#picturesque town

[online-workss]

"Vibrant Mountain Village: A Hidden Oasis of Color and Life"

Nestled in the foothills of towering, rugged mountains, this stunning village bursts with vibrant colors and rich textures. The traditional adobe-style homes, painted in earthy yellows and oranges, are adorned with lush greenery and blooming flowers, spilling from every windowsill and courtyard. The warm Mediterranean sunlight bathes the terraced houses, while cobblestone paths weave through the village, creating a charming and inviting atmosphere. Against the backdrop of dramatic mountains, the village is an oasis of natural beauty and cultural charm, blending harmoniously with its surroundings. https://www.artpal.com/Timeles-prints

Get it now

[thedaveandkimmershow]

Yesterday we got a late start. Our niece and her dad were in Amsterdam for the Friends Experience because they are both HUUUUUUUGE fans of the show.

They had tickets for a while now but my niece somehow forgot and went already with a friend of hers. Then yesterday she went again with her dad because, you know, Friends.

The experience involves accurate and various Friends sets and moments... and the two of them took full advantage with photographs of themselves in iconic spaces recreating iconic moments.

They both said it was super busy because the day got off to a delayed start due to technical problems... so there were more people than expected crammed into a shorter schedule. Still, the pictures they took make it seem like they're the only ones on set.

Adorable. 😊

Around 2 in the afternoon I get a text they're on their way back from Amsterdam... so at 230 we leave our hotel for the local grocery store, Aldi, because Kimmer literally cannot get enough of the place.

Also, I'm not clear why we need more food. My aunt is a relentless feeder of family members. Plus we've got a stock of baked foods we keep receiving as gifts from family over the last few days.

Still, we're going up and down the aisles looking... looking...

And yeah. We find a gift or two for someone or someone's at home.

Don't tell them, though.

It's a surprise. 😉

3pm and my niece and her dad are pulling up to our hotel. Since we're still at Aldi, they drive down the street to pick us up...

And then we're on our way to the center of Gorinchem.

Now first we've gotta a coupla highly important things to figure out.

Here's how my niece put it:

"So my father and I are discussing a few options. We thought we could get a chai latte 😆 we could go into town and drink some in one of the local lunchrooms. Then I can take the card game to my grandparents tonight! Or we could get the chai latte to go and go to our house. Or we don’t get a Chai latte 🤣🤣 so many options😆"

Yeah.

Complicated. 😉

We quickly decide the Chai Latte is essential to our afternoon so we head to Gorinchem Centrum and park in the Kweeklust parking garage along one of the rivers surrounding the centrum.

We spend the next hour walking from the north end to the south end where there are locks and then those boats that take tourists down the Merwede river to castle Slot Loevestein.

I'm pretty sure this is the dock from which my cousins 'n I as children made that trip ourselves with our parents, one of whom took an iconic photograph of us.

From the parking garage, Kimmer 'n I do a pretty good job of walking and being present with family. This part of town is so picturesque, though, there's so much unique architecture, so much fascinating detail, that for a while in there we become raging photography monsters, eating up everything we see along the way.

This is, of course, my niece and her dad's hometown. It's also a small town and every so often they run into someone they know.

And then another someone.

And another someone.

Yeah.

That small.

Either that or they're both quite famous and we just don't know it. 🤔🤨

Along the way, both my niece and her dad point out the shops and cafes they frequent: a record store here, a high-tea restaurant there. It's a lovely bit of family Show 'n Tell. 😊

For example, my niece points out an entrance to a church that used to be walled off, hidden from the Nazi's during the occupation of Holland during World War II.

My niece's dad one-upped her by pointing out a lane along which is a row of connected, narrow homes. In one of these, he tells us, is the home in which he was born.

He just can't remember exactly which one. 😕

He can tell us, though, that the building across the narrow lane from the row houses used to be an orphanage. And then a block later we run across a shop featuring a painting of Hugo the Great and an illustration of castle Slot Loevestein which prompted a telling of this slice of dutch history in which Hugo is captured, taken to the town center where villagers help him escape inside a wooden cabinet.

Huzzah!

By 'n by, we wander to a historic door that's related to the Hugo the Great story... next to which is Espressobar Hugo.

Where we get our Chai Lattes.

It's 4pm.

A lovely little espresso place, the bar offers a full sit-down experience: take your seat, check out the menu, and soon someone comes by to take your order.

Eventually, our Chai lattes are brought to the table. Actually, three Chai lattes and one cappuccino 'cause that's my niece's dad's jam.

The Chai, by the way, comes in tall, thick, clear glass cups accompanied by a shot of whipped cream with Bailey's and a little square of chocolate brownie.

