Or how to love a Van Gogh.

Among the things I am grateful about living in the Netherlands is my proximity to the presence of art greatness. The most beautiful works of masters like Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Picasso, Breugel, among others, are just one bus or train away.

I’ve gone back to Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo. But this time especially for Vincent Van Gogh. Beside the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Kröller-Müller has the second largest collection of Van Gogh art in the world (90 paintings and over 180 drawings). This museum is located in the heart of the Dutch national park De Hoge Veluwe so you can combine a trip nature and art visit in one day or one weekend. I would not suggest to do both both in a day.

The couple Anton and Helene Kröller-Mülle were one of Van Gogh’s first patrons, through his art teacher H.P. Bremmer who convinced them to buy his art. The personal connection gave them access to some of his most sentimental pieces. With these collections you can follow the development of Van Gogh’s style and state of mind, from his early years as a painter until his golden and perhaps most turbulent days in Arles France.

I can stand in front of a painting for many hours examining the details, the stroke, the colours. In this series of (very close up) photos, I’d like to show why I admire this Dutch master. You could feel his emotion in every stroke, in every line of his painting. Take for example this portrait of a woman:

“I’m so hungry. Let’s just eat in the first restaurant that we’ll see,” I told my colleague when we finally reached Trondheim after a morning drive from Hitra. I think it was past one in the afternoon. We dropped off our luggage at our rented Air BnB apartment and quickly head towards the centre.

Literally the first restaurant you’ll see when you walk down Øvre Bakklandet street in Trondheim centre is Baklandet Skydsstation. It’s actually a cafe, with a really cramped space full of Norwegian trinkets, old photographs, paintings and crochet wall decorations. Housed in one of those typical Trondheim houses with colourful facade, the interior looks like the living room of an English grandmother.

That’s probably what charmed National Geographic’s Andrew Evans when he listed this cafe as best in the world in 2012. I learned that of course, later on. During lunchtime the place is packed. As you can imagine the Norwegians are not exactly tiny people but the chairs and tables at Bklandet Skydsstation are not for those with long legs.

You’d be welcome with a Danish herring table full of little condiments. I went passed it and went straight for the menu. And since my colleague is Norwegian, I knew what to order.

Of course in Norway you start (or end) a meal with Aquavit. Then there’s nothing more filling than a warm soup in a cold, rainy September afternoon. We ordered Bacalao soup and Wild reindeer casserole, paired with Norwegian flatbread (perfect for scooping the solid bits). It was a no-nonsense hearty meal. Just like what you’d get at your grandmother’s house.

So if you ever find yourself in Trondheim, have lunch here. You’d enjoy it. Do visit their website too. It’s full of interesting history not only about the cafe but about Aquavit as well. This is not a sponsored post.

Baklandet Skydsstation Cafe
Øvre Bakklandet 33, Trondheim
Click here to view in Google Maps
Tel: +47 73 92 10 44
Email: post@skydsstation.no

Somehow I/we always ends up in a graveyard.

One afternoon, we decided to leave the infant and the elderly in the rented house. After two days of long drives and sauntering, they needed to recover. And we needed our private time as a couple. In the mid-day summer heat, we hopped on the car to find Mille de Etangs or The Thousand Ponds, lured by the aerial shots I saw online. From Rupt Sur Moselle, we followed the route to Faucogney-et-la-Mer, thinking it will be easy to find such a popular spot.

How wrong we were! This is France’s countryside, not the Netherlands. Not everything is 30 minutes away and even if they are, you must have a really good sense of direction or a professional GPS to find the neatly-hidden spots in this “wilderness”. Because we didn’t want to spend all our afternoon with our faces stuck on a tiny screen, we ditched the mobile phone and followed our instincts.

We turned right somewhere, on a tiny village road, unpaved, easy to miss, almost concealed by overgrowth – the kind you see in horror films, which one way or the other, leads to the savage demise of the main character.

In the light of the recent terror attack in Barcelona, I look back to the wonderful time I spent in the city. Barcelona is my second home in Europe. My family and closest friends live there. Whenever I had to fly somewhere for a weekend trip, Barcelona is on top of the list.

Barcelona is always warm, always gay. Even if you skip the tourist attractions, there’s always a spot in the city that’s typical Spain, unique to Barcelona – a random tapas bar, a bench with a view of Sagrada Familia in the distance, a coffee shop in the middle of a plaza, inside the church, outside on the beach.

I refuse to give in to the fear that terrorism wants to cage us in. So pack your bags, go visit. Barcelona awaits….

What is a perfect birthday celebration?