Holidays!

Finally! Today I start my holiday! I can almost smell the sea and sun tan lotion in the air.
Beautiful Costa Brava will host us one more time. Bliss.

Blogposts will be on holiday for a while too, probably back in September!

For those of you who think Rotterdam has a dull night life... think again.

I filmed this outside BAR on Saturday. It was packed, hot and sweaty. When watching this girl the question arose: "Did she plan to strip off to dance before leaving her house? Or did she just happen to be wearing a bathing costume?"

Thank you, Masha, for letting me use your phone to film this. It's a gem!

Very Dutch day out.

Phil's parents were here for the week which was a good reason to see the nearby cities. We went to Dordrecht and Kinderdijk for the day. Perfect weather for such lovely Dutch views. 

Dordrecht used to be surrounded by water. Not any more. But almost.

Support for plants on the drain pipe. 

Dog number 1. Silky hair. 

Tourists. 

Dog number 2. 

Pretty Dordrecht.

Stratus clouds (I think). 

Hakky shoe repair.

Dog number 3.

This man has a hat that says "fiets", which means "bike". 

Montauk.

Deeply moving.

Paper gems.

I'm in quite a crafty mood lately, specially after finding blogs as nice as this one: http://www.minieco.co.uk

So I followed her tutorial for making paper gems. I had some paper lying around for a while now where I had been using my liquid watercolours on. Perfect for this! They do look like precious stones!

Salty water.

I can't wait to be swimming in the sea. 

Source: http://melissaeastondesign.com/blog/?p=6975

(Found on swiss-miss.com)

Summer colours.

Spotted in Rotterdam.

Het Maastrandje.

Last week we took what we thought would be a very sunny afternoon off but unfortunately there was a sudden weather change that felt like Mary Poppins was flying into town. (Olympics opening… wow!!)

It was still nice to discover a new place in Rotterdam though. Just a few kilometers from us, in Crooswijk, there happens to be a little beach onto the Maas river. The view of the city was from an angle I wasn't used to seeing much, so I could barely recognize Rotterdam. 

Pensive Phil. 

I salute you.
Photo by Phil. 

Ok, give me the camera back. 
Photo by Phil. 

Moss on the rocks and my new skirt!
Amy and her very skilled mum fixed it for me so I wouldn't be showing my bum!

Little plant making its way through the steel. 

Sign turning into a human. 

Plan B for our picnic. 

I don't know the name of this bridge. Maybe you do, Dre?

De Watertoren. Built in 1871, designed by the architect C. B. der Taak, who during that period also happened 
to be the director of the municipality constructions. 

A naughty day off.

This lovely weather makes it hard to concentrate at work. Specially knowing it's only going to last a few days. So when we were kindly offered a ride in a van going to Hoek van Holland on Tuesday, we jumped at the opportunity!

The weather couldn't have been better and the company either.

Like a couple of pros. 

Very sharp on the feet.

A bit scary. But also beautiful. 

Miya, Mia, Sabine, Phil, Rachel Griffin and myself were part of this plan. 

Griffin and her fancy summer hat. 

Hoge Bergse Bos.

The weather is finally summer-like! So hours are to be spent outside, making the most of it. On Sunday Phil proposed to take a detour on our way to Kralingse Bos and we ended up in Hoge Bergse Bos and its surroundings. The views were ideal, little canals everywhere, windmills and happy faces soaking up the sun. 

Couldn't get much more picturesque than this. 

Close up with shallow depth of field. I warned you these kind of pictures would be coming up on my blog...

Camouflaged containers. 

Horsey with highlights in its hair.

Me in my summer outfit. Photo by Phil. 

Hello, sheep.

Blindfolded horses.  No, they aren't actually blindfolded. I learned (I love the internet!) that these masks are to prevent flies getting to the poor horses' eyes. Horses can see through them. 

Artificial ski slope. 

Zevenhuizerplas.

Nice and fresh tootsies. 

My first café con hielo of the year. 

I'm guessing this must be a sign to a chicken farm, but I'm not sure. Update! No, it isn't! Dre says: 

"The sign of the chicken and eggs is the enterance of the petting zoo i used to go as a child. Making cheese, drinking fresh goat milk (milked by yourself) and playing with all the animals. It used to be really nice. I should
go back one day."

The Manna Monument to commemorate the Operations Manna. Some wiki info: 

Operations Manna and Chowhound took place from 29 April to the end of World War II in Europe on 8 May 1945. These two operations—Manna by the Royal Air Force (29 April – 7 May) and Chowhound by the U.S. Air Force (1–8 May)—dropped a total of 11,000 tons of food into the still-unliberated western part of the Netherlands, with the acquiescence of the occupying German forces, to help feed civilians who were in danger of starvation in the Dutch famine.