San Donato; a house in Tuscany (near Siena)

Staying in an awesome place called San Donato (near Siena) from 10 - 21 April 2014

Thursday & Friday, 10 & 11 April 2014

Our flight was smooth and we had a clear view on the Alps.

After arrival at Pisa Airport we collected our rented car a Fiat 500L, which btw isn't small at all. We drove to our rented home near the small town of San Gusme and larger town Castelnuovo Berardenga. 

San Donato is a very authentic (part of a) farmhouse and has a super large lovely garden, a very equipped kitchen, a room with an open fire place (yeah!), 2 bedrooms and 3 (!) bathrooms (no idea why). 
Some photos of our home for the coming days: 

breakfast in the garden 

home made salad for lunch 

*****
Saturday, 12 April we went for a walk

view on our home with the surrounding vinyards

San Gusme

 

our healthy drinks at the wine bar in San Gusme

this cool property is for sale... arghhhhh wouldn't that be a super B&B ....

our car on the dirt road leading to our home

 ****
Sunday 13 April: afternoon rain and a visit to Siena

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 The Duomo of Siena

the marvelous marble floor of the Duomo

Inside the Museum of the Duomo

a view on Siena

bruschetta ^^

Hey it's almost Easter

To be continued...
dikke kus
Carina

Marieke visiting - (shopping for a hand bag & the Bollenvelden)

A lovely weekend 29-30 March 2014: Marieke visiting

tea at Mevrouw van der Werf, Leiden

Yeah, after an extensive shopping afternoon (and sore feet) we found the purrrrrfect handbag for Marieke; a unique item made by designer Agnes Kovacs.

dinner with various lobster dishes at restaurant Toplevel in Leiden

 

The candle Marieke and I bought this afternoon and were curious how it would burn. Yeah it worked here's the proof.

Sunday, 30 March; a visit to the flower fields

at the beach in Noordwijk

bitterballen ^^

dikke kus
Carina

Weekend Tilburg, P.'s past revisited

Lovely weather soooo drinks at outdoor cafe: Stadscafe De Spaarbank, Tilburg

Saturday, 8 March 2014

Visiting Tilburg, the town where Peter was born and studied. A bit of shopping on Saturday afternoon, drinking beer at an outdoor cafe and in the evening having dinner at M&M. 
After returning to our B&B 'Loft 013', which is a large ground floor loft in the middle of town, we had a last drink at Stadscafe De Spaarbank, which is a really nice place with friendly people and nicely decorated in art deco style. 

Bed and Breakfast Loft 013: cool place in the centre of Tilburg

Dinner at M&M in the Reeshof. First course made by Maarten: tuna with sesame on a bed of lettuce. Brave moi: drinking Saskia mineral water ^^

****

Sunday, 9 March 2014

Dionysiusstraat 

After breakfast at our B&B we went for a nostalgic walk in the neighbourhood where Peter lived during his childhood, as well as later on when he was studying in Tilburg. 

We started with the Dionysiusstraat (student house) where we walked around in the area and Peter came up with all kind of memories and noticed a lot had changed in the meantime.

clockwise: Hyacintstraat, Madeliefstraat and Enschotsestraat

Afterwards we drove to the Madeliefstraat, parked the car and looked at his former home where he lived with his family during his childhood. We also visited the houses of his grandparents (Hyacintstraat & Enschotsestraat) as well as his former elementary school 'Jan Ligthart'. 

bottom right: de Soete Inval in Tilburg 

We ended our tour of former homes with his first students home a the Lovensestraat. 

The sun was shining and it promissed to be a lovely day. Hey it's winter only March. So we decided to go for a walk. But first we visited the farmhouse Peter had rented before he moved to 'the West'. We were lucky coz the present owner saw us and invited us in. Wow, he did a great job restoring the old farmhouse. 

Zandeind farm: former and present occupant

Peter found a nice walking track near Alphen NB, on estate 'de Hoeven'. 

clockwise: 'de Hoeven': lots of water due to the past rainy weeks/months, drinks to conclude our lovely 'Tilburg revisited' weekend and an awesome flower, which tells us Spring has arrived.