2012 - Kreeften-on-the-Move

CHECK MY NEW, 2013 BLOG - loes-cape.blogspot.com

2013-01-07T20:42:00.001+01:00

If there are any questions contact me: loesjelindiwe@gmail.com

" Jingle bell, Jingle bell, Jingle all the way......home

2012-12-31T20:21:00.000+01:00

I am here in Europe, south of Spain, Andalucia, Malaga... Antequera, zooming in on our street, our apartment, our bedroom. Listening to music! Typing on a ‘my’ wooden desk, typing .........my.................. last blog for this year about our Christmas in Antequera.

Christmas tree

Jingle bell, Jingle bell

Jingle all the way....home

Oh what fun it is to fly

To my own bed all the way, Yaay !!!

The last week and days we wanted to make sure we enjoyed every minute of it so it was packed with fun things and saying goodbye to everyone and everything.

We saw the huge chocolate ‘Belen’ (Christmas scene with manger) in Rute with Jesus, the cow, donkeys and the whole village made of chocolate.

yummy !! all made of chocolate

The Belen was displayed in a chocolate factory which also had a store full of chocolate and sweets. We bought some nice chocolate for our Christmas dinner on Noche Buena (Christmas Eve).

Here in Spain the evening before Christmas is the most important and all the family will join to have a special dinner.

We were invited to go for dinner with our neighbours from upstairs Pepe, Marie Paz, Pachi and Javier.

Mary Paz prepared a very nice dinner with special starters from Antequera and Andalucia and we made the dessert...well the desserts. Mom and I made 5 different dishes. We made Meringues with fruits and icecream from South Africa, apple pie and boterkoek (butter cake) from Holland and from Spain we bought special almond cake made by the nuns of the convent of Antequera and of course the chocolates which we bought the other day in Rute. I made small flags of the different countries and stuck them on the different desserts. It was a Fiesta!!!!

PRESENTS

Christmas eve dinner while watching
president of Spain talk about crisis

The evening went past very fast and at 24.00 hours we had to run to be in time for the church which had a special Christmas service with a choir and music.

dad's present from me

After a few hours of sleep it was time for breakfast and ...PRESENTS!!!!!! This year we only made creative presents and recycled materials, like we did with our Christmas tree. I made special earrings from recycled t-bags for dad (not because he has to wear them, but he always wants to give them away as souvenir). This whole year I had made a travel diary in which I collected small tokens of every country we went to. I made it secretly so mum would not see. The travel diary I gave as a present to mum who was very emotional when she saw it. I gave to Steven a cleaning kit for his dirty electronics. I got a super cool, colourful head phone and Christmas stockings and from Steven a blue diary for 2013!!!!!!!!!

In the afternoon we were invited to join a traditional Spanish lunch with the family of Rocio and Miguel in the campo/country side. After the Paella we danced the flamenco and listened to her dad playing the Spanish guitar.

The next day I did not feel so well since I had a stomach ache because of all the good food and most of all the delicious Lindt chocolate which I eat out of the Christmas tree. I had not been ill the whole trip and I felt much better when mom put me on the couch and made me tea with honey and an apple.

Watching the olives filtered

The last last last visit we did was the Hojiblanca olive-oil factory just outside Antequera. This time of the year (November-december-january) the many olives in Andalucia need to be plucked and either put into tins to eat for tapas or squeezed so the olive oil comes out and is put into bottles. Pepe and Mary Paz have their own olive (aceitunas) plantation and they bring their olives to the cooperation which takes care of the olive oil production. It was very interesting to see how the many trucks came in full of olives. It went into a large sift and from there the leaves where separated from the olives and then the olives where mauled till the oil came out. It went from tank to tank to make sure the water was taken out and finally the oil was ready to go into bottles. The best olive oil is called Extra Virgin. I always thought there were green olives and black olives, but actually there are only green olives and when you leave these too long on the tree they turn black.

Gourmet ting

3 days to go and starting to clean the apartment, packing, but most of all throwing a lot away(Christmas tree, dad’s yoghurt collection, my temporarily art displays. In the evening we had a bye bye gourmet with our Dutch friends Esther, Mireille and David.

On Saturday it was the last time to see Rocio, Miguel, Marga, Candela, Jose, Marga, Thamy and Edna. On our way home we past a bar and started chatting to a friendly customer who all of a sudden started singing to us the flamenco.

After finishing packing on Sunday we visited one of the 33 churches in Antequera for a beautiful concert with a very large choir and very professional musicians. It was a perfect last day in Antequera.

We are now “ready” to leave our home in Antequera and go back to our real home in South Africa. At 13:00 in the air with Swiss Airlines to Switzerland and then transit for 6 hours and then at 22:00 in the air to South Africa.

The last Spanish tradition we will do is to eat 12 grapes at midnight the 1^st of January 2013. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!

1 YEAR, 366 DAYS (2012 was a leap year) 52 WEEKS, 24 HOURS where has the time been?????????? It is hard to imagine that we have been away for so long.

Buying hot chest nuts

It is really difficult to stop writing and not letting you know our experiences in Cape Town so I will try to keep on writing every month , but this is not a promise. Please do keep on checking and if I am too busy with school to write I will of course let you all know on my blog!

Please email me if you still want me to keep on writing next year: loesjelindiwe@gmail.com

South African Afrikaans: Dankie

Argentina: gracias

Singapore: Thank You

Australia: Thank You

China: 谢谢

Russian: спасибо

Ukraine: Спасибі

Poland: dziękuję

Germany: Danke

France: merci

Belgium: Dankje Wel or Merci

London: Thank You

Greece: σας ευχαριστώ

Italy: grazie

Monaco: Merci

Spain: Gracias

Anyway, thank you so,so,so,so,so,so,so,so,so MUCH for following my blog and reading, commenting and being part of our travels! Some of my followers said that I should print my blog out and make it into a book! Ill think about it!!!!

Loes Lindiwe Kreeftenberg and the rest of the Kreefts

La ultima ciudad a visitar en Espana

2012-12-24T15:05:00.000+01:00

Kreefts with Patchi and Javier

This week was the last school week before Christmas/winter break here in our little town of Antequera and every day the streets became more crowded with people. From 17.00 o’clock (after their siesta) they walk the streets to meet friends, take a drink in a bar, have a tapa, buy some gifts in the shops or just look at the many Nativity scenes (Belen in Spain). When walking on the streets there are chestnuts which they heat up and you can buy a packet for 1 euro! It is very delicious when it is cold outside! Christmas is a big family tradition in Antequera, everyone who live and work somewhere else return to their hometown and meet each other and celebrate together. There was a big party going on in the “Casino” which is papas “working cafe” and where we celebrated mum’s 50th. We popped in and met many people who we knew and danced!! We also met Javier- a friend of a family who we met here in our apartment building. Javier also came home for Christmas, but normally he works in .... SOUTH AFRICA!! He is working in Cape Town for some years making the Ave train! (the very very modern and fast train here in Spain). We also saw Patchi again, his sister, who works in Malaga and also speaks English very well. It was great to speak English and not only Spanish especially when the music is very loud and you can’t think so well!

Steven with his coach

party in Casino

This week also Steven’s soccer training ended and his team organised a goodbye party for him. SOOOOOOOooooooo nice of them. He got a photograph of his team with all their signatures and Facebook names on the back and he also got a shirt of his Antequera football club as a souvenir. What a nice farewell for him!!

La ultima ciudad a visitar en Espana

What does this heading mean??????? " La ultima ciudad a visitar en Espana" well if you want me to translate it, it means " the last city to visit in Spain". It was Sevilla that we still wanted to see, since all our friends told us that Sevilla was a “must - to- see”. It is in the south of Spain, 2 hours with the bus from Antequera. Sevilla is a big city, but has a very nice old center. It has a population of 700.000 people and like a lot of cities in Spain it was built by the Romans, ruled by the Muslim and taken over by the Catholic Kings.We visited Sevilla for 2 days, because the city is very cozy with lots to see and to do and is very romantic as well. We thought it was a good idea to go just before Christmas with all the lights in the streets and in all the squares. We also had a perfect weekend because of the good weather with 21 C it was sunny and warm. When we arrived in Sevilla the first person we saw was a “feliz” Santa Claus.

Santa Claus

We visited Sevilla for 2 days, because the city is very cozy with lots to see and to do and is very romantic as well. We thought it was a good idea to go just before Christmas with all the lights in the streets and in all the squares. We also had a perfect weekend because of the good weather with 21 C it was sunny and warm. When we arrived in Sevilla the first person we saw was a “feliz” Santa Claus. se the city is very cozy with lots to see and to do and is very romantic as well. We thought it was a good idea to go just before Christmas with all the lights in the streets and in all the squares. We also had a perfect weekend because of the good weather with 21 C it was sunny and warm. When we arrived in Sevilla the first person we saw was a “feliz” Santa Claus. We checked into the 2 star hotel that looked and felt like a 4 star hotel, because of the comfortable beds, the shower was great, room was big enough and breakfast was so delicious. You could also take bikes for free which we did and cycled through the old town, in and out the small streets, under the Triana Bridge and cycled along the Guadalquivir River (I cannot remember how to pronounce the name, but I like the sound of it). We past the Gold Tower, The strange Mushroom (modern building in the center), the huge Cathedral of Seville (which was a mosque before). My most favourite, fascinating place in Sevilla was “Plaza de Espana”. When walking through a beautiful, romantic, green, clean park you walk straight into a giant sort of palace. It is only built in 1929 for a sort of exposition, but what makes it attractive are the shiny tiles in yellow, light blue, white, green on colourful benches, lamp poles, bridges along a small long canal. It was magnificent sitting on one of the benches and seeing the different colours everywhere with the reflection of the sun

fter sunset when the Christmas lights were glowing the centre of Sevilla is also became very, very busy too. Everyone was in the shops buying Christmas presents and on the streets in every corner there was something to see ;singing, hip hop, a big Christmas tree, market, the government house that was lighted up and had pictures projected on its building with beautiful loud music. The most busy where the many tapas bars of course and I also know now where the word Tapas comes from.....it means ‘covers’ in Spanish, because in the past people covered their drinks with their little snack plates. Anyway it was so cosy and fantastic to see Sevilla. I am so glad we have been there!

( Next week : blog that leads us to the end)

Louisa

Merry Christmas from the Kreefts !!

Thinking about how lucky I actually am!!!

2012-12-17T12:49:00.000+01:00

This week's blog is about "thinking about how lucky I actually am being on this amazing world trip with my family for 1 year"

Since it is almost time to go home I thought a lot about our past 12 months of travels, about Argentina, Singapore, Australia, China, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, France, Belgium, England, Greece, Italy, Monaco, Spain and home... South Africa

We all agreed it was a sensational journey!

Papa, Mama and Steven each wrote a few sentences how they thought the 365 days have been!

Loes : 365 days gone away from home, leaving my best friends, home, school and instead travelling to 15 countries with my brother, mum, dad with different types of transport, train, airplane, car, boat, bus, underground, by foot, bicycle, rickshaw, cable car, has left many many impressions. Last year when we planned to go I was not so excited to leave and actually I was confused. I was scared to leave my environment. Perhaps it would not be the same when I come back. What about my friends and I was so curious to start my highschool. I really, really can’t describe how excited and happy I am now that we have done this trip and have seen, learned new things. The home schooling was a lot of fun with mum teaching me the school’s curriculum and seeing everything 3D afterwards. In Greece seeing the Acropolis, the 3 different types of columns I will never forget. (Ionic, Doric, Corinthic) . I saw the place where Democracy was invented. In Italy I could imagine how important the Roman Empire had been, in Russia I understood what the Cold War was all about and in Poland I could imagine how terrible the 2^nd WWII had been after visiting Auschwitz. Seeing so many places and museums I would not have been able to learn all that out of a book.

The most difficult thing this year was sticking together with the four of us for 24 hours. Sharing a bedroom with Steven seeing each other every minute of the day and not having my own private time and space. At home it is so much different having our own plans only seeing each other for meals and on Sundays when we relax! Not every second of the day!!!!!!!!

