Germany - day 1.

7:15 in the morning and I'm catching a tram to Kees. It's freezing cold but I had no idea it was gonna get a lot colder...

Then Danny drove towards Germany. The views were quite beautiful at times.

Snowy roads. Not too bad thankfully.

(Click to enlarge)

And then... sun-rise.

(Click to enlarge)

Kees cleaning the windshield.

Rastette trees.

Danny and Renate all dressed up for a crazy Viking night!

The large banquet table. About 30 people joined, all dressed up in some old way.

(Click to enlarge)

Yours truly was a Viking.

"Kate" curry.

Crossing the water in the morning.

Sailing boat.

Retired Sovjet sub now called "Psycho cowboy".

My colleague next to me made us a Christmas tree. It's the best we got in our office... :-)

Another colleague had her birthday and she must have spent a whole day cooking coz this is what she brought to work. It was good too!

Another Christmas card arrived.

My "Kate" curry. It was even better the second day!

I had to do tons of things in the evening. Two of them were mailing Christmas cards and putting out the rubbish. It was snowing.

Snow, slippers and curry.

It snowed last night!

First snow for me in years.

It wasn't much in A'dam. Elsewhere in NL they got 30cm!

Leidseplein on the way to work.

The ferries (that I do NOT take).

Waiting for mine.

My foot steps in fresh snow.

After work I went shopping. I wanted new slippers. I couldn't find good ones anywhere except at this shoe shop where I bought my suit-shoes "van Lier". And they are good! I bought one pair for at home and one pair for work. I need to be comfortable, otherwise I enjoy my life less and that cannot happen. So it was money well spent.

Because I missed the oliebollen at work today (coz my colleagues ate them all while I was on the toilet!) I bought one on my way home. It was delicious! At the front are the ones with rasins (actually called 'krentenbollen' and further back without rasins, the normal 'oliebollen'.

My new slippers. They probably look very old fashioned but it's the only kind I'll wear. Everything else sucks I think ;-P

I received two Christmas cards today :-)

In the evening I cooked a curry based on Indian butter chicken. It was exciting!

It was very nice but it was a little bit overcooked I think. And the onion and chili got rid of the butter chicken flavour but also made the dish healthier and more diverse. I cooked brown rice with it and green beans. It was a lovely meal that I will have again tomorrow :-)

Things.

Ship.

Traffic.

The parcel

They were taking apart the scaffolding opposite my tram stop this morning.

View at work.

I received Christmas gifts by mail today. It was a lovely parcel made with great care.

One of the things inside was this very nice Guinness t-shirt. I like it very much :-)

The double photos

It was so incredibly cold this morning! It had frozen.

More frozen puddles.

I made chili con carne again.

It was very nice.

This is a traditional roman shoe I've been told.

(Click to enlarge)

I will wear them this Saturday at a banquet at which I'll pretend to be a viking. Roman, Viking, whatever hehe. They are pretty comfy actually.

Cheese, and more cheese.

I bought this delicious cheese yesterday. It's soft and creamy.

I also wrote some Christmas cards.

(Click to enlarge)

And then I made crackers with pesto-brie. Rather delicious as well.

In the evening I walked to Mulligans. Some people put their Christmas decorations inside AND outside.

There was a very big group of musicians in Mulligans. It was great but I had to leave early since I'm working tomorrow...

I love the name of this hairdresser. You will understand if you are Dutch only, sorry.