TRAVEL AND LIFESTYLE DIARIES

My flight from Shanghai, China arrived in the wee hours of the morning in Auckland. In fact, my flight arrived earlier than scheduled so I had to wait for sisterJ and Myrhh who were just on their way to the airport. It was the break of dawn and although I did not feel any jetlag yet, I know I will in a few hours time. A traditional Maori wooden arch gateway called "Maharoa" on the Aotea Square and the beautiful and stately Auckland Town Hall to the right.

Who would have thought that there is a 24-hour restaurant in Paris? Late night dinner... we don't want to make this a regular thingy, huh.

The Montmartre hilly boho village in the 18th arrondissement is always a great place to check out and hang out in Paris, whether during the daytime or at night. The village has different vibes though, depending on which time of the day you visit. Place du Tetre at night.

Bonjour, Bonsoir everyone =) One of the places in Paris that I have been wanting to visit is the aristocratically designed Café Pouchkine . The café on Place de la Madeleine is grand and oozing with old world charm. The interior design and furnishings will bring you back to the time when Faberge eggs were still produced for the happy few.

Waiting for the curtain to open for the Cabaret Show at Lido Paris. I have been to Paris many times and but have never been to a Parisian Cabaret Show so when girlfriend Pinpin invited me to go to Paris with her, I said yes under the condition that we will do a side trip to Versailles and attend a Cabaret Show. Or something like that =)

Hello! Kalimera! So this is the second part of the day cruise tour we took during our summer holiday in Lefkada 2 years ago (2016). Yup, a very delayed post. You can find the link to the first part here: Greece - Cruisin to Cave Papanikolis, Kastos Island, and a Swimming Dip Dutchman and I always grab the chance to visit smaller islands during our Greek Island summer holidays. We either take a boat cruise tour or just hop on a local ferry (with our rental scooter or car) and visit the nearest island, like we did last year and the years before that. The scenes we saw as we sailed on... Lunch on the Beach After visiting Kastos Island we were told that we will be sailing to Kalamos Island where we will get off the boat and on to a secluded beach and have lunch there. The boat cruise includes a simple lunch and drinks. I wasn't really expecting a lot because it wasn't pricey nor was this a private charter, to begin with. These types of boat cruises are offere...

So this is a bit of a very delayed Greek holiday post going back to our summer holiday in Lefkada (Lefkas) in the Ionian Islands in 2016.

Welcome again to my life =) Well, at least the life you see here on the blog. It's time to once again update what I did in June and July this year. Quite a lot I think, although it felt like ages ago already and to think that we've just started the month of August. Life moves on so fast, it's hard to keep up even when looking back. Am I glad I have this blog! The lake beach near our new house in Utrecht. Can you imagine this is just around the corner from our new house? I mean, seriously, its just about 100 meters away?! Of course it is not always busy like this because the weather in the Netherlands is another story.

We were actually not planning on going here... but fate has its own ways.

So I met up for coffee and some more drinks with the sister in law at this lovely place in IJsselstein, Restaurant Rivers Marnemoende which is located on the water, just beside the yacht haven with an open view of the water and the flat green countryside of Utrecht.

This was taken last April while the plane was flying low above the Netherlands...

Altmarkt Galerie is a shopping mall with a food center in the basement.

The city of Dresden has a number of museums and one of the famous ones is the Dresden Castle Museum or the Dresdner Residenzschloss (Dresdner Schloss). It is one of the oldest buildings in the city going back to the 16th century. It started construction in 1533 and was completed in 1899. That's a loooong wait to finish! 3+ centuries!

When in Germany, one should not only drink beer like the Germans do, but eat as well like the Germans do! The big German-style crispy pork knuckle with sauerkraut and fries.

In Dresden, I stayed in the Innere Neustadt (Inner newer part of the city) which is across the River from the Old City. You can easily walk to the city center in minutes.