Although I hesitated, I really wanted to show you the photos I took with my iPhone when Ron and I were in the towns Dordrecht and Eindhoven. Only there weren’t many outfit photos amongst them while this blog is about outfits. So I searched my phone and found a few more outfits which will never make it to a blog post but are worth sharing. Oh, and there will be a lot of lamps to admire. A post with a bit of everything.

The above photo was taken in Eindhoven in the restaurant of a famous Dutch designer Piet Hein Eek, known for his tables from demolition wood. All items I am wearing you have seen before, except the blue trousers. They are from the stash of clothes I brought back from Turin. The black and white belt is recent (Isabel Marant) and you have seen me wear it in Turin. Didn’t have my cute bag with me then. Below a bad photo of what the outfit looks like with the bag. Bad photo but you get the idea, and the belt is displayed properly.

Dordrecht

Let’s start with Dordrecht as we arrived there first and I like chronological order. As I am rather chaotic, I need structure or I will go mad.

Below: We stayed at Villa Augustus, a quirky place located in the former water tower of Dordrecht. Ron is walking back from the restaurant which is on the other side of the veggie garden. You will find other photos if you click the several links I am providing.

Below: This chandelier is hanging in their restaurant. There are spoons, forks and cups hanging amongst the glass ornaments. They change that I think as I have also seen this chandelier with more colour in it. The restaurant itself is big and industrial but they managed to make it feel very cosy.

Adjacent to the restaurant is a market place where you can buy vegetables and fruit from their garden, bread from their bakery and quirky things like little suitcases, jugs, paper, tea, aprons… a lot. The market place is in a hall with high windows which used to be the pumping station.

Below: In the market place you will see this lamp called ‘Tide Chandelier’. The British artist Stuart Haygarth made it from items found on the beach (mostly plastic).

Below: There are magnificent gardens surrounding the villa. When we were there the rain was gushing down. The bright side of bad weather: there aren’t any people in this photo taken from just outside our room (I am a little afraid of heights).

The room was a story in itself. It was round. Obviously as it is a water tower. The floor of our lovely room on the 5th was the lid of the former water tank. Very quaint and authentic. Only this lid was made from cast iron panels, held together by strips with clinch bolts. A challenge to walk this floor without hurting your toes. We got rather good at it. During the night we left the light on in the spacious and luxurious bathroom a floor down. So we wouldn’t trip.

Below: A room in the villa for meetings or weddings. They have an artist coming in every week to arrange the bouquets with flowers from their garden. This bouquet was already 5 days old and still perfect.

Below: Besides the gardens for vegetables, fruit and flowers plus the formal garden you saw above, they have sculptures. In the daisy field there is a coffeepot sculpture by Klaas Gubbels. This Dutch artist is famous for his coffee pots.

Below: After dropping off the luggage in the Villa, it was time to explore Dordrecht, which is an old town with a historic centre. There weren’t many people as it was a grey day. A Tuesday as a matter of fact and all the little fun shops were closed. When you go there, choose a Thursday, Friday or Saturday.

Below: This “house” must be the narrowest house in the city. Underneath the house you can descend to a jetty from which a boat will take you on a guided tour. The house doesn’t have a front door to the street. The door is in the alley next to the house.

Below: Loved these romantic steps.

We had coffee and a great big meringue with cream, caramel sauce and almonds at Franics Lunch and Baked Goods. It was worth to take out my braces for that.

Below: To continue the theme of a cat in every post, I saw this one in the window, clearly focussed on hunting.

Below: Yep, a pigeon across the street.

Below: Lunch in Restaurant Khotinksky, located in a former Energy House (plant). All the information for our three day break I had taken from the blog of my friend Anja, Curly Traveller. She explores these cities and I follow in her footsteps. Really handy.

Below: One last pretty building in Dordrecht and we will move on to Eindhoven.

For the impatient ones: yes, there will be a couple of more outfits in this post. If you don’t like all these city pictures, just scroll down and next week things will be a bit more normal.

Eindhoven

Eindhoven wasn’t really our kind of city. It has been heavily bombed during World War II, which means the centre has a lot of new buildings and only a few historic buildings. Although there are lovely and quirky places to have coffee and food and it is a lively town, we decided to spend most of our time at the factory and shop of artist Piet Hein Eek.

Below: a “chandelier” designed by Piet Hein Eek for a company who works with Murano glass. You can take out each element and replace it with another design.

