Making lace...

I had no idea that making lace - by hand - would be SO hard.



We stumbled on a little "Lace Museum" on a little back street far outside of the city center of Brugges. The area is known for lace, and there is still a great tradition of making lace the old fashioned way. The "Museum" consisted of several rooms with very delicate and old pieces of lace under glass. What a guy's dream come true... as if looking at lace in all the shops wasn't enough...................

I hope you know that I am kidding. I do, however, have to say that there is one VERY cool area of the "museum". In a small little side room there sat six or seven (very near sighted) women making lace. They quickly worked away and chatted as we sat and watched, and didn't mind when I snapped a few quick shots. I am still amazed at just how much work goes into making it by hand, and I have to say that the 'museum' really did give me a new appreciation for lace.

















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My cute wife!

Here is a quick pic of my cute wife on her birthday...








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Today's Random Pic...

Some street performers in Bruges...

This was just around the block from where we were staying... it had to have been one of our favorite spots in the city. (That is a convent across the canal) We spent many evenings sitting on a bench here reading together... the perfect holiday!





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Bruges…. (That is in Belgium….)

Have you ever seen the movie “In Bruges”? Well… we watched the movie and it inspired us to go there. In the movie, one of the main characters says about Bruges “it’s like a (explicative) fairytale”. It was SO true. Amsterdam is nice, but Bruges was amazing (5,000 times better)! This quiet medieval town does not have the traffic, noise, or bustle like the bigger cities of Europe...... and it has retained a charm and untouched beauty that is often masked in the bigger cities. I could not help saying ‘it is like a fairytale’ over and over…... and truly it was.

The town was busy and bustling from about 11am to 4pm, but then slowed down to a crawl... and we felt as if we had all of the sights and romantic squares to ourselves. We walked all over the city… road in canal boats... tasted homemade chocolates in shops that we passed… ate waffles for lunch… stayed in an old monastery… spit sunflower seeds from 700 year old bridges…. and shopped (and bought) in antique markets! It was a great place to spend our anniversary and Dee’s birthday.


















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Back Online...

Yes! We are still here! Sorry for the silence over the last few days... we traveled from Amsterdam to Belgium for a few days, and we didn't have internet access while we were there! I have to admit that part of me was frustrated not being able to update the site... but part of me was happy to be away from the computer for a few days! We are back now and have internet again... but it is VERY slow and spotty... So - I'll tell you more about Belgium tomorrow!



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Amsterdam

I have to say... I like Amsterdam. Everything here is so clean and efficient. Everyone here speaks a very high standard of English, and the city is extremely easy to navigate. Amsterdam is "the Venice of the north", and it does not take much to see why. The city was built when a farmer built a dam on the Amstel river... the the name Amsterdam. Much of the city is built on reclaimed land and small (and large) canals divide the city into nice and straight blocks. Here are a few pics of the canals...











Today we are going to hop on a train and head to another country....

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Hello from Amsterdam!

Just a quick pic that Dee took yesterday. No... that is not an optical illusion... the buildings really are leaning! We will write more about Amsterdam soon!






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10!

It is hard to believe... but this week Dee and I are celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary! Wow... where did a decade go? We are usually very busy with work during our anniversary (and Dee's birthday), but this year we declared that it was going to be different! We marked out some time that we were going to get away and celebrate... stay tuned for some pics from The Netherlands!


Us on June 19, 1999





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Today's Random Pic...

Ok... My wife looked at this photo and said that it does not look real... she then dared to ask if I had somehow inserted the sailboat. I need to say that this photo has NOT been edited in any way. I have not cropped or played with it at all. It really was just that beautiful and perfect.






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A hard day's work...

I had an unusual experience for an American last week. I worked on the bog. No... I didn't say blog... BOG. I have to admit that I did not know what a bog was before moving to Ireland, but I have come to know all about it over the past few years. Bogs are areas that were once fertile lands - often ancient forests. It is believed that during the last major climate change Ireland became warmer and wetter and many of the large hardwood forests that once covered Ireland disappeared forever. When this happened the rich minerals in the soil were washed down deeper and deeper into the soil by the massive amounts of rainfall. Eventually, a layer of soil rich with minerals formed. This layer (known as the iron pan) was so heavy with the minerals that it became impenetrable to the rainfall. Water stopped draining, and soon the soil was saturated with water... and when plants died they did not fully decompose. The bog was born. With time (thousands of years) layer after layer of half decomposed plant life built up and we now have a very thick deposit of peat (aka the half decomposed plant life). I don't know when it happened... but the ancient Irish discovered that this peat/turf can be cut, dried, and burned for warmth. It is a long backbreaking process to cut and dry the peat, but it is a tradition that has been practiced here for generations.

Well... a friend of mine had 'invited' me - actually I kept bothering him and until he let me - to go up and help him with his drying peat. So... I went up to the bog several nights this past week to help him turn and stack the peat blocks. The weather was amazing, and you could see for miles on the treeless plain, but the work was killer. It was as if I did a thousand squats as I went and picked up the peat blocks and moved them to dryer land. I did, however, appreciate the chance to learn about the process and to have a chance to goof off with my friend on the bog.

Here is a picture of some of the peat that we stacked to dry.











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Hookers everywhere...

yep... Hookers, a traditional fishing boat, have really been out a lot over the past few weeks. I love these small three sailed boats. Their black hulls and red or black sails create dark silhouettes out on the ocean that are beautiful and ominous at the same time. Scenes like the one below have not changed in hundreds of years.






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Today's Random Pic...

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More Kid Pics...

Just a few more quick kid pics. This is our co-workers' other daughter. I took these the other day when we were waiting on a group of students...

She was getting a bit tired of waiting... and was a bit sad that she didn't get to go with the rest of the group... but ended up finding a smile when I asked her not to...

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Another photo shoot...

So... just a quick update with a couple of pictures that I took this week. These are of my co-workers' little girl that has just turned two. I took the photos in a field down the street from my house... and I love all of the flowers... C, however, was not too sure about the long grass. She has not had the opportunity to wear shorts or a dress too often here.... I'm sure that the sensation of the long grass on her legs felt funny. In the end... she decided that the grass wasn't too bad and I was able to get a few quick shots.

Here are a couple of the pics...
















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More pictures from the race...

I really like this picture... I had not planned on having this guy in the picture, but he stood up right as I snapped the picture... I kinda like it.




Some of the 110,000 people watching the boats and baking in the sun!




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The rest of the story...

So... I didn't spend all of the bank holiday weekend asleep in the garden! In fact, I had just come back from a very exhausting (and fun) adventure. You probably didn't know this, but Ireland is playing host to the world's fastest sailing boats as they race around the world. The two week stopover here has turned out to be a lot of craic (a real festival atmosphere). The west coast greeted the boats as they came in last week with giant bonfires all along the coast. The fact that the boats started coming in around 1am didn't seem to dampen any of the excitement. The docklands where the boats are being kept have been transformed into a concert and exhibition fair ground, and free events are being held every day of the two weeks. On Saturday (before my nap in the garden) the boats went out for a set of short races. Before the races began, however, the 'Red Arrows' (The British version of the 'Blue Angels') performed a free exhibition. It is estimated that around 110,000 people showed up to sit on the beach and watch the races and exhibition. This great crowd and the hottest day of the year (around 74F) made the whole event a blast to see and photograph. I ended up going in with a couple of friends and walking around for a couple of hours... needless to say - I was exhausted when I got home. Here are a few pics from the day.



















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