Prada]

Selina Meyer [Veep]

Annalise Keating [How to Get Away with Murder]

PH23CH02 - Mini Bang:
There were different combinations to choose, I went with Option 3: 2 Tumblr Graphics + 4 Desktop Wallpaper + 1 Gif Set + 10 Icons (for bonuspoints)
Tumblr Graphics (click for full size)

GIFset:

Wallpapers (click for full size)

Icons:

PH23CH04 - You were the First:
Create art based on a tv show/movie/video game/etc... that first brought you into fandom.
Quotes Typographies from Buffy the Vampire Slayer - My first fandom :-)

Giles to Wesly - S03E20 The Prom

Spike to Buffy and Angel - S03E08 - Lovers Walk

Xander to himself - S1E12 - Prophecy Girl

Phone Wallpapers from Panic at the Disco - My first bandom

PH23CH05 - What if I'm the Bad Guy:
Create art based on villains from tv shows/movies/video games; an actual villain, not morally grey and not for the greater good but pure evil. One that doesn't become 'good' later on but stays evil.
Count Olaf [Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events]

PH23CH06 - title:
Choose one character death from one fandom (tv show/movie/video game) that was the saddest for you
Gifsets from 1982 Blade Runner - "Time to die"
Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) reaches the end of his artificial lifespan after speaking of life to the Blade Runner Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford).

PH23CH09 - On The Side:
Create art based on side characters (not the main lead or main couple)
Henry Cavill as Melot in 'Tristan & Isolde' (2006)
click for full size

That's all! Wishing everyone all the best for the holidays :-)

J.

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Worktrip to Bucharest, Romania!

beelikej — Sun, 13 Oct 2024 12:19:54 GMT

It's been a busy month; after the two week renovation of my toilet and shower, I went on another international worktrip. I flew to Bucharest, Romania for a one week conference (where I presented three proposals and three briefs!). Beforehand I had one day to explore the old town and in the middle of the week we got a tour of the Parliamental Palace where we had our meeting. Other than those sight-seeing photos, there is a lot of food in this picspam, enjoy! ;-)

Day 1: Travel and a jacuzzi

First view of Romania, welcome to Bucharest!

I took the airport bus to the centre of town and caught the citybus that stopped right in front of my hotel :-)

My room was huge and it had a jacuzzi!

I had a nice view of the Catedrala Mantuirii Neamului ("People's Salvation Cathedral"), the national cathedral of Romania, that is still under construction (construction started in 2010) and the Palatul Parlamentului, the Parliamental Palace, the enormous boxlike building on the left.
For dinner I sat down in the hotel's restaurant, where the menu stated for nearly every dish "contains defrosted products". Ah well, at least they were upfront about it. I ordered Gujoane de Pui cu Cartofi Pai si Sos Maioneza/Usturoi (Crispy Chicken Fingers with French Fries and Mayo/Garlic Sauce;-)

Dessert from day 1: Clatite cu Ciocolata (chocolate filled (cold) pancakes)
and breakfast from day 2: the juice turned out to be lemonade, I was glad I had some fruit as well: peaches and melon, nom!

Day 2: Strolling through Old Town Bucharest

First I walked to the Parliamental Palace; to figure out how long it would take and what time I would need to get up for work the next day;)
Then I got on the subway; changed trains at Piața Unirii (Unity Square) to get to the starting point of my stroll through Old Town.

My first stop was the National Theatre with delightful sculptures in Parcul TNB in front of it: Caruta cu Paiate ("Harlequin Cart") features characters from Romania's best known playwright, Ion Luca Caragiale (1852-1912), there's a statue of him as well and he's on the 100 lei banknote). Artist: Ioan Bolborea.

Crossed the roundabout through the underground Pasaj Universitate. In the middle of the square is the Ion Constantin Brătianu Monument (original designed by architect Petre Antonescu and made by the French sculptor Ernest Henri Dubois from 1903 was demolished by communist regime in 1948, a duplicate by sculptor Ionel Soicescu was reinstated here in 2019)
From there I walked to the very well hidden Biserica "Sfântul Nicolae" (Saint Nicholas Church, 1905). Didn't go inside this Russian Orthodox church as there was a service going on (I could hear a male choir from the outside, it sounded beautiful), I did walk all the way around to look at the gorgeous onion domes and decorations.

Yay, found a manhole cover with the city's coat of arms (There's another version on my Instagram).
This is the corner of the Banca Nationala a Romaniei; have you ever seen such a glorious bank?

Walking through Strada Lipscani, looking up at all the amazing buildings and the artwork above!
Corner of Strada Stravopoleos: the National Museum of Romanian History.

I sat down for a little lunch at the Gilda Music Lounge: Strawberry Paradise (strawberry puree, lime, lemon, orange, sparkling water) and Tea with French Toast cu crema de brânză (cream cheese:).

The impressive round façade of the Muzeul Art Safari, at the corner of Strada Smârdan.
From there I walked to the most beautiful little church I've ever seen, inside and out: the Biserica Mănăstirii "Stavropoleos" (Church of the "Stavropoleos" Monastery, 1724)

The ceiling on the outside of the door is already colourful and then, when you walk in, there's the inside of the dome to blow you away.

So, so beautiful.
At the back of the church is the small courtyard from the monastery.

Right after I walked out of the "Stavropoleos" church, the tiny nun who was keeping watch closed the door; I felt so lucky I had been on time to see the inside. Although that detail on the wooden door alone would have already been worth the visit. *stares and stares*
Nothing quite compares to that experience, but I also loved this Art Nouveau window of the Banca Creditul Român (1911, Architects Maugsch, Bavral and Gotthilf)

Another highlight of my visit: the ruins/reconstuction of the
Palatul Voievodal "Curtea Veche" ("The Old Court" Voivodal Palace), from the reign of Vlad III Dracula (a.k.a. Vlad the Impaler 1428/31–1476/77), now a museum.
Next to it the oldest Romanian Orthodox church: Biserica "Sfântul Anton" ("Saint Anthony" Church, ~1559, restaured after Great Fire of Bucharest in 1847)

Inside view of the Sfântul Anton dome.
Funky streetlights framing Biserica Sf. Maria a Harurilor (Catholic "Bărăția" Church) across the E81 motorway that runs right through the city.

To be safe from the announced thunderstorm, I settled with a book in McDonalds, where later my co-workers from NLD, GBR and DEU joined me for dinner before walking -through the rain- to a bar in Strada Lipscani where we had drinks with a whole bunch of other delegates to get to know each other (or meet up with familiar faces) at the traditional 'ice breaker' before the conference week.

Day 3: Climbing to the Conference

A sturdy breakfast because I had to walk to the Parliamental Palace, which included a climb up the hill from the gate.

I often still can't believe the job I have! Look at this impressive building I get to work in this week!

Can't show you the meeting room, but here's the lushious 3 course lunch: beef and vegetable soup with steak, fries and a bowl of pickled veggies. (I usually didn't eat the bowl of vegetables, so I didn't always keep track of what was served, but it was different each day;)

For dessert: a rich chocolate cake (which I suspected to have a little rum in it...)
My happy face after the first succesful day of the conference.

After my disastrous dinner in my own hotel the night before, Australian delegate D. had invited me over for dinner in his hotel, which was next door to mine and where a couple of other delegates stayed as well. We ended up with a group of seven, representing NLD (me!), GBR, DEU and AUS.

My drink of choice was a Green Apple mocktail; I ordered it several times more this week, but this first experience was the best. (Apple juice, lime, blue Curaçao, brown sugar and cinnamon)

Delicious main dish too: Piept de curcan, sos de merișoara, plure de morcov și păstârnac (Turkey breast, cranberry sauce, mashed carrot and parsnip)
Dessert: cremă de zahăr ars (creme brulee)

Day 4: A traditional Romanian soup

Breakfast with (cold) pancakes and my "exciting" daily walk to the Parliament Palace.

