DELFT visit and Akkrum too

On Easter Monday 9th April 2012 we flew to Amsterdam from Luton on Easyjet and took a train to Akkrum to visit my sister in Friesland. Our eventual destination was Delft as above.

After a 2.5 hour train journey through pouring rain we arrived at Akkrum and were met by my younger- well of the two that is, she's a bit older than me- sister very wet standing at the platform! We went exploring and lots of chatting and a lovely lunch and then the girls were soon messing about...

Then it was also FAMILY PHOTO time!!! Voila.

Yep sis is tallest and Miss E is taller than her mum these days... Miss Y still has some catching up to do.

Better sitting down, isn't it?

And then of course it all got very silly.

It was a long and crowded journey back on the train to Schiphol and then a taxi to Delft...

Fuzzy pictures due to poor light and tiredness? The train was so crowded they were telling people NOT to board this one and we sat in the passage way outside the main carriages for most of the way. It was South of Hilversum before we got a comfy seat.

Next morning this was breakfast in our hotel at # 3 Breestraat: a glorious view of a canal with many busy cyclists pedalling past the window and over the bridge.

There ! A cyclist as well as the bread delivery van. Polder Broodjes.

View from our bedroom.Looking to the right

And looking to the left. The OUDE DELFT is the road and the canal name.

On the main market square we spotted a new cheese shop.

After enjoying our'' broodje haring met uitjes'' at the fishmonger on the corner as well as some delicious smoked salmon we rounded off our lunch with POFFERTJES!

These are small puffy pancakes for the uninitiated English and other readers.

This photo also shows the PIET VONK cycle shop in the background where we bought my orange bicycle in 2008. Alas it was closed and Miss Y had wanted to buy a bell and some other accessories for her English bike.

Happily waiting you see? Having a lovely relaxing time.

Yep I was there too.

MMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmm Miss E can't wait.

Here they are in all gloriousness, don't they make your mouth water?

It was actually quite a nice day, not warm but with some sunny spells, which don't seem to show.

I went for a long walk to an area by the Delft Zuid station.... 2 hours of walking to work off the poffertjes.

Here's Miss E at the window of our bedroom. I called and we posed this one.

View along the OUDE DELFT.

We had dinner in a restaurant on the market square and it was so delicious we ate it before photographing it. My steak with forest fruits and red wine gravy was delicious and came with herbed and seemingly mildly curried balls of mash? The girls had KING burgers which were huge and delicious, much beef, bacon, cheese and salad was included, not to mention the thick cut chips. Then Miss Y had this chocolate cheesecake desert which came with raspberry custard sauce. Only it wasn't really a chocolate cheesecake, it was ordinary cheesecake with a solid dark bitter chocolate ''hat'' on it. Oh and the obligatory raspberry coulis of course...

That ended our Tuesday in town, we then had a terrific giggly time back at the hotel in our shared room. The only sad point in the day was to find that my beloved wool shop on the Brabantse Turfmarkt had GONE. I still have much yarn from there in my attic.

I did find some crochet magazines and purchased the three I quite liked. More of this later.

Wednesday was our ADVENTURE day where we were going to be travelling for most of the day to go see paintings by Ton Schulten in OOTMARSUM.

FEB,MARCH BIRTHDAYS

This is the cake that the friends of Miss E baked for her for her birthday!MOOOOOOOO
The birthday dinner she chose was Nigella's Spaghetti Carbonara and the sauce was sooo amazingly scrumpdiddleeumptious so delish that it all went very very fast.

We had ordered a very special cake from the HUMMINGBIRD bakery in London, and JJ drove to London on the Saturday to pick it p, that's how and where he got his idea of having a birthday on Portobello road from....
HERE IT IS:
It's a GIANT iced CUPCAKE!!!!
Every year from mid February to late April we have a decorated celebratory kitchen : as all 4 human's in our family ( and just one of the 2 dogs) have their birthdays at that time.

Up go the balloons

And the BUNTING: only we could not find the bunting I sewed especially last year so we had to buy some. I must stop using ''special places'' to put things because they are so special I forget where they are!




The candles on the cupcake were special too: they have different coloured flames but this did not come out in the photos....






It was a very very DENSE cake, very moist and hauntingly moore-ish but of a very subtle and slight vanilla flavour. And not very sweet at all, the icing of course complimented it divinely.

It's that special American type icing that's in the book of the bakery ans which we have made many a time, it's lighter and creamier than UK type icing.


We all had some.... Even me on WW..... Just a TINY wee slice.
I was so proud of this cute wee daffodil! Quite cheered up February greyness.


And there's the - almost nil pro points- vegetable soup: actually this is my version and it WAS delicious! VERY WEIGHT WATCHERS.

The first of many a bunch of daffs in these weeks to come....

On March 22 this is how THIS TREE looked in Cuttlebrook. The coming of SPRING!!!

The catkins were out too but I didn't capture them, Pippa pulling to get home.
Miss Y's birthday dinner wish was a WW Pork Lasagna: again a first recipe for me to try and it was very very good.
Miss Y also had two cakes: a monkey for home and family and a spotted dog ( from Waitrose) for her party on the Saturday with 12 of her school friends.
This time it was sparklers, not coloured flames... HEY WHERE DID THE MONKEY GO?
Then on the 26th in the afternoon: JJ and I went wwalking to enjoy a rare bit of glorious sunshine and celebrate the resolution of the traffic accident Court Case issues.

We had planned to go do a bit of the South Downs Way but due to work commitments decided on a more local Henley walk instead.
WATER AND GLORIOUS BLUE SKIES what more could you wish for?






We saw an extra ordinary miniature railway station in someone's garden, complete with trains and train tracks all around the garden....

The dogs were LOVING it.


Here's the catkins....







Pippa in her habitual ''I DO NOT WANT TO WALK'' mode....



I fancy a trip on the Thames in just such a boat, one day.....
AND HERE IS JJ's cake baked by yours truly. Using the new silicone HEART mould.
It was all eaten within the same day..... Lovely vanilla/ chocolate marble cake.