TRAVEL AND LIFESTYLE DIARIES

Many Japanese restaurants in the Netherlands offer the ‘All you can eat’ business model which you might think (and many do!) is value for money because you can eat as much as you can, but really, IT IS NOT! The restaurant has a nice outdoor terrace for the warmer months. A few months ago Dutchman and I were at Zinnia  Japanese restaurant located in Transwijk Park in Utrecht southwest. We have been eyeing this restaurant for YEARS but never made it until last May when an opportunity came. There was an event in the park, the  Bevrijdingsfestival (Liberation/Freedom Day Festival)   which we were curious to attend. This is a yearly event and the last time we attended was many moons ago. Thus, time to re-check it out and I thought we could combine this with dinner at Zinnia. Zinnia’s location in a park makes this restaurant quite unique. It is all green here and across it is a small animal and children’s park as well which would go well with family weekend visits. Ju...

5 May is Liberation Day in the Netherlands. The day marks the end of the occupation of the Nazi regime in the country during the World War II. There have been so many horrific stories told about the war and they all come back during this time of the year, mostly on TV and culminating on the day of liberation. I personally have been to 2 transit concentration camps in the Netherlands (Vugt and Westerbork) and the death and labor concentration camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland. However, Liberation Day nowadays has evolved along with the times and it now adapts a more generic theme about FREEDOM. So you can say it is Freedom Day Festival =) It is very timely that the Liberation Day this year fell on the same day as the Ascension Day (Hemelvaartsdag) because then it is an official public holiday--ergo, no work! Liberation Day is only a non-working public holiday every 5 years in the Netherlands. So Dutchman and I decided to check out the Liberation Day Festival nearby at Park ...

Did you know that the largest IKEA in the Netherlands is in Utrecht? And did you know as well that above the parking area of IKEA Utrecht is a football field? Anyway, this post is about a new IKEA poster product line I saw whilst visiting the outlet last March. I go perhaps 2x (max 3x) a year to IKEA. I buy the little accessories there for the kitchen and home. And IKEA Food! We love the meat balls and the gravy as well. Oh, did I mention that their crisps are wonderful? By the way, Dutchman loves their value for money ice cream. Plus we get free coffee because I have the IKEA family card! Aren't we just cheapies? =) What do you think about these artistic, graffiti, colourful, futuristic styled posters? They are all individually designed by independent artists. I think it was even a contest? To see the whole bunch of IKEA Art Event Posters, kindly go to the IKEA website and check them under > New tab > Posters This has got to be my favourite! Visit Pe...

The Netherlands is one of the very green countries that I know of in the world, with well manicured streets and lawns, and very well maintained infrastructure. The major cities such as Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht have a lush atmosphere brimming with verdant trees on the sidewalks and many grassy parks. So despite the horrible weather we have here (like today), there are as well pay offs in living in the Netherlands. We visit Park Transwijk every now and then. I actually used to run here on my own. Unfortunately, I never got to take pictures every time I am in this park. So one weekend in April, we decided to go for a little walk and I brought the camera with me. The park is located a little bit south from Utrecht Centre. It a low key park. There is an animal farm, a children's playground, a lake and a Japanese restaurant in the park. Dutchman and I have agreed that we will have dinner at this restaurant one evening. It has been a few years though since we hav...

The Roosevelt Boulvevard is a boulevard walk on the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal (Amsterdam-Rijnkanaal) in the southern part of the city of Utrecht. The Prince Claus Bridge (Prinsclaus brug). This 59 kilometres canal is man-made and was constructed after the second world war to connect the port of Amsterdam to the shipping artery of the Rhine River, one of the busiest trading canals in the world that leads to Germany, as well to the Lek River that flows through to the Nieuwe Maas River and winding up in the port of Rotterdam, the largest port in Europe. If you are familiar of northern Europe’s economic industries, just the mention of the Rhine River and Rotterdam suggests the primary economic zones of the shipping industry of the continent. The boulevard is also a maritime dock called Bijzondere Meerplaats so there are usually cargo boats and smaller cruise liners mooring here. It’s a nice area to actually jog. I did jog here a few times in the past, although my favourite route was ...