For lunch we had the number 1 traditional soup from Romania, it was very yellow and it had some distinctive structures in it, which I first thought were little tentacles, but it was actually the lining of a cow's stomach. This Ciorba de Burta, (or Belly Soup) was not my taste at all, but I appreciate I got to try it ;-)

The maindish was to my liking though: fried fish with mashed potatoes, mmmm.
For dessert: pancakes with chocolate, freshly baked unlike the ones that are served in my hotel :-p

View from the Parliamental Palace, after another succesful conference day. I's around 6:30 p.m. because we had a special discussion session after the official program.
Nice sunset behind the cathedral, while I walk with A. (GBR) and D. (AUS). around the other side of the palace to visit a supermarket on the way to our hotels.

After dinner at the neighbours (Chicken breasts and fried potatoes with a Green Apple mocktail that didn't look anything like yesterday's!) I sorted my groceries: an emergency snack stash and actual orange juice (that I brought down for breakfast)

Day 5: A Tour through the Parliament Palace

Breakfast (oooh potato croquets) and Lunchsoup: creamy with vegetables.

Main was Beefstew with Polenta and for dessert we got Red Velvet Cake!

Today we ended the conference a little earlier for a tour through the Parliament Palace, an huge building with 1000 rooms! We had time to see a selection of them.

The impressive hallway with one of the many chandeliers and marble floors; I entered here for two days already, but hadn't realized that intricate figure was actually a map of the building, how cool!

This is the 'widest' room (every room was something-est).
See the little holes in the ceiling? Those are for airflow, but also to increase sound; for instance when people applaud it will make loads of noise, even if there's only a small crowd.

The biggest ballroom, look at those massive curtains! Another intricate ceiling.

These huge wooden doors can actually slide into the walls!
An hallway with lots of busts and wall tapestry (another area we walk down every day on our way to lunch.)

The building also houses a full theatre! That chandelier is the size of a room by the way.

After the tour we had some time to take our workstuff to our hotels, before getting together at the front of the Parliament Palace again where a bus was waiting at the top of the hill (climbing again, pff) to take us to restaurant Pescarus in the North of town for a hosted dinner. (One of those with speeches all around)

Amazing started plate: a charcuterie board with all sorts of meat and cheese bites, olives, salmon, chicken and veggies.
Main dish: Mușchiuleț de porc gătit servit cu cartofi fondanți și sos de ciuperci (Pork Loin with mushroom sauce and fried potatoes.

Desert from Day 5: Tort Sankt Petersburg: Tort cu ciocolată și vișine după o rețetă imperială (Chocolate cake with sour cherries (and possibly some rum;))
Breakfast on Day 6: This morning I used my 'emergency snack stash' to eat in my room (got to sleep in an extra ten minutes)

Day 6: Ate my lunch vegetables!

Some snacks are provided in the breaks: Romanian pastry and chocolate cake. (During the week delegates from Japan and Norway brought national treats as well! I love this group so much)
Mushroom soup for lunch today.

Oooh, a bowl of vegetables I like: red cabbage to go with the Cordon Bleu and mashed potatoes. Dessert was the Romanian version of the cake I always make for my birthday (because you don't bake it, but make it in the fridge;). The Dutch call it Arretjescake, and it's basically lard with biscuits and cacao, I put raisins in it as well. In Romania they put sour cherries (soaked in rum?) in it. Mmmm, chocolaty.

In the evening another dinner at the neighbouring hotel.

When I ordered the tagliatelle dish, the waitress said that would take too long, but they could make it with spaghetti instead...
They also didn't have much choice in desserts anymore, so I had another creme brulee.

Day 7: Final evening at the Fountains

Breakfast with my last bit of orange juice.
Lovely curry soup with croutons for lunch.

Salmon and warm vegetables. I do eat the red beets in the cold veggie bowl-)
Final lunch dessert is puff pastry filled with chocolate mousse and whipped cream and slathered in chocolate, omnomnom.

Early in the evening I get on a bus with A. (GBR) for some dinner in town: I have fried camembert with cranberry sauce and also snack on A's fries and fried chicken.

After that we walk towards the city park to find the fountains, where we are meeting up with a whole group of people from our hotels. On the way we run into another group of delegates who are supposed to meet up with yet another group, that has already joined our group. In the end we all end up on the roundabout in the middle of the fountains :-D

Fântânile București - Fountains on Piața Unirii (Unity Square), Bucharest
I also made two videos: North side of Bulevardul Unirii; view from Parcul Unirii and 360 view from South side of Bulevardul Unirii roundabout

The promised musicshow wasn't there tonight, but just the light effects on all the fountains surrounding us is already pretty cool.
Also cool: the tiles in the toilet of the restaurant a small group of us chose for our last dinner together. (The men's room was apparently even more colourful, A. showed me photos;)

Since I already had an early dinner I chose a small potato dish with my mocktail, it had a bit of parmezan cheese and lots of garlic.
Dessert was a great finale of our week: lava cake with chocolate icecream, presentet on a slice of orange and decorated with a cone *loves*

Day 8: Flying home

Last hotel breakfast and I'm all packed, bye big room!

Took the citybus into the centre (waved goodby from the busstop to G. & A. who were just having breakfast in their hotel), caught the bus to the airport, where I met up with my Dutch colleagues (respectively the chair and secretary of this meeting and my fellow delegate) for our flight to Amsterdam.

Cup of tea on the plane, food on the train (I had saved the cheese sandwich from the plane). I was home around 19:00 (Seven p.m.)

The End.

J.

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Long Weekend part 3: Bloemencorso Zunders (2024 Flowerparade!)

beelikej — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 20:21:27 GMT

On Sunday September 1st, the third day of my long weekend in the South of the Netherlands, it was finaly time for the main event: Bloemencorso Zundert 2024! (More about its history and the preparations for this event in my previous post. [LJ

On my short walk to the station I discovered another mural (part of that artproject I found on Day 1 [LJ]), which was not on a wall, but actually over my head and a lot of people looked at me funny when I was taking pictures.

That funky art up high was not noticed by everyone!

The whole piece is pretty long, it's called De Kosmische Orde (The Cosmic Order) by Derk Thijs (2016). He was inspired by an old painting of Ambrogio Lorenzetti (1339): Allegory of Good Government which represents the six virtues (Peace, Fortitude, Prudence, Magnanimity, Temperance and Justice).

After this short distraction I get on the bus to Zundert; today it doesn't go any further than the edge of town: you need a ticket to walk in! You can then find a spot anywhere along the route of the parade, but I have a seat to get to.

Zundert is the birth place of Vincent van Gogh, its twin city is Auvers-sur-Oise in France, where he later lived.
After a fifteen minute walk I reach grandstand X; I have a seat in the front row!

This is the only place where the parade will pass 3 (THREE!) times. It makes a sort of figure eight all around Zundert. (Click on the image for the full map and legend)
The winner will be announced in front of the E grandstand (cityhall) and after that all the floats will continue to the exhibition site in the West (where they also started the parade)

I wander around for a bit, spot a butterfly and buy some food before I settle in for the parade.

Here we go!
I combined photos of each float from all the three times they came by to show them from all angles. The first passing was from 13:45 (quarter to 2 p.m.) until 15:15 (quarter past 3 p.m.), so it took all floats an hour and half to pass me by. Second and third passing of the parade went quicker, the last float on the way to the exhibition site passed at 18:30 (6:30 p.m.)

There were also a couple of musicbands in between the floats, but I didn't get any good photos of those unfortunately; they put on a great show!

"Buurtschap" = hamlet/neighbourhood [x/20] is their ranking

1. Geppetto - Buurtschap Tiggelaar [6/20]
(Design: Erwin Braspenning, Marc van Beek, Gianni Ritchie and Johan van Trijp)

When Geppetto fell asleep, the puppets came to life!

Geppetto returning to the exhibition site.
2. Beet - Buurtschap Schijf ([1/20] Winner 2024!)
(Design: Huub van Caarm, Maikel van der Korput, Jens Aernouts and Sander van Hooydonk)

Beet (Literally "Bite" or in this context: "Caught!") was an amazing construction with the two fishermen in the boat on top!

