TRAVEL AND LIFESTYLE DIARIES

I’m back in the Netherlands from my road trip and currently watching history unfold before the television—the Netherlands has a new king after 120 years! As I write this, the festivities in orange-bedecked Amsterdam is far from over. In fact, the party has just begun. It’s been mentioned a few times in this blog that I am not into the monarchy thing. I don’t follow personalities in general per se. However, I see royalty as culture and an important part of the country’s history, so therefore I regard their presence and identity well in the society. Life as a high-profile royal, especially a European royal is not an easy walk in the park. Because gone are the days that royals have real power. They are somewhat demoted to being the PR house (press relations) of the country and are often seen as a symbol that unites the nation and as an image representation internationally. THIS IS A FACT: European royals live in glass covered palaces. Everything they do are subjected to criticism....

Greetings from gorgeous Alsace, France! For those who do not know where Alsace is, it is the region located in the eastern part of France on the border between Germany and Switzerland. This region is popular because of its white wines, in particular--Riesling, Pinot Noir and Gewurztraminer (my new favourite!). Tomorrow I am checking the last few villages in my agenda along the wine route, La route des vins d’Alsace. More soon about this beautiful part of France. Bisous! Travel Period: April 2013 Destination: Alsace, France Keep in touch and follow me on Facebook: Travel & Lifestyle Diaries by Dutched Pinay Travels Happy Travels! Enjoy Life =)

I will be off to a long weekend European solo road trip. This trip will highlight culinary discoveries, stunning architecture, unrivaled history and the splendor of nature. My base will be the beautiful town of Colmar in France. The rest of the places I will be visiting are for stopovers and side trips. With road trips, one must stop somewhere to refuel and move the legs a bit, just perfect to combine these with a lunch or dinner and sightseeing in the lovely cities and towns that fall along the route. As a tradition in this blog, I always post the flag of the country and the coat of arms of the city-town-village I am going to. Here they are: Colmar, France Beautiful Colmar village will be my holiday base in this road trip. I will be doing a side trip to the Alsace Wine Route Villages (I will not post the coat of arms of the small villages as they are quite a few and they are just beside Colmar anyway). Basel, Switzerland This will be a side trip from Colmar. Dont you jus...

It has been almost a year since Herr Philippe and I met up for dinner at Trouw Restaurant  in Amsterdam. I can still recall the lovely dinner we had where I ordered this raw vegetable plate with glorious anchovies sauce on the side. That was sooooooooo good, I can still remember vividly how it tasted. Anyway, it was time to meet up again so we decided to have lunch, together with his friend who just arrived from Orlando, USA. Let’s call him Mr. Orlando. Café Bax Lunch We had lunch at Café Bax in Amsterdam Oud-West, nearby where Herr Philippe lives. They both ordered the typically Dutch sandwich meal—Uitsmijter which reminds me of the Francesinha sandwich in Porto except that the uitsmijter is not swimming in tomato and beer sauce. I went for the goat’s cheese salad which was divine. My goat cheese salad. 4 stars out of 5. The Dutch uitsmijter - sandwich bread with ham or bacon and sunny side up eggs and melted Gouda cheese on top. The cool painted toilet doors. Orl...

Because Lesvos Island was a big island, in fact the 3rd largest island in the Grecian archipelago, Dutchman and I decided to rent a car so that we can see farther areas. This was after a week of going around with the scooter. Lesvos Map Our holiday base is Anaxos located in the northern part of the island and we are going to Polichnitos and Agiassos. Polichnitos For this trip, we have decided to go to Polichnitos and Agiassos, and I was also hoping, Plomari, but that never came to fruition. Just before reaching Polichnitos we saw this abandoned (military) runway. Dutchman is fascinated with airplanes, he once was a spotter (mostly military aircraft), so we did a detour and inspected the runway. It was barricaded but what the heck, we will check it out =) Dutchman said that the airport could have been used during the years when hostilities between Turkey and Greece were heightened. As you can see, Turkey is just a stone’s throw away. Both had a very turbulent relationship an...

Greece is a favourite summer holiday destination of ours and we have become regular visitors to the mediterranean islands in the past years. In Lesvos Island last summer we did a lot of island village expeditions with our rental scooter. Dutchman and I sped on the highways, took the small country-island roads, the tiny narrow village streets and even the off the beaten tracks. One of the many lovely villages we visited were Vatousa and Antissa in the eastern part of the island. Vatousa This traditional village looked so nostalgic from the main road. It reminds me of a place with secrets. Pandora’s box? Elegant, beautiful from a distance yet eerie. Antissa Not very far from Vatousa is Antissa. It’s a much bigger town, has more facilities, as well as a thriving local community of old men hanging out in the village square in the afternoons. This is very typical in the Greek Islands to see men of age gathering together, playing cards, backgammon or whatever games they get th...