Images from past week

There is not a lot to report on our trip so far. We are in Terneuzen until Sunday morning then leaving for Karlsruhe, Germany. The weather has not been cooperative with my wishes to get lots of exercise so far.

I did rent a bike to ride on Monday and reacquainted myself with Terneuzen. It is not a large town with less population than Lake Jackson- I’d guess about 24,000. Much safer to ride a bike or walk around in though due to the planned biking and walking paths. I’d never consider using a bike for my only transportation in Lake Jackson. You’d probably get hit by a monster truck right off the bat and squished.

I know from experience when I lived in Houston riding my bike to work when the weather permitted just how dangerous people can be in their cars. I was once hit by a postal delivery person. He argued that I shouldn’t have been in his lane but I was there first and he just wanted to scoot up next to me at the light. It wasn’t pretty, not that I was hurt but he did knock me down off my bike. Fortunately there were witness’s that told him to back off. I guess he was just having a bad day?

Good grief, I sure get sidetracked easily. Monday wasn’t too bad though it was chilly but Tuesday came and it got much colder with rain. No biking that day. Yesterday was beautiful so I rode like a maniac back and forth across town and on the dyke above the water. The wind wasn’t too bad but this morning the wind was blowing like a typhoon Mary so I elected to stay in. Did not want to get blown off into the cold water. I did try out the spa facility with sauna and pool in the basement of our hotel. Not too shabby.

Apparently, Terneuzen never gets much snow – maybe once a year but this year they have had snow at least a dozen times this year just as recent as two weeks ago. This has taken a toll on the early spring blooms everywhere in the Netherlands – especially in the Keukenhof Garden area where the famous pictures of tulip fields are taken by tourists from all around the world. We postponed going last weekend when we were closer to the small towns which are right outside of Amsterdam like Lisse, Leiden, and Sassenheim because the weather was prohibitive- both for the flowers and the humans.

We will drive early to the area on Saturday morning so we can beat some of the crowds that will show up for the afternoon flower parade and festivities planned. I will post pics so stay tuned but for now here are some of the local bulb flowers that are starting to share their beauty with us mere mortals.

Roundabouts are quite commonly used here instead of traffic signals and this one is one of my favorites that I pass daily when going to town square. Nothing better than bright yellow jonquils to brighten your day.

Or possibly a daisy tree. I have never seen a tree like this and there are more than one in this town. It is the size of a tree, I promise. Kris and I spotted it last night on our way back from dinner with one of her work associates. We stopped the car and walked across the street to see it better from the sidewalk. The only problem with this type of tree is I think it would be quite messy when the blooms fall off.

Time to go for now- dinner is calling my name and I think it will be something from the North Sea. I’ll be back soon with more pictures of flowers from our weekend tour.

Till next time,

Karen