17th Holland Koi Show

Sat, 21 Aug - Known as the biggest Koi show in the world which was held at Kasteeltuin (Castle Gardens) in Arcen, Limburg province of the Netherlands. From 21-23 August, koi enthusiasts and dealers from all over the world exhibited their koi to a large public visiting the show. My Hubs and I were invited by my parents-in-law whom by the way, owned a very nice koi pond in their backyard.

All Koi lovers or people like us will flock to the venue to catch a glimpse of these beautiful prized kois.

The castle itself was nothing special as compared to many other castles but the span of area that makes up their famous beautiful gardens was something else. The castle was built in the 17th century in the Baroque period. When we got there, there was a long queue at the entrance so we decided to have an early lunch first. Lunch was kipsate (chicken with peanut butter sauce aka sate sauce in the Netherlands) with fries ;) After a full lunch, we went to check out the gardens of the castle which was divided into 5 different themes. Rosarium (rose garden), Watertuinen (man made rivers and canals with beautiful landscape), Wereldtuin (Italian garden, Eastern garden, bamboos garden among others) Lommerijk (literally means shadow area where beautiful plants were also can be seen there) and Casa Verde (Mediterranean and tropical plants and animals garden, over here they have a big green house where visitors can enjoy a stroll to see all the tropical plants and flowers). The garden areas were huge, it will take you hours to finish all!When we finally walked to the center of the koi show, there were over 140 stands with a great variety of offers focusing to the entire koi commerce. Mind you, it is a very lucrative business. An advanced filter can fetch up to EUR1k plus easily. We get to see all the manufacturers and dealers displaying their kois, advanced ponds equipment and filters, pond magazines, koi travels and koi paintings.

This year the organiser have included 3 new shows such as the Holland Bonsai Show, the Holland Aquarium Show and the Holland Shrimp Show. This show has a very friendly atmosphere, perfect for a family day outing. We definitely enjoyed ourselves very much.

Of course, the whole point of going to this show is to catch a glimpse of all these beautiful selected kois and of course to see the grand winners of the koi show.

Below are the grand winners....aren't they gorgeous~~they are big too!

Great weekend in Maastricht!!

This is how my Hubs and I were pampered in Maastricht....food! food! Lunch at my parents-in-law's place sometimes were of breads with cold cuts, jams, eggs and others. This weekend, my mother-in-law made this salad (small cubes of potatoes, pickles, eggs with a sourish taste to it).

We'd also a typical Limburgse food, 'zuurvlees' (sour & sweet meat) with fries :) :) Beef or horse meat are often used to make 'zuurvlees'. My mother-in-law told me this dish required a lot of work as the meat has to be cooked at a long time. However the real 'zuurvlees' are with horse meat...hmmm....that's something not for me. After the heavy and delicious lunch, we decided to take a walk around the neighbourhood. It was actually a nice walk in the woods ..... to see wheat fields, beautiful gardens and flowers, pear and cherry trees along the way. However the last few meters before our pitstop at a cafe, our path was blocked by a few black cows that were chilling right in the middle of it! Boy, was I terrified when I'd to walk pass them and seriously it was so close especially one of them were staring hard at us for a long time before we made our way to pass them. Thank god nothing happened :) I definitely deserved a nice cool drink after that passing :) In the end, I'm still a city gal at heart :P Big farm animals still terrifies me :P

A Little Town Called Eijsden

Last weekend my parents-in-law suggested that we should have a drink after dinner in this little town called Eijsden. Eijsden is a cosy and close-community town in the southern part of Limburg province in the Netherlands. I've not been there myself and I was curious. We took a short drive to Eijsden via the fields. With good spring weather, the sun does not set until 9pm or so hence we still had plenty of sun even at 8pm :) The cafe that we parked ourselves for our nightcap was a very nice and cosy place overlooking the river. We sat by the terrace enjoying the nice view and good company of each other. Trust my dear parents-in-law to know the best cafes around here as they did their cycling around this neighbourhood. One can even catch a glimpse of Belgium on the other side of the river. After a nice 'gezellig' (cosy) drink, my father-in-law mentioned that there is a nice castle around this neighbourhood and that peaked my interest. I love castles! I'd seen many when we were in Loire Valley, south of France last year :)

We make a slight detour and head to Eijsden Castle. Though the castle itself is not very big, the castle has a bailey and a big garden. Eijsden castle is L-shaped and was built in Maasland-Renaissance style. It is now a private residence of a noble Belgium family.

Pinkpop 2009 is Sensational!!

The day came and went by so fast and the next thing we knew, my Hubs and myself were sitting in the train on our way back home after a day in Pinkpop. It was ggggreeeat!!! To be physically there, to experience the whole Pinkpop culture, to see multiple great music bands in one place was simply amaaazzing!!! It took us 1 hour to get to Landgraaf (all the waiting for the public transport and queuing at the entrance) and finally we were there! You can see how crowded it was just to enter the Pinkpop area...there was not much of a queue I think....oh well but we finally got in. The sign on the right said it all... "NO crowd-surfing" :) I find that quite amusing actually, not that I have seen this signage in Asian concerts though.

