To everyone out there, a wonderful, happy, healthy, content, relaxed, funny and amazing new year!
Our New Year’s Eve was very calm, the three of us stayed home, Quinn went to bed at around 19:00 and my boyfriend and I cooked meals out of the “Game of Thrones” cookbook. That was my Christmas present for him, as well as the “Game of Thrones” monopoly which we played to stay awake until midnight.
Having a little baby which wakes up every day at 6:00 o’clock sharp and keeps you busy during the day can be exhausting and normally we both fall asleep on the couch at around 21:30 :).
2015 was a very special and impressive year for me, for sure. I
From September 19th to September 28th we visited the Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany, Bruges in Belgium and Amsterdam in The Netherlands. It was a lovely vacation and all three places are very worth seeing. Friends moved to the Netherlands so we combined all the city trips and ended our vacation with visiting our friends.
Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
We had a lovely B&B in a very small town where the Bubby and me plus my parents stayed. The B&B only had two apartments so we had the whole place for ourselves which was awesome! The hosts were Americans as well which made this vacation perfect.
We arrived on Friday and went out to eat and had typical Palatinate plates. Massive!
On Saturday we had our first “Meet the Parents” day, well, the parents met the parents. The Bubby and I have been going out for 4,5 years now and lived together for two years, yet our parents have never met. Now, with a baby on the way it was a great opportunity though we had that trip planned before I knew I was pregnant 🙂 So my Lover and my Dad went biking and my mom and me hiked up to a hut with his parents, his brother and wife plus their two boys. We all met at the hut and had again typical Palatinate plates for lunch, mainly potato sup with plum cake. We sat and chatted and in the afternoon we hiked down again and all met for dinner. I had “Saumagen”, which is a mixture of lean pork, sausage meat, potatoes, onions, marjoram, cloves and pepper, all covered. It tastes ok but it’s not my favorite.
On Sunday we had a lovely breakfast prepared by our hosts and all drove off at around 11am.
The weather was so great the whole weekend and we all enjoyed it lots.
Below are photos from our lovely B&B, the house was built in 1556. Rhineland-Palatinate – Our B&B Rhineland-Palatinate – Our B&B
Bruges, Belgium
Bruges is a nice little city in Belgium. We stayed in a B&B in the middle of the city and parked the car for free a bit outside, in Magdalenenstraat, so if you’re ever in Bruges by car, you can park there for free. We stayed in Bruges two nights, from Tuesday to Thursday, so we could walk through the city two whole days.
On Wednesday the weather wasn’t that great and there weren’t too many people outside. We walked around 17km and looked at different museums and the town. We stopped for lunch or hot chocolate and for dinner I had a big salad. The food is very expensive, the salad cost me around 16 EURO. On Tuesday night I had Spaghetti Bolognese for 11,50 EURO.
Our B&B in Bruges, Belgium Minnewaterpark, Bruges, Belgium The Belfort, Bruges, BelgiumBruges, Belgium Bruges, Belgium You could find empty streets a bit outside – Bruges, BelgiumYou could find empty streets a bit outside – Bruges, Belgium We had waffles Thursday noon in Bruges, BelgiumAnd French Fries with stew for Lunch on Wednesday – so good but so many!
All in all Bruges was a lovely city with many tourist groups, it’s very expensive, it’s got a lot of chocolate stores and if you don’t go to every museum in town you can see the city in one or two days.
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
We only spent half a day in Amsterdam but I thought that was ok. Sure, there’s so much to see there but we went on a Friday and it was very very crowded there, bikes all over and a lot of people walking around too. We visited the city, at something (I finally found something healthy for under 10 EURO – the wok to walk and I got all veggy, so delish!
Later in the afternoon we visited a ship museum which cost 15 EURO but was worth every penny, very much and interesting things to see. In Amsterdam we parked the car a bit outside and drove into the city with the street train. That way we could see a lot of the city as well. I’d recommend two days though, esp. if you want to look at different museums or have a nice coffee somewhere. Maybe I’ll go back one day but for now I’m good 🙂
I’ve been back from my three week vacation in France since July 12th. Yet I was too busy (or lazy) to blog about it.
It was lovely, as always, the weather was so so, the waves were mostly good. The last week t got quite windy but at least we didn’t get sand blown in our faces 🙂 So all good.
I went jogging every other day which was soo nice and relaxing and amazing. Hearing the ocean and the chirrs of the crickets. Just lovely. We also enjoyed good food and lots of sweets and alcohol.
