Photos from Netherlands and Belgium

the Atomium, right behind.

With my friend Caterina

With my friend Caterina and her bro Fotis, somewhere in Brussels.

I just thought it was funny to see a greek restaurant in Brussels. This pedestrian road was a central one, and there were a lot of restaurants, multi-cultural, italian, argentinian, english, french, turkish, arab and others as well. At Brussels, the first day we enjoyed some oysters at a local shop. They were quite tasty :) On second day we ate italian food at a traditional italian restaurant. The pizzas were a bit spicy hehe.

 Those two are taken while we were shown the city by the guide, the second day. Sorry, the 3rd day. On the 2nd we had a trip on Luxemburg. I dont really remember what I stand in front of, cause they are taken on August.....

 These are from Waterloo. On the first one, you can see Butte du Lion straight in the background. The circular building is panorama, which contains a huge panoramic painting, very spactacular, 110 m long and 12 m high, painted by  Louis Dumoulin. It represents the battle of Napoleon, back at 1815.Unfortunately we werent allowed to take photos of the painting. In the second picture you can see the Butte du Lion hill and statue. I have some other photos of it, closer enough to have a good view, but they are on my camera. Most of these photos are taken with my dad's cam.

As I said before, we went on a single day trip at Luxemburg. The scenery was so amazing, imposing! The whole city was so picturesque, it was one of my favourite trips! Lots of green, full of nature :) Hehe, we are short family as you can see, and my father looks like silly tourist. He is actually. At least the weather was fine the first two days. When we arrived back at Brussels it started raining! This was totally good luck, wasn't it??? I mean nice weather on the trip, then a sudden storm came, but we were already at the hotel, prearing for the italian :)

On our way to Antwerp, we visited Gent and Bruge. Unfortunately, I can't recall taking any phtos at Gent. Anyway, These are all taken at Bruge, a wonderful little traditional town with a river in it. We had a 30 minute cruise in the river, and I took my time photographing swans, abandonned houses, doors....Even a dog sitting in a window and staring at the boats passing, it seemed so tired. What a pity they are not on my pc..... Anyway I will take my time and find them, so that I can do a post refering just to the cruise....

I look terrible in this photo!! However, its the only one I have from Antwerp in my pc, and since it's 02.39 already (i know i should be sleeping, but i just can't resist the temptation to write a bit more) I can't browse both my dad's and my cameras to find other photos. It was taken in the evening, after our arrival. We checked in at Hilton ( yeah, that travel agency always books at the best hotels), then we strolled at the city and were shown the main monuments. Then, we ate italian again ^.^ We didn't stay too long at Antwerp, only a night, then had a walk in the city. Then we left for te Netherlands....So, I barely remember Antwerp.

This is Hague, we only stayed like 30 minutes or something, I barely saw the town..... My look is very strange, I don't know why, probably the sun, lol.... On my cam, I have photos of the court, that are really nice....... :)

And here is Rotterdam! The first one, well, I am lying on something like a semi wall, at the beach, where I took my time and photographed some seagulls, which weren't meant to stay calm for a single photo! Not to mention all the sand that was coming into my eyes, because of the heavy wind...Then, my father wouldn't let me take good photos, when the seagulls were finally not flying, I was moving to the right, my father did so as well, not in purpose of course. Now quite a lot of the photos show a head in the lower corner :P The second photo shows the port, I guess... We visited Rotterdam on our way to Amsterdam, after Hague, or was it before Hague??? I don't really remember, lol :P

Amsterdam, finally! well, what can I say? It was awesome. Photos of tulips, photos of houses next to the canals....The first one is really natural, taken in a day when it was raining and sunny as well. After we had visited Rijks museum, Van gogh museum-gallery, We decided to take a cup of coffee ( i took a cup of tea) at a wonderful hotel. The last picture is taken the last day. We had some free time and we (the children and parents) decided to go to the zoo, and here is a photo of me, next to some swans! after the zoo, we went to hotel Americain, for a cup of coffee, beer, hot chocolate or whatever, and waited for women to return, after a massive shopping spree. Ah, good times..... Then we got prepared for our last trip, to some fisherman villages, like Edam, Gouda, Volendam etc.

It had so strong air at Volendam....we visited Edam and Volendam, the last day, and then we went to the airport.... our last feelings of Dutch air....  we weere guided into a cheese factory in Edam, and a clogs factory in Volendam, outside of it there was a huge pair of clogs, and I spared some time with my two friends taking photos in them.... There also was a small clogs-shaped cart. As you can understand, we took photos in it as well.

This is one of my favourite photos. Before the fisherman villages, we went to the northest barrier of the country. A you can see, the rain was really heavy, and you barely could see your nose. Luckily for me, my father was enough of a hero, and could walk through this rain, reached the lighthouse, climbed up on it and took this awesome photo! hehe when he came back to the bus, the driver wouldn't let him come in, because he must have had one ton of water on his trousers ( his jacket was waterproof, at least). What a good vacation it was...... I recall these moments. Anyway, I guess I must sleep, because it has already gone 03.20! You have probably read the previous time mentioned before one minute, so it seems quite surprising how time flows when you are writting about things you love.....

Kisses, Eline xxx