Below: This is a candle holder with the same design. Again you can interchange all elements. They sell many different objects in their shop, from watches to fabric, from tables to lamps, from plates to old strong boxes (safes).

Below: A chandelier hanging in the restaurant of Piet Hein Eek.

Below: A light installation above one of his famous tables.

Below: This cupboard intrigued me. You can open the doors with your little finger (very smoothly).

Below: Behind the doors, there is a kitchen. It would be ideal for somebody living in a small house. Only, that person would probably never be able to afford this. As all Piet Hein Eek’s furniture is pretty pricey.

Below: More lamps and tables in the restaurant. Everything is for sale. Can you imagine it is really special to walk through spaces like this?

Below: On the first floor, a big lamp made with plastic bottles.

Below: Outside we found this little iron house.

Below: Here we go, another outfit. I wore this to dinner with our friend Arine who lives in Eindhoven. Jeans by Denham, pink (croco print) boots by Eijk Amsterdam and the pattern top is by AR.RT. You saw it before in this post and in this one.

Below: Again, a chandelier (plus a second one behind it), in the restaurant 1910, an excellent choice by our friend Arine.

Below: This is our friend Arine who wore a very feminine blue dress by Joline Jolink, also a Dutch designer. Arine was looking at my blog posts one day and went down the rabbit hole. She found the web shop of Joline Jolink and was sold. Yep, that’s what happens. Arine designs my blog calling card for which I am very grateful.

The next morning it was pouring with rain. We stayed at a new hotel with a lot of business men (stupid me for picking this one) so we decided to have breakfast elsewhere, somewhere cosier. Ron found a great place: Meneer de Boer. The owners made our day by being so warm and friendly. It felt like home. And the food they served was excellent. After visiting the Philips Museum (it rained…) we returned for lunch, which was equally good.

Below: Part of the interior of Meneer de Boer. It was warm, welcoming, friendly and delicious.

That concludes our few days away in our own country. Hope you enjoyed it and didn’t get bored.

Now I will throw in a few crummy photos of outfits.

Below: The colour of this jumper (sweater) is between blue and green. Eggshell? The brand is Hope Fashion and I showed it before in this post. Such an easy piece to wear. I have added two flower brooches which I scored at a second-hand shop.

Below: Closer look at the brooches. As they are quite heavy I pin the top one onto my brastrap and the bottom one to the top I am wearing underneath.

Below: Trying to style these sneakers but I keep thinking the outfit looks clownish. Why? Because of the colour, the style or the nose of the sneakers? First attempt with a black jacket and grey trousers (which I gave away).

Below: The same grey trousers with a white shirt and yellow/white/black earrings.

Below: OK, I quite like this outfit.

What happened in my life this week

Saturday: easy day. Had my fringe (bangs) cut, did some shopping and in the evening we went out to dinner with friends. All very nice.

Sunday: visit to my mum to bring the earrings I bought a few weeks ago. She tried to give me money for it, I gave it back, she put the money in my bag, I put it on the stairs etc etc. I laughed really hard because of this silly game. I won.

Monday: work, meetings, gave a short presentation. Fitness in the evening. Nothing special.

Tuesday: work and lunch with our team to get acquainted with new team members and a jolly traffic jam as I went home.

Wednesday: took the car to the garage for service. Noticed this just in time. I looked in my agenda half an hour before I was supposed to bring it. Did blog “work” and tax stuff all day.

Thursday: work, dentist, training at work.

Friday: another session at the jaw physiotherapist. It really hurts when he is massaging my jaw muscles. My whole body wanted to escape those hands. Fortunately I could restrain myself from punching the guy for hurting me. It is painful, but I really need those muscles to relax and stop clinching.

Ron and I went to the doctor to discuss our wishes for when either of us gets mentally incapacated and is unable to act, like demented or in coma. Our doctor has experience with such cases of course and we wanted to know the medical procedures. Next move is to get it on paper and legally approved. Because if you haven’t got that on paper, you (the partner who still can act) cannot take any financial decisions over € 250 and has to go to a judge to ask permission. Every time. Even if you have a joint bank account. As we lived through the ordeal with Ron’s best friend and witnessed how he only just escaped from such faith, we decided to act. While we were on this subject, we also asked advice about what to do and when if you want euthanasia at a certain point. Heavy stuff which we approach in a lighthearted manner. In the evening we saw Downton Abbey at the movies. Loved the series, loved the movie.

Greetje