Juli at home

Let's stay in Zeeland for a while. Oosterscheldekering. Finally I saw the big dams!!!! Just look at this! Amazing!

There is a visitor's centre on an artificial island beside the dam, and you can walk under it, very cool!! You can feel the power of the water.

Rotterdam again, our friend Juli with the Erasmusbrug.

This is near Utrecht, De Haar castle. You can go inside and see quite some nice rooms. To be honest they reconstructed it in the 19th century but the owners wanted it to look medieval, so there is even a knight's room and things like these. Very nice place to visit, and you would never think that you may find such a place in Holland!!!!

This is it for NL this time. I should start taking pictures of Schiphol I visit it so often. :) By the way, do you know what Sciphol means? It means 'ship hole', and the expression comes from the middle ages, when a lot of ships wrecked in the lake aside Haarlem, where the airport is also situated. So it is actually something like the Bermuda triangle.... good omen isn't it?

Püsz,

J.

I was just thinking about renaming my blog. It is supposed to be about Juli at home, but apparently I always post something if I go abroad.... I guess this just shows the real me. I can't be at one place all the time. I just have to go and do things and once in a while travel around, let that be personal matters or work or study. I just can't sit on my ass doing nothing. Ok maybe too exaggerated.
A week ago I left for the Netherlands, for one full week!!! Very pleasant trip I must say. The worst weather I saw this year :-P Even snow was the first real snow.... This globe is just getting crazy on this. Anyway, my week was just perfect in all terms. Let me show you a bit of Holland which was also new for me. (yes yes imagine this, I haven't become a real native after 3 and a half months)This is Rotterdam. I took this picture from the top of the Euromast. (mast=tower) The cafeteria up there is very trendy :) The white bridge is the Erasmusbrug, but I guess I already showed you before. Now this is the harbor on the city side, the heart of R'dam.

This is also R'dam. Behind me is the so-called 'pencil-house' and beside that the cubic residences and Blaak train&metro station. Very modern, but I guess they look funny and together they show a homogenous picture. Behind the cubic houses there is a cozy little harbor where you have restaurants and bars, and it is very nice in the summer to sit outside there. (Haven't told you that i guess... but it is really cool!!)

For the first time I also moved outside the Randstad. Now I also got to know Zeeland better. In the morning waking up was like finding yourself in winter wonderland. Snow everywhere, on the trees, very nice view, exactly like that you are hoping for around Christmas. Although it only lasted for a day, was very nice. (And I didn't have to go home with bus 28 so I didn't mind. LOL)This is Middelburg. Very nice city in the middle of the southern peninsula of Zeeland. Still snow on the roofs. :)

Still Middelburg, the Flemish style city hall. Similar to the one in Gouda, not very common in Holland, you find a lot more of these in Belgium.

End of Vol. 1.

Still Killarney. This place is just along a narrow curlicued road heading to Killarney. The view is just amazing, they call it 'Ladies view'. Even in winter you can enjoy these breathtaking sights, so I highly recommend to go whenever you'd like to. Although just try to imagine the same view in green, full of flowers... so maybe summer is a better choice :)

Next day we started off for the 'Ring of Kerry', and this beach is just there. Picturesque, isn't it? I mean there are mountains (or let's call them hills instead) are around you on the coast, and the beach is sandy, AND there is absolutely NOBODY there. (in winter LOL) The sea is cold, so only enjoyable for a nice walk along the beach. Very romantic, the noise of the sea just echoes soft, and that is the only thing you hear.

Going a few miles around the peninsula you may find really old ruins, such as a 2000 year old fortress or this very early medieval castle. And you know what? The country is full of these monuments, you can't even see them all.

Now this place was amazing. The best of all. 'Cliffs of Moher' on the northwestern coast. All those cliffs you see behind me I have climbed them! (Climb I mean walking along the edge of the rock) Sometimes it was very frightening to look under, but I never went to close to the edge and there was no wind, so there was no danger of falling, even though that the area was closed. Nobody cared about that, just climbed the fence and went. Absolutely worth it!! Suddenly you feel the power of nature and feel so small and weak, and the only thing you can do is wonder around and marvel how did you get here. Fantastic!!!

Hugs,

J.

Some pictures from Ireland, here it goes.... Sadly I can't upload all here, I can only show 4 pics at one time.... pity isn't it? Or would you see all my 2000 pics? :-P Kiddin there, I am trying my best to show you the most remarkable places where I have been these days.This is Kilkenny castle. This city was the first we actually saw in daylight, and therefore had big impact to see the small Irish cities. Although we had dinner in an Indian restaurant, so we couldn't check out the local stuff, but in return we got lot of food for free valued about 25-30 euros. I mean what could we do? Just ate and drank :)

This is a very small city in the south of Ireland, and they do fishing for a living. It is called Kinsale. Now this place was just sweet. Very empty though and nobody on the streets. Ok on weekday work time maybe everybody is at work, but still. Maybe I am just too spoilt for always have been living in a big city. (Including Delft, LOL)

After leaving the southern coast we went west, and headed to Killarney. We were disturbed by bad weather: heavy rain and strong wind, so we actually spent 2 days here, and saw the quiet places on the first day, and then did the Ring of Kerry tour on the second day with a lot better weather. Close to Killarney you can find waterfalls in the forest, where everything is covered by moss, and this tone of green is so vivid that you feel yourself in a fairytale or something.

End of Vol.1.