Kimmer couldn't have hers... so she gave it to me for a sum total of two little brownie squares for my afternoon.

After a lovely hour of hot drinks, good fun company, and a bunch of photos Kimmer felt compelled to take at the back of the espresso bar, we take our leave of Gorinchem in order to swing by the home of my niece's family.

Why?

Because our day's primary agenda with her is to play her Harry Potter trivia game.

We've taken most of the afternoon with a lovely city walk, so now we're gonna grab the game on our way to my aunt and uncle's to play after dinner there.

Of course it's not a grab 'n go we do. The "stop" easily turns into a Show 'n Tell of their home including the "shed" out back that's a pretty massive deal with plenty of storage inside and a covered space outside for lounging on chairs. There's even a sign over the window facing the covered space that reads

Surf Shack. 🙂

It's actually more fun than I'd guess getting a tour of someone else's home. But this one's comfortable and hits a lot of the same design notes that we love from lighting to furniture to decor (including the old-school LPs and the Lego VW bus).

6pm We're back at my aunt and uncle's place for dinner. At the dinner table's their daughter (arriving a little later than the rest of us due to work), her husband, their daughter/my niece, and then us.

Once again it's a lovely time had by all with a thoroughly traditional Dutch menu including variations on mashed potatoes, sausages, and beef.

After dinner, we settle around the table to play my niece's Harry Potter trivia game. We don't specifically read or follow the rules... we just play in a way that makes sense to us and is fun for us.

So.

Is it fun?

Well, all I can say is it's LOUD. It's competitive. And we're super into it against each other and with each other.

Because that's how we roll. 😉

Now, while we're thoroughly into all things Potter, my cousin's husband's in the living room with my aunt and uncle revisiting some of my uncle's history.

Meanwhile (and I don't know how this happened) the game we're playing at the dining room table turns into a wide-ranging conversation about the British royal family, from "The Crown" to the tabloids to each royal to each royal couple.

Again. No idea how that happened.

Definitely the conversation drew my aunt into the room. My aunt... who isn't into Harry Potter trivia games but is quite able to weigh in on British royals past and present. 🤔🤨

And then somehow (again, I don't know how) the conversation pivots to the challenges of being a parent and the simultaneous, complementary challenges of growing up. It's another wide-ranging and detailed conversation with everyone everyone everyone at the table weighing in.

'Cause we're all experts like that.

With so many parents at the table, it's like a support group. 😉

Inevitably, our arrival at 6pm flips through more hours than I would've guessed because suddenly it's 11 o'clock at night.

Did not see that coming either.

So, with hugs and kisses all around, my cousin's husband and niece drop us back at our hotel at 11:30.

Dang.

Talk about Time Travel.

That time at my aunt and uncle's flew.

And yeah. It's amazing how much life you can cram into those hours...

When you're with your tribe.

☺️

[illustratus]

Stormy landscape by Gerard van Nijmegen

[vox-anglosphere]

Dunster has more tea shops per capita than any town in Britain!

The charming High Street leads uphill to Dunster Castle

[magpiefngrl]

Corfu, Old Town

This is where my body is.

(not captured: the smell of garlic from one window, the sound of someone playing piano from another)

[autumnmylife]

Hallstatt,Austria

[melodramaticwanderlust]

📍Rasiglia, Umbria, Italy

from blogsognoitaliano on tiktok

[musette22]

Goodnight from Concord 🫶🏼💫🍂

[bluebelly-sun-serpentine]

[seeingeurope]

Dubrovnik, Croatia 🇭🇷 - 📷 The Old Town and the Adriatic Sea, UNESCO World Heritage Site

[virtualscotland]

The beautiful little town of Beauly in the Highlands of Scotland is a popular place to stop off for those visiting Inverness or the surrounding area. The Beauly Priory hotel and restaurant is good for food too!! There are a lot of walks and wildlife nearby if you're in the area a bit longer. 😀

[christmaswinter]

Winter in Ljubljana,Slovenia

The capital of one of the smallest countries in Europe, Ljubljana offers the face of a human-sized, young and dynamic city. The historic centre, dominated by an impressive mediaeval castle which today hosts exhibitions and museums, offers a complete change of scene with its centuries-old houses, churches, narrow streets and picturesque squares. Nestled in a green setting, between mountains and forests, the city of Ljubljana is also renowned for its parks and gardens.

[responsivethoughts]

Amalfi Coast Italy.

