Journey to the East

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7th March 2008

Today we started our eastbound journey to Moselle Valley; the route was rather boring when we first started on the Dutch’s soil. It gradually became excited when the landscape changing from low and flat to up and down hill with a bit of slopes. Then it became extremely adventurous and “roller-coaster” when we are close to valley. There were still a lot of left over snows as if they were left there just for my family who have not seen snow before.

As it is stated in the travel guide that

the river rises in France and then traverses Luxembourg, runs 195km from Trier to Koblenz, revealing new scenery at every bend. I am curious to explore the beauty and the wonderful creation of God...

Show us the Fish

5^th March 2008

Also in Delft, after a brief walk around the old town, Johannes suggests to let my family try some fried fish. They didn’t go to the extend of trying the haring today, but I bet it will happen in the coming days. We satisfied our hunger by having some fried fish in the Dutch way.

Tourist in my own Cities

I hardly have time to visit some of the cities beyond the mandate activities such as dinning and shopping. Today I brought my family to Delft, since today is their first day of arrival, Delft appeared to be quite ideal as it is close to home.

“Little Venice” that the words that keep popping out from my sister’s mouth, I am not sure if it is at all resemble Venice but Delft definitely has it own charm. This is also my first time browsing the souvenir shops around the square and noticed the wooden clogs. We then had some drinks at De Waag sitting at the table beside the canal which again my sister’s regarded as “Little Venice” as the boat passing by canal.

Kinderdijk

This is my second time to Kinderdijk, both for the same reason i.e. to bring some guests to see the traditional windmills. Despite of the sunny weather, it was a bit cold when we arrived especially when the place is surrounded by water.

It is a village in the Netherlands situated in a polder at the confluence of the Lek and Noord rivers. To drain the polder, a system of 19 windmills was built around 1740. This group of mills is the largest concentration of old windmills in the Netherlands

Extend My Territory

This is a world map, the yellow spots basically represent the cities that I have visited before. Not very balance, largely concentrated on Asia and Europe regions. I have never extend my footprint to South America and Africa before... I believe there is time and season for every activity under the sun. One day I will step myself on those lands..

One night in Brussels

27th February 2008

These are some of the view and skyline of Brussels city, the garden at the back is Kruidtuin/Botanique. These photos were taken from our office at 7^th floor after the workshop around 4pm where the weather is still warm and sunny.

That’s my overnight trip to Brussels.

Factory Outlet Adventures

5^th Jan 2008

This is our first cross boarder day trip of the year. We decided to drive to Roubaix, which is a town close to Lille, France.

L’Usine – a typical French designer factory outlets in a converted old mill which I believed only for domestic French market, since non of the sales attendants are willing to communicate in English, stocks are piled up like a warehouse, where you have to dig into the stock and find your precious items. If you really make an effort to browse through the items, you can find really quality goods here. http://www.lusine.fr

Mc ArthurGlen – a usual chained outlet presenting the shops in a certain village style that provide certain level of comfort shopping http://www.mcarthurglen.com

Both outlets are closed to each other, but the scales and the variety of shops they offered are pretty small selection compare to other outlet stores. Although we visited 2 factory outlets in a day, but our wallets are saved and have not suffered any damage , Johannes got some bargain from L'usine and I just got a nice set of handmade wine glass from McArthur Glenn.

Anyway, it was a good venture since we haven’t done that for a long time.