Not only the eye of the fish opened and closed, the mouth would also open wide! Didn't catch this in a photo, but I did capture it on video:)

3. Frankenstein 2.24 - Buurtschap De Lent [8/20]
(Design: Gezienus Bruining)

Frankenstein 2.24 existed of three floats and a lot of acting of the scientist's whose invention came alive.

4. Diepzeeduiker - Buurtschap Raamberg [19/20]
(Design: Dion Daems)
What's special about the Zundert Corso is that all the floats are pushed by hand; you can see the feet of the people inside underneath!

This deep sea diver was one of my favorites, I can't believe it got the least amount of points!? I guess this theme has been done before, but it was executed brilliantly, with its moving head and the tails of the seahorses that rolled up.
The bubbles were filled with smoke, such a neat effect when they popped!

Bye, Diepzeeduiker, I loved you lots!
5. Requiem - Buurtschap Laarheide [13/20]
(Design: Pim Verheijen and Iwan Goossens)

Requiem was dedicated to the 27 Club; rock musicians who died at age 27, such as Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morison.

6. Hebzucht - Buurtschap Veldstraat [16/20]
(Design: Chiel Zagers, Bas van Hassel and Somin van Nijnatten)

Hebzucht (Greed) was followed by:
7. Afgeschreven - Buurtschap Wernhout [11/20]
(Design: Bram Damen, Roy Aernouts and Stef Foesenek)

Afgeschreven (Depriciated) were two old robots/machines rolling along, it was a colourful installation, although I couldn't really tell what their purpose was supposed to have been.

8. Orangerie - Buurtschap Poteind [3/20]
(Design: Dean Lahaije)
My least favorite, how did it end up in 3rd place, hrmpf. (This is the only float I didn't film :-p)

9. The Lost Suitcase - Buurtschap Laer-Akkermolen [2/20] + 1st Audience Award!
(Design: Ronald van Loon and Martin Straver)
This float is a full play in motion; a farce about the bellboy trying to find out who lost the blue suitcase. A stunning design and so very entertaining.

This hotel with many rooms in forced perspective was my absolute favourite, I squeed on the third passing when I discovered the room with Vincent van Gogh (who used forced perspective in the painting of his bedroom).

Even with three passings I couldn't see everything that happened in the hotel!
It was followed by a simpler float with flowers and butterflies that opened and closed. The mushrooms (hats) were hiding people that woke up as well.
10. De Natuur Ontwaakt - Buurtschap De Berk [14/20]
(Design: René Jochems and Yoran Jochems)

De Natuur Ontwaakt = Nature awakens; in this photo all of nature is asleep though;-)
Next up:
11. Helden - Buurtschap Molenstraat [4/20]
(Design: Yuri Dils)

Helden (Heroes): a shop display full of superheroes, coming alive when their signature music plays.

12. Fenrir - Buurtschap Achtmaal [7/20] + 3rd Audience Award!
(Design: Werner van Aert, Marc Roelands and Luuk Wouters)

Very menacing Fenrir, the wolfcreature from Norse Mythology (child of Loki, god of Mischief). His head moved, he opened his jaws and he howled!

So glad I captured Fenrir mid howl!
13. Mobiele Eenheid - Buurtschap 't Stuk [12/20]
(Design: Joel Sprenkels, Hans Arnouts and Sjoerd van der Linden)
ME is the riot-police; I think the creators wanted to make a statement, but I didn't really understand this one. No movement, only intimidating sounds from riot-communications and a lot of non-flower material. Hrmpf.

After the dark ME design it was finally time for a hamlet I visited the day before, yay! (See previous corso preparation post)
14. Invasie - Buurtschap Kapelleke [18/20]
(Wim Mathijssen, Adrie de Meijer and Maikel van Overveld)

I loved Invasion, because it sparks the imagination; are we looking at aliens invading earth? The disks rotated ominously. I'm sad it didn't rank higher.

15. Speelgoedleven - Buurtschap Klein-Zundert [9/20]
(Design: Jarno van Rijen)

Speelgoedleven = Toy life, another favorite of mine. When the toy soldier knocked on the cabinet, the toys came to life and it was noisy and spectacular. I loved that there were familiar toys for every generation.

After all the toys, the second hamlet I visited the day before showed its float:
16. Front - Buurtschap Markt [10/20]
(Design: Sven Goossens, Sacha Schrauwen, Joran Zagers, Ward de Krom and Daan Verwijmeren)
I only managed a decent photo on their third passing, because I was filming every other time they came by. 1./2. Unfortunately I didn't see the surprise on any of the passings, but I was able to see it on tv later and it explains their relatively high ranking: the top would open to reveal the flags and pointy spears of the celtics tribe hiding inside.

17. Moiré - Buurtschap Helpt Elkander [5/20]
(Design: Midas Overbeeke, Rick van Bergen and Thijs Lowensteijn)
A special effect as the framework moved around the flowerdesign of the horses; they appeared to run! There were four floats with different part of the race.

18. Mycelium, 'Een netwerk van schimmeldraden' - Buurtschap Stuivezand [17/20]
(Design: Dell Optiplex9020) << that's a computer; they prompted AI to come up with the design! A network of fungal threads. There were light effects and the fungus opened and closed their hats.
19. Voor Acht Uur Besteld - Buurtschap Rijsbergen [15/20]
(Design: Femke Sannen and Pieter Meeuwissen)
"Ordered before eight o'clock"; a network of streets with delivery bikes on their way with loads of boxes. The float was also surrounded by cyclists and packages (you can see one of them ringing a doorbel, trying to deliver his parcel:-D)

The final float took a while to get going, and it had an army with a boar leading the way:
20. Khazad-Dúm - Buurtschap Klein-Zundertse Heikant [-/20]
(Design: Sven van Hoof, Robin Jochems, Famke Jochems and Ron Stoffelen)

Unfortunately Khazad-Dúm broke down on the South loop through town, which means it was disqualified. It did however win the 2nd Audience Award.

While we were waiting for Khazad-Dúm to be able to be pushed to the exhibition site, I went to get a bun with kroket, mmmm. (I was back in time to see them)

I did have a ticket for the exhibition, but I was exhausted from sitting in the sun all these hours, so I decided to head back to the bus. On the way I came across the Icecream parlor of Zundert, which I obviously had to try;) Worth a visit: I had frozen yoghurt with cherries and strawberry cheese cake icecream.
Near the edge of town I saw this adorable wooden figure.

And the also adorable sign to Auvers-sur-Oise in France :-D
I was back at the hotel around 8:30 p.m.
The next day I woke up to this swirly pattern from the sun peaking underneath the hotel's blackout curtains.

Had bought this breakfast upon my return at the station last night. It's also where I bought my lunch for the trainride home.

What a great weekend!

You can find my videos of the flower floats in my YouTube playlist: Bloemencorso Zundert 2024.

J.

Previous visits to Zundert:
2016 [LJ | 2018 [LJ].

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Long Weekend part 2: Flowerparade preparations!

beelikej — Sun, 15 Sep 2024 14:55:01 GMT

The goal of my long visit to the South of the Netherlands was the Bloemencorso in Zundert; a yearly parade of flowerfloats. These are organised all over the Netherlands, but Zundert is the oldest (since 1936!) and biggest corso (20 floats) every first Sunday in September. Every neighbourhood (or hamlet) of Zundert has been working for months to build their own dahliafloat. On the Friday before the parade, they start putting on the fresh flowers; it's a community effort to get all the floats ready for the Sunday Parade.

I visited the Bloemencorso in Zundert before (in 2016 [LJ and 2018 [LJ].
This year I signed up for a corsotour on Saturday, where you get to hear about the history of the event and you visit two construction sites, to take a closer look at the finishing touches on the floats! Come join me :-)

Visiting flowerfloat construction sites!