Let the photos talk… Windy DayBest Sandwich EVERDinnerWhy drink water if you can drink beer?Bad weather aheadSo good burgers!!On the way to the beachFor the first time in my life I tried Macarons.
I ordered five books which I picked up at my local book dealer yesterday afternoon. Got one book from my mother in law and one from each sister and had three here to read. So now I’m ready for my beach (and surf) vacation. Well, almost ready, I have to pick up the beach-ball set I ordered via Amazon next week 🙂
The lover, a friend and me spent a lovely weekend in South Tryol. The weather was great (see photos below) and we also still had some good snow. The first day we completed 22.17 km.
On the second day we went 21km, unfortunately my Garmin wasn’t loaded so it stopped recording pretty soon 🙁
Luckily the Lover also uses a Garmin 🙂
And wow – the pain I have in my legs! I can hardly lift my right leg. Good excercise for the triceps and butt as well. Yumm!
Back home from surfing in France. I’ll miss the beach and the Atlantic, I’m happy to be back home though as well and back with my family.
Somehow I always get the blues on vacation because I think I’ll miss something back home or that something has happened. Boo! Vacation is there to relax!
Surfing went well, again, my board was the prettiest on the whole beach 😉 It’s a pretty pink & white mini malibu from H.S.A.. This year we had quite a few days with no waves at all so we rented bikes on one day and a SUP the other day. Riding a SUP is ok, I can imagine it’s quite boring to do it NOT on the ocean but a lake.
I went “sea-shell-hunting” each morning and came back with a lot, but also with about 10kg of stones :). It’s like an addiction. I love finding sea shells (and pretty stones).
Bye bye beach, I can’t wait to find more sea-shells next year!
Food was great, we went out to eat three times, I had “moules” which are yum and a lot of wine. I also tried a lot of french pastries this year which are very yum!
Oh yeah! I can’t wait to be at the beach, surf a few waves, have sunshine and warm weather. After all the rain and coldness here I’m really really looking forward to this vacation!
A few days ago I had my first strength measurement. I gained a few kilos of strenght almost at every machine
row: May 11: 29,4kg – Jun 28: 29,4kg = +0 kg 🙁
ab crunch: May 11: 22,7kg – Jun 28: 26,7kg = +4 kg
leg curl: May 11: 21,1kg – Jun 28: 29,4kg = +8,3 kg
chest press: May 11: 23,9kg – Jun 28: 27,3kg = +3,4 kg
back extension: May 11: 31kg – Jun 28: 44,3kg = +13,3 kg
leg extension: May 11: 22,9kg – Jun 28: 32,3kg = +9,4 kg
lat pull: May 11: 26kg – Jun 28: 32,7kg = +6,7 kg
glutaeus: May 11: 16,4kg – Jun 28: 29,1kg = +12,7 kg
How motivating is that to see how you gain muscle?! VERY! I’m kinda happy with my first milestone I set myself, of course my belly fat is still there but I’m pretty sure it will take me months to get rid of that (IF I get rid of it).
I did reach most of the goals I set though:
My goals for each week:
work out at least 3 times during the weekcheck – mon/tue/thu are my work-out days
work out 1 or 2 times on the weekendcheck
cut down on sweets – not sure if I can check this 😉
on sundays, go to the gym in the morning before (the big) breakfastcheck – if I have nothing else planned
don’t pig out on weekendscheck
ride the bike to work as often as possiblethe days it didn’t rain and where it wasn’t freezing cold I took the bike
get informed about interval training and pre-/post-workout foods – need to check on the foods
in the strength circuit, increase weight every week or every two weeksincreased
at the gym after a working day, try to lose all the calories I’ve eaten up until the workout – nope, not possible when I only do strength training
I might take my running shoes and thera-bands with on vacation, maybe.
So I took next week off of work. Yay!
I’m going to make a detox cure which contains 4 x 500ml of fruit juices and 1 soup for either lunch or the evening. I’m making this for the first time and for five days. I wonder how it goes and if I’m going to be in a bad mood the whole time because I get no decent food 🙂
Happy February!
Today was/is a good day – I’m on vacation, so, of course it’s a good day.
Went to the doctor at 07:45 in the morning to get my blood test, then I went to a drugstore and bought some stuff for the bathtub, my hair, some creams, then I went to the bakery and then I went grocery shopping.
Came home, chatted on the phone, ate breakfast & organised some stuff here at home, read through some magazines and now I’m blogging.
Later I might be driving to IKEA and a hardware store to get a few things for our apartment.
