Sand Sculptures in Garderen / Esculturas de Areia

(Bilingual post, Port./English)

Last Friday afternoon I traveled with my extended family to celebrate my parents in-law's 45 years of marriage in Garderen - a village in the central area of Holland, known as "the Veluwe". This area is very tranquil, covered by woods and has many parks. It is situated one hour away from Amsterdam - by car. On the way to our hotel we noticed these elephants markig the entrance to an exposition of sand sculptures.

Sexta-feira passada viajei com toda a família para Garderen a fim de celebrar os 45 anos de casamento dos sogrinhos. A vila de Garderen fica bem no meio do coração verde da Holanda, numa área tranqüila e com muitas atrações chamada de "Veluwe". Levamos uma hora e algo para chegar lá. No caminho para o hotel avistamos esse chamariz para esculturas de areia, que visitamos no sábado.

The parking (open, uncovered) is for free. The exposition has two parts: indoors and outdoors. Let's check it inside first, shall we ?

There was a route with some scenes of life in a (old) Dutch farm, with human figures and animals. The lights were dimmed, so it was very difficult to photograph indoors... I give you here a limited idea.

A parte coberta da exposição, com cenas antigas de fazenda, figuras humanas e animais. As luzes estavam bem baixas, foi difícil fotografar algo que valesse a pena. O meu melhor vocês veem a seguir.

Now, outside. The sculptures you see here represent the 11 Dutch provinces. I photographed most of them but not everything. Rain... and many other visitors around eager to take pics just like me. I had to manage: umbrellas, kids, camera, tourists.  It was the last day of the exposition, but the figures were still in good shape. Very sharp edges, many details.

Nas próximas fotos, a parte ao ar livre da exposição. Estava chovendo fininho, foi muito difícil fazer foto que prestasse. Toda hora eu tinha que secar a lente da câmera, posicionar-me com firmeza em baixo do guarda-chuva, me desviar de turistas. Mas apesar da chuva tudo estava em boa conservação - tirando um elefante que perdeu as presas e a tromba, hahaha !

Above: The province of Friesland pays an hommage to Frisian model Doutzen Kroes.
Acima: a província da Frieslândia presta homenagem em areia a modelo Doutzen Kroes, uma frísia autentica.

Can you believe the one above (two cows and three windmills) won the first prize ? Not my favourite !

Above: Palace Het Loo and surroundig gardens.
Acima: Palácio Het Loo e os jardins circundantes.

There were these cars for kids (see below), an imitation of a castle and lots of sand for the kids to play with and form their own works of art.
Dois carrinhos para crianças nesse trilho suspenso, movido a pedal. O pátio de exibições era cercado por muralhas e torres imitando um castelinho - algo bem falso e cafona, mas que agradou bastante os pequenos.

Acima: um detalhe da lojinha dentro do café/bar com vista para as esculturas. Diversos suvenires comestíveis: chutneys, molhos, geléias, marmeladas, balas, xaropes concentrados, mostardas. Ah, e brinquedinhos de plástico para as crianças para serem utilizados com areia, ajudando a formar esculturas.

Above, some detials from a souvenir shop where you could purchase jams, mustard, sauces, marmelades and all sorts of old fashioned candies.Nearby the exit there is a huge shop with very beautiful furniture and decoration articles from top brands such as Riviera Maison, TPMD and others. Country-chic or New England meets Cote D'Azur style.

Ooooh, I definitely need to have my roots dyed !

Nossa, preciso retocar as raízes já ! E abaixar o tom de laranja das melenas... estou parecendo um mico leão dourado em extinção, gente ! Alias, micos, macacos e primatas serão o assunto para daqui a  duas postagens, me aguardem.

E com essa foto chegamos ao final do post. Esculturas de areia não duram muito e dia 30 de outubro foi o encerramento da exposição. Mas no outono do ano que vem tem mais. Vejo vocês no próximo post, tot ziens !   