I got the bus from Breda and arrived in Zundert about 40 minutes later, in the streets you can already see by the flags of the hamlets. The grandstand in front of cityhall is ready for tomorrow.

Fun fact: Vincent van Gogh was born in Zundert! On the site of his birth is now a museum (and tourist information).
The statue of the girl with the bicycle is in memory of the first Flower parade, which was on decorated bicycles.

Before the tour I have dinner: a burger with pulled pork on top and fries.

Each table has a different dahlia; mine's pink <3

I swear I ordered one dessert; my .... came with strawberries, ice cream and whipped cream on the side!
And before the tour we were welcomed with a drink and a cupcake!

After a slide show and short film about the history of the corso, we walked to the first construction site; the tent is built especially for the float. This is hamlet Kapelleke and first thing we see in the tent is the model of their design "Invasion".

We get a slideshow about the hamlet and a handy overview of the shields of all the hamlets that are competing in the Zundert corso.
Then we are allowed to walk around with a guide to see work in progress on the float up close!

There are people all over the construction putting on the flowers and trimming them to fit the design.

Can you see the nail in each flower?
This design also incorporates green leaves.

We climb all the way up the scaffolding where more people are working.

Everything is so impressive.
I hope they get all the flowers on in time and will be rooting for them tomorrow!

In between sites, we also visit a dahlia garden where all the varieties are on display, pretty!
Then we go to the tent of hamlet Markt, to see their float in between the scaffolding...

This is the scale model of their design "Front"; it represents 3 celtic tribes fighting the Romans, there is a surprise hidden within.
All the dahlia colours are on a legend to show where they should go :-)

There's silver-coloured iron and brown wood on the shields in the design, not natural dahlia colours. However, the design is not painted on, beforehand the flowers are coloured with spraypaint or cinnamon(!) to get the desired colours before they are pinned on the float.

The black is a natural colour; it's actually really dark purple

I love how the whole hamlet is involved; not everyone is allowed to work on the scaffolding, but anyone can push nails in the flowers. From young kids to the elderly, they all help out!

There is a pully system to get the crates with flowers up the scaffolding.

It was marvelous to see the construction up close. The tour ended with drinks and snacks in the restaurant. I left around 10 p.m. to catch my bus back to my hotel in Breda.

On the way to the busstop: seats are ready for the parade tomorrow.
Roundabouts in Zundert are simple circles on the road to allow for the float :-D

Up next will be my photos of the flowerparade. If you can't wait I have already posted my videos at my YouTube, here's my playlist: Bloemencorso Zundert 2024.

J.

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Long Weekend in the South of the Netherlands, part 1: Breda

beelikej — Sat, 07 Sep 2024 22:58:08 GMT

For my most recent long weekend off, I started planning in April when tickets for the Flowerparade in the small town of Zundert went on sale; I've been to this yearly festive event before (in 2016 [LJ and 2018 [LJ] -it's on every first Sunday of September-, but it's a long daytrip from where I live, so this time I wanted to treat myself to a hotel nearby, in Breda. I added extra days before and after, to also have an opportunity to explore that city in the South of the Netherlands. I did a boat trip around Breda and discovered an artproject with murals all over town, so even before the main goal of my visit, my cameras were doing overtime, heehee. I came home with nearly 1000 photos, haha!
I'll start with a picspam of my days in Breda and will share my Flowerparade visit later.

If you can't wait to see the Flowerparade, I have already posted a couple of videos of that over at my YouTube. (I will be adding more to the playlist Bloemencorso Zundert 2024 soon!)

Day 1: An afternoon in Breda

Parked my bicycle at the station (and yes, I always take a picture, so I can remember where to find it upon my return;). Bought lunch for the trainride (about 2.5 hours!) - Dutch pistolet with Filet Americain (also known as (americain) preparé) and egg + chocolatemilk :-)

Arrived in Breda after three, so I could immediately check into my hotel, right next to the station. I love the citymap on the wall!

Left my backpack and walked to town: I followed the red ants along the way (Found a naked one as well :-)

There's a big city park in between the station and the city centre with right at the entrance the impressive Nassau-Baronie Monument (Pierre Cuypers, 1904). It was made in remembrance of the 500 year connection between Breda and the Dutch royal family. In 1404 Engelbrecht van Nassau married the wealthy Johanna van Polanen from Breda, which was the beginning of the Nassau dynasty.

Park Valkenburg is very green this time of year.
Breda Castle dates back to the 12th century (inherited by the Nassau family through marriage in 1404). Since 1826 it houses the Royal Military Academy (Koninklijke Militaire Academie (KMA)).

Moat around Breda Castle and a storm drain with the logo of Breda!

The Grote Kerk (Large Church or Church of Our Lady, 1547) and the Blind Walls Gallery initiated a contemporary art project Church Inside Out to cover the construction site fence.
From left to right: Grote Kerk text - Pink Panther Paints (Jasmine Roemendael, 2020) / 2 pieces by Franky Sticks (2020) inspired by the fabulous woodcarvings on the ‘mercy seats’ in the choir stalls / Symbols of Death & Life by Kelly Christogiannis (2020)
Manhole cover with Breda's coat of arms.

Statue of Judith with the Head of Holofernes (World War II monument by Niel Steenbergen, 1952). The animal heads at her feet represent the four cardinal virtues: prudence (rooster), fortitude (lion), justice (ostrich), temperance (elephant). (Location: Grote Markt)
Old back exit gate (1615) of the Vleeshal (meat-hall, the only place where fresh meat was allowed to be sold)

View of shoppingstreets (Brugstraat & Vismarktstraat)

I spent quite some time looking for the docking area in the harbour, because I wanted to do a boat tour. Turns out I was the only one, but that didn't matter, I got a private tour on the river Mark all around Breda!

White building is the old post office (1880). View from the water on Breda Castle!

Straight ahead: Folly Lighthouse, art-installation by Aldo Rossi (1992)
On starboard: The Koepelgevangenis (Johan Frederik Metzelaar, 1882) is a former prison (until 2013), constructed as a panopticon. Currently in use as housing for refugees.

Watertower (Jan Schotel, 1893)
Monumental white houses at Generaal van der Plaatstraat in style of Functionalism (F. Mol, 1934)

And we're back at the Breda Castle, the old Post office and the Grote Kerk of Breda. What a lovely relaxing boatride. I make a short walk around the church for some last photos before dinner:)

Old details on Grote Kerk (Large Church or Church of Our Lady, 1547) and new art on the panels covering the restauration site as part of the Church Inside-Out project: artworks by MonkeyBird Crew inspired by the floral ornaments that can be seen on the marble suits of armor in the “Princes' Chapel” and the colorful vault paintings.

Dinner at El Puerto: a Virgin Mojito with strawberry (recommended!), Iberico Grillfingers (boneless spareribs;) and for dessert Moelleux (hot chocolatecake with vanilla icecream and whipped cream)

Statue of Willem III van Oranje-Nassau (1921, Toon Dupuis)
In the city Park I spotted Hercules booty and had to take a closer look :-D

Could not make out what Herculas was leaning on: is that a tentacle? o_O
Cool appartmentbuilding De Poort on the east side of the city Park.

Back at the Nassau-Baronie Monument (Pierre Cuypers, 1904) and the trainstation in the background.
I need my roomkeycard to activate the elevator in the hotel, fancy!