My favorite countries out of all the countries we have
visited this year was certainly China. When I talk about China I mean Beijing and Shanghai. It does have bad, disgusting things like the smog, people spitting everywhere, people eating fury, slimy cooked scorpions, worms and spiders, but my favorite experience was the language “nihou”, xie xie”, “ nihou ma” etc. ( when I am older I want/will learn Chinese and I know it is very difficult, but I at least would like to be able to make a conversation in Chinese). I also “love” the food-culture in China, the different kinds of noodles and different kinds of food. No Mac Donalds food or KFC but “hot pot” and sitting in the food-court with different kinds of people trying to make a conversation. I also love China, because I feel free there to do whatever I want. If I feel like singing or randomly dance they will like it and will not say “what the hell is she doing”. Everybody in China is in fashion – at least in Beijing. So I went along and followed everyone wearing high skirts and pony tails that also looked nice as a bracelet, spectacles without glasses in them etc. The people are also very, very friendly and they will help you in any way. Most of the Chinese like to communicate with you even to try their new English words they learned randomly saying “good morning” and then running away laughing. Ooh and the first week when we were in Beijng, there were 3 students who tapped our shoulder and quickly said “ hello” and ran away quickly!! There is a lot of history in Beijing too, with the temple of Heaven, Great Wall of China, Summer Palace, Llama temple etc. China was also cheap, but not cheap enough. I thought it would have been cheaper with more little shops everywhere as you sometimes see in a China Town, but it wasn't like that at all. Most of the people in Beijing want to shop for ‘European Style’ goods. There is lots more to say about China; weather, city, traffic etc. but I have to stop now otherwise mom, Steven and dad won’t have a turn............. Any way I love China, because it is so different than anywhere else !

Mum:

O dear...we had so many extra ordinary experiences....what was the best one ???? Difficult to choose!!!!!

I enjoyed being teacher, I learned so many things myself again

I loved telling people how special South Africa is

I cherish the many personal chats and adventures we had with the four of us

But when I think back of the past 12 months I mainly remember the many people we met.

Most of them showed surprise and admiration towards our adventure followed by the remark that unfortunately they themselves would never be able to do something similar.

So Loes, what I above all like to share with your many blog readers is our experience of how relatively easy it was to turn our dream into reality!

1^st and without doubt, the most challenging part is The Decision itself.

Automatically we are all looking for security and comfort zones, so the step to leave your work, school, house and friends behind to spend a whole year into the unknown is quite big?

However, after we had discussed the pros and cons the ‘idea’ became ‘manageable’ and we agreed with the family that we would Go Ahead.

After that the easy part starts....................... realizing the dream.

2^nd in importance is the Preparation time.

We took a whole year to make sure that we became replaceable at work, to work out schooling for the kids and organize house and budget.

Challenges are always hard to deal with and become even more difficult to solve when you are away, so preparing to leave needs time.

3^rd advice is do NOT prepare your trip in detail.

We read this tip ourselves in an article of another family who traveled with their kids and their tip turned out to be a golden one.

We knew the destinations – Loes, Steven, Jaap and I all had 1 theme/country – but other than the flight to our first destination we did not arrange anything in advance. We organised the arrangements for the next destination only a few weeks before.

This way you remain flexible and do not get stressed (not this year at least).

So, ones you are ‘on-the-move’ the 4^th tip is to structure your daily activities.

Definitely important with children is to organize the day with regular timetables for homeschooling, going out to see and or do things and to include private time. It gives them something to look forward to and enlarges the enjoyment.

So Yes, many more do-s and don’t-s can be shared, but the ones above are the most valuable. Overall it is not a matter of work, schooling or budget. Everyone can do it as long as you really want it.

Wishing that many more families will be encouraged to add such a wonderful experience to their lives and that of their children (already we heard of 1 family who will DO IT in 2014), I will mention just a few ‘souvenirs’ of what you will bring home after your trip;

Strong family bonding, unlimited memories, lots of new energy, new ‘tools’, different ideas, more understanding, appreciation, respect and many more values in live that one tends to take for granted.

...and personally for us....we realize ones again that we come back to the best place on earth!

Steven: Playing soccer in different countries.

Argentina

When I was looking for a soccer club in San Telmo we found one under a high way.

How they played!!

We learned that as soon as you get the ball you just had to control it and then pass. Sometimes you can keep the ball maybe a few seconds longer, but then pass. I did have lots of fun there. Met lots of friends. I also met a boy the same age as me and he spoke English. We still have lots of communication through Facebook.

China

When we came in China I could not find any soccer club, because they are all out of the city and we did not have a car. So I practiced in the compound where we lived. There I met a friend to play with and his father spoke excellent English and the boy spoke a few words. So we became very good friends and played together at the same club.

How they played!!

They played very selfish and kept the ball to themselves. I think they are not used to share and play together, because in China the rule is to have one child per family only. So no one has brothers or sisters. They grow up being the only child with their mothers and fathers.

Spain.

In Barcelona I went with my Dad to a FC Barcelona match were I saw Messi 10 meters away from me taking a corner. Their way of soccer is very typical Argentinean and half Spanish.

We found my soccer club on the first day we arrived in Antequera. When I asked if it was possible to join the soccerclub, he said you may begin now if you want!!

How they play!!

They have lots of skills and the practice is very technical and professional. It is hard to play here because nobody speaks English (only a few swear words from television). But this feeling of playing soccer I will never get in South Africa, because here in Antequera I go alone to soccer training by foot. Nobody is in the street, because I start during Siesta-time and when I come back from soccer I see those Christmas lights everywhere and the whole street is full of life. Everyone is happy and when I pass the old age home all the grandmas sitting around and are telling stories together.

So, everywhere there is something special and every country has its specific ways of doing things..... that’s what I think about when I think back of this past year.

Home schooling.

Actually I expected to be on holiday the whole year, but now I look back it was quite busy every day. No time to sit on the couch and do nothing. In every place we lived we had to first unpack and organize my room with my sister. Then we needed to explore the city, find supermarkets and banks and look for transport and sim cards. Then we would start school in the mornings and in the afternoons we would see the things we learned in 3D going to Museums, attractions and other things.

Our normal schedule for a day is planned like this: Breakfast together then we have school from 09.00 to 13.30 and then my dad comes back from a local internet-café. Then we have lunch and after that we all go together to see a museum/market or so.

Our world map

I would never have dreamed that it would be so nice. Also the special tasks I had like finding accommodation and sometimes booking flights, helping with washing and cleaning, learning the subway by heart and making powerpoint presentations of everything I saw, I enjoyed the most.

Jaap: Here are some of my experiences of the trip. So there I am as a young father thinking what to write.....

Coming from the Sexy Sixties - after the hippie period- we had the Music Top 40.

I just discovered the Top 40 December 2012 on the internet and, so I will come with my Kreeft- on- the-move Family Top 40 (as far I am allowed to go by the publisher)

Let’s start with the first 10 of the TOP 40 from 1972 (40 years ago when I was same age as the kids)

1. The Rolling Stones – Angie 6. John Lennon , Yoko Ono & Harlem Community Choir (Happy Xmas (Was is over)

2.Gibert O’Sillivan – Alone Again 7. Golden Earing – Radar Love

3 David Cassidy –Rock Me baby 8. Sammy Davis Jr – The Cany Man can

4. Mouth & Macneal - How Do you Do 9. The Moody Blues – Nights in White Satin

5. Vickey Leandros – Apres Toi 10. Johhny Nash – I can see clearly Now

MY OWN THE KREEFT OF THE MOVE TOP 40 (upto 15 due to space on blog) :

What were the un expected high lights :

1) With 4 of us 6 - 10hours together

2) With kids walking / by bus in the different cities to their sports and the morning Run with Loes

3) Unexpected friends from Deventer (Oost NL), Tourism Study NWIT, and SA in Tinogasta, Melbourne, Singapore, Beijing

4) For us unknown cities : Chile Cito, Tinogasta, Kharkiv, Osea Island Patras, Chiavari & Antequera

5) China & Ukraine

What was different than expected (disappointed)

6) Buenos Aires , golden Memories changed in City without hope run by many Grasping government officials (Bit similar in Athens)

7) FEDEX & RipCurl (bunch of losers after a lot of pressure did their job)

8) Customs in Australia (worse of all)

9) We saw 500.000 chopped trees per day moving from Siberia towards China

10) Empathic behaviour in South of Spain, complaining while so many possibilities around

What did I learn (or have been reminded of again):

11) Kids are flexible and overall they were great together

12) Germaine is a Super Woman

13) No office desk needed, can work on nice terraces and cafe’s

14) World changes much faster than I thought (despite travelling and reading a lot , big surprise)

15) That I like my job

This is a summary of the countries we have been to and what we thought was nice for each:

Type	country of mom	country of Loes	country of Steven	country of Jaap
best ice- cream	Italy/Rome	Argentina/ Buenos Aires	Argentina/Buenos Aires	Argentina/Buenos Aires
cleanest place	Anteqeura	Singapore	Singapore	Monaco
dirtiest place	China/ Beijing	China/Beijing	China/Beijing	Argentina/Buenos Aires
favorite country	Spain	South Africa	England/London	China
favorite apartment	China / Beijing	Argentina (Recolleta)	Argentina (Recolleta)	China/ Beijing
favorite food	Pasta/Italy	pizza/ Italy	Pollo Snitzel/Argentina	Noodles/China
the most friendly country	Spain	China	China	China
the most unfriendly country	Russia	Russia	Russia	Russia
where we wanted to go back	Ukraine	China	England/London	China
where we don't want to go back	Russia	Russia	Russia	Argentina/Buenos Aires
value for money	Spain	South Africa	China	China
cheapest country	Spain	Spain	Ukraine	Ukraine
country of history	Italy	Poland	Greece	China

Next week : Sevilla

Mucho Gracias

Louisa, Esteban, Gaap, Carmen

BEING CREATIVE FOR CHRISTMAS

2012-12-10T14:09:00.003+01:00

Making decorations for Christmas tree

mom jumping of steep hill/wall

This week we had a lot of time to get into the atmosphere of Christmas. Many streets and shops were being decorated for Christmas and white and blue lights have been switched on making the town very cozy.

We really got into the mood of being creative for Christmas too and started making and writing beautiful Christmas and New Years cards. We also decided that we set up a Christmas Tree in our apartment, so we went out hiking to find branches and recycled stuff for decorations.

Giving fruit to Sinterklaas' old horse

We went walking with the four of us in the mountains just outside Antequera. We saw a sheperd with lots of goats and while dad had a long telephone call mom and I went our own way walking more into the mountains. We had made it into a big adventure by jumping over streams, pulling each other up with a long scarf we had with us and collecting fruits which we found laying in an old orchard. There we saw the old retired horse of Sinterklaas (the younger one

recycling materials

decorating Christmas tree

was in the Netherlands) so we took care of it by feeding it the fruits. I held out my hand holding it in front of his nose for a few long minutes. Eventually he smelled it and then ate all of our fruits we collected. We kept him company sitting in the wet grass looking at the cold, wet, shining sun. We headed home where we saw dad and Steven with a strong branch that was supposed to become our Christmas Tree. Perfect!!!! and Steven and I went decorating the tree. We collected many decorations for the tree using string, elastics, bottle tops, ribbons, pine cones, paper, t-bags, wrapping paper that we

used from mum's birthday. When we finished decorating I said, "that is what I call a Christmas tree". We bought cheap Christmas lights in the Chinese Shop and .......we are ready for Christmas!!!!!

The inside of Mezquita

On the 6th December it was the day of Saint Nicolas. The Dutch
celebrate this on the evening of 5th December with presents. Here in Spain it was called Day of Constitution. Just before Sinterklaas we went to Cordoba, where the streets are full of trees with 'appeltjes van Oranje' (orange-trees). It was only 1,5 hour away from our town and we went with my friend Esther, her mother, my mum and Steven. The old city was very beautiful. You enter the center that existed from 113 BC, walking over the Roman bridge of Cordoba that goes along the Guadalquivir river. Walking in the old part of Cordoba is very interesting since every small street or patio is different. The most beautiful building was the Mezquita, the Mosque that was made into a Cathedral. The inside is very impressive with high ceilings and columns and many patterns of red and white. The big old paintings are all in golden frames. It would be a beautiful place to hold the Christmas-Eve service.

Family photo in Torcal mountains

Steven,dad and me on a rock in El Torcal

Finally on a sunny day, for the fourth time, we went to El Torcal. Remember that we have been their 3 times were it was raining and bad weather with clouds covering the rocks. Well this time it was a clear blue sky with a yellow dot in it. El Torcal is a natural park / reserve with strange rock formations, grass, trees and animals. We went hiking up the rocks, slipping because of the muddy stones, climbing, jumping. The game reserve was 17 square kilometers so we had to make sure we did not get lost. When we thought we lost our way we started to be scared, because it was so big and it was beginning to get darker. We were actually with our backs facing the parking so very close to the end of the trail.

In Torcal with goats (Spanish Ibex) behind me

The winners!

The beginning of December was our last Tennis lesson, because of the colder weather! Steven and I earned a medal and a piece of apple pie. Now I need to find something else to keep fit so dad and I are doing early morning walks to see the town waking up. Steven is still playing soccer 3 times a week for 2 hours and mum is still at her Pilates lessons. Also the hikes are lovely and we still have our badminton rackets to practice in the street or park here.

Family picture in front of Antequera on a sunny hiking day

(up side down picture) with Christmas lights in streets

Castle of Antequera from our hinking path on a beautiful sunny afternoon

Dear blog followers, ITS PARTY TIME,

5000 blog followers!!!! Thanxxxx to you I reached 5000 page views!!!!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING MY BLOG weekly or regularly and following our journey's!!! In late October I had 4000 page views and now 5000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also thanks to our proud sponsors (if you want to be one , ones off E 5 / R 50 ) and all the local friends who gave me the ideas.

