Breakfast, lunch and supper...

Yesterday was another adventure. We woke and had breakfast in Germany, lunch in France and supper in Switzerland. In the morning we took drive to Heidelberg to view and visit Heidelberg Castle. Such a pretty and peaceful place...As you can see Amsterdam is certainly not the only city where biking is prominent.

...some scenes in Heidelberg

The Elizabeth Gate, given to Elizabeth on her 17th birthday from her husband King Frederick.

A long way from home, but onward to Strasbourg, France...a very busy and beautiful city.

After lunch in an outdoor cafe we spend a bit of time wandering around before heading to Switzerland. We had been forewarned that because we were staying in a smaller village the hotel may not be as upscale as most... We need not have troubled ourselves over that bit of information...just look at the view from one of our TWO balconies!

As pretty as these are the photos don,t come close to doing this scenery justice.
We have had a long day and the only scenery i really want to see right now is my pillow so ... Gueten Abig.
Till tomorrow (or the next time we have internet available)

I'm Impressed!

Up and at it at 5:45 to get showered and packed and ready for another great day. Breakfast was wonderful. Lot's of fresh fruit with a sprinkling of nuts and yogurt, a wonderful assortment of breads, croissants and pastries, eggs, bacon, sausage, grilled and seasoned tomatoes and on and out went, but what was really impressive was the little boxes of shaved Dutch chocolate. Do you have any idea how tasty it was melted into my morning coffee? Mocha at it's finest...yummy.
By 8 we were on the road and headed to Germany.
I can not begin to tell you all the things we seen, but Germany is a beautiful country with hills and valleys and rivers and wonderful architecture and bratwurst sausages and apple strudels, German chocolate cakes and wonderful rye breads.

There were castles, terraced plots of land on the sides of the mountains turned into vineyards. There were mountain goats, fields of canola, castles, and an afternoon cruise on the River Rhine. But just have a look at something really impressive...

Everybody was talking about this on their way out of the bathrooms! When I am in the market for a new "loo" I just may consider one like this.

Guten abend

note:this blog entry was written last night and just as I was about to post I lost Internet connection, so that's why it's late and I'm a day behind.

There's A First Time For Everything...

We travelled through parts of 4 different countries before noon today! Granted it was small parts of some, but we woke in England and are settling in to sleep in Amsterdam. Are you wondering how early we started our day? Too early for our hotel dining room to be serving breakfast...so they provided us a Chef in a Box!

What is a Chef in a Box I thought? Well silly me, it's Orange juice, a cereal bar and Corn Flakes with "long life" milk! If I was a betting person, I would probably bet that not one of you had "long life" milk with your cereal this morning! I was anticipating the worst, but you know it wasn't bad...honest! One of many "firsts" for me today.
After all heads were counted we started our adventure.
We crossed under the English Channel aboard the Eurostar. A high speed train that reached speeds of 300km. Per hour. Another first for me!

After traveling through parts of England and France we reached Brussels, Belgium. Yes indeed...another first. Exit the train and board another luxury coach and we were on our way to Amsterdam.
I mistakenly change Holland for Netherlands but today realized they are not the same...Holland is a province of the Netherlands. As you might expect, we saw windmills, canals, and dikes/dams. I saw very few tulips because most of them are in green houses and they were well past their prime in the areas we were in...so no tulip pictures. What I did not expect to see were the throngs of young people, some smoking some really "funny" smelling "cigarettes" on the main streets of Amsterdam. What I also did expect was the thousands and thousands of bicycles.

Bicycles are everywhere, there are triple decker parking lots for bikes and every street you look down is totally congested with bikes! Totally mind boggling!
I have to say that a walk down the main street was a bit disheartening, because I thought that was all of Amsterdam...but after taking a dinner cruise down the canals for several hours this evening, we got to see the beautiful, historical parts of the city. It was raining so most of the pics were taken from inside the bus but it gives you an idea. I really did not feel comfortable in the hordes of people on main street, but there really is so much more we would liked to have seen ...Van Gogh's museum, tulips, cheese making, the making of wooden shoes etc. but with a very tight schedule we must move on tomorrow.

Because over 25% of the Netherlands are below sea level and reclaimed land from the sea, many of the older buildings have shifted.

Take notice of the above picture. The house to the right of the tree is about 3 or more feet from it's neighbor at the bottom and almost touching at the top!
Lots of firsts for me today and who knows what tomorrow holds... But for now it is bedtime... Slapp lekker.

Guess where I've been for the last 2 days?

I'll show you a few of the things I've seen and you may be able to figure it out...
The Museum of Natural History, Big Ben, the London Eye, the changing of the guards, Royal Albert Hall, White Hall, double decker buses, red phone boxes, the Union Jack and many more things I don't have shots of like Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Kensington Gardens and Palace.
It has been a busy 2 days and I feel like I have walked 100 miles or more but London has been as enjoyable this trip as it was the last time we were here.
Tomorrow we will be boarding the EuroStar train and traveling to Brussels via the tunnel under the English Chanel and then on to Amsterdam. It has been quite cool but we are hoping to see a little rise in temps. No matter the weather, I know we will enjoy it. I can hardly wait to see the colors of Holland. Cheerio folks. Stay tuned for the next leg of the trip.

I wonder

I wonder where they sell these. Seems like they may be a good product to have around...for the carpet of course!

Kind of gives "air brushing" and liposuction a new meaning eh?

The Tale of Two Schnibbles...The Sequel.

Well it has been a busy time here in the land of ice and snow, but we have managed to pull it off and now have 2 Schnibbles to our names!
I have to say that all the ice and snow is now gone, but it's hardly balmy in our little hamlet.

I snapped a quick pic of the thermometer outside the window tonight and as you can see, the only Summer Day around here is this one...

or variations of it.

Just like last month, Sue and I got together to spend a day Schnibbling. Now I am a Canadian gal and I know a little about geese. I know they can be messy...

I know they almost never travel alone but always in great numbers...

but I also know they are a beautiful bird, no matter their colour

(photo courtesy of http://sunshinevalleyorganicfarm.blogspot.ca)

and ours are just as beautiful, if I might be permitted to brag.

Sue did her quilt in 1930 reproduction fabrics and calls it "Summer Past"

 and I used the scraps from the Autumn Bricks quilt kit Mr. O bought me in Texas last month. I call mine "Indian Summer Days"

and now, just because quilts look so charming hanging on a line or on the side of a barn, I braved the chilly winds today and took a few more shots.

By the way, did any of you happen to notice I said I made mine from "scraps" from my kit that Mr. O bought last month?  Well this has to be a record for me, because I have it all made up and it is at the long armer quilter right now, along with another I finished up this week. Yup! You heard it right, I have finished up 2 queen sized quilts this week! Hopefully they will be ready for me to bind when I return from vacation...just 5 more sleeps!