Just a Taste of the Colors of Portugal

Because I'm on deadline for the magazine for which I am editor, I will be busily readying for my first publication for the next few days. In the interim, I thought I'd leave you with a couple of pictures from our two-week holiday in the Algarve region of Portugal. It was a magical trip, really.

Enjoy the pictures and I'll be blogging quite a bit about this trip soon...

Obrigada!

That's 'thank you' in Portugese...
During the next few days I'll be sorting through photos and beginning to journal our two-week holiday in the beautiful Algarve of Portugal. I plan to do this over several entries as the there is so much to share.

Stay tuned...

A visit from friends

Earlier this week we had a visit from our friends Melissa and Anthony from the States. They'd been at a wedding in Ireland and popped over to Holland for a couple of days. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and I'm pretty sure that Tuesday was the hottest day of the year here yet.

I took them for a bike ride to the beach and then to Leiden for a bite to eat and some shopping. You should know that Melissa is the president of the Hello Stilletto shoe club (see http://www.shoeclub.us/) so shoe-shopping with Missy is a MUST. I'd been having some trouble finding shoes that I like - but Missy must have been a good luck charm, because in two days I bought three pair of fab shoes :)

Alex and I also took Miss and Anthony into Wassenaar for a couple of drinks and a walk around.

It was a short but fun and relaxing visit and I couldn't have hoped for better weather for our friends.

A Day in the Dam

Last Sunday Alex and I decided to take advantage of the gorgeous weather and we took the train to Amsterdame for the afternoon. No plan - just pop into the city and see what we saw :)

We spent time just walking around in the sunshine, exploring and people-watching (and there are some very interesting people in Amsterdam...)

We visited the famous Rijksmuseum where restoration of the main building is underway, but the museum is displaying the crème de la crème of its permanent collection all in one place. There are a number of Rembrandts in the museum and the entire group of works we saw was just so impressive. Neither of us is a connoisseur of art - and we were pretty daunted by some of the paintings. The collection also includes works by some of Rembrandt's pupils, as well as Johannes Vermeer, Frans Hals and many others. I was particularly drawn to some works by Emmanuel de Witte, a Dutch perspective painter. I was so taken by his paintings that I'm now in search of a framed print of one of them. He painted lots of church interiors. Sounds perhaps a bit dull - but not so!

Naturally I can't describe these works and do them any justice (nor could I take photos in the museum) These are something you should see for yourself if you ever have the opportunity.

Check out some of the videos of the collections:

http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/attachments/QTVR/rijksmuseum_rembrandt_leerlingen.mov

http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/attachments/QTVR/rijksmuseum_republiek.mov

I want to visit Madame Tussaud's on my next trip.