Monkeys Monkeys Everywhere!

Some might say that Disneyland is the "happiest place on earth" and while I do find it a wonderfully fun place to visit I can tell you it's not the happiest place on earth. I discovered a few weeks ago that the happiest place on earth is actually the Apenheul. The primate zoo where monkeys roam free and there are teeny monkey babies everywhere.

There was a brand new baby gorilla born the night before we went so that was pretty exciting too!

The gorillas live on an island in the middle of the park and there is a "feeding show" every few hours where they'll come for treats like apples and cucumbers. We were really lucky because ALL of them showed up for our show and the hosts said that doesn't always happen. I learned a couple of interesting things during the show. Gorillas can't swim and they have round potbellies because their intestinal track is larger and set up slightly differently than in humans.

This little orangutan was so funny. He kept hiding under his blanket and then popping out and jumping and waving... then crawled back under to hide for another minute before popping out again. Orangutan peek-a-boo!

If you're ever in Apeldoorn, take the day and go to the Apenheul! They're open from March 30 to October 31st and entry is €18,50 for adults (which I think is plenty but we did have discount cards and now that I've been I would still recommend it even if you have to pay full price).

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Mushrooms for Sale...

Today I bought some mushrooms...

...from a VENDING MACHINE!

Sometimes it's really hard being so far away from home but then I do something like this and realize how much I do actually like this country.

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Sundays in My City- Alkmaar

Just a few shots from Alkmaar, a city in the north of The Netherlands, this week.

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Sunday Stroll Along the Canal

We recently discovered that there are quite a lot of houseboats on the canal nearby. Houseboats in Amsterdam are pretty common, but I didn't realize there were so many within spitting distance of our house down here!

Several were hidden and completely out of sight.

There were some with garden sheds too, which struck me as kinda funny. I wouldn't expect to have a garden if I was living on a boat, but some of these folks did!

The further down the canal we wandered, the more industrial the area became.

Eventually we found this giant scrapheap and decided to head back home.

Too bad the map we found was for the WRONG PART OF THE CITY!

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Just Another Rainy Sunday

The intention was to go enjoy a nice clear warm day like the one we had last weekend.

The reality was more like this:

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De Vergeten Tuin

A few weeks ago the part of Eindhoven we live in had a bit of an “open house” that showcased some of the unique businesses and places in the area.  It was a neat thing to be able to go and explore some new places that we might not have otherwise seen. One of my new finds was a neat garden called De Vergeten Tuin which translates quite literally as “the forgotten garden.”  De Vergeten Tuin is a small bit of nature in an urban setting.  It’s smack dab in the heart of the city and I cycle past the area on a very regular basis, but I had NO idea that it was there!  I had Google make you this lovely little map so you can see!  If you look to the north and slightly to the east of the A you can see the railway station which is pretty close to the center point of Eindhoven.  The A indicates the garden.

For most of the 20th century the garden was an empty “green” space surrounded by homes.  Between 1959 and 1978 a factory that manufactured machine components took the space.  The factory was torn down and a field with a lot of debris and polluted ground was left behind.  Residents around the space started planting and maintaining the area.  In 2001 the city began plans to clean out the garden and there were rumblings that the surrounding houses would also be demolished.  The homeowners started an association to save the garden and the houses.  They visited many “urban gardens” throughout the country and drew up plans of what to do with the land.  In 2002 the demolitions were postponed and the plans for the garden were made a reality. The entrance for De Vergeten Tuin is between two houses on the Palingstraat.

You walk down a long hallway and then continue on the path into the garden.

There are three vijvers (ponds) in the garden. We went at the beginning of mating season so there were tons and tons of frogs all over!

When the ponds were being dug, a lot of building debris came out of the ground. Instead of throwing it away they built a wall.

The crevices and holes serve as overwintering shelter for the small animals like mice, toads and salamanders that live in the garden.

In addition to being a shelter, the wall is also a growing place for various types of moss and a wall plant that has snapdragon-esque flowers.

They made these bee houses for solitary bees and hung them in a sunny place of the garden.

I love this twisty gnarly tree.

I hope to go back when things green up a little bit more. It's a really lovely place! I love the detail that they put into everything there. Everything is done quite deliberately and for a purpose to keep the wildlife and plants in the best shape possible.

They're open on the first Sunday of the month from noon until 4 pm.

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Christmas Market in Aachen, Germany

On the 11th I went to a Christmas Market in Aachen (Germany) with one of my awesome friends here. Her parents are from Germany originally which was cool because she explained a lot of the "traditional" things to me that I might not have gotten otherwise. It was a blast, and now I'm going to spam you with pictures!

This is the big sign announcing the market. I mean, it's not like you could MISS the market, but I did like the giant cookies standing on the sides.

These are the roofs of some of the stalls in a TINY section of the market. This thing was huge I'm telling you!

We were right by a huge cathedral. I wish I would've snooped around it a little more and gotten some better pictures but I was distracted by all of the shiny Christmas things.

Here are a couple more with various stalls and people milling about.

Now for some of the goodies INSIDE the stalls!

Growing up we always had an awesome Christmas village. I don't have anything here, but I think I'm going to need to start my own small collection. It doesn't feel like Christmas without. There were some little cheapie pieces and also some pieces that were up into the several hundred euro range. I was drooling, but decided maybe I shouldn't blow our entire mortgage payment on a tiny house that you can't even live in!

There were gobs of ornament stalls. I liked this one because they had them all out in little bowls and they looked so pretty!

The candy stalls smelled SO good. I just wanted to hang a piece of cotton candy from my nose and smell it the rest of the day.

Martijn thinks I took this picture to torment him (he has this THING about roosters), but I thought the colors were fantastic.

I thought this little hedgehog was cool. His spikes are just little branches that have been cut off at an angle. Very clever.

This doily stand was amazing. They had these teeny little lace parasols and I was so tempted to buy one for one of my sock monkeys! I kept my wallet in my pocket though and continued on...

I really should've bought this! I could've used the witch and the cat in some sort of project I'm sure. It totally cracked me up. If I see one next year I'm snapping it up.

This wasn't actually in the market, but in a shop window nearby. I want a Christmas tree full of tiny knit sweaters, don't you?

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