We're on vacation and are currently spending a few days at my parents' house. The weather is wonderful and we're enjoying the scenery very much.

Yesterday, we took a walk and went passed these characteristic huts, previously used by the farmers as sheds for hay and other things, that were standing in a row nearby. I took a few snapshots, which T. later played with in Photoshop. I like the result.

Yesterday evening, we returned home after a family visit 200 kilometres away and in a few hours I'll begin my 550-kilometre-journey to work, where I'll hopefully arrive in late this evening. Tomorrow evening I will travel the same route back home again. On top of that, late on Friday afternoon we'll embark on the next long trip. In other words, there is a lot of travelling right now.

The weather has been wonderful, however, and the two photos in this blog post were taken yesterday as the whole family (again) went to one of the beautiful mansions near T.'s parents. The garden, forrest and beach are all wonderful spots and the boys thoroughly enjoyed climbing the trees, although my oldest at first felt that he was a bit too grown-up. Let's hope for more days such as this one.

The amazing cliffs at Møns klint were a wonderful sight, which we indeed had to work for. It took some time to get to the bottom, to the beach filled with fossils, but it was admittedly even worse to climb the approximately 500 step up again. But we did and, yes, it was well worth it. I wouldn't mind going back there at some point. The Danish island Møn is really cute, so it might be worth a visit all on its own.

We're planning our holiday in Berlin at the moment and we've decided on the apartment above. It is fairly centrally located within reach of most things we'd like to see, so I think it will suit us just fine. It will be really great to be able to show the boys Berlin and we're just hoping that the weather will be nice and that they will like it just as much as we do.

The children have begun their autumn break today and there will be no school in the upcoming week. Although I will be working, I have decided to do it from a distance. The house I wrote about here is our destination, and I hope we will have a wonderful week there. Internet access will probably not be a frequent occurrence, however, and I don't expect to be posting anything until the week after. Happy Halloween everyone!

The autumn holiday takes place in early November this year and we have decided to spend it on our favourite island. This is a place of roaring waves, an amazing beach where we went looking for amber, and beautiful, small villages with thatched-roof houses. T. has spent summer after summer on this island as a child, and I went there for the first time in the summer of 2008. It was indeed a lovely place.

T. and his parents have described it as a much quieter place in the autumn and winter time. There is less people of course, the ocean is more wild, but the place is just as lovely and perhaps even more genuine. We have just booked a small cottage and I do look forward to going there again.

We just got back from a wonderful few days in Paris (in which we had no Internet access at all). Instead we walked around to a point when my feet had far too many blisters, but we managed to see quite a lot indeed. T.'s parents and his sister and brother-in-law were in Paris for the first time and they had put together a long list of places and sights they would like to see and we managed to visit most of them. Apart from going to places such as the Eiffel tower, the Champs Élysées, the Tuileries, le Grande Arche, the Notre Dame, and the Montmartre and several other places within the borders of Paris, we also went to the Versailles and Claude Monet's house in Giverny by the river Seine.

Feeling very welcome in our rented house in the beautiful village Bougival to the west of Paris, and receiving a lot of help with my father-in-law's electric wheelchair both on the train and the RER, we realized that the Paris area is filled with so many kind, wonderful and helpful people. Merci, merci beaucoup à tous! We left Paris immensely touched as well as grateful. We very much look forward to returning some time soon.

I've been working a lot since we got back from our last vacation and today I managed to finish the task I've been working on since June. It feels great and the timing is pretty good as well. On Monday, we'll be leaving for Paris!

Last weekend we took some time off, however, and drove to an island about an hour's drive away. The weather was really nice and even the sheep seemed happy. We managed to find a number of old, really interesting Viking graves as well. It was an amazing day. Let's hope we'll have a really good time in Paris too.

We're on holiday thoroughly enjoying the wonderful summer weather. Last weekend was filled with confirmation preparations and the actual event — my oldest son did an amazing job and I'm so proud of him — and since then we have travelled around with T.'s parents as well as my own, exploring virtually every spot we have come to think of within a 120 kilometre radius. It has been lovely.

Yesterday, my parents drove the 700 kilometre journey back home, however, and T. and I will soon drive the 470 kilometres back to our home as well, leaving T. parents to relax and catch their breaths. There will be more journeys, however, since we're be travelling to Paris in a few week's time, but right now it's time for some work again.

The secret destination of our trip with the in-laws later this summer has been revealed: Paris! Today I have booked a house just outside Paris and the owner has confirmed. We're really happy! Paris, here we come!

I read Erica Jong's Serenissima as an adolescent. It gave me my first impression of Venice and it shaped my expectations of the city when I first arrived as an 18-year-old. La Serenissima did not disappoint.

Yesterday, T. suggested we'd watch Michael Radford's The Merchant of Venice, starring Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, and Joseph Fiennes, and I was again reminded of Jong's pendent centering on the Jew's daughter Jessica. A wonderful movie experience made me want to re-read the book I read so long ago. Perhaps it is also about getting in the mood for planning next year's trip to la bella Venezia. Be that as it may, T. seems to be in on the same idea since he suggested we'd watch Casino Royale today. Perhaps he did't think of it ending in Venice. But I did.

