"Live Is Life"

I'm living together with James now for more then two months, and it seems to be much longer. Living together with him just feels so natural to me, like I did it for a long, long time. James is not the guy who wants to change everything around me and that gives me the rest I need. He appreciates everything here: the house, the city, my cooking, our slow weekends, the series and movies that we watch together, our little trips, socialize with our friends, .... I guess we are pretty happy with each other and there's not so much more we need to wish for at the moment.

It's good that we enjoy each others company so much. Our days are pretty much the divided in two sorts: weekdays and weekends and both sorts seem to follow their own program. On weekdays we get up at 5.00 h. I'll bring James to the station here in Zwolle, where he takes the train to Dordrecht. While he is on the train I read the morning paper and have some time for surfing the www. I'll leave the house at 8.00 h for my busy job (I have a new director with new and good ideas sincs one month). When I come home from work I watch the news and make our dinner. James arrives at 20.15 h. We'll have dinner and we try to be in bed by 23.00 h. I still have my Italian lessons and the cinema, so that are two days that I am late and that I have to miss James. The last weeks I'm working 5 days a week and so does James.

By the end of the week we are both exhausted. We sleep in on Saturday and Sunday, have an extended breakfast and after that we do something useful in house and garden or tour around and meet friends.

So this is a short update of our life at the moment.

Vacation, vacantie, vacance, vacanze, Urlaub, ...

It seems that I had only one vacation this year: my trip to the US. Of course that is not true at all. It was the trip that took me the farthest away from home, but James and I had a very nice small quiet vacation right after he came to Europe in August.

First we drove to Maastricht, the most "undutch" city in the Netherlands. Maasticht has Belgian flair and Dutch no-nonsense mentality. An ideal combination. We had of course our trip through the center and ate our obligatory vlaai.

Via the highest point in the Netherlands (Vaalse Berg), we went to Aachen (Aix la Chapelle). Aachen is the city of Charlemagne and we did the important sights that remind us of his existence, such as the incredible cathedral (Dom; see picture above) and the treasury of the cathedral with the famous golden mask. Charlemagne was in essention the first real European leader.

From Aachen we went to visit our friends Alain and Jean-Luc in Luxembourg. On our way we did a little detour to pittoresque Monschau and Malmedy. Luxembourg was great. Our friends took good care of us. The first night we went to the fairground (see picture of me with the pink unicorn bag) and the second day we got the grand tour. On both days we were spoiled with an incredible meal.

With some useful tips Alain and Jean-Luc send us on our way to see Metz and Nancy after the weekend. I had passed both towns on earlier occasions without taking the afford to have a closer look at them, but I must say that especially Metz is an incredibly beautiful place.

A 31 and N 57 took us further south through the Vosges Mountains to Belfort and the Alsace. We saw the church Notre Dame du Haut (Le Corbusier) and the tops of the Alsace mountains. Near Munster we found a nice quiet campground where we stayed for two nights. We toured around on both sides of the river Rhine. We saw Colmar and Freiburg and climbed (LOL) the tops of the Black Forest.

Via Strasbourg, Worms and the picturesque part along the river Rhine (where we enjoyed a wonderful dinner on a terrace just above the river), we found our way home.