two weeks spent catching up with the netherlands! i don’t think i realized how much i missed the country until i sat my butt on a bicycle and roamed the countryside. after you get over the pain of a different bike seat, it’s just pure bliss. you can get anywhere in the netherlands with a bike, and bike infrastructure doesn’t feel like an afterthought — it feels like the country is designed for this simple and human-sized means of transportation. i also tried an electric bike for the first time, and i think it has the potential to be a game changer in our hilly southern terrains — now i’m dreaming of my own.

flying to the netherlands was a painful experience though, courtesy of my ear infection, and my ears stayed clogged for the duration of our stay. our house swap in utrecht was a cute old house, on a quiet residential street in the north part of town, with a little backyard, wooden floors, creaky stairs, blooming roses and so much charm.

utrecht itself is probably my favourite city in the netherlands. it feels alive and livable. it’s central and has a modern train station (that puts you in amsterdam in 15 minutes). the old city center is made up of more than just tourist shops, and the countryside all around makes it easy to escape. the huge advertising banners that clutter portuguese cities are replaced here with old trees lining the streets.

since there are not so many cars in the city, the neighborhoods have kids playing in the streets, and people sitting in benches on their doorsteps. jackdaws and crows cackle constantly, and great tits flit around the trees. the museums (we visited the rietveld house and the self-playing instruments museum) were lovely and niche. and just imagine, whole shops dedicated to board games or selling just english books for kids!

and we went to keukenhof at long last! it was on the week they closed for the year, so the gardens were not as full of blooms as in previous weeks, but it was still nice, with plenty of tulips, daffodils and other flowers to show off.

we took a day trip to groningen to see my old haunts, which are still all mostly there. there’s a huge new building in the old town, a massive library and media center, with a terrace and views that stretch through the province — i would have loved working from there. the motto for this trip was the 20th anniversary of paulo’s erasmus exchange period in utrecht, so we went back to his old uni as well, and met some friends from back then in the same cheap greek-italian restaurant they all used to go to, 20 years ago. the place is still there, and still the same!

in the end, time passed quickly, in a haze of nostalgia and new discoveries. it’s nice to go back to these places that changed our lives, see them with our 40 year old eyes and realize that they’re just as lovely as the golden memories we had of them.

brother’s wedding (+ niece’s baptism), at last!

i got sick at some point during the week, and spent the whole wedding with a sore throat and a clogged ear, pumped with ibuprofen and paracetamol. it didn’t stop me though! it was a nice ceremony, and an even nicer party afterwards. we saw friends and family, talked to lots of different people, ate quite a bit and were happy! i forgot to take pictures, but here’s one our friends took of our little friend group + my brother:

during the wedding, i sneakily asked the guest to write postcards to the newlyweds with well-wishes, or to share a memory of the day or something they did together. over 40 people wrote a postcard, and a few children drew something too! i plan to send these postcards to my brother and his wife throughout the year, and i hope they’ll enjoy this extension of the wedding!

one of the guests of the wedding couldn’t make it, but had a non-refundable booking for a room in aveiro, which they gave to us. as a result, we unexpectedly spent one night in a 5-star hotel, being very pampered! the hotel was all about eça de queirós: there was a reading room with his books and some artifacts, the rooms were named after characters from his books, and there was even a vhils mural of his photo on the patio! 😱

i confess i would have enjoyed it more if i wasn’t feeling so sick. after checking out, we headed to the emergency room, where i was diagnosed with a throat/ear infection and given some antibiotics.

this week it was our 18th anniversary! :) we celebrated by hiking a bit more of the coast, between portimão and benagil. it was a really nice day, overlooking the ocean, made even prettier by all the wild blooms that show themselves this time of the year.

later in the week, we went north by train on april 25th, and i wore my carnation to celebrate 50 years of democracy!

because the boy is still only eating a reduced set of things, i cooked and packed our meal, but forgot to pack some utensils… so we ended up eating it with coffee sticks from the train’s bar… 😅

and then up in the north we spent 3 days taking care of this chubby little piece of joy!

we and the grandparents took on babysitting duties to give my brother some peaceful time ahead of the wedding, and it was great. how is she so happy all the time?! it feels implausible that an 8-month old should be this easy to care for… but she’s just a delight, eating, sleeping and charming us all.

where were we…? i’m writing these weeknotes some time after the weeks they describe and they feel like ages ago, which isn’t ideal as my head tends to forget things quickly. still, i don’t want to let the habit die, so here we go!

on week 16, we went to the vernissage of a friend’s exhibition in tavira. he takes pictures and modifies them with digital filters to get something new. a lot of the images focused on birds, which is always a nice thing on my book. i got the idea that i could also do something like this for my double-exposure shots… but i think i’m too lazy to set everything up — and also to stay in the gallery all day, waiting for people to come by. maybe something for retirement!

after much stress about the upcoming wedding we went to loulé to buy a dress, after a recommendation from the knitting teacher, and it was wonderful! the lady runs a shop that specializes in this kind of fancy gowns, and immediately understood what i would be more comfortable in. so i was in and out of the shop in half an hour, which was bliss. :) the boy also found a tie in the same color, so we’re all set.

i also did the first run of the “couch to 5k” zombie program, which was cute. not sure if it will stick, but i think i’d like to give it a go.

at the knitting group, we made some crochet carnations, and i was so proud of mine!