End of day one (and this was only an afternoon, it feels like I've been here a week already)

Day 2: Cyclingtour Murals
On Saturday I slept in a little. With a scheduled walkingtour in the evening, I don't want to walk a lot during the day, so I decided to rent a bike (extremely cheap with my public transport card: only € 4,55 for a full day!). I found information about the Blind Wall project with murals all around Breda which I bring as a guide; I discovered a lot of additional art along the way:)

Yesterday evening I bought a croissant and jam with orange juice at a nearby supermarket, that's my breakfast.
I'm not even two minutes on the way and I come across a glorious fountain, so I have to park my bike and walk around it to take pictures from every angle (don't worry, I'll only share one;-)

La Source - Pascale Marthine Tayou (2018)
Water artwork De Veerman (The Ferryman) where people can share stories on the river (Part of project Love for the Mark)

Mural cyber woman by Super A (Stefan Thelen, 2013)
Imagineer (graphic text) by Ben Eine (2016, series of four texts)

Storytelling (graphic text) by Ben Eine (2016, series of four texts)
Across the water I spotted three words that did not make sense: "via ik Breda"
I learned I missed a word to complete the sentence "Ik ga via Breda" - it's an iron artwork by Nina Lenting (2016) made to be seen from the train; the railway bridge is to the left of my photo. The letters have different heights, but will appear the same size from the right point of view.

This sanitation station is covered with art by Hedof (2015), a famous illustrator from Breda.

Breda Jazz Festiwall by Joren Joshua (2022)
The circle with portraits of all the people in the neighbourhood is not part of the Blind Walls project, but still a cool piece!

Chocolate factory by Frau Isa (2019); two murals in remembrance of the Kwatta Cocoa factory that stood on this site from 1913-1979. The Kwatta soldier was on the wrapper of the chocolate (if you saved enough of them, you could hand them in for a toy soldier), the girl represents the young women who worked in the factory.

I loved the sign on the bicycle path, when my mom saw it she noticed it has 076 in it, the areacode for Breda, so clever!
Another version of the manhole cover with the Breda coat of arms.

Wall inspired by flash tattoo's by tattoo artist Rutger Termohlen (2017)
Black and grey Robo Dino by MCity (2016)

This is where I got off my bike to get some lunch in the city centre. I parked in one of the bicycle parking garages (free;) and strolled into town, where I came across more wall art!

A quote from Hans van Mierlo, spoken on a 1968 congress; art by Bijdevleet (2022) - "We have to create a Revolution before it breaks out." (Hans van Mierlo was co-founder of political party Democrats '66 and later, in 1994, became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs)
Detail of the old back exit gate (1615) of the Vleeshal (Meat-Hall)

Alida & Annie by Levi Jacobs (2021) - painting of a girl, inspired by a portrait of students of the former 'domestic science/home economics school across the street.
In 1849, The Order of Franciscan Sisters settled in that building, which they renamed ‘Liefdegesticht’, the Asylum of Love.

Lunch at Bakkertje Bol: Quiche with forrestfruitsmoothie.
Sint-Antoniuscathedral (1837) with sculpture representing 'Religion'

Interior of Sint-Antoniuscathedral (1837)
Mural Epic Stories by Hedof (2020), Location: Markendaalseweg.

There was a lot of roadwork all around Breda, this warning sign "HEY cyclist", made me laugh, apparently a lot of cyclists ignored the instruction to step off their bikes and walk, so the long text explains it's faster and cheaper to follow the 135m detour instead of risking a 79 euro fine by cycling on the footpath.
Old ice factory (1907-1940) - not icecream, but the production and storage of iceblocks for butchers :-)

I loved the new architecture in Breda, this apartmenttower at the Nieuwenstraat looks like a modern castle!
This tiny building used to be a hotel and catering school which inspired this mural featuring tableware by Maikki Rantala (2016).

Set of murals by Twee Muizen (2019) dedicated to Maria van Antwerpen (1719-1781), a maid from Breda who dressed like a man to enlisted as a soldier three times and married a woman twice (as Jan van Ant/Machiel van Antwerpen).

Mural De Maria Hemelvaartkerk by Isakov (2020)
Wings of Paradise by Hedof (2018)

Graffiti by unknown artists

Ode to St. Joost by Gé Smit (2022) St. Joost is the art academy of Breda, Gé created portraits of (graphic) artists and designers.
The rat mural by Rutger Termohlen, Collin van der Sluijs & Super A (2014) was inspired by the 15th century St Joost chapel. Saint Joost was the patronsaint of people who suffered from the black plague and other contagious diseases.

Part of Ode to Queensday by Stephen ESPO Powers (2014) - From 1891 until 2013 Queensday was a Dutch national holiday to celebrate the Queen's birthday (we did not have a King); in 2014 was the first Kingsday.
In this colourful mural by Mike Perry (2014) there's a hidden poem about Breda by Frank Nicolas

Clowns, Animals & Freaks by Johan Moorman (2015) is inspired by a feud between two rival circuses that arrived in Breda at the same time in 1988.
Monumental building: de Kloosterkazerne / Monastery barracks (1504)

Funky pavement marking to show the way:)
Holy Saint Catherine by Studio Anti-Held (2022) - inspired by a Caravaggio painting (1598) and made to honour city archeology.

Bronze sculpture Walger (Disgusted) - Karel Goudsblom (1994)
Het Wit Lam - Sam van der Weijden (2020), a mural in the Poort van Schoenmakers, in three parts: a map of old Breda on the ceiling + Demeter, godess of agriculture and a White Lamb, together they represent the old farm that used to stand on this location.

Former courthouse (1890, Willem Cornelis Metzelaar)
Sculpture Liefdespaar (Couple in love, 1988, Frank Letterie)

Last stretch of the cycle tour, back to the railroadtracks with two murals underneath the tracks: one on the side of the cars and one next to the sidewalk, together capturing the spirit of Backer & Rueb, builders of steam locomotives.
Crying Trains by Joren Joshua (2018)

The mural is 130 metres long and also features Cornelius (Cor) van Gogh, younger brother of painter Vincent van Gogh, who worked at this factory for a while. The factory was closed in 1993

One last glance at the mural before I rush back to the station to hand in my bicycle and catch the bus to Zundert for that scheduled evening walk.

To be continued.

J.

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(Work)trip to London: discovering Greenwich!

beelikej — Sun, 11 Aug 2024 17:26:05 GMT

Last week(end) I traveled on the Eurostar to England for another businesstrip. I had a day of rest before work, and I decided to visit a part of London that had been on my to-see list for a while: Greenwich Park, the site of the Royal Observatory – the home of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and the Prime Meridian of the world. The trip there and back was even more fun that I had expected; it was such a relaxing, lovely area and I got to go on a fast boat over the river Thames!

Here's a picspam of my adventure :-)

Day 1: travel on the Eurostar(s)

Due to railworks all over the Netherlands, there was no direct train to Rotterdam: I had to change trains and the journey took longer than usual, but hey, more reading time!

Currently the Eurostar is also not going directly to London; due to a renovation of Amsterdam station, there is no space for customs and they temporarily closed customs in Rotterdam as well; all travelers have to go through bagchecks and customs in Brussels before getting on the actual train to London.
As you can see the train does go to France (Yay, Schengen Area!) and I love that they made little Eiffeltowers of the platform roof supports on Rotterdam station.
For worktrips I get to travel first class and on Premier Standard a (cold) meal is served on Eurostar, I chose the Scottish salmon and broccoli quiche, fennel and carrot remoulade, and a delicious white chocolate cheesecake with blackcurrant compote for dessert!

After arriving in London I took the tube and train to my final destination for work (on Monday and Tuesday)

Day 2: daytrip to London

After breakfast I left my backpack really neatly in my hotelroom, because they were gonna try to transfer me to a room with a bath while I was out (didn't happen, oh well)

I loved how the quiet section on the train was explained from the point of view of a quiet traveler.
After train and tube, I got on the DLR for the first time; the Docklands Light Railway is elevated and -especially the part through Canary Wharf- offers really cool views from above.

I got off at Cutty Sark, which is the best stop to reach Greenwich Park (I researched this beforehand:-)

The station exit was on a lovely street with small shops that came out to a large square with this huge glass building with the old tea clipper Cutty Sark (1869) on top of it! Very impressive (It's a museum and you can have an afternoon tea underneath the ship, saving that for a next visit to London!)
Right behind this was the river Thames; I sat down for a while to enjoy the view.

Here are a couple of photos next to each other, panorama style (click to see full size)

From the river I walked towards the park, I popped into the tourist information for a map; the office is housed in the old Royal Navy College, which has a very cool façade.
In front of it a statue of Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618) by William McMillan.