[selfinflictedgunshotwound]

having twin peaks thoughts & theories bc i just started watching the return (i know spoilers ofc) and i have literally nowhere else to put my thoughts so i'm just gonna dump them here.

obviously i don't every single thing about twin peaks was meant to just be like... One Thing and that's it. i think there's room for interpretation for a reason butttt the one thing i just keep going back to about the show is just that. like. it's about the corruption of innocence and the perversion of family. of cycles of violence and abuse. children being sexually taken advantage of by "trusted" adults. teenage prostitution rings. barely a single relationship in the town wherein people aren't cheating on someone/cheated in the past. bob being "the evil that men do" (tbf this is technically just albert's theory but i choose to believe it) and now this weird thing with judy/the experiment (are they the same thing? idk yet) being the thing that CREATED bob? there's this weird thing i get with the black lodge/waiting room like... good people can't survive there without disappearing completely (nonexistence) or being permanently changed (in the case of annie, ig)

and then ofc you have the tormented souls being trapped there (laura, maddy, caroline(tbh idk what was going on w her doppelganger being there?), leland(he was originally a victim too, i'm getting there)) because of the things that were done TO them. i was thinking like. in regards to the frogmoth that crawled into sarah's mouth (when she was a child) and everything that's going on w/ her in the return (watching insanely violent things on tv, "eating" men, etc.) ... compounded with leland's story about bob "I was just a boy. I saw him in my dreams. He said he - he wanted to play. He opened me and I invited him and he came inside me." ... mr. c's introduction song being a twisted version of "american woman" (i've heard this is also related to diane's doppelganger, as well. makes sense) w/ the stand-out lyrics (aka the backwards ones) being "all my headstrong women... don't let em put you in a corner. make em salute you like a flag on the fourth of july." and sarah palmer having a shortened and remixed version of "good man" blaring in her house that just repeats the lyrics "i'm a good man. i'm having fun." like. there's smth to this i'm not insane...

anyways to go even FURTHER... there being specific emphasis on being in the right time and the right place. opposites (giant and dwarf, young and old, black and white, etc.) and the planets jupiter and saturn.

the experiment violently killing that couple that was watching the glass box bc they were having sex? or because they were(n't) watching? or both? the experiment very obviously being the thing inside of sarah but it pulling off it's own face within sarah and revealing a smile that looks eerily similar to laura's (even if not exact... ppl are such pedants about things being exact in this show where literally everything is drenched in like 8 metaphors at any given time) AND the laura in the black lodge/waiting room removing her own face in the exact same way. it's weird that in this instance, laura's dialectical opposite or opposing force is her own mother who she claims she has so much in common with. but this goes even a step further because when the experiment spawned in the glass box, it has a gold orb (or smth like it) like the one laura's like... spirit? was born from? AND APPARENTLY there's a little clip of what sounds like sheryl lee's voice saying "gone" or "the one" or something like that while the experiment is flying towards them (not unlike an owl) to kill them... hm. not to mention the experiment has a proboscis-like knife that comes out of its mouth that it uses to kill the guy sexually harrassing sarah at the bar... and carrie page has a dead guy in her motel room that has a hole in his head... could obviously def just be a bullet-wound LMAO but idk let's have fun w it!

i do think there's a crazy connection between sarah, laura, and the experiment/judy/whatever. "the room seems different... and men are coming. something happened to me. i don't feel good..." obviously, i will be able to make more connections and add to this theory as i watch more but from what i've seen i think there's a huge connection to children and how easily it is for them to be taken advantage of (literally every member of the palmer family was taken advantage of as a child when an evil entity entered them. i mean. how more on the nose can you be!!) or for their innocence to get stolen (prostitution, drugs, murder, becoming child brides to abusive older men... the list goes on). and there's obvious themes of intense sexual violence and dreams and blahhhh. it's like 5:30am and i'm theorizing about a show that will never have an actual answer LMAO... to be fair though it's not ABOUT actually "solving" it for me. i think most media works well when you get what you want or need from it and just kind of make that The Point and, for me, twin peaks will always be about the tragedy of laura palmer before it's about anything else!

i really do like that theory that dale cooper is just like. an entity that laura dreamed up to save her originally but in the end, after she had finally escaped being laura palmer and that life and that house and her trauma, he ended up bringing her right back to it. it's like. how does that not make people insane?

[famewolf]

Percy and I get to go on a super secret surprise double date tomorrow!!

[earisridesagain]

YULETIDE 2023 RECS

Only Murders In the Building, The Lion In Winter, Gods of Jade and Shadow, Andor, The Green Knight, The Charioteer, Earthsea, We Are a Picturesque Small Town And We Refuse To Be The Setting For Your RomCom, Beauty and the Beast, Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Amongst Thieves