Hiking and diamonds

Last weekend was a long weekend so we packed  our hiking and camping gear and drove to  Luxembourg. The weather wasn't exactly what I hoped for and it was quite cold on the first night. I was wishing for sunrise so that I could finally manage to snooze off.

On our first day we had our first hike on the Ardennes hills in the area. The place was lovely and after my  complaints due to the first steep hill I started to enjoy myself. There was nearly nobody around but we did meet the occasional cow who seemed to want a taste of the apple I was eating!

The next night we made sure we were warm enough and this time I wasn't looking forward to sunrise since I was really stiff from the day before and knew that once awake I would be hiking for at least another 4 hours. Unluckily the weather for the second hike was not optimal and it kept raining for most of the day. So by the end I was looking forward to reach our car and feel dry again. 

I also was looking forward for the second part of the trip in Antwerp in which we were going to check out wedding rings at the diamond street in Antwerp. I was very excited to check all the shops lined up one after each other full of rings knowing that on of them will be mine! I had heard that Antwerp is a very good place for jewelry but it's a quite different when you experience it. We didn't buy our rings yet but we did find out what we were looking for.

Mountaineering

I am engaged to a mountaineer. Every summer he spends a week or two on the mountains, hiking along the Alps or the Pyrenees. I never joined, you see my body is not fit enough; so such a trip would be like a punishment to me.

However throughout the years I always thought it would be nice to join on these trips. Mainly because when I'm at home and he's away I'm always worrying that something bad might happen. Seeing that mobile reception is not really good at those altitudes (and sometimes there is no electricity to charge mobiles) I sometimes have to wait a couple of days before I get in contact with him. By that time I have a thousand and one possible bad situations.

This year we decided that I'm going to start training and instead of a hiking trip I will join on a course to learn mountaineering techniques. This course is though but easier than a proper hiking trip. The training will be across the next 6 months - I need to be able to hike for around 6 hours with quite some elevation on a day. Part of the training is going on regular long hikes, preferably in the hills as well as the usual (but more regular) gym sessions.

I'm not sure if I will be able to do this by August, but I'm definitely hoping I will be fit enough. And you know it won't hurt fitting in a smaller dress size either!

We already had a few hikes in the past weekend - it was quite cold in one of the days.

While the cat is away, the mice come out to play

The man of the house is away for the week. He's currently hiking a glacier on the Italian Alps. It sounds difficult and it is actually quite difficult. I do hike with him sometimes but I can only manage a number of kilometres on flat ground. On the other hand they will be doing hours of hiking going up and down on snowy mountains!

In the meantime the apartment feels quiet and empty. This means I have more free time on my hands, so I decided to catch up with my girl friends in Amsterdam.  A planned picnic turned into drinks and dinner due to rain.  I did say we are having tropical weather, it's still quite hot but we also had rain and thunder yesterday. We decided to go for a Teppanyaki dinner. Eating Teppanyaki involves having dishes of meat, fish of vegetables that is fried in a cast-iron griddle over a heat source placed next to the dining table. It was my first time eating this type of food and it was an enjoyable experience. Seeing the cook preparing the food directly in front of uswith such precise technique is pretty impressive.

Nippon is the restaurant we went to and is located in the center of Amsterdam, on Reguliersdwarsstraat. The service was of high standard and the food was great.