As you know, it is cold here in Antequera during the night so as a 5000 page view gift mum

heated up 5000 rice grains in the microwave for 5 minutes!!!

And dad organised a cake with 5000 calories.

Your comments and page views inspire me to write my stories and I want to thank- you

so much !!! I have viewers from all over the world check it out !!!

Pageviews by Countries

Entry	Pageviews
Netherlands	1559
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Argentina	414
United Kingdom	319
Spain	252
Russia	145
Germany	133
Australia	109
Ukraine	84

AND EVEN MORE : FROM CHINA (but these are our secret viewers) , SWEDEN,INDONESIA and even EGYPT,!!!!

I hope that when I am back in South Africa that I can write a blog about " Loes in the Cape"

I'll see if I don't have too much home work or I can do it every 2 weeks, because also there many strange, funny, sad, interesting things happening every day.

If you do want me to go on with writing, be my FOLLOWER! On the left had side of my blog!

We have 3 weeks till our world journey is over! Please keep on following till the end of this year and write comment and email me, because I love it !

I have seen a lot of countries and every one inspired me on a different way, the beautiful cities en nature the most impressive was to meet so many nice and friendly people in the towns, the busses, the trains. I expect that many of them we knew better are going to visit us in Cape Town.

If you can also be a follower of my blog!!! Go on my blog and on the left side it says follower press the button and

write your email address and then you are a OFFICIAL FOLLOWER!!!

Please keep following and commenting

on my email : loesjelindiwe@gmail.com

or blog : kreeftonthemove.blogspot.com

MUCHO GRACIAS, BAIE DANKIE, THANK YOU SO MUCH, DANK JULLIE WEL,

谢谢, DANKE, MERCI, ΣΑΣ ΕΥΧΑΡΙΣΤΟΥΜΕ, GRAZIE, DZIĘKUJĘ, СПАСИБО, شكرا !!!!

from Loes van the dream town : Antequera, Spain

Missing my Friends!!

2012-12-02T20:41:00.000+01:00

All of my friends together !

" MY FRIENDS" age of 12 years

note I got from my friends

a note I got from one of my friends

Now we have been 'on-the-move' for almost 12 months, people start asking me what I learned from the trip. I started thinking how much I learned about all the people in the many countries, about their food, their manners and sometimes strange habits and languages, about the history in the many museums we visited. BUT most of all I learned this year how important friends are to me! They are so so very important to have!

My first BFF moved to Australia

I also found out an interesting and funny thing! Some friends that you expect to stay in contact with, have not been in contact so much or at all AND the friends you did not expect to stay in contact with, have been in contact all the time. There are a few friends who always contacted me in different ways, short messages or long messages. It's just the idea of them always being there for you, even when you are not with them! I know I am the one who left to go away for a whole year, but by writing my blog every Monday I try to stay in touch and I am always very excited when someone contacts me after I published. Some are really good at it and write a comment on the my Blog, send me a short message saying hello, writing a postcard, sending me a Whats App, email, Facebook or Skype. Sometimes I can see when their school is busy, because there are less messages and no time for Skype. Sometimes when I am sad that no friends have contacted me for a week, the next day they suddenly all contact me at once and I am on the top of the world!!!
I love my friends and I am coming back for them, not for school, not for my own bed or house, but for my BFF's. A few days ago a friend even started counting down the days till I come back. THANKS friends for always being there for me!
Here I posted 2 of my favorite images which friends have Whats App-ed me!

Playing the instruments

Esther and Me kissing a statue

Talking about friends; I have met a lot of nice friends during the trip. A lot of them are still reading my blog or emailing me. I hope I can stay in contact with them and most of all I wish they come to visit me in South Africa.
One particular friend I met here in our village/town Antequera. She is 17 years and she is born in Holland so also speaks Dutch. She came to Spain when she was 10 years and went to school here in Antequera. She can speak very well Spanish and wants to improve her English, so we decided that we would tutor each other. Esther is teaching me Spanish and I am teaching her English. We went to Malaga together with the bus and also went with her brother. We were a whole day in Malaga and went to a small music museum where you could play all the instruments and we were there for 2,5 hours playing everything they had. We also had a free Hanna tattoo with a peace sign, went shopping, walking from left to right, eating, but most of all TALKING! We were talking the whole day to each other about all the different kinds of subjects!

Reserving a bench in the park!

Lying in the forbidden area

We had found a bench in the middle of the center of Malaga where next to us was someone playing soft music and behind us were trees with birds in them with the sun shining on us! It was a great spot. Than we wanted to walk around and see the center. We reserved our VIP seats and when we returned there was a 'bergie' sitting on our seats. I guess he couldn't read, because it said " RESERVED VIP" clearly! After having a busy, fun day we lay on a grass patch for a while and rested. The rest was short because a police officer sent us away, haha! Anyway, the day went by very quickly and when we looked at our watch we had to run otherwise we would have to take a bus 2 hours later! We made it and in the bus we were all terribly tired!

After a a few days being miserably cold and jealous of Cape Town with a temperature difference of 25 degrees C! Esther and I went cycling in the cold winter weather. The mountains are very near by, but in the town it is quite easy to cycle around. It was great!

view of Malaga from the castle!

MUM and Dad 15 years Married !!

our home made cup cakes

Flamenco show in bar

Steven and I planned a 2 day-away in Malaga for my mum and dad, because they had their 15 year wedding anniversary ( and also because we wanted to be alone without parents, DISCO haha). Steven booked a cheap, romantic hotel and I organised a not touristic original flamenco show in a bar and a museum where they could go to. We both gave them an envelope with maps and direction and their booking prints and said good- bye. Our plan was : "go with the flow" have fun!!!

The first 3 minutes we were "happy dancing" and excited to be alone......... no mum and dad! We had a great time being alone. Our friend came over and we went out to meet other friends for pizza. Later we watched movies till late in the night, we baked, we washed the dishes and had fun! Mom and Dad also had an amazing time since the old center of Malaga was decorated with Christmas lights who were officially switched on that evening with music and dancing and many people partying. By luck I phoned them to 'check' on them when I heard all the noise in the background. !!! They had their first Christmas feeling seeing the lights go on in the cold weather. When they came home again the next evening we had made them a 3 dishes surprise dinner with candles and music and delicious home-made food!!

Next Week : "The Kreeftenberg's getting ready for a CREATIVE CHRISTMAS!!! "

Loes Lindiwe Kreeftenberg

Abuelo and Abuela

2012-11-25T20:20:00.001+01:00

As you know, Abuelo and Abuela ( Opa & Oma Muts) visited us in Antequera being there for mum's birthday and staying with us for a week. The first few days the weather was good, could have been better, but we could walked outside without feeling any raindrops or feeling very cold! Let's just say that the weather was good enough to eat ice-cream, but too cold to wear your shorts!

Oma and mama eating Churrios

far away you can see the flamingos

We went with Oma and Opa Muts to............. wait .... let me first translate Opa & Oma Muts for you. Opa & Oma Muts means " Grandpa & Grandma Hat " We named them like that because Oma Hat always wears a hat when she comes to South Africa! Steven and I decided to call her/them just like that Hat a long time ago. Just like our other granny who we name: Oma Muis. Granny Mouse because she used to catch mice on our attic!.. (ok! now let's go on).......

Oma and I with our cup cakes

Oma and Opa Muts posing

During the week after the birthday we did many things with Oma and Opa Muts; we went to a fruit-vegetable and clothes market. I thought it was a great market with lots to taste like delicious oranges etc!! The only thing they could have changed was the order of the stalls. If we wanted to go to another row of stalls we had to go back around and go through the other stalls which we already saw. After walking through the busy market buying the fresh good looking fruit, we headed off going to have a cappuccino which ended up with having... yummy, traditional oily, circled CHURRIOS (do you still remember what they are, we have had it a few weeks ago. Anyway it was delicious again!)

Alhambra wall carvings and tiles

On Wednesday we were supposed to go to Granada (a city in Andalusia and go to the Alhambra. This is an Arabic castle which is very well know and many tourist visit this when they are in Andalusia Everyone was looking forward to go at 10:00 and at 9:45 dad said he had a little problem, he did not have the tickets for the Alhambra. That was not a little problem, more a BIG problem, because the Alhambra is always very busy and you have to buy the tickets in advance. The tour was cancelled, but instead Granny and I did a lot. We baked cup cakes, made Christmas cards and went shopping in the little Local boutiques and Chinese shops! At the end of the day we also had time to go to Fuente de Piedra, a place not far from Antequera where you can see the flamingo's in a beautiful nature reserve. We were just in time to see the last group of flamingo's leave for Africa! We could see a pink/orange group of flamingo's very blurry, because it was so far away!
The next day we had reserved the tickets and went in our hired car to Granada. 1,5 hour in the car, but worth it! The Alhambra was fantastic, wonderful, because of its beautiful rooms with hand made wall and ceilings which the Arab kings had made for them! I also loved the clean green gardens in between the palace rooms with different color flowers and plants all cut in shapes or animals! The fort (Alcazaba) in front of the castles was also magnificent. A huge castle with many corridors and rooms all empty and my favorite part was the "mirador" = " the viewpoint". We saw the view of the whole city of Granada with all the white houses and red/brown roofs. If you look much further you could see the snow on the mountains (Sierra Nevada)!! We didn't see the high gardens of Alhambra, because it was too much for grandpa to walk.

Thanks to the lovely sun, it was a great, moving, smiling, magnificent day!!

The last afternoon for oma and opa Muts to be in Antequera I had booked a nice tapas restaurant for 6 people. When it was time to go to this restaurant,...I did not know the way back to the restaurant, because I went with a friend and I was chatting with her and did not pay attention. I lost the way! stupid of me!! ( as dad always says: " you learn everyday"). Anyway we had found another nice tapas restaurant where we could have lunch! We had to rush a little, because we lost some time looking for my original restaurant, but we were in time at Malaga airport and had to say good-bye to them.! Thanks Opa and Oma for staying with us.

(next week = missing my friends!)

Loes - Louisa Lindiwe Kreeftenberg

!!!!!!! " LA SOPRESA / SUPRISE" !!!!!!

2012-11-19T13:28:00.000+01:00

Breakfast in bed

mum's BFF - Best Friends Forever

On the 15th of November it was mum's 50th birthday. During the week Steven, Jaap and I were preparing Mum 50 party. We were waiting for the last weather forecast, because this week was not to be expected to be the sunniest week. At the end it was not too bad. On Tuesday Steven went alone by bus and train to pick up Opa & Oma Muts (grand ma & pa) from the airport of Malaga. They arrived with airbeds and many presents!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We checked the hotel and restaurant and the bar for the evening with drinks and tapas. On Thursday Ellen & Marga

(mum's BFF = Best Friends Forever), Ernie, Oma Muis en Lex arrived in the morning in Antequera and settled in their hotel.

guided tour around Antequera

We gave Mum breakfast in bed and she could watch for 30 minutes her favorite Dutch program (DWDD). At 11:00 we had presents for her (even though she said that she really did not want presents and only wanted us to be good and not misbehave) and coffee.

We were all sooooooo excited to know if our big birthday surprise that we had organized worked or if mum found out something was going to happen!!!!

mum holding a speech

Hanging out with friends of Antequera

with local friends!!!

At 13.30 we walked with 4 of us and Opa & Oma to the restaurant to have lunch and our friends were already installed and had the wine ready!!! When we arrived the friends were sitting there and mum was completely surprised. Mum held a speech made for the 6 of us not knowing we were with more, but it was beautiful and very well prepared. Thank you mom! After lunch we had a guided tour through ancient Antequera with Mireille, who is living in Antequera for more than 6 years and works for the tourism board. We visited the castle and after that we went to the soccer field to see Steven playing soccer and me playing tennis. Germaine skipped her Pilates of course to be with her BFFs.

The day went fast and at 20:30 we had our party at the Casino, the bar next door to our apartment where we are regulars. We had our European friends and our Antequera friends all together and with around 30 people Germaine said she had a dream Birthday party with a lot of drinks and tapas of course.

Friday everybody had to recover, certainly the birthday girl! :). The (hard core/doorzetters) Ernie, Lex, Opa Piet, Oma Mieke and Jaap continued in the evening with drinking and partying. Because of his nominations Opa Piet was chosen as " Sir Pierre " that evening.

