TRAVEL AND LIFESTYLE DIARIES

Dorp in Dutch means a village, a little town. The plural form is Dorpen. Yesterday Thursday was Hemelvaartsdag [Ascension Day] in the Netherlands which means -- No work. Frankly speaking, I do not understand why a non-believing country, well majority of the populace that is, still celebrate this religious occasion? Perhaps the reason why the Dutch are not willing (yet) to part ways from these superfluous religious holidays is because it would mean losing official public holidays ergo vacation days. Now, now, no one wants that, lol. Anyway, I thought yesterday will be another one of those sad, grey, and drizzly days that we have been experiencing in the last days but surprisingly the weather mood changed slightly after 3PM. We saw hope. We saw amazing grace working right before our very eyes. We saw rays of light creeping behind the somber clouds! Hallelujah, amen! Quickly, we settled ourselves inside the car, “Where are we going?” Dutchman asked. “I don’t know? Anywhere I guess? I just...

Yesterday Saturday, when we went out to do our Saturday-scheduled shopping chore, we noticed that the side roads leading to Transwijk Park were closed and there were men standing dressed in orange vests. Hundreds of bikes were also parked along the side streets and a continuous flow of people, young, adult, and old, walking, biking, and even women pushing proms can be seen. “Wat is er aan de hand?” (What is going on?) “Ik heb geen idée.” (I have no idea) Dutchman replied looking out the window of the car and watching the busy street going to the park. Earlier that day in the morning, we saw helicopters passing through. We drove parallel to the park by Europalaan and heard thundering music playing. I told Dutchman we should check out the place after shopping. Foto of Bevrijdingsdag Festival in Park Transwijk in Utrecht. Took the picture from the internet. I think this was taken during the morning. We went there in the afternoon and obviously we didn’t bring our camera. It wa...

So I was in London a few days ago for work and could not help but take notice of these two quite striking advertisements: British Heart Foundation street ad near Earls Court in Kensington. England is trying to be healthy now. I can pretty much understand since more and more Brits are becoming fat, especially with the young generation. But seriously though, if you just look closely at the hard butt and the lean legs of this man on the advert, without glancing at the woman he is embracing with and of course his face, you would think this butt and legs belongs to a young stud! =) Grolsch Beer ad in Angel Tube near Islington. This ad is sort of a laugh, a twist, a play of words and theme, for the infamous Amsterdam’s “Red Light District” and Eindhoven’s “Philips Light Bulbs”. As you can see, Grolsch is a Dutch beer brand from Enschede. Dutchman however argues with my Philips theory and says I am just seeing things, lol. (By the way, Heineken, Grolsch, and Bavaria, all Dut...