Portuguese Dinner at Dormtund!!!!!

I am with a lot of smile to write this post..

It was yesterday I just had a very surprise call from my Portuguese friend (Carla) who studies here in Dortmund. She called me up and invited me for the dinner.. It was actually her mother asked her to call me for the dinner..Her mother has come from Lisbon .. You know , I was with her in Lisbon for four days and had lot of fun without communicating actually..

And that was my first post in this blog..

I was so excited and happy to meet her here in Germany.. that was superb feeling.. She is my Portuguese Mother.. She is so sweet.. We go along very well without really talking too..

And very active woman.. I just adore her.. and she has such a great dressing sense..


Here she is with Carla..

and of course with me..

And I dont have to say that she cooks great.. She really cooked a delicious rice with shrimp,, a Portuguese food...That went perfect with Portugal wine ..




End with some fruits and Porto wine.. Oh Wow.... Unexpected day... I felt I was in Portugal ... I was bit drunk and got home ....slept...

And one more information I have to mention here that they both packed me two days food.. I am still eating that .......

I was really honoured by your invitation Carla...

Muito Obrigada !

Beijinhos para ti e mãe..

Amsterdam (Netherland): Four days Journey!!!

Friends,

Last week I had a long weekend of four days .. I have decided to visit some place.. The main advantage of living in Germany is the tourism.. It's a heart country of the Europe to travel near by countries easily .. When I was thinking to visit some place I found some interesting information about Amsterdam during those days.. So I did look the train ticket immediately and very luckily I got the cheap tickets and I booked of course.. I have a some sentiment to this place.. This was my first European city I first landed when I travelled to Portugal in 2007.

For your information I didn't have good idea about this city before this visit.. ..

So as I said I didn't have any good idea ( I am very weak in my general knowledge) about Amsterdam other than knowing that is known for red light district and drugs.. But you will see the different city here including some interesting photo ....

First I would like to show this map so that you will get a good idea if you didn't visit before... Amazingly the city is surrounded by water canals of about 100 and about 1000 bridges on it....

So here comes the train I travelled.. I did book the ticket, but you see guys I didn't reserve the seat.. You know I was imagining myself that I am the one is going to travel in this big train and of course with the train driver.. ha ha ha.. .. That was so funny there was no seat free and so many people were standing.. I was glad that I was not the one thinking in that way.. Ha ha ha..

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The journey was just for 2 hours 45 mins.. So I wouldn't mind to stand.. But I would be careful in booking train next time...

So when I was standing doing nothing I was just looking this display .. The train is really going fast...Right???

When we reached the border of the country fortunately I got the place to sit .. So I had a good chance to watch the country side .. Such an amazing view... The train was going in a high speed as you can see I could not take a picture .. Sorry friends.. You will enjoy when you travel there..

So as usual I have lot of pictures to show you.. So please spend some time at least to look the pictures in the following posts....

Keukenkof : Largest flower garden in the world!

Keukenhof....This was my first target to my Amsterdam trip.. I found that they close this garden on May 16th.. As a flower loving person I really didn't want to lose this opportunity..So I did...

From wikipedia some information for you..:

The garden was established in 1949 by the then-mayor of Lisse. The idea was to present a flower exhibit where growers from all over the Netherlands and Europe could show off their hybrids – and help the Netherlands export industry (it is the world's largest exporter of flowers).

Keukenhof has been the world's largest flower garden for over fifty years.

Keukenhof is open annually from the last week in March to mid-May. The best time to view the tulips is around mid-April, depending on the weather. In 2010 Keukenhof will be open from March 18 to May 16.

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And it has been photographed millions of times, more than any other location.

Here I am going to present you some flowers.. Don't complaint guys.. these are really very specific photos.. I cant reduce more than this.. You have to adjust with me.. Okay????

Here I would like to inform that the weather was amazing when I went there.. they said it was a right time since it had been to so cold and raining all days before the day I went.. So as you know guys as lucky as always I had a lucky sun shining days ....

With the sun shine you see flowers looked unreal..
But believe me it was exactly the same how it looked ..