Oma muis upside down in a tree

Next day we had another surprise. We went to the beautiful city, Ronda. We were guided by Jose, a colleague and friend of uncle Lex who works with him in the plant and flower business in London (see sponsor- "plants for London"). Jose was on a week holiday back in his home town. He just arrived and he was guiding us and every 2 minutes he had to stop and greet his friends! He showed us every plant of Ronda and the beautiful landscapes and history. He also showed us the 98 meter waterfall, which was absolutely scary!!! He dropped us of at a tapas bar. It was very warm and cosy inside with many people. He had ordered a few tapas for us and after 4 rounds of delicious plates of tapas we were full, but there still was a lot more!!! " We loved it".

We were back in time from Ronda to go to a beautiful classic concert of Jose Luis Nieto a young Spanish pianist who played music from Sergei Rachmaninov. Here is a short piece of his music to enjoy!

It has been a wonderful week with all these big surprises. Thank you everyone for coming to Spain!

!!!!! Thank you for the surprise, hope you had a safe and relaxing flight, after
doing all the activities!!!-

Monday, last week Steven and I waved Sinterklaas good bye when he left Spain to go to Holland. because of security reasons we are not allowed to tell you the exact place of his departure. He left with many Piets and we sang together "dag St Klaasje".
Hope they arrived safe in Holland and that nobody or no-one's presents fell over board.

(definition of Sinterklaas, http://dutchfood.about.com/od/s/g/Sinterklaas.htm)

Loes Lindiwe Kreeftenberg

"rain, rain.. go away, come back another day"

2012-11-11T19:31:00.003+01:00

Past week was a rainy, wet, miserable, hard working week!!! Normally I always love the rain, because than you can sit inside with the family, a fire or heater and drink hot chocolate. This week however was terrible. We did not have a heater yet, the whole family was not complete and there was not really a break so we always rained wet going to the library in the mornings or going for grocery shopping. Another umbrella broke in the wind and the sport was cancelled. So we did a lot of school and watched Obama's Victory Speech on You Tube. Even the internet did not work well due to the bad weather, so I really hope next week will be a sunny, happy week!!!

- Babysitting -
When mom went out with Rocio and Miguel (friends we met here in Antequera) Steven and I babysat from 20:30 till 2:30 O'clock the next day!!! The children who we babysat were 1 year and 5 years old. They were not used to be without their parents and so when they left the oldest child started to cry. When the oldest child was crying the youngest child also started to cry. I first laughed, because it was very funny how they went on together. Steven and I had held them and sang "twinkle twinkle little star" about thousand times till they slept. That part was the most difficult 20 minutes we had of the 8 hours we were there. Those 8 hours we were so quiet we had to mime to each other, so that we didn't make noise. I phoned the parents of the children and the mom picked up and was scared that something was wrong (that would every mother do). Anyway I had just told her that everything was under control and that she didn't have to worry. It was the first time she had a babysitter and that she went out with her husband without children. At 2:30 the next morning they had come home and Steven and I thanked them and ran to our bed, 2 streets away and had the best nap ever!!!

- Museum -
In Greece and Italy we went to many museums and learned a lot about the history of the Roman empire and of the Greek history. We asked mom to have a break the past month, but now we were ready again to read stories and see things. So last week we went to the Antequera museum. It was a beautiful Spanish building with a patio in the centre and 4 levels about the history of this town. Although it was an educational museum, we were the only visitors. Maybe because of the weather.

- A day in Malaga -
We looked at the internet weather forecast and saw that Saterday would be a little sunny in Malaga, so we woke up early and took the bus to the coast. It was actually quite close, one hour driving from Antequera and then 10 minutes walk into the old city center. We visited the Picasso museum. Pablo Picasso was born in Malaga in 1881, but later lived in France. He visited Malaga when he was 19 years old and never came back. Family donated paintings and artwork that he made for his personal collection. All the popular art and painting are in a museum in Madrid, the capital of Spain. I thought Picasso's work was interesting.... or more...different..... or I think it was also very creative... and... I think his work is also a bit..... WEIRD. How he paints a body so fast and up side down; with the head bigger than the body and with different kinds of colours. I was very excited to see his work in real. I think it's beautiful to see different artists that paint with different styles. After going to Picasso museum we walked around in the center. I felt that it was the same as Brussel's center where Manneken Pis stands, with the old buildings and going though different little streets. They even sold the same hot waffles with chocolate just like we had in Brussel. In the center of Malaga there was a pedestrial street where every 5 metres there was a different performer singing, acting, person in silver not moving and when you toss a coin in he will suddenly move like a robot etc. It was a intimate place to visit. I would not mind going back again for a visit, because there are still many more little streets to see.

- The fashion show -
OMG = Ooh My Goodness.

delayed confetti!

OMG there was a fashion show in Antequera. That is so amazing to have a fashion show in our little village! The designed was originally from Antequera but is not working near Cordoba. First the models were not PROFESSIOANL and seemed to all come from the town here since everyone shouted "guapa-guapa" (beautiful). ....... Their faces looked strange and weird. They did not smile or look sad, but had no expression. Also they were no in a very good shape. The second group were real models from Andalusia that were professionals. They were all wearing black dresses. I thought it was already for Christmas, but at the end of the show we met with Marga (another friend we met here in Antequera) and she explained that the designed was inspired by Insects. That was also why the models had no expression on their faces and had all kind of shapes. At the end of the fashion show when the last models came up there was supposed to be a confetti explosion. All of a sudden the camera-light man stood at the confetti canon, but was too late. He then asked to do it again and then the confetti gun went off. My favorite part was at the end when there was a lottery with your entrance ticket. (by the way the fashion show was organised to raise funds for illnesses). When they called out the winning numbers, the crowd was all sighed out loud that they 'just' missed the winning number. Mom and I felt that the people only came for the lottery!!

Dolmenes de Antequera.
Via Thamy, a friend who we met in the library, we met her mother Etna. They are from Brasil and living here near Antequera a few years now. Etna took us out to see the famous Dolmenes just outside of the town. In between the rain showers we had a look how the first people used to build their graves with huge boulders. In many places in Andalucia (southern province of Spain) they have discovered these Dolmen and there are also 2 in Antequera.
Interesting to see how they moved these heavy blocks into place around 6000 years ago.

Gracias amigos/ amigas , hasta proxima (who's birthday......?)
Louisa

Scared????? Who?????....... me....................??

2012-11-04T21:00:00.001+01:00

This week was a "scary & weird" week and this was not just because of Halloween.

Being almost a whole year together for 24 hours, 7 days a week it was weird to have to say Bye Bye to dad who had to go for a business trip to Germany, UK and Holland for 10 days. We of course made sure that he was showered-shaved and had a nice hair cut. Since he did not bring a suit in his suitcase he had to hunt Antequera for a tux.

Also the weather was weird!! Steven and I did not do Tennis for a whole week because of the bad weather with around 18 degrees and rain!!! We made it very cozy in the house with hot chocolate and Steven, mom and I read on the couch, snuggled up. Later in the week it cleared up and we had 2 1/2 hours lesson in one morning to catch up.

31 October = Halloween

1 November = All Saints' Day

Naturally Wednesday was the most scary day of the week. It was Halloween. For Halloween we had planned games in each room and we ended up feeling frightened and sick from all the scary games and different sweets. I always thought that Halloween comes from America, but it actually comes from Ireland, 5th century. Halloween means : "when the dead came back to earth". The next day on the 1st of November it was a public holiday in Spain "All Saint's day" which is in the honour of the Saints. I realized that there must be a connection here with all those days since on the 2nd of November all the people here went to the grave yards to pray and visit the graves of their family and friends and souls that have been lost. So it is all linked and Halloween is not only a kids dress up party!

2 November = All Souls' Day

I was invited by my friend to see a theater play in English. Steven and I thought the play would be for scholars, but it was very different. This play was for little children under 10. There were childish monsters which were supposed to scare you and they only said 3 sentences in English which they repeated every time so that the children would remember it. It was very boring till the "monsters" wanted 2 people from the audience. Steven joked putting up his hand and out of all the children Steven was picked out and went on stage. It was so funny. The monsters asked him questions and Steven sang " Twinkle Twinkle little star" and "happy and you know it clap your hands" haha. I'm still laughing! Out of the whole 2 hours those 10 minutes were the most entertaining part!

Steven on Stage

The last 'scary" thing was that we were guests at an English language school. After school in the afternoon an evening old and young learners here in Antequera have extra English lessons. Steven and I talked about our journey and where we live. We had to speak very slowly and clear so they could understand. The first class we attended to was Steven's age. The only thing they did the whole hour was making silly jokes and laugh. They did not listen to the teacher. The second class we attended to was from 17 years to 48 years. We could just talk normal tempo and ask questions! First we were very scared to talk to the 2 classes, but afterwards we thought about it and it was actually a lot of fun!

So with all these scary and weird moments the week went by very fast. Thanks to all the nice events and meeting many people I have made many friends who call to meet, chat and go places. I feel very at home.!!

LOUISA

Andalucia

2012-10-29T22:59:00.001+01:00

Andalucia is the southern province of Spainand our little town of Antequera is known as 'the cross roads' of Andalucia, because it is very central and connects Malaga, Granada,Cordoba and Sevilla.
A rocky hill standing alone to the east of the motorway towards Malaga. The name comes from a local hero about an impossible love affair between a young Christian man from Antequera and a beautiful Moorish girl from nearby Archidona, who were driven to the top of the cliff by the Moorish soldiers. Rather than break up their love, they chose to hurl into the abyss.

To see more of the area around Antequera and the province of Andalucia we hired a car for a few days and planned to visit El Campo (the countryside), Granada and friends of ours who have a cottage in the mountains between Malaga and Granada. We also wanted to see the famous El Torcal which is just outside of Antequera about 1/2 hour by car into the mountains.

We were fetched in Archez by their 4x4

Hiding for the rain!

In the early morning going out the door looking outside...our plans were slowly sinking in the wet soil, because it was RAINING!! AAh! What a pity!! We had to change our plans a little and skip our visit to Granada. We did go to our friends, Rob, Mariette, Pablo and Oscar who stayed beautifully hidden in the mountains. Their cottage was very cozy and around them grew many olive trees, almond trees, grapes and lemon trees. We had a South African braai in between the rain showers and had fun playing with their kids.

Andalucia and Spain is not only known for the traditional bullfight but also the Flamenco dance and songs are typical for here.
After we came back home from the mountains, we were lucky to visit a local Flamenco evening in Antequera. Knowing my passion for dancing (like the Tango in Argentina), I had to go and see this beautiful local Spanish dance with mom. We both loved it!!!
It comes from Arabic and Gypsy influence. The singing is done with only a guitar and a voice. They don't have music notes and lyrics, because they make it
up as they go.
The guitarist makes up his music and in between the singer sings what comes in his happy or sad mind. For example " My dog....... is alone........at.......home! or ....I... love ..............my ......wife...... It makes it so much fun to hear what they love and hate and what their dogs name is and what they do this weekend, that part is the easiest, but coming to the vocals......... they sing a song in one breath going from high to low. It is very difficult. In between there were Flamenco dancers dancing and the audience was participating by clapping and saying "OLEEY" when the singer held his breath for a long time while he was singing. It was a long and brilliant, amazing night.

The shadow in the background is Africa!

The following morning it was still raining and we went south to the sun! We drove to Tarifa from where you could see the African continent. "Hello Africa"!!!!!!

Tarifa is the southern most point in Europe. The strait of Gibraltar is dividing Europe from Africa. From Tarifa you can see Morocco on the other side. We wanted to take the ferry, 45 minutes to Morocco, but it was quit expensive and it was very windy. Instead of being sea-sick for 220 Euros you can better go to a theme park and get sick there.

Tarifa is famous for kite surfing

My Rip Curl watch! Fixed!!!!!

The real and most important reason why we went to Tarifa (again) was to pick up my..... my.... WATCH!!!! yaaay!!!!!!. Finally after a lot of troubles and visits to Rip Curl shops to have it fixed, they finally changed the batteries. Although the girl in the shop was nice and friendly I still think that "Rip Off"... sorry. ...ughh.. Rip Curl does not have their service organised. The office in London was far out of the city, in France they wouldn't help because we were too short in France. Barcelona was the place to change the battery, but after protesting 3 hours in the shop they refused to help and the manager didn't want to talk to us. So, the last solution was Tarifa!!!!!!!!! 2 hours drive from Malaga. Anyway, we made it into a nice day. saw the many kite surfers and enjoyed the views over the beach.

We found also another reason why we feel at home here in Antequera. Only 1/2 hour drive into the mountains is a very well known mountain of rocks called "El Torcal". We drove to the information center and it was almost like the Table Mountain. A beautiful park of stone and plants and small animals was completely covered in the clouds. It was very cold up there and because of the clouds and the mist you could not see very far. So we will come back here when the sky is blue and the clouds are gone.

El Torcal de Antequera

THANX - MUCHO GRACIAS!

LOUISA (Happy Halloween!)

