Leiden

My Aunt, who recently retired to Ireland, having lived in Holland for 25 years, paid a visit to her old neighbourhood, Leiden, accompanied by her two sisters. Don't you just love recursive sentences? I agreed to join them during the weekend and spent a lovely few days relaxing in their company. We had planned to go to the surrounding villages and visit the local black market but our plans were halted due to the weather. It was so cold that the canals outside peoples homes were frozen over and there was a carpet of snow on the beach.

Nevertheless, it was a great opportunity to see some of Holland that I would not have otherwise seen.. and sample some of the cuisine prepared by a native! One thing which I noticed was that a lot of houses had no blinds fitted to their windows- a measure which many dutch people adopted after the war. It's a wonderful sentiment.. even if you do have to keep the living room spotlessly clean. Below are a few of the photos I took during my stay in Katwijk.

Main Street

Tampooste?? Wrong spelling but a rose by any other name..

Cake Shop Comedy

Tagine dishes from Morroco (present from my Aunt's friend)

Pizza Stone which I got for 10 euro!

In order to avoid attending religious services I left a little bit early on Sunday and made an impromptu stop in Rotterdam! I'll post some photos of that portion of my trip as soon as I discover how to transfer photos from my Samsung to the computer!

And finally, Snow Cat:)

A bientot,
Niamh