Belgian Waffles in a Medieval City

Instead of unpacking all our boxes of clothes, we decided to escape the mess in our apartment and headed off to Ghent in Belgium last weekend. During the medieval times, this was the largest city in Europe outside Paris. It was a lovely weekend getaway, a city filled with historical buildings, amazing architecture, canals, cobbled pathways, Belgian waffles, pancakes, and of course, Belgian chocolates! And there is a medieval castle in the centre of the city (for those of you from Melbourne, it sure beats Kryal Castle!!) So we sightsaw (is that a word?) and ate our way through this lovely city. Thank you to our friends who gave us the wedding voucher for this weekend trip, you know who you are!

Home Sweet Home

We finally have a home over here, it's an apartment in the charming city of Den Bosch. Our shipment from Australia arrived last week and we're slowly unpacking all the boxes and furnishing the apartment. Here comes the sales pitch...there is a guest room awaiting our friends and family, and hopefully these photos of the view from our lounge room of the many cafes downstairs, will entice you to make the trip to visit us!!

Queens Day

Ok, we're a little bit behind, Queens Day was on 30 April.

It is a huge event in the Netherlands. It's a public holiday over here (if it doesn't fall on the weekend) and everyone goes a bit bananas. They wear orange everything, orange wigs, orange t-shirts, orange feather boas, the bakeries put out their finest orange icing cakes on their window displays, and people fly the Dutch flag from their house or apartment windows. Also, it is the only day where illeagal trading is allowed over here and everyone empties out their attics and the streets turn into a massive flea market. Restaurants have live bands or DJs and city squares are turned into a big dancefloor with international DJ lineups.

We spent Queens Day in Eindhoven, but hopefully next year, we'll be celebrating it in Amsterdam.

We took a few photos. There's a shot of a DJ suspended in the air by a crane. Pretty wild. And the street festivities.

For those hungry backpackers....

My passion for value for money, all things edible and in the past, all you can eat establishments, were probably the motivation behind Paul asking me to stand in front of this eatery window in Amsterdam. During my younger years, I would have been tempted by such an offering, but now older and wiser, I know better, and having looked at the food on display, it confirmed my suspicions....all fried, gluten filled balls of nothing, limp noodles with no vegies or meat, and sweet and sour dishes that are more red colouring and fried onions, than anything else.

Lazy Sunday in Amsterdam

A week ago we went to Amsterdam for a lazy Sunday. Had a delish lunch at Jamie Oliver's Fifteen restaurant and strolled the streets of Amsterdam. It was our first time in Amsterdam since we moved over here, and even though we spent half a day walking around, we covered just a tiny pocket of the city. Still loads more to explore over the coming months and years.

Anzac Day

Having recently visited Gallipoli in Turkey, ANZAC day has taken on a whole new meaning for me. The preparations were well underway two weeks ago when I was in Gallipoli for the ANZAC Day memorial services held today. I've attached a photo taken on Anzac Cove with red chairs set up for the Australian memorial service, in the background you can see a natural landmark that during WW1 the ANZACS referred to as the Sphinx. Isabelle and I also visited the graveyard where John Simpson (the man with the donkey) was buried and were deeply moved to hear an account of his role during the war. When we visited some of the trenches, I was horrified to learn that sections of the Turk trenchline and ANZAC trenchline were only 8 metres apart, and the sad loss of lives from both sides.

I should probably explain as well that the photo of the lone poppy from my previous blog entry was taken on Brighton Beach in Gallipoli. This was the spot where the ANZAC troops had intended to land instead of their ill-fated landing at ANZAC cove.

Lest We Forget - Gallipoli

No words can reflect the spirit of Gallipoli better than the speech of Mustafa Kemal ATATURK, the Turkish National Hero of the Gallipoli battles, Turkish Independance War and the founder of the Modern Republic of Turkey addressed at a Gallipoli memorial service in 1934:

"Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives... You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours... You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.”