31 Aug 2018

FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

Photo memes are here



Meanwhile it is one week that I am home again, and I have to say that the first two days I felt like a fish in the water, but then all the accumulated fatigue  came out  as now I feel like a marmot, without any energy ! Twice I fell asleep watching TV which usually never happens ! I gather all my energy I have left to  use for my photos and of course the strictly necessary household scores.

I am really happy that I have done this tour, it will be probably the last big one. From now on I have to choose smaller once  to still see a little bit of the world.

I continued to sort out my photos, and I get new once from my travel friends who had taken pictures of me.

Summer seems to be over, at least Mr. G. put the ventilator away, this year we won't need it anymore.


Work done for this year

A few of our painting class met to paint although there are no classes because there are still school holidays in Belgium. School starts Monday, as the first of September is a Saturday.

Our Facebook group "Vivre à Waterloo" (Living in Waterloo) has organized a "Country Evening" in a restaurant at the end of the month





We wanted to "test" the restaurant as my friends had never been there and for me it was a long time ago when we celebrated our son's birthday.

The lunch was excellent, and the restaurant huge, enough space for everybody ! It certainly will be a nice evening.

Maybe for the last time this year we could play scrabble at Nicole's on her terrace and it was nice and warm outside. Her little cat Isis cross eyed at us, poor thing had fallen from a wall inside while sleeping and had broken her hind paw.



Fortunately tomorrow the bandage will be taken off.



I must admit it's hard to get back to routine life, my head is still full of memories of the beautiful things I have seen.





more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.

28 Aug 2018

NORTHERN EXPLORE COUNTRY TOUR - WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY




 Babushkas in St. Petersburg


more participants here



Since I arrived home last Thursday I try to put some order in my photos of my trip  and at least start some stories, but I realize,  now that I am very tired and have to recuperate this 3 week long travel, "in the bus, out the bus". Therefore I have to wait to describe more detailed what I have seen in my Travel blog later. This is only an overview.

It had been wonderful !

We have started in Amsterdam with a dinner boat tour and could see a lot. Of course for me it was not new as my son lives in Amsterdam, but the city center I hadn't seen since a long time. 



The 1990 ship replica of the Amsterdam in front of the National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam



NEMO Science Museum

We left Amsterdam early morning and drove to Hamburg





The ruins of the Church of St. Nicholas (St.-Nikolai-Kirche) Bombing of Hamburg in World War II destroyed the bulk of the church and its rubble was removed leaving its crypt, its site and tall spired tower, serving as a memorial and an important architectural landmark

then to Copenhagen in Denmark.



Of course we saw the city symbol "the little mermaid" and listened to the story behind



A view of Copenhagen's city center

Our next stop was Stockholm



Colorful houses


The Royal palace

We then arrived in Helsinki



Uspenski Cathedral in Katajanokka. A  little outside



and street life in Helsinki.

An overnight ferry took us from Helsinki to St. Petersburg






and all it's treasures

We left Russia for the Baltic countries, first Tallinn in Estonia







A quaint little town which is part of the European Union and we could pay in Euros again !

The next day we visited Riga, (Latvia)



There were 140 large plastic bears for peace from all countries installed in the center of Riga's historic Old Town.



A very animated nice town which I liked very much

Our next stop was in Vilnius (Lithuania)





A little similar but bigger

and then on our way to Warsaw we stopped for lunch in Trakai





a beautiful holiday place at a lake

Then we arrived in Warsow



a very modern town



With a perfectly restored city center which had been totally destroyed during WW II

On our way to Berlin we had a stop in Poznan


Poznan


Colorful city center and a real nice town

and then we arrived in Berlin




Out of our bus I could take this picture of the remains of the famous wall



The Brandenburger Tor, which separated East and West Berlin

Our tour ended with a stop in Hannover





of which I only saw the shops and the station but it seems also to be a nice town.

Our tour ended with a long trip back to where we started .... in Amsterdam.






more participants here





26 Aug 2018

BACK HOME

Routine life should have started, but I still feel as if I wasn't completely here !

The first thing I did when I came home was going to the hairdresser I thought I looked like a witch, only the broom was missing. In fact it was not missing but I didn't fly on it !

 

After that I felt a little better. I am still surprised that I, that lazy girl who doesn't like to walk made 177 km ! Everybody knowing me made eyes like my Rosie


and just can't believe it.

Meanwhile I had my suitcase unpacked and the laundry done, but the clothes are still in the basket, I have to fold them and I hate doing it. So I wait that a friendly ghost comes over night and will fold it ! As Mr. G. has two left hands and my cats refuse to work, I think at the end it will be me !



These are the pictures of my trip ! I think it must be well over 1600 ! Probably I have pictures in double and triple and of course I don't remember the places. It's all mixed up in my head !



I fear it will take some time until I get some order in this mess. I need them for my travel blog.

Finally I had enough of thinking what and how to do with all these pictures and followed Nicole for an afternoon drink. We ended up at the Waterloo Lion mount and to our surprise there was a dog festival there !



We sat down on the terrace of the Brasserie, it was a bit cold, but we watched the dog owners, and thought that we had never seen so many dogs of all kinds together !

So the day went by and I hope from tomorrow on I will be a bit more organized !