zur uel

In ratingerstrasse this is the usual hang-out for my colleagues and occasionally I join them for a drink on wednesday night. Ein Alt, or more, depends how I feel. The aubergine is the only vegetarian dish on the menu, and probably the one with the most calories in it.

suttons

The irish pub in the center of the Altstadt. I was there with some colleagues on the occasion of their 20th anniversary or something. Really bad cover band, but they had fun. And I had a nice conversation about future things, plans, ideas...

anna karenina

After four months of reading I finally finished this 942 pages book of Tolstoj. Quite a story it is, and although it was hard to get into the writing style, in a while I really started to appreciate it. The story developes itself slowly, but at the end of the book I noticed that quite a lot had happened. It is fascinating how someone cn get so caught up in his (inthis case her) own mind. And although you expect the book to be entirely about Anna, it is about Lewin also half of the time. Haven't figured out yet why thi is done exactly. And I am sure Tolstoj had a reason or it. Same as all the bits and pieces hwere he criticizes teh Russian society and politics from different angles, by having different characters. I can recommend this book to anyone!

thermen prinsejagt

After a long day strolling through Antwerp, Tjitske and decided to relax in the sauna. Somewhere halfway between Antwerp and Dusseldorf is Eindhoven and thanks to my little sister we were able to find a nice one just at the north of this brabant city. And quite surprising it was a really nice one, modern interior and plenty of facilities. Outside it looked more like a sport hall, but inside it was like what you expected from a sauna. We had to rent everything and it wasn't even that expensive.

na ni wa

This is absolutely one of the best places for Sushi in Dusseldorf. Although it is the first one I visited, it was just very good food and I will certainly come back there. A whole platter is way too much though, so I can do with smaller portions.

karbonkel

The guy that served us definitely had too much to do for just him. Hence, now I realize how much a waiter actually determines about a place. The terrace was however lovely in the sunny side of the Antwerp Groenmarkt. This is where we had lunch, nice ciabattas.

happy-go-lucky

This is a very very happy making sweet smiling movie. Nothing wrong with it! It also has this side where you realize that there are people that you only try to help, but are not able to help. Screaming at them, speak to me, open yourself, let it all out, you are your own prisoner and all you can do is blame the world and not yourself (where it is actually the other way around). I could identify myself with this girl and am happy there is finally a movie about it, and not about that she is finally hapy because she has found love.

marnix bed & breakfast

From the website this bed & breakfast looked really idyllic and personal. Then you always have to see what you get when getting there. And luckily the expectations were met. We had a nice japanese decorated room, that was maintained with care. A good bed and breakfast was also OK in the livingroom downstairs. On sunday the street had a streetparty so we had to park the cars somewhere else.
Because I was living in Dusseldorf instead of Groningen, we had to travel separate form each other to Antwerp, that was a bit of a shame, but in the end it was a really nice and relaxing weekend!

mata mata pili pili

On our first night in Antwerp we had to find a nice restaurant in the dark. This is quite hard....! but the day after it appeared we were quite close to a whole lot of them. However we ended up in this African restaurant at the hoofdstraat (near sweet and seksie). It was really nice food!! Especially the spicy pumpkin soup as a starter I can recommend!

zuiderterras

Just walk along the Schelde in Antwerp and you will find this restaurant/cafe on an elevated platform. We had a coffee here, before going into the city centre and do some shopping. Nice view, but weird staff, and coffee wasn't the best. It looked like they had nice breakfasts.

tapas bar in amersfoort

I really can't remember the name of this restaurant anymore... Can't find it on internet either. Itw as somehwere in spring that I agreed with Joost to meet in Amersfoort; halfway between Delft and Groningen. THis way we could have a chat and some food, adn didn't need to travel 3 hours. THe food was ok, what I can remember of it and it is just much nicer to see each other when talking to each other, instead of on the phone.

carlsplatz

This is the usual lunch place while in Dusseldorf. On first sight, you think there are many places to eat, but then again after a few weeks it drizzles down to just a few. I mostly go for italian, sometimes indian and sometimes fish.

wohlfuehl apartment

I staid in this apartment for a few weeks, during my stay in Dusseldorf. The owner of the apartment is a really nice lady called Edith Wingartz. She has taken great care of the apartment. One is called Lavender and the other one is called Rose, and they are decorated accordingly. It is a bit further from the old town, but I have my own parking spot and it is really close to the drive way.