I have to admit that I fell for this apartment in Castello, Venice. The size (2 bedrooms and a combined kitchen/living room), the location, the looks of it... all of it appeals to me. The view from the living room is simply amazing. Now I just have to make sure T. realises what a perfect place this is... ;)

We are making travel plans for this upcoming summer, but these are, at least to some degree, secret. The first half of the summer we will basically stay put, since my oldest son has some arrangements he has to attend to. The second part, however, will hopefully be filled with travels. At first my parents will be "kidnapped" by T.'s parents and we will spend about a week exploring the city, where T. lived until recently, and its surroundings. I hope for some great weather and I think we will have a really good time.

In early August it will then be our, T.'s and my, turn to "kidnap" his parents, sister and brother-in-law. We have decided to take them abroad, so they'd better have their passports ready, but I won't say much more than that. At least not for now.

The reason why I have chosen to illustrate this blog post with an image of the Grand Canal in Venice is simply that we have begun to think about travelling with the children. We asked the boys where they would like to go and my oldest son suggested Italy and Venice, and since both T. and I have talked about returning to la bella serenissima at some point, it might be a really good idea. I have begun to look for accommodation, but since we won't have any opportunity to go there until the summer 2011, there is no rush at all. I'm looking forward to it though.

We have been on the road again, travelling approximately 1200 kilometres since Friday, and we've been amazed by bright yellow of the rapeseed (Brassica napus) fields we've seen everywhere. The weather has been great too and Saturday's birthday party was fun. (Thank you, S. and T.!)

Getting back home pretty late last night, we decided to put the sofa together properly — we had brought the last parts back with us — and now the sofa both feels and looks great as I'm sitting on it writing this. Well, well... I'd better get going. It's time to get to work.

T. gave me these beautiful white tulips on Monday and I have enjoyed seeing them spring out. Today I took a few photos since I know they won't look as beautiful when I get back here in about a week from now.

It's white everywhere else as well, and during the night it will get even more so. More snow. We know the heavy snowfall will continue tomorrow, but we have to drive through it nonetheless. I hope the children will be able to catch the train and that it will run without any major delays and that I will be able to drive the 470 kilometres that I have to drive without any problems. I'm looking forward to seeing T. again at some point tomorrow afternoon. Keeping my fingers crossed in the hope that everything will work out.

When T. and I had first met we almost immediately began to talk about going to Paris together and that summer we indeed did. We stayed at a hotel close to the Moulin Rouge and had breakfast at a café in Montmartre every morning. It was amazing.

One evening we spent in the Marais district. We had a wonderful dinner sitting outside beneath the arches at restaurant La Guirlande de Julie on Place des Vosges and afterwards we strolled around just enjoying the setting and the moment. Only a block away we saw the most amazing building, a hotel, that I was immediately drawn to, Pavillon de la reine, the queen's pavillion, and I spontaneously said to T. that I'd really like to stay there some day. I didn't know it was a rather expensive boutique hotel, but looking it up on the Internet when we got back, I realised just that. But nevertheless, some day... at some point on a very special occasion... I'd really like to stay there.

Images found at JP Moser.

Founded by the Romans, Tongeren is the oldest city in Belgium. Its long, remarkable and often violent history has been displayed extremely well in the newly re-opened museum. It had been closed for three years, a beautiful, brand new building by architects De Gregorio & Partners in subdued grey has been erected, and more of the items they had hidden in their vaults can now be shown. The architecture of the new building works surprisingly well with the medieval cathedral right nearby.

I found the exhibitions truly amazing. The many tableaus seem almost lifelike. The mosaic floor, the vases, the tombs, the models of the city... all of it is shown in a very good way against the either black or white background. I got a glimpse of what life might have been like 2000 years ago — and it was intriguing.

One thing that puzzles me is the inscription I found on the wall, however. There might have been a translation somewhere, but I didn't find it and now I'm really aching to know what it says. Does anybody know?

The Begijnhof, the Béguinage, where the lay-women lived in the vicinity of the convent, is a really beautiful place. The houses are from the 16th or 17th century and we actually came there twice during our visit in Belgian Tongeren. We happened to be there during the Coronation celebration and procession, which only happens once every seven years "in commemoration of the crowning of the miraculous statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Bishop Doutreloux in 1890" (Tongeren on Wikipedia) and this became very evident when we saw all the beautiful tableaus in the Béguinage.

It's true that we weren't there for that long, but we nevertheless managed to see quite a bit of the inner city. Only an hour before this photo was taken it was actually pouring down and we were lucky to be able to walk around as much as we did in between the showers. It certainly is cloudy in this photo, but I do like the colours that are so common in Amsterdam... green, red and the grayish houses with a tinge of red...

...which is called Leuven in Flemish. Leuven is a university town (just like the French-speaking Louvain-la-Neuve) but it is of course much older. The Catholic university can be found here as well as an amazing medieval city centre. On the photo above the very ornamented city hall can be seen on the left. Our visit was brief and I hope we will return at some point.