TRAVEL AND LIFESTYLE DIARIES

On the way to Keri, we passed by this restaurant on a cliff with a romantic view to Marathonissi Island, also known as the Turtle Island. Zakynthos has many of these kinds of restaurants, hanging on a cliff with spectacular panoramic sea views. The other night, Dutchman told me, or rather, agreed with me—and this was after looking at the pictures I posted in the blog, that we indeed had a beautiful Greek summer holiday. Pictures does not only tell stories, they preserve memories. Its like an affirmation or a reminder that I am doing the right thing by diligently blogging my travels for posterity's sake. Travel Period: August 2011 Destination: Laganas (Zakynthos Island), Greece Keep in touch and follow me on Facebook: Travel & Lifestyle Diaries by Dutched Pinay Travels Happy Travels! Enjoy Life =)

Drawbridges are typically Dutch. Because the Netherlands is literally a swamp country, meaning there is water everywhere—canals, rivers, seas, lakes, everything that you can think of that is a body of water, we have that here in the Netherlands. Ergo drawbridges. We cannot escape from them. They are everywhere in the country, and in the city as well. They come in different sizes, shapes, styles and material. They can cause traffic too. This one I found in Amsterdam is quite unique. There are writings underneath the drawbridge. It’s in Dutch but the fonts are quite complex for me to understand. At first glance, it looks like Hebrew to me, but it’s not. It’s actually Dutch. Can you read it? Visit Period: July 2011 Destination: Amsterdam East, Netherlands Keep in touch and follow me on Facebook: Travel & Lifestyle Diaries by Dutched Pinay Travels Happy Travels! Enjoy Life =)

Last September Dutchman and I did a 12-kilometre hike in Doorn, in Kaapse Bossen which is part of the Utrechtse Heuvelrug forest. We went to our current favourite starting point, the Heleneheuvel, and this time we took the Blue Route or the Hoogtepunten Route (which means: highlights). We liked this route because we walked on different types of terrain through the forest and across the plains, and we saw a variety of scenery. Normally it takes 3 hours to finish this route but we did it in 2 hours and 15 minutes. We barely stopped to rest, although we slackened our walk in between inorder to take fotos and appreciate nature’s beauty around us. Because of this my knees were slighting a bit. Lesson learned, take some rest at least after an hour of non-stop walking. At the end of the hike we had pancakes, scone with jam and clotted cream and fresh mint tea at the Heleneheuvel Chalet. Dutchman had pancakes while I chose to try their home-made scone which was delicious paired with the...

So, the title of this entry sums up everything but this Xigia Beach I think is more stunning than the other one. Just look at the view from above... Breathtaking isn't she? The milky substance is sulphur coming out of the rocks. As I have mentioned in my earlier post on South Xigia Beach Cove , there are 2 Xigia Beaches and the northern one is the famous Sulphur Beach that everyone wants to experience. This beach is located about 500 metres from the Xigia Tavern where we had our delicious lunch with accompanying spectacular views. This Sulphur Xigia Beach is a favourite of mine as well. I like it that its small, very cosy, gorgeous of course and not crowded. It’s got real character, as I always say about my favourite beaches. Nothing commercialised at all, there are no facilities, it is simply natural—just exactly how I like it to be. Between the crack of the rugged rock walls is the sulphur spring that produces milky white substance in the water. The sulphur sen...

Since we are on Greece at the moment, I saw old pictures in my foto folder of our holiday in Crete a long time ago. This was pre-digital camera age for us: 2003. These pictures were taken at the windmills in Lassithi and the marina in Sitia. I managed to take digital pictures of some of the roll film developed pictures we had during our holiday in the summer of 2003. Somehow these pictures survived after one hard drive crash and migration to another but they are very poor in quality. I would need to dig up my old paper fotos and see if I can find better ones. If I remember it right, we had more and better pictures. For now I guess these will suffice. We had good memories of our Crete holiday. Our apartment had 2 balconies with fantastic views, one looking down to the pool and the other across the plateau. We rented a car and toured the island. We walked a lot. We ate out every night and spent nights watching the nighlife scene. In the mornings we had 2 Euros full English breakfas...

Leaving South Xigia Beach , we hit the main road and just 500 metres away we saw this tavern with a spacious parking lot. We stopped to check it out. It turns out that the tavern is perched on the mountain sea cliff and looking out to the blue Ionian Sea. Fantastic views! I personally loved the thick trees giving shade to the diners, they bid a very cosy and romantic ambience, and oh, the birds happily chirping away from tree to tree. Well, what can I say? In this restaurant, you do not need man-made music to accompany the beautiful view. So I told the Dutchman—this is it. We are not going anywhere else for lunch =) When we came back from holiday I did some research on the restaurant and it turns out that its specialty is seafood and the owner is Italian who migrated to Zakynthos, Greece. This restaurant is very popular among the locals and the tourists as well. That is why it took us a LONG TIME to be seated. Guests came pouring in and we have to wait patiently in line. Dutc...