" El Nino de Antequera" and Manuel Escribano

2012-10-22T21:50:00.003+02:00

Last week you have seen the movie of the fake bull that was running around the Medieval Market, but no! not this time. No ways! We saw a real Bull Fight in the official Plaza de Toro!!! With real angry bulls and professional bull fighters!
I was very excited to see a real Corida de Toro = Bull Fighting Game YAAAY!
I imagine bull fighting as something fun to keep the bulls fit and let them run in circles through the red blanket, but after seeing a real bull fighting game, I am SAD and confused!!!! On one side the Corida is very beautiful and traditional game and the local people are really participating in the game, shouting, clapping, singing, agreeing or disagreeing and what should happen with the bull trophies after it died. On the other side it is very sad and cruel to see the bull being killed.

To understand more of this important Spanish tradition I interviewed a professional Torero about the fighter, the clothes, the bull and the game in general.

Interview with: Francisco, Javier Sanchez named El Nino de Antequera!

(Interview translated by Google translate, my mother, Loes's brains and by my Spanish dictionary.)

Francisco Javier is a 36 year old professional bull-fighter. He is born in Antequera, is married and is a father of a 13 year old son. Fransciso started bull fighting when he was 9 years old, went to a special school in Malaga for 2 years to learn to be a bull-fighter and has been a professional bull fighter now for 11 years. He loves bull fighting because it's a passion, game and a tradition in his family. His father and grand father were all bull fighters and his son is also trying to learn the 'trade'. Although there are not as many events anymore in the country, he still has about 2 Fights per month. Each fight he earns 1000 Euro, but the insurance cost is very high he says. If you are not good at it or your condition is not good and you react too slow you can be injured or killed by the bull. El Nino had already more than 15 accidents, but still likes it and continues to fight. He said he is still very nervous before he has to enter the arena!
Before the game he makes sure he is very fit and stops eating 1 day before the game. Before and during the game it is very important to concentrate and to make sure your costume fits perfectly. The bull's horns come very close to your body and if the trousers or the jacket are loose fitted, the horn will get stuck in it. The whole idea is to fight against a very angry bull and to try to be the boss over the bull. When the Torero (fighter) won over the bull, he needs to show the audience that he can walk away from the Toro with his back turned towards the bull. The final strike is that the Torero stands in front of the bull's head and the bull is 'afraid' or does not protest any more. Then the Torero end the flight by giving the bull the final strike.
Of course I also wanted to know what he thinks of killing the bull!!????????? He said that first of all it is a tradition in Spain and second the bulls have no real function, since they do not give milk and their meat is very tough. They live in the countryside and run around the farms for some years. After having had a great life in stead of getting an injection to go to the butcher they can fight before they die. Many cows and chickens are living their whole life in a cage and die if they do not give enough milk or eggs. SO, the only thing is that many people these days are no longer used to see the killing of animals. It is all done in the factories and no-one sees it.
I wished him 'Suerte' Luck for all his games. Gracias Francisco!!

Saturday 20th October the Plaza de Toro was THE place to be!!!
It's time to see a real Spanish tradition.

While we were settling in the 2nd row the Plaza de Toro i Antequera was filling up. It started at exactly 18:00 hrs. The big orchestra started the music and the bull fighters came in. The star of the evening was not El Nino de Antequera, but Manuel Escribano.

He was going to fight against 6 bulls, but one by one. So we saw the fighting 6 times and understood the way the Torero has to fight the Toro.

Manuel Escribano on the poster all over Antequera

First he waits for the bull to enter the arena all angry and full of energy. The fighter uses the pink and yellow Capota to make the bull tired and frustrated. Then the horses come in. They are all very well protected and cannot see the bull, because they are blindfolded. The man on the horse sticks a lance in the bulls back so it become very slow due to the injury. Then the horses leave and the bullfighter takes over again. He needs to get close to the bull and sticks 2 knives on wooden sticks in his back. 3 times he needs to do this so the bull gets slower every time. Then he takes the red Rojo cloth with the karoche(sword) and he tries to stick the sword in the bull's back. This will injure the bull so much that he starts dying and the bullfighter will show that he is the Boss of the bull by standing in front of the injured bull. He then kills the bull instantly by hitting him between the horns. When the bull is dead (this all happens in 1/2 hour) the public starts shouting and waving a white handkerchief. They all looked at the President of the Plaza who was sitting somewhere high on a chair and he had to decide what trophy the bullfighter was going to get.

Manuel the Torero later in the cafe!

One handkerchief was 1 ear, 2 handkerchiefs were 2 ears and apparently also the tail is sometimes used for trophy, but not during this evening.

The first 2 times the bull was hurt and died I was very sad and wanted to leave.

The final strike at the end. People shouting .....Matalo!!

I stayed because there were many other children in the public and everyone was participating and shouting to the bullfighter and orchestra. So I started to find it actually very amusing and entertaining. I kept telling myself that the bull had a nice live and at least can fight before he dies. So at the end of the evening I cheered for the bullfighter in stead of the bull.

When the fights were over the Torero went past the audience and all the ladies threw their handbags and scarves and jerseys to Manuel and he would kiss it (as if it would be blessed) and throw it back at us. I of course had to throw my jersey and have a 'blessed' jersey.

The Fiesta afterwards happened to be next door to our apartment where we went to have a drink and meet our friends. It was a nice party and a little later also Manuel the Torero came in. He happened to be the fiance of the sister of the aunt of the neighbor or the cousin of the grandma of the grandchild. With other words........everyone knew Manuel in some way or the other...it is really a fantastic village Antequera.

Besos, Louisa

AAAAH!!! Get ready for my next blog!!!! On Monday

2012-10-17T21:02:00.000+02:00

DEAR FOLLOWERS!

GET READY... SET .... GO - for an interview with Franciso Javier! A 36 year old torero (bull fighter) !! He will perform on Saturday in Plaza de Torros in Antequera. We wil see him in the ring facing 3 bulls !!!! Get ready viewers for the real tradition of SPAIN!!!

GET READY TO READ MY NEXT BLOG!! On the 22 of OCTOBER

Discovering Antequera

2012-10-15T21:32:00.001+02:00

Now we are settled in we went to discover more of this little town with a little over 40.000 people.
Walking through the town we saw many many churches so on the Sunday we went to one of the churches. Strange enough the service was very short and there were only very few people. After wards we went to visit the old Alcazaba castle up on the little mountain. From there we had a beautiful view of "the village". We could see our apartment, the library where we go to school and the 30 churches the small village has!

While eating lunch we heard a noise of loud music and we all ran outside. There were many, many, MANY people standing in our street looking at something. Steven and I jumped up to see what was in front of all the people and it was a statue of Maria carried by many men. It was a procession. There were many musicians who were playing drums, flute and trumpets! There was the Mayor and important people walking in front and there were small children holding candles and incense.... and of course Maria who was obviously very heavy so the 20 men holding HER were sweating like crazy in the hot sun!

We heard there was a special
Medieval market near the castle so we had to go and inspect this too. We were an hour too early so we ate Paella and Sangria (I only had a sip to taste) made in the traditional way. Later the many little stalls opened up and the market became more busy. They were selling regional cheeses, wine, crude ham and there was a stall which only had cakes and pies. Also a Maroccan stall (Marocco is not far from here) sold tea, water pipes and kebab.

Some Spanish hippies from the age of my parents were selling products like buddha statues, books and hand made lamps. There was also a lady who was dancing traditional dances, musicians who were making Spanish music and two men who pretended to be a bull fighter and a bull. They went all around the market putting atmosphere in the market. Look at video!

During the week we met many kind people and were invited to chat with them. The first friends were Marie Paz and Pepe who are our neighbors of the 5th floor in the apartment. Their son is working in Cape Town at the moment on a project to build a fast train. The same fast and beautiful train that Spain has and which they call 'Ave'. It was nice to talk and explain about South Africa to Pepe and Marie Paz and they told us everything about Antequera, the village they are bprn and lived in. They gave us suggestions about the cafes and good shops and restaurants, which was the best church and what special days there are over the next 3 months. We invited them to come over for dinner and tried to make a Dutch-South African dinner. At the end it became an Indonesian dish, because the weather was too hot for the Dutch " stamppot" and the South African butternut-soup looked like a green Gazpacho. It became a rice table with a lot of different dishes and we found it very cozy, also because they brought very delicious wine and my parent's Spanish improved quickly.

Last week we also had an official bank holiday.....it was Columbus Day. Most shops were closed, the library was closed, so we had to do school in bar " Casino" also the second house of Pepe and Marie Paz. In the bar we met a lot of locals and heard again several stories about life in Antequera.

In the weekend we had a very relaxing afternoon with Miguel, his wife Rocia and their children Candela and Marja (the family who organised our apartment rental). They were very hospitable and we ended up with their whole family; the brother and sister in law, the cousins, the grand-father and grand-mother. The grandpa used to be a famous bull fighter and the ladies and kids were trying to dance the Flamingo in the kitchen. We danced & laughed. It was so much fun that we came home around 1:00 at night.
So we seen that Antquera is not only a nice town, but also the people are very friendly and interesting.

Hasta la proximo semana!

Louisa

In LOVE with ANTEQUERA

2012-10-07T13:08:00.002+02:00

Plaza San Sebastian - Antequera

Alcazaba castle in Antequera

YAAAY!!!
We have finally found a cozy place, ....... with only locals who do not speak English, with children our age, football fields, tennis courts and friendly people. The town looked small and has history with monuments and a castle. This place looked felt good....ANTEQUERA will be our home for 3 months!

Mom and Steven went with by train to Antequera and Dad, the suitcases & I went by car. Dad, the suitcases & I were lost on the way so we only arrived in Antequera at 17:00 and we still had to find an apartment.

Eating traditional Spanish dish "Tapas"

It was very difficult to find an apartment to rent for 3 months. Most of the apartments could only be rented for a year, but after insisting there was one real estate man who wanted to help us. He had an aunt who had an apartment in the middle of the center with 2 bedrooms, a balcony, basic furniture, but no WIFI.
We had a look and that same evening we arrived in Antequera we moved into the apartment.

"TAPAS"
We something to celebrate so we had gone to a restaurant and ate " Tapas" a very Spanish traditional dish(es). Every restaurant has different kind of tapas. Tapas are plates with different kinds of food. One plate of fish with vinegar oil and bread, one plate with mayonnaise salad and olives. One with bread sticks, meat in a delicious sauce. It is always a big surprise what your " Tapa" will be in a restaurant.

Churrios with creamy hot chocolate

CHURRIOS

We also discovered Churrios, a very traditional dish. It is a soft, yummy round biscuit which you dip in your creamy hot chocolate!! Of course I insisted to have a churrios-afternoon and it tasted very Yummy!

Settling in in Antequera
After a nice long sleep we had the whole day to unpack and clean the apartment. We had swept, washed, cleaned everything. It looked Spic and Span!! While Steven, Mum & I were cleaning. Dad was looking for a WIFI solution, but there was nothing except the library which had WIFI. Dad had asked in every Vodafone , Movie star, Orange phone shop if they had a Wifi stick or modem They all did not have it, or they did have it with a contract for one year. We had gone to places and had found one shop which had an electronic item. You press the button and your whole house has WIFI . It's very handy, but it is not enough to download stuff and it can't do all the things we need.

School in Antequera in a beautiful library

Library hall

Mom teaching Steven

So, for school we had to find a solution and Mom, Steven and I started school the following morning in the LIBRARY. It is a beautiful library where you can study outside in a patio and still work on wifi. For now it is good weather, but in November, December it might be too cold so we must see if we can sit inside and talk without disturbing people. This week started our new routines and we have school from 9:00 - 13:00 there. Before breakfast dad and I go walking at 7:00 to see how the town comes to life while looking and finding different streets and places.

SPORTS!!!!

List of Sports

The only thing missing was sports in the afternoon. Especially when we like eating Churrios and Tapas. In the center of the town (next to the Plaza de Torros) we found a soccerfield/club for Steven. He is now playing soccer every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Antequera also has a big sport center which has many things, but not the ones for me. They offer basketball, athletics volleyball and gymnastics. Unfortunately they do not play hockey in Antequera so I tried out dancing. However it was more like doing gymnastics with cartwheels and splits etc. I can't do most of them because I am scared to hurt my back. So I will try next week some different sports like swimming (in a big indoor swimming pool) and tennis. Mom went to her first Pilates class and as I said dad is walking with me every morning.

So, the first week was good. We sorted out all our things that we needed for the coming months and we feel very at home in Antequera.

Next week: Discovering Antequera
Hasta pronto

Louisa

Last but not Least

2012-09-30T20:21:00.000+02:00

On the field, in the left corner you can see Messi.

This week was a hectic week. After spending a week in Barcelona we went to the south of Spain with the most beautiful and fastest train "Ave" we have traveled in. In 5 hours we were in Malaga and here we had many places on our list to visit so we could choose where to stay for our last 3 months!