keulen

We were here for business. I had a good dinner with Liliane on the first night, we decided not to join the guided tour, as we didn't feel like going with the other people. We didn't know the kolsch principle, so they kept on coming with beer.
The second night we had a social event in the tiger club or something. A performance of one of the cabaret artists that subscribed to the website of kabadu was although nice, a bit stupid as well. The game of the European championship of Germany was much better to look at. Here as well, we left early.

orangerie

This hotel is in the backyard of the vodafone office, just around the corner. Although well maintained it is not particular interesting. I stayed here the first weeks when I was in Dusseldorf.

strandfeest schevingen

I forgot of the name of the place, but the weather was good, food ok and music also fine. We had soem good dance and nice conversations with new people we hadn't met before. Fleur and I just booked our trip to India the night before, so we were completely hyper and full of energy. We stayed the night at Pascal, quite conveneient we could sleep in his bed and he slept on a small matress on the floor.

silke hurtz yoga

I started to follow an Ashtanga Yoga Class in Dusseldorf. I was introduced to this class through Sara. I really like the kind of yoga, as it is a bit more intensive then I was used to. Following in german was first quite hard, but after a while I got familiar with the movements and it became a bit relaxing as well.

drinken en ontbijten in pieterburen

It is funny how this little industries maintain itself. Pieterburen is comepltely organized for the wet walking tours each day (next to the seal house). I arrived quite late on friday, had to come from Dusseldorf and picked up Maarten and Mark on the way. The group sat in a cafe and I had a drink and chat. We slept in an accommodation on the attic. Funny place, with one toilet and bathroom for 30 people. We had to get up really really early for the wet walking and to get some energy in it, Fleur and I started the day good with some energy in the group.
THen we had to have our breakfast just down the road, where as it appeared, many more peopel had to have their breakfast just before they were going for hte wet walking. A parade of cars then drove to the dike, where we were introduced to our own guide that showed us the ins and outs of wet walking.

medienhafen

Together with Annet I walked along the Rhein towards the media harbour where they have a lot of interesting buildings. I had been here also before during a study trip of ID, and wsa nice to see it again and in perspective of the whole city. Luckily the weather was just superb!!

wadlopen

Together with a group of colleagues we went to do some wet walking. Never did it before, which was a shame, because it was really nice and great fun. Although it was early, the fresh air kees you awake and the wet shoes and dirt, makes you play like a child. Our guide told us about wurms and the tides and showed us some places where to get completely wet and also which places were better to walk.



Wouter brought some chocolate, which us girls liked very much!

de kar

One of the dancing places in Groningen, which is marked as "fout" (as it is better people don't see you there). Now I wonder, when a dancing place is "goed" (meaning fashionable). When peopel mean goed, do they also mean that I have to act, do and talk about topics that actually don't interest me, and are only allowed to dance according to the latest movie clips on MTV? Then I don't like to go there and rather go to a place like de kar where I can amuse myself with my friends and a group of nice people I met in that weekend with wet walking.

allegria

We had some tapas in this restaurant on bolker strasse. OK food (they had the deeds with bacon), but with no particular character, as it was in the tourist zone.

noorderzon

This year only one evening Noorderzon for me, as I was travelling forth and back to Dusseldorf each week. We went to some (almost) free acts, among other things a three dimensional maze like thing which played with shadows, and a live theatre show/cartoon thing in a container. W had a coffee and a beer and listened to the free band around the lake, of which I can't remember the name. And due to a lack of chaird we created our own chairs by sitting in a circle (see picture)

atonement

I had read the book a few years ago in australia, but I couldn't remember that much of it (except that the book was good, though sometimes a bit hard to understand). The movie was good actually, nice story and well acted. About a girl that sees something from her window and interprets it all wrong, but causes therefore much trouble to two other people that were meant to be together.

lulu

Annet and I were really surprised to find this sweet little restaurant on the corner of kurze strasse in the tourist zone. It serves really nice food (starters, salads, flammkuchen, desserts) and we could sit outside.
A few weeks later I also went there with my mom and again we had a really good meal. And because our dessert lasted a bit too long the waiter gave us half a glass of red wine. As it turns out, downstairs is also a cafe.