From there I walk to the musuem area at the edge of Greenwich Park, there is a statue of William IV (1765-1837) by Samuel Nixon (1844)
In front of the National Maritime Museum stands Nelson's Ship in a Bottle by Yinka Shonibare (2010).

A 24 hour clock on the gate of the Royal Observatory (set to GMT of course;) and the dome for the Great Equatorial Telescope (I'll climb inside that later)

Standing on the Prime Meridian at 00°00' with one leg in the Western Hemisphere and the other in the Eastern Hemisphere!
The view of London from the Royal Obervatory (can you spot the O2 arena in the East?)

The Royal Observatory was build in 1675 on the ruined foundations of Greenwich Castle. This is Flamsteed house where each Astronomer Royal and his family lived. The red ball on top is the Greenwich Time Ball: every day at 12.55pm it rises half way up its mast and at 12.58pm the time ball rises all the way to the top. At 1pm exactly, the ball falls to provide a signal to ships on the Thames and anyone who wants to synchronize their watch.
I made videos! See the Time Ball go halfway here or Wait (and wait and wait) to watch the Time Ball drop here:-)

Old telescope in the Octagon Room (originally known as the Camera Stellata ('star room'))
South view from the Octagon Room, with in the distance Our Ladye Star of the Sea (Roman Catholic Church).

North-West view from the Octagon Room.
The Observatory is such an interesting place with a whole bunch of rooms on measuring time and determining your location on earth (particularly at sea).
There are lots of different watches and clocks on display; this is a 19th century Chinese dragon fire clock (the lettering is not part of it, that's a reflection on the glass case).

A bus drivers' time recorder by Gledhill Brook (1920s)
In the yard you can see the tube of William Herschel's 40 foot reflecting telescope (1789).

I fear a lot of visitors miss this construction, even though the stairs up the dome are in plain sight, they are in the middle of the tourist shop with a lot of distracting goodies. I did climb up and then went up a spiral staircase to see The Great Equatorial Telescope up close! (It was very quiet there, but so cool with explanations about the telescope and videos of what they discovered with it.

Installed in 1893 and named after the supporting metal structure, called a equatorial mount, which tilts the telescope so it can turn in a plane parallel with the Earth's equator to stay fixed on the stars and planets as they appear to move. (First photo is with my regular camera setting, second is .6 lens to capture the whole installation:)

Astronomia, the Greek muse of astronomy; sculpture on the South Building by William J. Neatby (1890s) - fun fact: he is also the creator of the decorative ceramic work in the meat hall at Harrods.
I sat down in the shade of the Planetarium with a Chai Latte and a sourdough ciabatta with Turkey breast, bacon, Emmental and mayo (I put the tomato and spinach to the side;)

A final look at the massive cone in front of the planetarium (South Building) and then I discover a hidden gate just outside the Observatory with a path going all around to the bottom of the park. I see a butterfly!

A lovely walk through the green park which eventually leads me back towards the riverside (I also visit nearby Greenwich Market).

There's a boat service to Central London that I get on with my Oyster card (Greater London public transport card), I'm thrilled! It goes very fast and takes you along the river with connections to the tube!

I sit inside until the first stop, there enough people get off for me to move to a deck seat with a glass ceiling and excellent view. We go underneath the Towerbridge, so cool!

Best part of my day, wahey!

More bridges \o/ (This is Black Friars bridge).
I get off the boat at Embankment where I do a bit of souvenir shopping before a bit of chilling in the Victoria Embankment Gardens (they have section with beach chairs, very comfy, but hard to get up out of;)

I then take the tube to Oxford Circus and walk to Carnaby Street. This colourful mural depicting London/the Thames by Kristjana S Williams (2012) can be found in Little Marlborough Street.

I have dinner at Mother Mash in Gantonstreet: Champ Irish Mash (with cheddar cheese and spring onions) with a traditional Mince Beef Pie and gravy.

For dessert I have an Apple and Blackberry Crumble with vanilla ice cream.
Back in my hotel I enjoy all the souvenirs and goodies I bought:) What an excellent day!

Day 3 + 4: work, lunch and a swim

Yay, they have hash browns for breakfast.
In between work I lunch with G. at Nando's; I have Peri-Peri Butterfly Chicken with Chips and Garlic Bread. My pink soft-drink is a Strawberry & Dragon Fruit Quencer.

I have discovered a pool nearby and in the evening I take the bus there to go lane swimming for an hour.
For 'dinner' I have a fruited rock cake (with cherries and sultanas), with Cadbury's chocola milkshake and for dessert a Gü Honeycomb Zillionaire, omnomnom.

Day 4: another lucious hotel breakfast :-) We start work half an hour earlier to day to make the most of my limited time here.

For lunch G. and A. take me to a pub and I have a classic Fish & Chips: a freshly battered cod with chips and mushy peas. The meal includes a drink and I choose a Raspberry Refresher (raspberry lemonade, orange juice, lime juice, orange). It's. SO. GOOD!
After my evening swim I do my final shopping at the nearby ASDA (a massive supermarket)

My dinner: Malted bread sandwich with Egg & Cress (that turned out to be so bland, that I gave up after three bites), Pork Puffs and Salt & Vinegar Discos (corn crisps). Drink was my favorite M&S lemonade (fresh and very sour, not available in the Netherlands. While I was in England, I drank nearly a bottle every evening:)
Day 5 breakfast, I will miss you scrambled eggs, sausages and hash browns *happy sigh*.

I had woken up by the sound of a vacuumcleaner, which turned out to be a roomba in the hallway!
I managed to pack all my souvenirs in my backpack, yay!

The Eurostar from London does go all the way to Rotterdam, woohoo!
My lunch: Suffolk chicken with Greek-style spices, tomato and cucumber bulgur wheat salad, tzatziki. Dessert: Mango and passionfruit tart.

I still had to catch two more trains to get to Z., where I cycled home from the station.

The End.

I took so many pictures (There are 10 more photos on my Instagram!) but I also spent a lot of time walking around without making photos. The Royal Observatory is an interactive museum with loads of information on all things related to time and finding our place in the world. I highly recommend a visit!

J.

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Trip to Terschelling

beelikej — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 15:36:07 GMT

Hey hello y'all, I haven't done a proper post in a while (even though I did keep my Booklist up to date;-)
I've been working a lot and traveling* for work in the past few months as well, which I shared at my Instagram instead of here. But even though I get more feedback there, it's not as satisfying as making a full on picspam post, so I'm back here with a new travel report of my personal summervacation trip to Terschelling, one of the islands in the North of the Netherlands.

(*If you missed my earlier 2024 travels, you can find photos of my businesstrip to the UK, here, here and here,
and to Spain, here, here, here (foodpost!) and a final foodpost here, with an intermezzo in Portugal in between here and here :-)

Off the coast of the North of the Netherlands, in the Waddenzee (Wadden Sea) there are 5 small inhabited islands (abbreviated to TVTAS to remember their locations from West to East). I've visited one of them on a highschooltrip a long long time ago (Schiermonnikoog, 1982/1983(?)) and in 2022 I finally made time to see Ameland (see travelblogs: Day 1+2 [LJ] and Day 3+4 [LJ]).

Last year I spent my summervacation on Vlieland (Pics on Instagram: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4:).

This year it was time for the middle T: Terschelling, the Wadden Island furthest across the water to travel to (mainly because of the zigzagging route through the tidal flats) - for me it's an hour by train to Leeuwarden, the capital of the province of Friesland and from there another half an our by local train to the harbour of Harlingen. The ferry across takes about two hours, so all in all a nice long trip to really feel like you're away from it all;-)
Now, without further ado, here's an old fashion picspam with loads of babbling about my most recent travels: Four days on Terschelling!

DAY 1: Arrival and first exploration

Me in the window of the train at Harlingen Haven station, a short stroll away from the ferry.
Statue No Return by Ilse Oelbers (2023) - First in a series of sculptures with the theme of people all over the world moving to find a home.