But first the last thing Steven and dad had to do in Barcelona before leaving was to see a "live" soccer game of FC Barcelona! THEY SAW MESSI!!! and his team play. They were so excited. In the following paragraph Steven will write his experience!
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Steven in front of Stadium with a FCB
flag he found

When we went to the stadium (Camp Nou) the whole underground was full of supporters. We had very good seats in front of the field. It was my first time I had ever seen Messi/FC Barcelona play (only on TV/pictures I had seen Messi.). The game was FC Barcelona against Granada. It was a very exciting game.The end score was 2-0 goals were made by Xavi and Messi. It was one of the best moments I ever had. Also the stadium was very impressive. It was bigger than our stadium in Cape Town and when the end-whistle went off it took only 3 minutes and the whole stadium was empty again. When we go to late soccer games in Cape Town it always starts at 20:00 ,but this game only started at 22:00 and came home at 01:00 and the next morning we had to wake up early.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

dad next to train

The next morning we left for Malaga. There we hired a car and drove to our hotel a bit out of Malaga. Dad knows Harry since end of 1980 when he came here for his work. Harry organised a very nice hotel central to all the places we needed to visit. The hotel was full of tourists from France, Spain, Germany & Holland. It was a very fun and relaxing hotel too with a large pool and entertainment.

In between the visits we swam in the big blue, clean pool, played mini golf, table tennis and played games. Even dad was exercising in the pool with his favorite class........pool-gymnastics. He used to give pool gymnastics when he was doing holiday jobs during his study. (see video below).

Steven playing mini golf

exercising in the pool

LAST BUT NOT LEAST!
Last but not least our main aim was to find a nice place to live for 3 months and a good apartment where Steven and I can make friends, play sports, do school. We looked for a place where the people are friendly and where there are not many tourists so we can learn more Spanish. We left very early from the hotel and drove to different places. We went to Nerja , Amunecar, Granada, Jerez de la Frontera, Vejer de la Fontera, Tarifa etc.

We had researched each place on internet, Nerja was too touristic, Granada was too big, Vejer de la fontera was too small. In Tarifa we had seen a Rip Curl shop. The staff was again not very helpful, but after explaining and showing she did help us a little bit and said she would keep the watch and send it way. I am having my watch fixed!!!!! I will have my watch back before the end of October.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

rain in Vejer de la Frontera

Rip Curl in Tarifa

in the streets of Mijas

A statue of a black bull

So, after 2 days driving around we sat down and decided that Antequera was THE place with the nicest people and best things to do. Because it was not touristic there were also no apartments for rent for 3 month. Luckily and with the help of Harry (and his perfect Spanish) we found an apartment in the center of ANTEQUERA.

Mucho Gracias

(next week: THE FINAL DESTINATION)

Louisa

MY 14th BIRTHDAY AAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!/ STEVEN"S MAIN PRESENT FOUND IN BIN!

2012-09-25T10:41:00.001+02:00

FROM = 13 to 14 Years

On 16th September/Sunday was my 14th BIRTHDAY. It was an exciting day. After a nice long sleep-in, I looked out of the window to see how the weather was like and ........... it was GOING TO RAIN!!! YAAAY I LOVE IT WHEN IT RAINS!! It is sooo cozy and nice inside! I hummed the birthday-song while walking to the living room where there was my favorite music playing from Adele and when looking around the corner there was MY FAMILY !! SINGING " HAPPY BIRTHDAY"!!!!!. and a table with the most delicious BREAKFAST display with gifts !!!!!

It was a breakfast with sweets, cut apples, tea, cheese and yoghurt!!!

PRESENTS

My birthday BREAKFAST!!!

I received a giant blue lolly pop, a voucher for a Spanish t-shirt, running get-jets for when Steven and I run (we can see how far we went and the km/time etc.) I also got a voucher for a new (school and travel) bag to replace my old one which is falling apart.......... & I GOT MY FIRST bright red, leather real CHANEL HAND BAG!!!! Which I got from my aunt. (aahhhhhhhhh!!!)

From Steven I had the most exciting, original fun present. I first had to do a word-search before I could open the presents. I had to figure where my presents were hidden and it was " MILK BOXES" I told Steven that he had made a mistake, but it wasn't a mistake..... I really got 2 milk boxes filled with small presents!! I got a shower cap with 2 red devil-horns, a purple folding basket to put goodies in , lip ice, a belt with the Italian flag on it and an Italian key ring!!! Funny enough he only remembered that there was another present when he went to bed that night. That evening we were all in bed when Steven woke up with a fright. He shouted and ran to the bin and was relieved that the rubbish was still there. He searched and looked for the empty wrappings in between banana peels and decorations and found his main present still sitting in the 'Milkbox'. His MAIN PRESENT that he gave to me in the middle of the night!!was a blue necklace with my first and second name on it. He had it specially made in Florence and almost forgot about it! I was very excited and happy about all the Skype calls, SMS', Whats Apps, Facebook and telephone calls. Thank you for all the Birthday wishes.

Well, you may be asking where did she have her birthday. We are now in Barcelona were we arrived a day before my birthday. This time we went by plane!! The positive thing of an airplane is that you can just sit and relax whereas in a train you have to keep and eye on the baggage and move them around. On the other hand there is 5 % chance that your suitcase won't arrive at your destination and this is what happened to us after a 9 months of traveling.

No, not with a suitcase (luckily) but MY HOCKEY STICK. The special one I got from my hockey club in San Telmo/Argentina. I was furious and sad! We asked everywhere in the airport. The only chance was to look at the " special luggage" so we waited for an hour, but nothing came. Finally they told us that they would send it to our apartment that same day, but after waiting and waiting, calling and calling we did not get it back!! Manana, Manana, manana, yes tomorrow. SOO ANGRY. That was not the only thing we were angry about this week......NOO way.

Before I tell you; lets go back to Australia, 6 months ago.

I got a late Christmas present in Melbourne, a beautiful watch with a white strap on which one could see the date and numbers and was water proof We saw it in a surf-shop named RIPCURL!!! A month later in Beijing it just STOPPED WORKING!! Mom thinks it is the battery! We looked for 5 months to find somewhere a RIP CURL SHOP on our way!! FINALLY ON GOOGLE we found Rip Curl in Barcelona. We visited the shop and ...THEY HAD TO SEND IT TO FRANCE (where we were 2 months ago). However, it would take 3 weeks to receive it back and NO the shop could not send it to us in Spain. We have to go back to where we bought it ???!!!!! Duuuhhhhh!!!! No assistance from Rip Curl to solve the problem, a manager who did not want to speak to us and 2 shop assistants who did not help because they were afraid to loose their jobs and be part of the 24% unemployments?? Mom was out of breath and tired! She eventually stopped suggestion solutions and could not go on. We/They did not have a solution themselves! So far Rip Curl is more like a Rip off. The watch stopped working and no service to follow up!!! So...to be continued!!!!

BARCELONA SIGHT SEEING!

The first thing we learned from dad was about Catalan and that Barcelona wants to be independent (own country). They pay a lot of tax and do not get anything back in return. They even have their own language- it's in between Spanish and French. It's Catalonia.

Sangrada Familia

The first thing we learned from mom when we were in Barcelona was about Antoni Gaudi, a famous architect who was born in Spain and moved to Barcelona to study and work. The best know building was the Sagrada Familia. He began to build the church (Sagrada Familia) with a lot of dedication and Antoni Gaudi worked on the Sagrada Familia till he died in 1926. He died from a tram accident. The people brought him to a poor hospital when they found him on the street, because he looked very scruffy. No-one knew him. The church was never finished and today they are still working on the church.

We also went to see the Gaudi Museum in Parc Guell and the strange but interesting houses in the centre of Barcelona Gracia.

A REAL BARCELONA DISH = PAELLA

After walking through the Las Rambla street we walked all the way to the end. We were in the harbor and thought it was a good idea to eat Paella. We sat outside on a terrace and we ordered Paella for 2 people which was enough to share. From our view we had seen people selling bags, Barcelona fridge magnets and glasses, but you could see that they did not have a licence to sell in the street. When the police came to check they wrapped their things in less then a minute and walked away! Look at the 2 videos below!

Gracias, Louisa

(Semana proxima : last but not least)

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CHILLING in Monaco!

2012-09-17T14:58:00.000+02:00

We left Chiavari with the train along the coast direction to Ventimiglia on the border of Italy. We booked 4 tickets, but we were not next to each other. We were spread along the train and had no space to put our bags so we packed it in the corridor outside. When the coffee-trolley came we had to move them out of the way and move them back again. This continued the whole train ride so it was not a relaxing ride. In Ventimiglia we were fetched and brought to Monaco.
This whole week we were invited to a great hotel with beautiful view over Monaco and Cote d' Azure. It felt like a real holiday! Of course you all think.....they have a holiday for 52 weeks, but actually most days are planned with schooltasks, visits and not too late nights. Now we had a whole week of no planning which felt like a real vacation with the bright, warm sun and a bit of reading a bit of swimming and a lot of nice fun lunches and dinners! So this week I have not written a lot, but took many nice pictures...see below.

Welcome to Monaco, the Princedom in the south of France near the Italian border.

Mum & Steven looking from the Rock (old town) down on my

mum's old apartment when she worked in Monaco.

Prince Albert and Princess Charlene (from South Africa) live on

the Rock and their castle is guarded by special police in white

uniforms.

Playing "catching the ring" with Truffel. He was so sweet.
I don't know why Steven was scared.

Cars are not really his thing, but Steven still liked

looking at all the fast and beautiful cars in front

of the Casino. Many Ferraris and Lamborghinis.

Out of all the cars dad still chooses "THE SMART"

LAMBORGHINI !!!

Talking about his dream boat! Perhaps he had the wrong T-shirt on!

While walking through Monte Carlo/Monaco Steven had decided that he is going to live in a boat. This way he can live where he wants and go everywhere with his house/boat. So he Googled and researched information and decided he should start saving as from today. He is going to call her " The Voyage". We visited the harbor and because of the Boat Show next week there were more boats than usual. Nice for Steven to look. There were many luxury boats with flat screen televisions and a jacuzzi!! Or you could choose a small boat where you can just fish from, but Steven wants a boat in between.

This one is too big for Steven!

This is what he wants!! But than Cheaper!!

Monaco by night view from our hotel. No problems to have

beautiful dreams every night.

(next week normall blog : MY 14th BIRTHDAY!!!!!!)

Merci Loes

Coconut, Coconut Crack your SHELL!!- FLORENCE

2012-09-10T18:58:00.003+02:00

Michelangelo's David - left the real one & right the copy!

The apartment in Florence we did not find on Booking.com or Trip Advisor. This one we did not have to find at all. We could stay in an apartment of a friend of Lex who we met in London. The APARTMENT is in the centre of Florence!!!!
Perfect because there are many beautiful museums in the old city and we were very close to all of them.

We saw "David" the sculpture from Mischelangelo in the museum we were not allowed to make pictures, but dad did!! David looked like a real giant. Every detail you saw looked like a real person the veins, his muscles how Michelangelo made it out of marble was soo real!!!

The museum Palazzo Vecchio was a museum and gallery where you could see where the very important family of the Medici lived. They built beautiful houses and collected many paintings and had things made for them by the local artists.We saw that a part of a huge wall painting was covered because scientists where still doing some new discoveries in the painting of the Battle of Anghiari. The scientists invented a new way of looking through a painting and now they think that Leonardo da Vinci painted under another artist who painted over his painting. It was very interesting. In the museum Uffizi Gallery we saw Leonardo Da Vinci's paintings and Rembrandt paintings. O, but before we could visit the museums we had to be very very patient. The first time we went was in the afternoon and there was a long line with many people. The second time we came very early in the morning but were the only ones. So we found out that it was closed on Mondays. On Tuesday we just went and waited in the line.

At Market

When we walked back home we heard very loud police sirens and after the police motorbikes came the cyclist of a Giro -cycle race. Such an excitement in such a small town.

Market

Mom and I found in Firenze a lovely local inside Market where they sold fresh and colorful looking fruits, vegetables, bread, fish, different Italian cheeses and meat!! We did a lot of grocery shopping for dinner and a picnic that we had on the boulevard bridge overlooking the Ponte Vecchio.

Everywhere in Rome and in Florence they sold coconuts. It looked very attractive so we needed to taste. We could not open it and tried a table knife, bread knife, scissors, Steven’s head, but we could not open the coconut. The only way we could open it was by dropping it from our apartment on to the street!! Haha watch video. By the way................ IT TASTED DELICOUS!!! It was worth throwing the coconut!!

