Nederlands - Bags and Purses Museum in Amsterdam

I didn't plan to visit this museum, but as we parked the car almost in front of it I said is some sort of a sign and I've entered. I love Amsterdam, love it, but I hate it's parkings or lack of parking spaces or how expensive they are once you find a spot. I think I've been to Amsterdam five or more times and every time we had parking problems. So to anticipate them I researched from home some public parkings near the Flower Market, but one was closed although the website didn't announce that and the other one was no where to be found. Plus, in the area there are some one way streets and even my app updated when we left for Amsterdam didn't knew them. So we basically drove around the area and when we found a spot on the street we parked. And we parked right in front of the museum.

They say they have the largest collection of bags and I am inclined to believe that. The museum is in an old house and the collection is displayed on three levels. It starts with very old purses and ends with fashion purses from our days and they even have some purses worn by celebrities, such as Madonna or Elizabeth Taylor. Overall it is a museum worth visiting if you like museums or you like fashion and bags.

The price is more on the expensive side, 12 euro, but what is cheap in Amsterdam? I will leave here some photos from the museum, the ones that I really liked.

I loved all the purses in the museum, but my heart belongs to this one, which was not even displayed in the museum, but on a hallway near the tearoom. They said it is from Russia and now I am looking for an identical one on etsy or ebay. So if you find something similar, give me a sign. 

I am not into fashion, but when I've heard that this year the rattan purses are in fashion, I've dusted my old purse which I bought on a flee-market in Arlon. Although it was very cheap, in my mind it belongs in a museum :)

My Facebook page is Dichisuri.ro.

Raluca

Netherlands - All I know about tulip season in Holland

Tulip season is here!!!!

If you've read my latest post, I was talking about how I prepare for the long weekend of May 1st which I plan to spend in Holland watching, photographing, enjoying the tulip fields. It's the third year I'm doing this, so I'm what you can call a veteran of this activity. 

When to watch the tulip fields?

Tulip season starts mid April and ends mid May, but it all depends on the weather. I've read somewhere that if the winter is heavy the tulip season can start early May, but keep reading, as I will tell you how to find if the tulips are blooming when you plan to go, but just as a marker, mid April to mid May. I usually go around May 1st as it is an international holiday and we don't go to work. 

When to prepare for the tulip fields?

It all starts around February when I search for accommodation. If you ever went to Holland especially during the tulip season, but if you ever went to Holland, you may know that it is an expensive country. What I call, expensive? More than 80 euro per night. Close to tulip season you are lucky to find a room with 80 euro, as they usually go at around 200 even 300 a night, euros that is. I don't need to tell you that by room I understand a bed and a toilet. I've passed the age when sharing a toilet was ok, but if you are young, maybe you can look for hostels or even trailers or tents.

So if you don't have a room, you already missed this tulip season, but being Luxembourg I guess that you could make it a day trip. I usually book rooms on booking.com and sometimes on airbnb.com

The first year I wanted to go to Nederlands for May 1st, I started looking for rooms in April and already the cheapest room in Amsterdam was 1200 euro per night near the airport. I don't know what's with this country, but I've learned my lesson, I've stayed in Luxembourg that year and now I know. Being Nederlands, which is not that big especially near the tulip fields and Amsterdam area, I choose to book a room in a B&B, 40 minutes away form the tulip fields, but in a rural area, because I love rural Holland.

What are the tulip fields?

I've just realised that, I'm talking about the tulip fields, but didn't say what they are. They are exactly fields planted with tulips, like in Luxembourg you could see now a lot of rapeseed, in Holland they have tulips. So if you are looking for tips about the famous Keukenhof garden, this is not the place. 

The fields are between Leiden and Haarlem, two towns about an hour away from Amsterdam. The first year I had only that information so we drove to Leiden and then we took the road thru the towns and stopped wherever we saw a tulip field and we did see a lot. Now there is a website where you can see in real time where are the fields, with streets and everything. 

The website is this, and I like that people can upload pictures of the fields and you can see from your desk what to expect. I took a screen shot of the website exactly as I am writing this text so you can see that at this time there are a lot of bloomed fields. If you click on a flower on the website you can see how the field looks now. That is important because most of the farmers are growing tulips for their bulbs, so if you go on a period when they harvest the tulips you might have the unpleasant surprise to find the tulips, but not the flowers, as the farmers chop off the blooms to make strong bulbs.

What to pack?

This is more of a reminder for me. I am documenting now the fashion vloggers, so I might be tempted to dress for pictures, so heels, dress, stockings, the whole shebang. Well, don't! The fields are not meant to be visited, so you will not find paths with asphalt where to do a shooting. The first year I wore my new converse snickers and ruined them. The tulips are planted in a mix of straw and sand which I couldn't get of my shoes as much as I've tried. 

So comfortable clothes, comfortable but ordinary shoes and a camera with a full battery or enough space on your phone. Internet, as big as it is gives you advice as to how to photograph tulips, here, here and here. 