Leaving Harlingen harbour and watching boats on the water. So pretty!

I so love being on a ferry; reading up on locations on Terschelling to visit.

Land ahoy! That's West-Terschelling with lighthouse The Brandaris.

I pick up my rental bike at the harbour and cycle to the hotel, every room is named after a bird! A sneak peek at the view from my balcony (that I didn't know I had, woohoo, what a lovely surprise)

Left my bags and got on the bicycle again to do a bit of exploring.
I end up at viewpoint Seinpaalduin; on top of that dune you can see the Groene Strand (Green beach)

Groene strand at the north and view on small town West-Terschelling on the south :-)

VIDEO's!

Turning around for a 360 view from Viewpoint Seinpaalduin

View of North-West part of the island, called Groene Strand (Green Beach)

I had dinner in the hotel's fancy restaurant, where the chef only used half the plate to present the Duck with Cranberry sauce, huh. That left room to put my fries :-p
For dessert I had a Millefeuille: puffed pastry layers with raspberries and custard (I had a hot chocolate with whipped cream to go with that)

Then I retired to my luxury room, to read my book in a lovely foamy bath:)

Another teaser of the view from my balcony;-)

DAY 2: A bit of Cycling
I had planned a not too long round trip by bicycle through the dunes to visit the market in nearby town Midsland, with a stop at the Cranberry shed along the way.

Had breakfast on the restaurant's balcony, nice. (I love the Frysian Sugarbread so much, especially delicious with a thick layer of butter. Didn't care for this hotel's sausages and fried eggs though, the rest of the week I stuck to the scrambled eggs.)
Then I did a bit of reading on my own balcony.

Look at my view: tadaah!

A little before noon I got on my bicycle (look at my happy faaaaaace) and first followed the path along the coast for a view of the sandflats.

The landside is very green!
There's a small sculpture park near the water called "Beelden Uit De Zee" - these "Sculptures from the Sea" are made from granite retreived from a sunken Swedish ship (1903) by Yaël Artsi.

Vergaan (Perish) and Zeilen (Sails).

West-Terschelling in the distance behind the anchor.
From the sculpture park I cycled up North, through the woods!

Hidden among the trees is the Cranberry Shed, a teahouse with a small exhibit on the history of cranberries on the island.

Ahw, a pretty butterfly landed on the exhibition pictures (Vanessa Atalanta)
Of course I had to have cranberry lemonade and cranberry cheesecake here :-p

From here I cycled to the dunes and parked my bike to climb one.

On the other side was the North Sea beach.
These guides are called "mushrooms", I have 3.4 kilometers to go to my destination.

Lots of ponds in the dunes, with all sorts of birds.
Cute houses in Midsland, where I walked around the market for a bit.

Meslânzer church from 1880.
I had the BEST chai latte (although I will never understand serving hot drinks in a glass without a handle)

Tasty focaccia with Terschellingerlamsham <3
Just outside Midsland is the old Stryper cemetery, first used as a burial ground around 900 CE.

The cemetery is also part of the saga of the Stryper Wyfke, an old woman that confused a group of English soldiers in 1666. They had already pillaged West-Terschelling and were on their way to the Eastern part of the island, but suspected Dutch reinforcements hidden in the mist. When they asked the woman what was there, she said 'They are standing by hundreds, yet are laying by thousands', she was talking about the graves and buried bodies, but the English misunderstood and ran to leave the island. (Bronse sculpture by Huib Noorlander (1982))

No more distractions the rest of the way back to the hotel, where I displayed my loot from the market:-)

Then I went swimming in the hotel spa swimmingpool (that I hadn't known was there! I had already looked up access to the local public pool, but this was SO MUCH BETTER!)
After my swim I cycled to town to have dinner at The Drunken Sailor: a Halfling Buger (Smashbuger with bacon jam, cheese and wafle fries) with a Mocktail called Copperhead (Copperhead gin 0.0 with Fevertree Elderflower tonic).

After dinner I checked out the lighthouse Brandaris up close; it's the elderst still working lighthouse in the Netherlands, built in 1594.

Before returning to the hotel I got an icecream frog Sundae for dessert and sat down at the marina.
Discovered a monument dedicated to The Lutine, a frigate which served in both the French Navy and the Royal Navy (UK) that sunk during a storm in 1799 between Vlieland and Terschelling whilst carrying a large shipment of gold. Shifting sandbanks disrupted salvage attempts, and the majority of the cargo has never been recovered.

DAY 3: A horse-drawn wagon
I have made a reservation for a tour in the afternoon. Until then I'm relaxing at the hotel :-)

After breakfast and a bit of reading on the balcony, I'm off to the spa pool again. This time I have some time by myself and I can take pictures of the cool design!

There's a shallow 30cm pool next to the big 1.40m pool and there are comfy chairs inside and out. I could easily spent all day here! But I want to see some more of Terschelling too.

So I catch the bus right in front of the hotel to the East of the island to the Puur Horse Stables.

I'm early enough to see all the preparations for the rides up close and to watch the horses getting harnassed in front of the wagon.

And then we're off in the horse-drawn wagon! The tourguide has a lot to tell about everything we see.
The farm in the distance is right near the sea and is only accessible in summer; in the winter the water will cover the floodplain, which is all the land as high as halfway up the building.
The goats are very sufficient lawn mowers, taking care of exotic bushes that threaten to take over local thicket;-)

We explore nature park Boschplaat; so many beautiful views. The weather is perfect too: sunny with a lovely breeze.

We ride through the dunes (and have to step out of the wagon to lighten the load for the horses going over)

The North Sea! A Cormorant!

It is very exciting to gallop across the beach :-D
The horses and we get a short break on the beach with coffee/tea and Terschellinger poundcake.

Enjoying my tea, cake and the sea <3

Then it's time to head back from the salt to the sweet water side.

I fear my heel spur can't handle the steep climb from this end, so I stay with the other old people on the wagon and am greatful the horses can pull us uphill here.

The colourful flag of Terschelling waves us goodbye before we head into the wetlands.

The water behind the purple heath is a cranberry field, which was already supposed to be dry by now, so they are not sure if they can still be harvested (It's been a very wet spring).

More gloriously purple heath *chinhands*
This was such a great tour of Terschelling, recommended!

The busstop is right in front of the stables with a cute little shelter where I have my late lunch (cheese/ham/egg sandwich and orange yoghurt drink)

I discover a swallow's nest right under the roof!

Tried to capture the only windmill on the island from the bus.
Back at the hotel I settle myself on my balcony with a book again and finish my lunch with a local delicacy: an "appelmeisje" (applegirl) pastry.

And I listened to a big discussion between some birds:

It's a Scholekster (Eurasian oystercatcher) - can you spot it? It's on top of the roof, on the left edge. This loud one woke me up every day with its chatter :-D

In the early evening I'm off to the pool on the second floor again and after an hour's swim I get on my bicycle to go into town for dinner.

A short sightseeing stop at the watchful eye house "Het Wakend Oog", an old watch house where the fishermen could shelter while keeping an eye on their ships during low tide. Its official name is Willem Barentsz house, after the Dutch navigator, cartographer, and Arctic explorer (1550-1597) who famously got stuck with his crew in the ice at Novaya Zemlya after discovering Spitsbergen and Bear Island.
I eat at the somewhat dingy Heksenketel (Witch's Cauldron): I order bread with garlic sauce as a starter which I devour.

As a main I have cordon bleu with fries (I don't touch the swampy vegetables - chicory and rhubarb.)
There are witch puppets on the ceiling and there's an effort to make the lighting spooky.

To visualize the contempt from the serving staff: notice how they put the cutlery right on top of the sugary pancake I ordered for dessert. Joke's on them though, as I don't care. I had wanted a pancake every since I got to the island and I'm having it with icecream and whipped cream, sticky cutlery be damned. :-p
From the restaurant I do another touristy walk and come across these lovely tiles.