Not Pisa but Chiavari

Our own leaning tower of Pisa

With the train from the touristic areas Rome/Firenze we went to a small not so touristic village on the coast; Chiavari! We past Pisa with the train, so we did not see the leaning tower. That is way we made one ourselves from cans.

playing table soccer with Italian friends

We stayed in Chiavari for 3 nights in a very personal and nice family hotel. It had a table tennis and table soccer!! so we played most of the time with Italian friends we made. There was also a nice ferry to Rapallo another small little fishing village. We visited a busy market, saw the cozy village center and went for a swim in the sea. It was difficult to find a public beach because all the small pieces of sand were private beaches with A FLOATING TRAMPOLINE AND A LOATING SLIDE!! It was soooo fantastic to jump on the trampoline and when you lost your balance you would fall into the sea!!!!!! Steven and I played, swam had fun in the sea for 4 hours, while mum and dad relaxed, talked, read the newspaper in the shade of an umbrella. Suddenly it started to rain so we quickly stayed under cover and got dressed and went back to Chiavari with the ferry.

In the ferry

Having fun in the Rapalllo

Steven and I cycling

The cycling picnic

On another hot yummy, sunny day. We were all very miserable and had a bit enough of each other. So Steven and I took the bikes from the hotel and went cycling in Chiavari and gave mom and dad a bit of space. We went cycling for half a day riding through different Piazzas and along the coast of Chiavari. We got money for lunch which we bought in different shops. The nice thing about Chiavari was that there were only specialist shops and no Zaras, H&Ms, or Mac Donalds) only a Carrefour!! Steven and I went to a bakery where we bought for 23 euro cent 2 fresh warm breadrolls and we bought a few other yummy and healthy things!! Then we cycled to find a shady place with nice view over the sea to sit and have our lunch. There where two small birds who made fine soft music! It was a fun time without our parents for once this year.

Keeping Fit

Steven stretching

In Argentina we jogged every morning for three months, but because of all the travelling the jogging became less and less. So, we decided that Steven and I had to start running again every morning. In Rome we started at 7:15 sharp, jogging through all the small streets. In Firenze we jogged 2 laps around the Ponte Vecchio bridge where we slowly saw the sun come up which reflected on the rivers and made all the old buildings shine!!!!. It was beautiful, but in Chiavari we jogged on the sea coast and we again saw how slowly the village came to life. Some of the men were cleaning their boats and putting them in water, but most of the men were drinking their coffee while watching their wives taking their dogs for a walk. This little town was a nice change from all the big and busy cities we went to.

(Next Week : SCHOOL & CHILLING IN MONACO!!!!!!!!!!)

ciao
Loes

WHERE MOM AND DAD had their first DD (diner date)

2012-09-02T15:20:00.001+02:00

So WE ARE IN OOOOOH ROMANTIC ITALY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This week we lived in Rome!!, the capital city of Italy. Rome is the 4th most populous city in the European Union with more than 3.500.000 inhabitants.

Not the Spanish steps but the Italian steps

When we arrived by train from Ancona it was raining ‘cani e gatti’(from Google translate) and there was a lot of chaos on the ferry and no taxis. We had to walk for 20 minutes in heavy rain hoping to be in time to catch the train. Rome was sunny and we had for the first time a nice friendly taxi driver who was happy to see us with our entire luggage. The apartment my dad booked was in the middle middle middle of the old city centre. Small problem, the WIFI was not working on the top floor so we were sitting on the steps of the 2^nd floor doing school and our home work. Our “contracting manager” also forgot to ask about the elevator!! He told us it is good for us to carry all our luggage up 75 steps to the top Apartment. So the agency moved us the next day to another apartment around the corner with WIFI and on 1^st floor in a cosy even smaller street full of terraces and a small market in front of our apartment.

Trevi Fountain

The first evening we walked around the corner and we stood on the PIAZA NAVONA and we saw the restaurant where my dad asked my mom for the first diner date when they were in Rome with a school outing. Mom thinks it was in 1983 and dad says it’s in 1984.Well at least somewhere around there. Of course they went out for a dinner for 2 at the same square, same street, same restaurant, SAME dripping candles and same waiter (well, leave out the waiter).

In China we already saw the same plazza on a painting in Costa Coffee near the Llama temple. They had a great time.

From the apartment we could walk everywhere and all the highlights and coffee shops (my dad’s highlight) were close by. One street away you could smell the bakery and the best ice-cream salon in Rome. It was 2.50 Euro with the biggest scoops I've EVER SEEN!! MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

A little further away from the apartment there was a busy square YES, TREVY FOUNTAIN with loads of tourists making pictures and throwing coins behind their back. The whole pond was full of Euros!!! The water in the pond was very light blue and very clear! with beautiful sculptures

Outside the Colosseum through mum's glasses

Inside the Colosseum through mum's glasses

I was impressed with the huge building Palacio Venetia. It was very sunny and the big white building looked beautiful with only blue sky!! We just learned about Roman history and Julius Caesar and saw his many statues.

Napoleon's map

We went to the Forum Romanum and Colloseum and went inside. The outside was much more interesting than the inside. In the inside you could just see the paths were the lions walked through and where the people sat. I also liked a small museum where the very old maps of Napoleon were displayed. Walking a bit further, we visited Basilic St. Peter in the Vatican, a little state on its own, like Swaziland or Monaco. This is the country where the pope lives. The current one is pope Benidictus xv1. He was elected in 2005. We went inside the big church and saw beautiful rich golden ceilings.We also visited the Pantheon.

Julius Ceasa

We went to the National historic Museum of Rome. We expected a lot, but after the Acropolis Museum we were spoiled and it was confusing. So we went back to rent an audio guide, but this gave us right information on the wrong spot or the other way around. It was confusing, the map did not link with the audio guide. It was a puzzle tour probably! (not my favourite at all).

The last attraction/ museum we did was the Fake Madam Tussauds. We paid 9 EURO PER PERSON FOR SEEING the Pope, Obama, Brad Pitt, Napoleon, Einstein, Hitler, Julius Caesar, Picasa & Mao in wax. It did not look real at all!!! Only Einstein and Brad Pitt had hair on their head. We thought it was a real rip off. When we went out looking for our Dad who was smart enough not to come we whispered to all the clients DO NOT GO IN.

It was a hot day and we were all tired so time for a delicious PIZZA or PASTA. Yummmmmy and.... Again this nice Ice-Cream with the biggest scoops !!!!

Next week: (Florence, coconut, coconut crack ...)

Loes

Acropolis in crisis

2012-08-27T21:05:00.000+02:00

Mom, in front of the Parthenon.

The Kreeften on the Acropolis...finally!

We visited THE ACROPOLIS 3 times this week and 3 times it was closed. It should be open till 20.00, but when we came at 17.00 it was already closed. No visitors?? or too hot????? No one knows why?

The next day we came earlier, but it had been closed at 15.00 already without any reason. Just a handwritten note to say " closed". To go early in the morning or during the day was not possible since it was 40 degrees and too hot to walk up the mountain. Strange that Athens closes such an important museum/attraction so early in the day during tourist season. I thought it was important for them to earn as much money as possible, since their problem of the crisis was on TV the whole day and everyone talked about it.

Sunset on the Acropolis

Anyway we finally went in and it was real. So strange to see and walk somewhere where 2500 years ago people walked, built & prayed. The Parthenon is the main building. It has 46 columns, 15 columns on each length and 8 columns on the width. It was built to honor the goddess Athens and the treasure of the city was kept there. We saw the sunset from here, but we also were nearly blown off, because of the strong wind. After dark we arrived down and had our dinner with beautiful view on the Acropolis which was lit by night and looked stunning.

We also went to the birthplace of Democracy in the Ancient Agora!

Me in front of the Stoa what used to be the
'shopping mall' in the Ancient Agora

It felt special for me, because last year democracy was a very important subject in my school. To be seeing now where it all started and how long ago democracy was invented, it was even more unbelievable why South Africa only had real democracy in 1994. In one of the displays they showed broken pieces of pottery with names on them. Once a year the members of the counsel had to write 1 name of the person whom they did not trust. He was then send out of the country for 10 years. Usually it was someone who had been dishonest or stole money from the treasury. When there were elections you would throw a white or a black rock in a basket and whoever had the most stones was elected. There was also a small stone where people could stand on and speak to the people when they wanted to say something interesting. "Speakers Corner".

Steven & I at the Panathenaic in Athens

Of course we still had to visit the birthplace of the Olympic Games (Ancient Olympia). But first we went to The Panathenaic Stadium
in Athens. In this stadium the 'new' Olympic Games where held which started in 1896. The stadium is the only stadium in the world made from white marble. I also learned that the word STADIUM actually comes from an ancient measuring unit called 'stade' and is as long 185 meters in today's measure. Also the exhibition room was interesting, because it had all the fire torches used in all the openings of the Olympic Games since 1896. Even the one used in London last month.

The entrance of the Ancient Olympia stadium

Ancient Olympia! We left Athens to finally go to Ancient Olympia. Yes, it is a small village - archaeological site- somewhere 4 hours from Athens. We took the train from Athens to Patras where we stayed 4 days. From there we rented a car and drove to Ancient Olympia. Many many stones and ruins and very very hot. It was a pity that the museum was not made more attractive for kids or visitors since many stories could be told here. Every 4 years the torch lightning ceremony is held here. The place where it started for the 1st time was in 776 BC. It was now just a grass track where only the judges of the games where allowed to sit on marble benches. The public had to sit on the grass. The athletes had to do their sports naked and if they cheated their names were written on a big rock in front of the entrance of the stadium. We saw one of the Olympic Torch -carriers who came back to Olympia to visit the site and take pictures. He ran with the Olympic Torch for the Winter Games in 2006 and he still had his official jacket on. Steven talked to him and said he went to the games in London. The man took off his jacket and Steven could wear it for the picture.

Greek salad with olives, cucumber, tomatos
unions and feta of course!

We went to the beach afterwards to cool down and have some nice sea food and see the sun go down.!!

The last day in Patra we saw friends of my parents Anita and Hans. They came to visit us while driving past Patra. We had a Greek lunch and afterwards we walked up to the mountain to the castle of Patra. We could see the sea and the harbor and the ferry boat from Greece to Italy which we were going to take the nextday. Yeahhhhhhh We went to ITALY with the BOAT!!!!

Anek Lines had a swimming pool, so we swam as soon as the pool was filled. Dad had booked a cabin for us. Actually it was specially for my mother since he had to make something up from years ago. When they were students my father invited my mother for a visit to London, but on the ferry from Holland to England he did not book a cabin, but said that they had to sleep under the staircase.

So it was almost like on a cruise ship. The trip took 1,5 day so we had time to prepare for Italy. I remember Greece as hot, with nice Greek salads, lots of homeless cats in the streets and of course a long long history of ancient civilization.

Sorry I could not publish today from Italy. This apartment has no internet (but on the website it said it DID have!!). We have moved now to another apartment so ............I am connected again.
Ciao ciao from Roma

(next week : Roma)
Loes

Stevens Countries finished now mom's turn.......ANCIENT EUROPE

2012-08-20T11:31:00.000+02:00

BYE BYE LONDON

"Oooh dear, what a pity"....the end of the Olympic Games 2012 and the end of our visit to London. There were still so many things we wanted to do, before we left the United Kingdom. No time to go to Wales and no time to visit a beautiful castle (in which Jane Eyre must have lived!).

But we did see so much of the Olympic Games and cheered till the end for the Dutch hockey ladies and the Dutch Hockey men who both played in the finals. They got a gold medal and a silver medal. On Sunday we saw the closing ceremony of the Games and that was the end of Steven's sports 'wish' (European Soccer Cup - Olympic Games). We walked so much that Stevens new shoes (fake Vans from China) had big holes in them, so we had to find new shoes. He also grew 2 sizes since China so we had to find size 8 (42) for him now (say what?????????). We went to the Westfield - a big shopping centre - and 'swapped' the shoes...see below!

AFTER

BEFORE

For our farewell we went to a real British musical "Wicked" with Mieke, Lex and the 4 of us. It was really scary, but also beautiful with all the different costumes and songs.

Of course I also wanted to have the last pictures taken from Notting Hill and from the famous travel-book shop there and from the typical English telephone booth. I still had postcards to post and looked for a mailbox, but strange enough the box was filled with rubbish and not with mail. The outside of the mailbox had broken off, so I took the postcards with me to Greece.

Jazu to Greece.

Now it is my mother's turn and she wanted to show us Ancient Europe. There suppose to be a lot of old history around the Mediterranean Sea and so we went first to Greece. This is the birthplace of the Olympic Games and this was a nice connection with our London visit.

When we came out of the airplane in Athens, the first thing I felt was the warm weather and the hot sun.

I got a very nice hat from Jan Krekel (a friend of my parents) which I put on straight away. On our way 'home' to our apartment there were no other cars on the road and we did not see any people. We thought it was because of the economic crisis, but the driver told us it was the 15th August - a national holiday. All the Atheneans were on the beach. After we unpacked we went for a walk, but still no people around and all the shops and supermarkets were closed.

