Top Shots: Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg

De Dutch fishing at Kinderdijk:

Paris playing at our lakeside picnic:

Tony loving his bike in the back alley:

Zeeland cows:  

Antwerp Dogs:

$5 worth of pralines from the Rubens market = one happy Kje: 

Afternoon of Eminence at Battle of Waterloo site. "I am standing where Napoleon stood!":

La Roche-en-Ardenne Castle:  

Mardasson Memorial at the Bastogne Historical Centre (Battle of the Bulge):

Luxembourg City gorgeous gardens view:

Kje thoroughly enjoying himself in the Charleroi Museum of Photography:

Ypres.... so much to remember. In Flanders Fields Museum. Listening to the Last Post and Reveille ceremony. Walking through trenches. Walking through rows of graves. 

Sail 2010 in Amsterdam:

Rembrandt. Van Gogh. I am tired of museums:

Solemn memories from Anne Frank Huis, photos of kittens from KattenKabinet cat museum: 

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol & British Airways, home away from home:

Stayokay Cube Houses

Very, very cool hostel in Rotterdam. It's true, Rotterdam is an outdoor museum of architecture. ( I love this picture of the boys... natural.)

Dear Red Bike

It's been almost two months since we last saw each other, and I wanted you to know that I really miss you and think about you all the time! Really. I miss your strong pedals and your grippy bars and your shiny red coat. I miss your kickstand, too. And your lock. I really miss your lock, cause it was just so cool and I wish all the time I still had you and your lock with me. I miss locking you up by the church in Middleburg (you know the one) before we headed to the flea market and found that basket of Smurfs and even though I didn't buy any I still wish I had. I miss Papa Smurf. I miss your speed and agility as we rode by cows and "mini-campings" and cute country homes. And the way you turned me when we soared on the blue path right by the turn to the green path and we had to backtrack. You know, you really kicked my ass that day - for the entire 38 kilometres...well, okay, perhaps just the last 18 - and the memory of it still hurts.

p.s. I hope your bell isn't rusty yet.

I like Kinderdijk!

Nothing better than a day at a UNESCO world heritage site with a digital SLR and an empty memory stick. Here are a few of my favourites from our walk along the pathways that connect the nineteen windmills at Kinderdijk.

(Okay, so this first one is actually from Zaanse Schans windmill village, not Kinderdijk, but it's my favourite so I had to add it.)

(Okay, now you are in Kinderdijk, honest...)

Cougars, Bears, Oh My!

I seem to recall writing a post about this a few years ago, but I can't find it. It was one of Kje's first weeks of school in Victoria. I asked him about his day and he mentioned digging for worms in the dirt pile, catching snakes and a salamander in the snake pit,crawling through blackberry bushes to the cougar pit  (sorry if you have heard this story before & I'm boring you) and then getting stung by a bee after he put his hand in a bush too close to the hive. It was then I knew Victoria was the right place for us.

A school with snakes, salamanders, bees, blackberry bushes and cougars was better than a school with needles, broken glass, homes for the homeless and used condoms.

So... guess what Kje said about school today? He was going to play on the rock pile (you know, the one with the mosquito pools) and his Principal told him he had to go inside immediately as a bear was spotted on the rock pile this morning. Yep, a real live bear.

So, I said, what happened to the bear?

Nothing, he said, they just let it do its own thing.

Hmmmm...... just another day on the island.