Unfortunately, sculptures of sand do not last long. If you wish to visit the sand sculptures in the village of Garderen then wait up the next autumn 2011.  There are more attractions in the surroundings of Garderen and that is the subject of my next two posts.  Tot ziens ! = See you soon !

Call me kitsch (Me chama de cafona)

Autumn in the Northern Europe for me means: mushrooms and pumpkins. Especially the mushies, they are everywhere in my village - gardens, trees, grass... even on the outer walls of the gym I go to (it is a brand new building).

At an impulse, I have bought today the mushies you see on the photos. They are made of wood and very pretty.
O outono no norte europeu e' anunciado por cogumelos.  Num impulso, comprei hoje esses que vi numa floricultura. Sao feitos de madeira e encantadores.

I have inserted them in vases around my living room. The result you can see on the next photos.
Distribui todos pelos vasinhos da sala de jantar. O resultado voces veem nas fotos a seguir.

And this mushie came with a bonus ! A tiny escargot (equally fake, of course) on it.   Esse cogumelo ai de cima veio com um brinde: um caracolzinho (de mentira, claro !).  

Kitsch... or kitsch ? Well, I have a good excuse to play around with tacky mushies. I just say "Actually I do not care much about them - but the kids find them cool and begged me to buy some". Hahahaha !

Qual a desculpa que eu dou pra essa cafonice ? Ah, que eu tenho criancas e que eles acham lindinho, hahaha!

A Curious Birthday

Picture that:
you live in the Netherlands, it is autumn, it is grey, it rains a lot, you and your kids have recently had a cold and your sister-in-law invites you to celebrate her birthday with the whole family in a tour in the nature. "Saturday 25th of September, Recreation area Het Twiske at 12h30", to be precise.

And there goes the family into the recreation area Het Twiske. I have previously posted here about Twiske (for more about it click on the tag list "twiske") and about this hobby of my sister-in-law. Today she told us she would guide us through pads with lots and lots of mushrooms. Ummm, it starts getting interesting for me because I am fascinated about these funghi.

Above, the S.I.L. shows the "classic" type of mushie from fairy tales to my little girl : a red one with white dots. Lovely.

The mushie above looks like an apple that was beaten by gnomes, doesn't it ? Chomp, chomp, chomp !

My SIL in action. With little mirrors, she shows us how the mushies look on their under. She doesn't take any of them from the trees or the ground. But the broken ones she does collecst in a bag for her future tours. She knows how to preserve them for a while.

It was one and half good hour spent in the middle of uncountable and odd mushies. Oh, no way I can remember the names and functions of all of them !

Below: big fox holes.

My sister-in-law advised me never eating blackberries from the lowest branches of bushes, 'cause foxes pee on them. But enough mushies and fruit. It is time to sit down and go drink and eat something, thus we headed to Pavillioen.

We were so lucky with dry weather. The location of Pavillioen is really amazing, near water, bushes ... there were even rainbows. We decided to sit on the back outside so that the kids could run freely - and make some noise.

During years and years, we have always sat outside in The Pavillion and asked some snacks and beer. French fries or bitterballs and a beer. Just that. I didn't know that you actually could have a fancy dinner at there.

Prosecco was ordered...

Most of the grown-ups decided to go for a classic Dutch chocolade truffel, and the kids asked muffins and hot chocolate.

Many Dutch people like having something sweet and light for their lunch: slices of bread topped with chocolate, some fruit or yoghurt, or maybe a soup, or sometimes just a pie. I preferred to order a tosti - cheese /tomatoes. However, deep inside of me I would rather have a tagliatelle with mushies, garlic, cream, parsley and parmesan cheese. Or a small risotto... with lots and lots of mushies, of course !

I enjoyed a lot such unusual birthday celebration.

And we were sooo lucky it didn't rain.

Gefeliciteerd Anja ! Happy Birthday !