The next day we had school and in the afternoon we started our visit to ancient Athens. We went to the Parliament and saw the change of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown soldier. The way they moved was quite interesting with their special shoes up and down and their legs high up before making a move. We had lunch in the National Garden, saw the Zappeion, went under the Hadrian's Arch (the old city gate) and I saw my first ancient temple The Olympieion (Temple of Zeus). I always saw the old pillars in movies or pictures, but this was even more beautiful to see From there you could see the Acropolis, but it was too hot to clime up the hill so we went into the New Acropolis museum to see and read about the history of the Acropolis.

Playing Memory of Athens with the Acropolis in the background.

The museum was very interesting, because they had kids quiz's which was a lot of fun. We had to find sculptures, look at dates and played memory of the Goddess Athens. She is the daughter of Zeus and Zeus was the God of all Greek Gods. The goddess Athens was chosen to be the Goddess of the city (Polis in Greec). Therefore the city was named Athens.

After the busy and hot day we went to sleep straight away!

After seeing the city,It was time to see the Greek beaches where all the Athenians hang out. There were blue seas, white beach, many palm trees. Steven and I swam in the warm blue sea. Mom read her book. Steven played Volleyball and dad worked. Sorry papa you mist out! After tanning we went to have a Greek dinner. Greek salad, Sword fish, smelts.We put our dishes in the middle and shared, just like the Greeks do it!

Loes
(next week : ACROPOLIS IN CRISIS)

I HAVE A BOY FRIEND!! Met him at ........

2012-08-13T13:11:00.000+02:00

Every week when I finish and publish the blog on Monday I am afraid I do not have enough to write about for the coming week. Now I am looking at all my photo's of this past week and I cannot choose what to write about!

..... ......On Monday........ I HAD A BOY FRIEND!!

Well, I had to share him with hundreds of other girls who fell for his six-pack and looks. I met him at the Abercrombie and Fitch shop!! (Daaaaa!!!!hahaha)

We went to the Abercrombie shop with Mieke, mama & Steven. We danced in the dark with the loud music. What a strange and crazy shop!

...On Tuesday...we saw the LAST 2 Olympic games in LONDON!!

We went to the Beach Volleyball ladies in the evening which was in the hart of London. From the stands we looked at the ??beach?? and saw the Big Ben sticking out above. We also went into the Olympic Stadium and saw the Olympic Fire burning while we watched the Athletics. The atmosphere was very nice and there was a lot to see at the same time. The most favorite athletes were from Jamaica and we also saw a South African runner.

After the Games we went to see London Bridge (is falling down, my fair Lady) and the Tower Bridge and the castle.

.....On Wednesday.......we went out to see the 1st Steam Engine which they displayed in the Science Museum in London. Mom is nearly finished teaching me about the Industrial Revolution and we wanted to see the first machines now. There were also a lot of other interesting things to see and we met with Pascale and Freek (friends from their study in Breda) and their kids Anabel, Justice and Floris. All the children wanted to go to the London Dungeons, so WE WENT TO THE LONDON DUNGEONS!!! It is a scary basement where it is very dark and when you walk around you will be frightened by all kinds of characters famous from the London history.

...On Thursday........we were surprised by Mieke who had won a lottery for Olympic Tickets for Semi Final Hockey men: Holland-Great Britain. It was a big party when Holland won by 9-2!!!!!!

We also met with Kim, Demy, Amber, Kees & Fiona. They had found a place to sit in the sun next to a group of dancers. Kim, Demy , Amber, Steven & I were dancing with them and tried to do the moves. WE HAD AN AMAZING TIME!

....On Friday..... we went to the Dutch Embassy to see the Ladies Hockey Final: Woman- Holland VS Argentina. WHO WON.................. Arge.................HOLLAND!!!!!! With 2 - 0. Holland had Gold. Argentina Silver. Great Britain Bronze.

Doing the Mexican Wave in the stadium

(next week blog : " Last week in London! ")

Steven and I with the Olympic flame

Loes

2012-08-05T11:57:00.003+02:00

After walking home from another busy day. We were all hungry and wanted to take away Sushi. When we put one foot inside Steven, Mieke & I changed our minds and sat down to eat instead. It was not just a restaurant with waiters, but it was a moving buffet with all the dishes going around.... take a look at the movie. Everyone was sitting around a bar and in the middle was a belt with all kinds of sushi on plates passing by. You could choose out of loads of different things. Some of them where gold plates which meant that it was the most expensive dish; white plates was the cheapest and red was in between. You could just take your food from the belt and eat it. It was soooooo cool (and delicious)!!

Lex and I were invited to go to another hockey game with friends of my aunt (Mieke) and uncle (Lex).
Belgium VS China = 0-0 / with umbrella
UK VS Korea = 5-3 / with sunglasses on

I thought the Belgium vs China was very boring, UK vs Korea was fun. My favorite hockey match remained the one from last week; China vs Korea! GO CHINA!!!!!.

Ping Pong

As you all have read Steven and I had professional table tennis (ping-pong) lessons from Ms Chen in Beijing. We wanted to see how the professionals played ping-pong, so we went to the Olympic quarter finals table Tennis. We did not see the Chinese play but saw Germany vs Denmark. Dimitri vs Michael. IT WAS SO EXCITING!! They were on the same level and had to play 5 games to get a winner. So much excitement on such a small table. We were all for Denmark- Michael!!!! except for Lex. He was for neither of them since we could just hear him snore. He was already up at 5 that morning to work so he could come to the match. As a surprise we also had a SMS (Short Message Service) from a friends of us from Monaco, the Piket-jes. What a coincidence that they also had tickets for the same Table Tennis games that evening. We saw them sitting at the other side of the stands in the Arena. Afterwards we went to the Belgium House were we had crispy Belgian fries and could chat and relax.

Island

This week we also went to Essex, on the coast of England near London. We went with the train to Witham to see the Harreman-netjes. Robert, Annemarie and Floor and Kiki were on holiday on an island there - Osea Island. We could only go to the island at 5.00pm when it was low tide. We swam, played ping-pong, boxed, made fish nets, read, drawed and had a braai. After the dinner we walked to the edge of the island and saw the high tide coming up which flooded the road to the mainland. No where to go !!. The next morning we woke up early to catch the low tide again and went to have a traditional English breakfast. Toast with tea, please!!. We were in a rush to go to the train station. We quickly said good bye and caught the 10 o'clock train just in time....we made it "phew".

The present from the houses of Lords and Commons
to Queen Elizabeth for her 60th jubelee

We are staying in Notting Hill near the Portobello Market and Steven and dad went shopping and met a nice woman -Elizabeth- who was born and lived in Zimbabwe and who was now living here in London and worked as an event organizer at the Westminster Palace - Houses of Parliament. In school we were learning about democracy, monarchy and government. Elizabeth offered to show us around in Westminster Palace and parliament. We met her and her daughter Cloe and she knew so much about all the rooms. Amazing stories about Westminster Hall where only special people are allowed to speak. We saw the name of Nelson Mandela, where the Queen dresses and uses the toilet when she opens Parliament every year in May, about the 6 wives of Henry the VIII (divorced-beheaded-died-divorced-beheaded-survived), about the Black Rod and why the Queen cannot go into the House of Commons and of course the House of Lords and the House of Commons. We had seen the Prime Minister - David Cameron walking the first day in London and now we saw where he sits and we touched the beautiful box from where he speaks in Parliament (a gift from New Zealand). Elizabeth gave us an amazing tour. We also saw the Big Ben which is part of the Westminster Palace and the Westminster Abby, the cathedral where Kate and William got married last year. Afterwards we went to see Jan Krekel at the Dutch Embassy where we had drinks and bitterballen.

THE BIG BEN!!!! With Elizabeth and her daughter Cloe

Loes

Olympics here we come!!!

2012-07-30T19:16:00.000+02:00

The last days in Belgium we had some more family and friends saying hallo and bye bye to us. Granny Mouse, Astrid and Giannini (Steven's friend) came over and while the ladies were chatting the boys played soccer in the garden and boring ipad games. We also had granma & granpa and, uncle Mart & aunt Wil come over the next day. They brought delicious salad and pasta and kiwi/lemon cake. mmmm!! Steven and I did not spend alot of time with them, because we had to pack our bags so we could go to Brussel on our last day in Belgium. We went to see the famous Manneken Pis, tjeeeeee what was the statue sssssmall. Only 61cm. We also went into the museum of Brussel and saw anexhibition Manneken Pis, the legend of him and all his costumes. Over the years he received a lot of traditional clothing (around 800) from countries and cultures which he from time to time does wear. I saw also traditional Xhosa costumes, gumboots and a Madiba-shirt from Nelson Mandela in the collection. Also Elvis Presley and all kind of different colourful costumes were on display. Other than the Manneke Pis we also saw the many paintings and history about the how Brussel was ones a small little settlement on the Zelle and became a big city - the Capital of Belgium and the Capital of Europe with many important headquarters like the European Union (EU). We of course had a Belgium wafel with Belgium chocolate and my parents had a nice Belgium beer. Back home we were invited for a Braai, not just a braai,.....'' A BRAAI WITH A SWIMMING POOL!! ''
The last time we went swimming was in the indoor pool in Beijing so Steven en I were very happy. I also made friends, Maja (my age) & Monique and they were both born in Pretoria/ South Africa. We talked, swam, ate, played soccer, cycled and said goodbye. It was nice meeting you!!
The day we left for London we woke up very early, cleaned the house, washed the car, did the washing and mobbed the floors. We put our kreeft-on-the-move t-shirts on and took the bus - train and \euro rail to Great Britain.

Olympic Games....here we come!!!

Having a picnic@=

The crossing from the mainland to the UK was very interesting since we went by train under the sea. We went underground in France and came up on the surface in England. Within less than 3 hours we were in Londen. Uncle Lex picked us up and dropped us off at Rene and Kadri in Pimlico. There we had a delicious, healthy picnic in their communal garden. With strawberries, grapes, blueberries,chips, melon, crackers, nuts & rocky road/ chocolate. That was the best PICNIC!! We had to leave mama & papa behind, because it was time to go to Notting Hill to see aunt Mieke (joga teacher)!
The first morning we walked through the market to a cafe were we had french toast. Steven had berry pancake and Mieke had fruit salad. The first day in London was already very very busy:

problems with the bicycles

We went to Mieke's joga class. It was so great. I felt very light and relaxed.
Hired bicycles so we could cycle the London streets
Went in a traditional Londen taxi
Saw Buckingham Palace where the queen lives
Saw Prince William and Princess Kate in a car going into the Palace visiting their Grandmother
Got a ice-cream
and saw prime minister Cameron walking past
Cycled through parks and bridges,saw swanes,different kinds of people,the sun, busy traffic & many squirrels
Said: Happy Birthdy to a cute 2 year old neighbour and played with him and his sister.

prime minister of England

Had a nice get to gether in the Mews and watched the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games 2012 with all the friends and neighbours in the Mews in Notting Hill.

On Saturday we went to the Holland House in Alexandra Palace. A big Heineken House about 1 hour from our home. And yes, we were just 2 seconds to slow to get into the tube (underground), but in those 2 seconds Steven slipped in and the doors closed!!! We shouted and did all kinds of sign languages before he took off. We wanted to phone Steven, but there was no signal. Mieke and I took the next tube and Dad and mam and Lex stayed behind. Apearantly he took the first tube back because . . after waiting for 7 long minutes we saw him arriving safely with mama,papa & Lex.

People we met at Heineken House

papa en mama on TV many times. They are in the left corner.

The Holland house was great. You could listen to music, play Olympic games, drink Heineken Beer of course and dance, go in a photo cabin and take Fun fotos and ate friet (frensh fries) and kroketten & meet other nice Dutchies. We saw on the big screen how The Netherlands earned their first medal in the relay swimming (silver). Later mam, dad & Mieke were in the audience of RTL4 Spelen, a Dutch talkshow about the Olympic Games- meanwhile we could see them on the big screen tv.
We went to bed very late!

THE FIRST OLYMPIC MATCH- '' Let the rains BEGIN!! ''
Our first match to see and cheer for the team was women hockey China- vs- Korea.
I had my Chinese t-shirt and jacket on and was one of the few supporters for the CHinese team. Nevertheless the Chinese girls won.

Chinese hockey team

The 2nd match was women hockey South Africa-vs-Argentina-. I also had my South African Shirt with me and song the South African national Anthem very loud. Unfortunately the girls did not play so well and Argentina won with a 7-1 score. Strange to see the Argentinian hockey girls (I was playing in the same shirt in Buenos Aires only in March this year), but I cheered louder for my South African team. I had to think about my own ockeyteam at Kronendal School and missed playing with them.
The whole day was crazy weather and we sat in the pooring rain one moment and dried up from the warm sun the next moment.
It was great to be there although I found it very disappointing that the South African hockey team disappeared straight after the game. Normally the teams make a small round past the stands to thank the audience and their supporters. We came all the way from South Africa (?!) to see them and they just left without saying goodbye to the fans.

Loes