I then cycle to the western end of the island to see the Zeeliedenmonument by Gosse Dam (1993), in memory of all the Terschellinger sailors who lost their lives at sea.

I watch a glorious sunset across the 'Green Beach' and the Wadden Sea

Back at the hotel I park my bicycle in the basement and enjoy the moon from my balcony before going to bed. What a day!

DAY 4: A museum visit
Final morning on the island, the ferry leaves at 12:30, which gives me some time for final souvenirs and a quick visit to the museum!

Oooh, they offer pecan pastry for breakfast today.
I shower and pack afterwards.

I have two more bags than when I arrived; one is carrying my raincoat, which I had only needed on day 1 and the other is filled with souvenirs:-)
I cycle to the harbour where I hand in my bike before I walk to the Behouden Huys museum, a versatile interactive museum about the history of Terschelling.

I'm fascinated by the walkingsticks made out of shark vertebrae, but my favorite exhibition space is the one dedicated to painter Anthon van Rappard (1858-1892), who spent some time on Terschelling. In his late twenties and early thirties he was a close friend of Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) and they wrote each other a lot, criticising each other's sketches and paintings. (Right up until Anthon was a little too negative to Vincent's liking). There's a brutal letter with Anthon's comments on The Potato Eaters (De Aardappeleters - 1885) on display, which I would say is indeed harsh but fair.

More fun stuff at the museum: a chair covered with sperm whale penis leather (yes, you read that correctly;) and glorious 3D street art picturing the view from the Brandaris lighthouse.

I love this effect so much, look at that distorted seagull! Having the top as a real 3D object is a great finishing touch.

The museum took its name from the wooden shed Willem Barentsz and his crew build on Novaya Zemlya to protect them from polar bears.
The funky moss on the roof is houseleeks (also known as liveforever/Sempervivum), which purportedly can be used for severy health benefits.

An example of a classic livingroom, I particularly loved the corner cabinet and all the tiles.

The unicorn tile is my favorite <3
I would have spent more time in the museum, but I have to make my way to the ferry half an hour before departure.

I find a lovely spot on a bench at the side of the boat where I have a view of Terschelling for a while.

When we zigzag through the sand plates, all of a sudden we get stuck; all that sand in the water is the captain trying to get the boat out of it! He managed to get the boat moving again and explained that they had to move out of the way of some yacht, woah!
After that excitement the rest of the journey is smooth and relaxing with great views of the sea.

I have a little snack on board (apple juice with bitterballen, whoopwhoop) and snap this sunny photo of the lighthouse in Harlingen from the train back. (Notice the statue beneath it, looking up and the lion on the side of the red roof:-)

I had an excellent time \o/ The end.

My next work-trip will be in about two weeks, to England again and I'm currently working towards the big biannual international conference in September), destination to be revealed later; (What is my life?!)

In between work and travels I also participated in another Phase of Land of Art, I will share graphics in the near future (promise;)

J.

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Booklist 2024

beelikej — Sun, 14 Jan 2024 15:32:14 GMT

This was my sort of comment-to-be-added-sticky-post for 2024.
Now it's just a list of the books I read this year.
You can find my current reading-list on top of my LJ and DW:)

What I read in 2024
How this list works: Book(s) I am in the middle of | ~~Books I have read~~ + date | link to review (or credit;) | DNF = Did not finish (gave up)

MY 2024 BOOKLIST
Left over books from 2023 (and before)

~~Le Deuxième Sexe - Simone de Beauvoir~~ (Dutch translation, August 2021) DNF JAN2024

Zwerfgoed - Katinka Polderman & Sophie Reinders (October 2021)

Skulls, Portraits of the Dead - Paul Gambino (2021 Birthdaygift from Mom)

Terra Ultima - Raoul Deleo (December 2022)

Christmas Books - Charles Dickens (2022 Birthdaygift from T.)

~~The Future is Female, volume 2 - the 1970s~~ (2022 Birthdaygift from brother H.) 10 JAN.

Jheronimus Bosch, Visioenen van een Genie - Matthijs Ilsink & Jos Koldeweij (February 2023)

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde (Kickstarter Black edition, February 2023)

~~Librorum Ridiculorum - Brian Lake~~ (March 2023) 15 JULY

~~Faces in the Water - Janet Frame~~ (March 2023) 31 JAN.

~~Zwolle 40-45 - Herman Aarts & Paul Harmens~~ (May 2023) 20 MAY

De Schone Slaper e.a. verhalen - Jan Vander Laenen (June 2023) Note: NSFW!!

~~Kindred - Octavia E. Butler~~ (September 2023) 15 MAR.

~~The Periodic Table Of Feminism - Marisa Bate~~ (October 2023) 17 JUNE

~~The Little Book of Shakespeare's Insults - Stella Caldwell~~ (October 2023) 14 NOV.

~~The Return of the Soldier - Rebecca West~~ (October 2023) 7 MAR.

~~A View of the Harbour - Elizabeth Taylor (née Coles)~~ (October 2023)1 NOV

~~The Weather in the Streets - Rosamond Lehmann~~ (October 2023) 30 DEC

~~This Book Will Send You To Sleep - K. McCoy & Hardwick [UK edition]~~ (November 2023) 16 MAY

This Book *Will* Put You To Sleep - K. McCoy & Hardwick [USA edition] (November 2023)

~~Loitering with Intent - Muriel Spark~~ (November 2023) 15 FEB.

Added in December 2023

~~Fortuna's Kinderen - Annejet van der Zijl~~ (Sinterklaas 2023) 28 SEP.

~~Het Lied van Ooievaar en Dromedaris - Anjet Daanje~~ (Sinterklaas 2023) 15 NOV.

~~Small Things Like These - Claire Keegan~~ (2023 Birthdaygift from T.) 24 JAN.

Het Onofficiële Kookboek voor Harry Potter Fans - Tom Grimm (2023 Birthdaygift from Mom)

~~jl. - Anjet Daanje~~ (2023 Birthdaygift from Mom) 21 APR.

~~De Herinnerde Soldaat - Anjet Daanje~~ (2023 Birthdaygift from J.) 16 JULY

~~The Boy, the Mole, The Fox and the Horse; the Animated Story - Charlie MacKesy - NLD translation by Arthur Japin~~ (2023 Birthdaygift from M.) 9 DEC.

Added in January

~~The Communist Manifesto - Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels~~ 4 APR.

~~The Atheist's Mass - Honoré de Balzac~~ 25 MAR.

~~A Single Man - Christopher Isherwood~~ 6 OCT.

Added in March

~~Just Stab Me Now - Jill Bearup~~ 20 MAY

Added in May

~~Dracula - Bram Stoker~~ 14 SEP.

Powers of Darkness (The Lost Version of Dracula) - Valdimar Ásmundsson

~~Kinderen Krijgen Is Optioneel - Marloes de Vries~~ 25 MAY

Added in May

De Opoponax - Monique Wittig (FR)

~~Vrouwenguerrilla - Monique Wittig (FR)~~ 9 JULY

~~3Pak2019 - o.a. Joost Klein~~ 26 JUNE

Added in July

~~De Chocolade Villa - Maria Nikolai~~ 3 AUG [Review-in Dutch;)

Added in August

De Grote Van Gogh Atlas - Nienke Denekamp & René van Blerk

Added in November

Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

~~Heartburn - Nora Ephron~~ 2 DEC

Added in December

Ongemakkelijke Mensen - Elly Biesters (Sinterklaas 2024)

Buried Deep - Naomi Novik (Sinterklaas 2024)

Moresnet - Philip Dröge (Sinterklaas 2024)

Happy Reading! ~ J.
What I read in 2023 [DW] / 2022 [DW] / 2021 [DW] / 2020 / 2019 / 2018 / 2017 / 2016 / 2015 / 2014 / 2013 / 2012 / 2011 / 2010 / 2009 / 2008
My old archive of alphabetized book reviews / Readingcommunity thej2bee LJ