The first impact when I walked into the open field was the loud music and thousands and thousands of people everywhere! And the first band, Milow was already playing at the main stage so we quickly joined in the crowd before exploring the other areas.

Multiple F&B stalls, souvenirs' stalls, sponsors' stalls, beers' stalls and WCs, were seen surrounding the parameter of the area, some people were in their pink Pinkpop hats and T-shirts, semi-naked guys were walking around with beers, some even wear costumes and of course the more hard-core ones were the ones at the front of all the stages.

The festival was divided into 3 stages: Stage I-Main stage (which was located right in the middle of the field) and flanked by the other 2 stages; Stage II-3FM stage & Stage III-Tent stage (the smallest area of all with no big screens).

Many festival goers like us were busy shuffling from one stage to another depending on which bands will be playing as these bands will be playing simultaneously in all the 3 stages. My Hubs and I managed to catch all the bands that we wanted to see :) - White Lies, Keane, Placebo.

Rowwen Heze, Maria Mena, James Morrison, Milow and Madness were a bonus. For those who doesn't know Rowwen Heze (which I didn't until Pinkpop day), they are one of the biggest local band of the Limburg province singing folks, fanfare and some ballads in the Limburgse dialect. You can't imagine my surprise when the crowd went wild with them. Obviously the crowd at Pinkpop adores them. Everyone sang along and got super active when the band was playing (actually personally I think, the crowd went wild with this band rather than Milow, the band that played before them :P)

Krezip, a Dutch band from Tilburg who sang "Sweet Goodbyes" which replaced Depeche Mode. Krezip planned to disband by end of June so their last performance was at Pinkpop.

Another delightful performance was by Maria Mena, the latest songstress from Norway with her hits such as "All This Time" and "Just Hold Me". She was funny and won the crowd by reaching out to her fans with her great songs. The other band, Madness from UK, with their dry sense of humour and their swingy-jazzy songs also kept the crowd going, it was simply entertaining!

White Lies (another Britisth alternative-rock band) was also very good but I was disappointed that I could not see them. The band had their performance in Stage III-Tent Stage and this stage had no big screens and catching a glimpse of them playing on stage was a mission impossible when I have rows and rows of 'giants' standing in front of me. The only time I get to see them was when my Hubs carried me and that's where I saw them!! :) Nevertheless, they were great. We left 15 mins before the performance ended to catch the last bits of James Morrison :)

Last but not least was Keane's performance (another British band), we went half hour earlier before the band started to play so we can 'reserve' a place nearer to the stage. Before we knew it, the crowd came and the whole area in Stage II was filled up in no time. Everyone from young to old were eagerly waiting for Keane to show up. They did and it was just sooooo great!! They sang all their best hits songs such as "Everybody's Changing", "This is the Last Time" and "Perfect Symmetry". Everybody went wild!! I did, dancing and singing along. Even my Hubs had some sort of reaction :):) normally he's pretty cool over this sort of 'things' unless it's his most favourite band playing ;) We were pretty close to the stage so when the lead singer walked to our corner, I can see him so clearly *swooned* Love them!!!

Apparently one of Pinkpop culture was nobody goes home without getting wet...hmm...The crowds love to throw leftover beers or even the whole cup of beers to the crowd!! Of course, I did experience the 'beer shower' but a light one ;) When the festival ends after the last band which is Placebo (this year), bonfires were started by groups of people who stayed on to relax after the full day of partying at the festival. I must say, I do like some of Placebo's songs but on that evening, they played pretty heavy music. It was a little too heavy for me after a day at the festival. We did not finished the whole performance of Placebo and decided to head home.

It was a memorable festival for me, that's for sure. Despite the tiredness of walking, jumping, dancing and occasionally singing along the whole day, it was worth it. My Hubs and I both crashed out the moment we head home Zzzzzzz....:)

Pinkpop 30-31 May & 1 June 2009

Pinkpop is the Netherlands most famous open-air festival and Europe longest running uninterrupted outdoor pop festival. Pinkpop this year will be celebrating its 40th time in the city of Landgraaf, south of Limburg province (where my parents-in-law lives). This yearly phenomenal 3-days event is always held on Pentecost ('Pinksteren' in Dutch) and attracts 60,000-70,000 visitors including campers. Yes, there are thousands and thousands of hard core visitors camping in the vicinity for 3D2N throughout the festival (almost like Woodstock).

Some of the main festival puller is Bruce Springsteen who will be performing on Saturday and the tickets for that day itself was sold out within 20 mins after the ticket sales started. For us, though my Hubs likes Bruce Springsteen, our hearts opt for Sunday's program. This year's Sunday 31 May program will feature.... Depeche Mode, Placebo, Keane, White Lies, James Morrison, among others. On Monday, some other big bands performing are Snow Patrol, Amy Macdonald, Anouk.

And yes, we're going to Pinkpop this year!! It will be my first Pinkpop festival :) Can hardly wait! My Hubs is gearing up to see Depeche Mode (one of his favourite band) so we have been watching their Live concerts on DVDs, listening to their musics etc.

However, last few days, we read in the news that Depeche Mode might cancel their performance as the lead singer Dave Gahan was admitted to the hospital for an operation. Whether they're coming or not, we will soon know as the organiser will publish the news once they have a confirmation from the band.