Weekend trip to the World Cup

Ok it's weeks ago, but still worth reviewing it - the Fiba Basketball World Championship 2010 in Turkey. It was an absolutely amazing weekend. Together with my colleague and friend Hagen I approached Istanbul at 0:30 am. It took almost 2 hours to reach the city centre via public transport. Believe me, it's not that easy without one single word of Turkish language.


After a couple of relaxing hours on the park bench we've been ready for the day again, beginning with an awesome sunrise over Istanbul city. The streets are more or less dirty, the people are careless without a deep sense of responsibility, but it's nice talking to them, they are so kind. Otherwise we wouldn't have found our way to the stadium right on time. The Eight Final Game Spain vs. Greece had been tremendous. I haven't liked the Spanish game, but from that day on I changed my mind. Especially Ricky Rubio was excellent and terrific. Try to watch him play. It's alway worth it...


Believe it or not, but we've picked a rainy Sunday, in Turkey. The hotel's pool, jacuzzi and sauna made it tolerably. And the way back home had been in a chilled mood :)

Den Haag's Wild Wonders

I love this picture, taken in Den Haag on the Wild Wonders nature photograph exhibition. Hard to believe that all shown photos present an Europe scenery. But check out yourself.

Yo yo, my man in Amsterdam

Finally, I've found my way to Amsterdam, for the first time. I still have mixed feelings about the city. I am still not sure why ... I will explain further details later on.


The whole city centre was crowded. The weather wasn't that good, so I really don't know what they all were doing, I can't figuere it out. Perhaps they were just suffering from boredam at home...


This is typical for the Netherlands. You find those lean houses everywhere. And the funny thing is: Wide windows without any curtains at the frontside are offering perfect views on the owner's table, couch or whatever. It's pretty the same in my apartment, but I got used to it quickly.


Amsterdam's attraction number one - the red light district. I don't know, it's a kind of weird walking there along. This area is more a tourism thing at any time of the day (or even night) than a red light district as it used to be somewhere else. You see families strolling around, laughing and pointing with their fingers at ...

From Brielle to Renesse

I just wanna show you some pictures of cool spots nearby ...

The beach on Goeree-Overflakkee island, strong winds make it a Mecca for kiteboarders and beach buggy drivers.

Windmill in Brielle, unfortunately artificial and just existing for tourism reasons. It was built in the late 1960s, unless I'm mistaken.

View to Maasvlakte island, home of the Converter Station I'm working on. Maasvlakte did not exist a couple of decades ago, it was built artificially as well. ^^ No comments! ;)

What would you like to have for dinner?

It was Friday, right after work, late afternoon approximately. I had just left the site, looking forward to a relaxed weekend with no stress or anything else related to work. But what to do on a Friday evening in calm Brielle??? I had a brief chat with one of my colleagues, and he didn't know either. We were starving and thus, we've been very uncreative concerning making up our minds what to do. But that was it! Why not going somewhere for dinner? Antwerpen??? No sooner said than done. And it was worth it. This city is beautiful, tiny streets with a variety of restaurants and bars. The weekend cannot start any better :)

This is where I live

I couldn't believe it myself, but it is that controversial - green fields, two-laned cycleways and holiday feeling on the one hand ...

... and Rotterdam's port at the other hand, the largest container port in Europe, approximately 40 km if you go from one side to the other. It looks strange and impressive at the same time. You smell the oil in the air, however everyone is going for a swin at the beach just a few kilometres futher back. Me included :) Better not to think about it.

Den Haag and Scheveningen

I've been in Den Haag a couple of days ago. Destination: Belastingdienst!!! Haha, dutch is strange, even to hear. Impossible to speak!!! Anyway, I now have a tax numbre, called "sofinummer". And there was enough time to explore the city. I can tell you, Den Haag is much worth seeing than Rotterdam. Neat and tiny street, cafés and restaurants everywhere, they served chips to nearly everything they find in their kitchen. A dutch problem! :) Better cooking by oneself.

I found my new city chopper. Perfect supplement to my green racing machine, I reckon.

I was surprised finding a China Town in Den Haag. The big chinese gate welcomes everybody warmly.

I spent the day in Scheveningen, right next to thousands of others. Hotels and tourism everywhere, as you'd find it in Greece or Spain. Amazing. But a beautiful atmosphere at the dusky beach.

And the final football game of the world cup 2010, public viewing in Rotterdam. I realised that Oranje fans became more and more nervous when the Spanish team pushed forward their offence. This led to the 1:0, and I was happy not beeing in the centre anymore. Quite offensive fans, the Oranjes.