The typical Holland windmills at Kinderdijk. Just half an hour drive from Rotterdam, one of the largest cities in The Netherlands and well worth a visit, you find the windmills at Kinderdijk. We made a stop on our way south from our extended stay in Amsterdam. It was on our way home and Unesco Worldheritage, …
The Delta works at Neeltje Jans. Though Zeeland is the region in The Netherlands most close to us, it was a region we hadn’t discovered yet. Maarten’s mum turns 70 soon and so the whole family set out for 5 days to explore Zeeland together. We must say that we were pleasantly surprised by the …
I’ve always had a keen interest in ancient culture, especially when it’s really really old. Whether it’s prehistoric, Egyptian, Persian, Greek, Etruscan or Roman (or anything inbetween), it has an extraordinary appeal to me. I really like old temple complexes, multicolored frescoes, sculpted pillars and weathered statues. Is it the mystery, the uniqueness, or just that it …
Recently, we shared the story of our visit to the astonishing Postojna Cave (Postojnska jama), in our quest to find the most impressive cave system of Europe. Even though we haven’t visited many caves before, we consider it nearly impossible for any other cave to be as fantastic as those we visited in Slovenia. The Postojna …
Slovenia borders the Adriatic Sea, but it has only a very short coastline, not more than 47km. So you could imagine that if all Slovenians ànd all sun-sea-beach-loving tourists are planning a day at the coast on the same time, the beaches would be packed with sunbathers, badminton players, and sandcastles. Not really our thing. Don’t get …
Last year, we went to the caves of Han-sur-Lesse in our home country (Belgium) and although I’ve been there several times before, I was surprised how beautiful they actually are. I can’t say we’ve visited many caves during our travels, but those in Han-sur-Lesse are really worth a visit! In retrospect, I also remember that, in …
We visited the Italian island of Sardegna (Sardinia) in the summer of 2013. We combined our stay there with a roadtrip from our home in Belgium to the island (and back), passing through France, Switzerland, and Italy. Along the way, we visited a number of world heritage sites and every evening we stayed with a …
Despite its rather isolated position in the Mediterranean (together with Corsica), Sardinia (Sardegna in Italian) has a long history of human presence. First settlement occurred somewhere between 450000-150000 years ago, by people from Tuscany, by a landstrip via Corsica. The first significant Sardinian civilisation was the Nuragic civilisation, which existed between 1700 BC and 500BC …
Since we’ve returned from Sardegna (Sardinia) in 2013, and since we’ve bought a (Dutch) cookbook with recipes from Sardinia, we frequently make a Sardinian dish at home. Our favourite is definitely the outrageously tasty (but pretty high in cholesterol) “Malloreddus alla campidanese”, a primi piatti with shell-like pasta, called malloreddus. We brought some malloreddus home …
When you see numerous bullet holes in road signs… When you get stuck in a flock of sheep each time you go grocery shopping… When you see village walls beautifully covered with huge murals… When you encounter traditional (carnival) festivities or a shop selling the associated costumes… When you frequently come across round prehistoric structures, …
