No, I am not moving to Amsterdam, this is the window shop of De Bijenkorf in Rotterdam. I have tried and tried but couldn't find anything on this event. The Rijksmuseum has an awesome site btw, with lots of info and a special art widget you can download which gives you daily info on one of their art pieces.

Dierenkliniek Blijdorp. We are about to go on holiday so our cats had to have their yearly vaccination. They were pretty chill about it all. And for those crooks out there with a smile on their face; wipe it off, coz we've got house sitters the whole period!
Posting will go on but I won't be able to respond for a couple of weeks. Hope to see you all back safe and healthy then!

Nieuwe Binneweg. Now tell me, this could be Athens too right? Or Moskow. No sir. Downtown Rotterdam, the towers of the Paradijs kerk.

Willemskade. I wonder how many tourists have taken (or will take) this photo too. A pair of clogs, tulips and tourist cards right next to the shop where they sell tickets for the Spido boat.

The old harbour with the cube houses in the back. For Dutch standards we are having quite a decent summer and at night, the terraces are filled.

Witte de With, Seems like they all had a moment here. Anyway the girl in the back is Sushma Batti, the 28 yr old officially chosen Queen of this years Summer carnival.

Thomas Mannplaats. Today is the day of the Summer carnival so I am hoping the weather will be better than when I took this photo a couple of days ago and no one was brave enough to sit on his balcony.

Folkert Elsingastraat. In our flat country there is hardly a hill let alone a mountain to be found if you want to go ski ing during the winter. What we do have is several indoor halls where you can practice. You are standing (on your skis) on some sort of conveyer belt that rolls under you, surrounded by mirrors to see and correct yourself. If you want to give it go, you'll have to wait till september, coz they are closed right now.

Kralingse Bos, petting zoo. Het Kralingse Bos or Kralingse Woods is almost 100 years old and has a (nude) beach, several restaurants, a big lake and a couple of petting zoos where this nosy peacock came towards me. It's a great place to relax and attracts both couples or groups of friends aswell as families with small children.

Schepenstraat. Now we have had some serious rain and thunder last night, but nothing that could make up for this muddy bike. In a country with about 16,000,000 people I learned from the net that we have 18,000,000 bikes. My guess is this one was dug up from the nearby pond and has just started its 2nd life.

Pompenburg, The 'Nieuwe Delfstse Poort'. One of the 10 city gates the city counted in the Middle ages. The 'Delftse Poort was blocking the upcoming traffice about 80 years ago and it was decided to move the gate about 100 mtrs. Soon after 1939 however, when they started these works, the city was bombed and most of the gate destroyed.
Some 50 years later this new gate arose, designed by Cor Kraat.

While driving over the A13 last week, I spotted this tiny plane with a banner that said: Jill do you want to marry me?
Is there anyone out there who has a clue to her answer?

Dudok's famous apple tart.
It's been a weird week. Not only did my mother die, my eldest turned 10 too. And when we picked him up from sailing camp yesterday (and brought him the news) we did celebrate. He was so sad though, he wasn't in the mood for cake.
Thank you all for your kind words and prayers during this time!

My mum passed away yesterday afternoon.
I won't be posting this week and hope you to see all back on a brighter day.

Coolsingel. Today is the last day of the North Sea Jazz festival in Rotterdam. I doubt whether you can still get tickets, unless on the black market, but if you can, go see Herbie Hancock tonight or Wynton Marsalis, David Sanborn or Jamie Cullum!

The summer holiday officially started in our region today. The Netherlands is divided into 3 regions during the vacations in order to spread traffic and avoid too much hectic. If you have 2 kids in different schools and locations you may have a problem yourself with this settlement :)
To put your bag next to the flag on the pole, means you passed your exams, so there's a happy kid living here.

Herbs at the marketplace. Big bags for 5 euro, say 7 dollars.

Baden Powellaan; Het Heerenhuys (the Masters House). This majestic house dating back till 1800 can now be used as a meeting place or weddding location.

Erasmusbridge. After last weeks abundance of sunshine we've had our share of rain these days. Makes for pretty clouds though.

Westersingel. This art piece "Elevazione"by Guiseppe Penone, is a bronze 'tree' connected with 5 real trees that grow over it to show the force of nature.

View on the Montevideo tower and a tiny Hotel New York next to it, seen from the Veerhaven.

Nenijto. We've had some beautiful weather the last week and these girls are enjoying their "raket" (rocket) ice cone. This icecream has been the best selling 'water' ice cream since the 60 -ies!

Grote Kerkplein. Right across from the humanist Erasmus is the statue for Marjolein Kriek who is the first woman to have her DNA sequence determined.
Her statue is placed there because of Reboot, a project about thinking and acting in an artificial world.

Beukelsdijk. The pharmacy also has a shopping area and in the window shop you can see that children all over the world like to play dokter and nurse. What makes it Dutch again is the blue tiled wrapping paper behind it.

Race track Nenijto. The annual sports day of my children's school couldn't have happened on a sunnier day! We've had some terrific weather the past days, with averages of 27/28 degrees Celsius (80/82 Fahrenheit). Fingers crossed it will still be nice during the weekend!

First of the month and todays theme gave me a headache; Empty.
I know for many people, a fire or the sea or clouds like these ones, empties their heads.

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