But from experience I tell you that no matter what you pack, no matter how many pictures you take, enjoy the experience, let the adventure take you, nothing compares to that. 

If you do see the tulips this season, please drop a line. Here you find my gallery with pictures from this season in Holland. My Facebook page is Dichisuri.ro.

Raluca

Travel music?

First of all hit the music button!

I've got for you one of my latest discoveries, Justin Timberlake with Can't stop this feeling, which I call I got sunshine in my pocket. I know it's from 2015, but I got to love it now.

Here in Luxembourg we do a lot of travelling, for work, for fun, for the weekend, mostly by car, but even if you take the plane or the train, you need some music.

With me is another thing. For example, this weekend May 1st is coming. I'm planning the trip since February, cause if you ever wanted to get a decent price in Holland in tulip season, that's what you have to do. Booked a room and researched a little what to do in the area besides watching the tulips grow. A month ago I've started researching hard (another article about tips and tricks is on it's way) and two or three days before the actual trip it was like I've already been there, I wasn't excited anymore about it. I usually do that, so to get my moral up again I listen to music, or I plan a drive stick (on my time we would burn a CD or make a tape, now it's with music on a flash drive) with of course, drive music.

What is drive music?

Well to put it short is the music that makes you happy, that get's you up the chair, dancing. I was a Metallica girl, I dressed in black and wore boots winter and summer, but when I got a car I realised that Metallica, Bon Jovi or Berry White (the music I was listening at that moment) have little or no drive songs. It's a proved fact that I've learned at my first radio job that there are what they call "drive music" with a certain beat, fortunately I forgot all about it, it was a dark time in my career :) cause mixing songs on Winamp was not what I've learned at Journalism school. It was a good job, but I was going in another direction. Still the drive music thing stuck to my brain and even now when I have to plan a list of songs to last from Luxembourg to Amsterdam I arrange songs by their beat :)

So what would you put on a drive stick?

It's so weird for me to call it drive stick (I know that the shifting gear stick in a car is also called drive stick), list of drive songs sounds better? Whatever. There is a reason why on the radio you hear certain songs from an artist and not the whole album, so pick from the songs you hear on the radio. In Luxembourg I listen to ARA, so for me it's a little bit complicated to reproduce their playlist, because they air a certain type of songs, good for the radio, not to my taste, though. So I pick the hit songs, such as "Can't stop this feeling", Uptown funk - Bruno Mars"

Mixed with a little bit of Adele, you have to have Adele. I like One and only

It's a heavy song so next goes Maroon 5 with "Sugar"

You get the picture. 

I mix something from Ed Sheeran and some Amy Winehouse, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift and at some point I introduce Queen and I listen to the whole Greatest Hits album :)

At this point, my husband wants his music and we listen to some jazz, which is opposite to drive music, but he is the driver, so...

This is just a list with my drive music, you can listen to whatever makes you happy and gets you off the chair and sing out loud especially when you wait in a queue around a big city. 

Friends, enjoy your long weekend and if you go to Holland for the tulips drop me a line to tell me how it was.

Raluca

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Germany - Travelling with a dog to Koblenz from Luxembourg

Travelling with a dog is sometimes challenging, but when we travel to Germany or Nederland I feel our stress is reduced by their friendliness towards dogs.

Let's start from the beginning. Even for one day trips that we often take from Luxembourg to the neighbouring countries, Luna has a proper luggage. We have to prepare a muzzle for her (Luna is a collie so by definition a friendly dog and she is even more friendlier than Dea, but still she is a dog and I do understand that in public transport, for example, I have to have a muzzle for her), a foldable water ball, some treats, fresh water, a toy, poop bags and a long leash. Usually we manage not to forget anything, but there are exceptions. It happen that we took all from home and we forgot them in the car, for example.

Once we have a destination and we pack all those things for her, Luna is ready to go. Still, she likes to travel, but she hates the car. So even though she doesn't associate the car with negative destinations, such as the vet, she still cries a lot until she finds her place. Just to give you an idea, on a trip of two hours, such as the one to Koblenz, Luna cried for maybe half an hour.

So after a "stressful" journey by car for her, I love to end up in a green city as Koblenz is. She is automatically relaxed and she is ready to see it all. And if the city is one that is friendly towards dogs, I know I will love it, too.

What I mean by a dog friendly city?

To sum all the components in one paragraph, a dog friendly city is: a city with a lot of parks or green areas, a city where Luna has access inside big shops (that happens a lot in Germany and Nederlands, sometimes in Belgium), a city where Luna has access in restaurants or terraces, a city where Luna has access in the major tourist attractions, a city where you find poop bags close to green areas and of course you find garbage bins, a city where in crowded areas you happen to spot a boll with fresh water or even treats for the dog.

All those points were met in Koblenz and that made our experience as tourists even more pleasant. I hope I will make a travel blog about Koblenz someday, but until then here are some pictures:

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Raluca