I found thi sin a park.. Nice hug right????

This was the theme for 2010.. "From Russia with love "

And one more information is the tulip flowers are not from Holland.. These are originally from Turky.. Do you beleive this? but you have to...

And the tulip flower field at the back of the garden.. Unfortunately that was too late to see the full of tulip flowers in the field.. But i could see atleast some.. I am happy abut that.. So if you wish to see the flower fields please visit in Mid april.. You would love it..
I would like to dedicate these flowers to my sister.. She was celebrating her birthday on May 14th the day I was in Keukenhof..

"பிறந்த நாள் நல் வாழ்த்துக்கள் அக்கா"

முத்தங்கள்

Volendam and Marken!

Volendam is a popular tourist attraction in the Netherlands, well-known for its old fishing boats and the traditional clothing still worn by some residents. The women's costume of Volendam, with its high, pointed bonnet, is one of the most recognizable of the Dutch traditional costumes, and is often featured on tourist postcards and posters (although there are believed to be fewer than 50 women now wearing the costume as part of their daily lives, most of them elderly).

I travelled to the Marken (it was island before) by this boat.. the trip was really great though it was so cold.. I broke my promise that I ate the fish on saturday.. Usually I dont want to eat any non-veg food on saturday.. But you know the fish was the very famous food in Volendam.. So I did .. As they say it was so delicious with some spicy sauce..

This is Marken.. there we visited the wooden shoe factory and we saw the shoe making process.. that was really interesting.. We move to the next post...

Amsterdam - City itself

Honestly speaking I did not like the city a lot.. It was fully crowded by lot of foreigners.. I was crossing like 100 times the city centre but I never wanted to get down and see around since most of the historical building was under renovation.. But I have to .. So here comes some of the historical buildings..

Starting from Central railway station (front view)..


Back of the central station.. So you can see that its an artificial island... Doesn't sound good..
Westerkerk... is the highest church tower in Amsterdam..
Some buildings of my taste...



Olympic stadium :

The thing which I like the most inside the city centre is the cruise .. It was awesome.. I could see the wonderful old houses .. Also I was surprised to see the boat houses for the normal living..

If you look at these buildings they do not have any gap between houses and they do shift things through wide windows with the hook fixed at the top.. That is a nice idea right??? Almost all houses in the Amsterdam looks the same with the fixed hook at the top..

Not alwyas the history ... Lets see something else.. This is just to entertain you guys.. I found the very interesting 3D Bikini publicity... I hope you like it too...

Now going back to the historical part .. this is the famous museum in Amsterdam.. Rijksmuseum.. As I said before this is under reconstruction.. So I didn't visit...

Ha ha ha.. So here I am going to let you know some secret .... that is, the only museum I visited is the "Sex Museum" in amsterdam.. Fortunately they didn't do any renovation.. Ha ha ha..

In that museum I saw some interesting photos which surprised me a lot.. And one more information taht I did visit red light area... It was quite interesting .. First I felt bad to walk alone in that area.. But you know guys it was very cool lot of people (tourists) walking casually.. So it was good... .. There, I had seen some pretty girls with glowing dresses.. .. That was nice...

The trip would be incomplete without visiting these places.. ... I did a good job.. Right?????

If you are interested in the photos I can send you personally..
Let me know who needs it..

I better stop here guys...

Lets move to the next post..

17th century wind mills!!!

My second target in Amsterdam was visiting this small village having 17th century wind mills..

Here I am going to show you some photos..

And Look at those wooden houses.. I wish I would stay in this house at least for one weekend... I just adored this place.. So calm .. very green.. lake... so beautiful right????

I did visit one of those wind mills opened for tourist.. these windmills in the previous days they used for grinding the grains , flower, cutting the wood etc.,.... they used for the industrial purpose...
These two wheels (one wheel is about 1 ton in weight) were used to grind things..
So I hope you liked the wind mills and the Amsterdam in and around...

And I take this moment to thank Sun Wei, my friend and present colleague, (Status: Married (unfortunately) for his good guidance about this trip..

多謝 Sun Wei..

Have a good day Ahead!!
Beijinhos