After visiting Windsor with Julia, during the Easter break, we decided to go together one weekend in May.
The most beautiful views of our trip were to be had in Virginia Water, particularly the Devil's Punch Bowl, with all the rhododendrons in bloom.
Above, next to the Mandarin duck, is a recreation of the wisteria and pink shirt photo I take every year. Here's 2009's version.
We went to a lovely country garden fair at a house that is not usually open to the public. There, we saw owls, a headless boy, and a Dixieland band and we bought a hammered silver tea pot.
After going to London for work, George saw a new ballet called Woolf Works, based on the works of Virginia Woolf, at the Royal Opera House.
A highlight of every May is the annual Watercress Festival, full of delicious food and springtime fun.
Click HERE to see last year's Watercress Festival.
An even more exciting annual event is the Brighton Festival, Fringe Festival, and Artists' Open Houses. Click HERE to see last year's event.
We headed straight to Hove, where one of our favourite houses, Encounters, always hosts a guest chef from a foreign country. This year he was from the Basque country and lunch was tuna empanadas, tortilla, and meatballs.
Above: Encounters and my favourite chair in the whole world
The artist, above, paints quirky Mexican wrestlers and He-Man action figures. .
Elixer, a hilarious show by Melbourne's Head First Acrobats delighted us for many reasons.
The Artists' Open Houses provide endless opportunities for exploring beautiful houses, having tea in secluded gardents, seeing boys shopping in their underwear, and buying some artwork, such as the hand-embroidered work by Shelley Morrow, which was my birthday treat.
Above: photos of some of my favourite works, including a great photo collage by Karen Barratt (whose idea I plan to borrow), découpaged dressers, fancy hats, and excellent burgers at Coggins & Co. in the Seven Dials area.
Above: Look closely and you can see the Elixer boys hard at work. Those donuts were ours, eaten by the seaside as featured in Nick's song, Food Romance.
Fleeting is a punctuated installation on the beach created by And Now, evoking, through fire and sound, a murmuration of starlings over the West Pier.
Early morning on the beach
Aboe: We lunched with Chris and Andy at the Curry Leaf. The Puzzle Boys are part of the graduate art exhibition of Brighton University, I think.
The shows we saw this year were uniformly entertaining, including Ian Harvey Stone's The Devil Without, Request Programme, which would have been much more entertaining with a male in the lead, Bathtime, Richard Purnell's entertaiing one-man show, Elixer, and the always-wonderful Laurie Anderson.
George was given a birthday treat with a surprise trip to Amsterdam. We last went there for our ninth anniversary in 2006. Click HERE to see our 16th anniversary celebrations in Bruges, October, 2014.
Many of the sights above were familiar from our last visit, including the outrageous cakes from De Taart van m'n Tante, but we did discover a new food at the Albert Cuypermarkt which was like little mini pancakes served with icing sugar and butter.
We visited the Rijksmuseum area, but rather than go inside, we decided to follow the trail of outdoor sculptures.
We saw the first of much Art Deco and Art Nouveau architecture, as well as a man changing his trousers outside the Van Gogh museum.
As with previous trips, we stopped by the flower market to stock up on tulip bulbs for next spring's garden. The inset photo is the flowers in bloom in spring, 2016.
We stayed in an area convenient to Rembrandtsplein. Above, Nick finally finds shoes that fit.
The first of our really memorable meals was at Vlaming, as recommended by Trip Advisor. The setting sun was beautiful to and from the restaurant.
I think these plaques represent the occupation of those who live there, though the bottom three represent Faith, Hope, and Charity.
Above, bottom right, is the only Space Invader we found this time. We saw one on the Homomonument last time, but it's gone now. Click HERE to see a plethora of Invader's work in Paris.
On the day of my birthday, we visited the Museum van Loon, home of The Sheep Room.
They were getting ready for a wedding at the van Loon house,and we got a glimpse of chefs getting ready.
A previously undiscovered gem was "Our Lord in the Attic", a secret Catholic chapel built in the roof space of two houses, to avoid detection by religious persecutors at the time.
By chance, we stepped into a bookshop and picked up a book on Art Nouveau. In it, there were photos of the glorious Theatre Tuschinski, which turned out to be right around the corner.
We booked tickets to see Wilma Bakker perform her Marlene Dietrich tribute cabaret. What a wonderful way to spend a birthday evening! The band sounded straight out of a Woody Allen soundtrack.
Above: fun near the red light district and beer sampling at Bekeerde Suster, an old, tiny micro brewery once run, I think, by nuns.
We happened to find a modelling session going on, but many Dutch citizens would easily qualify as models.
Another Art Nouveau find was the Café Americain, where we enjoyed cocktails - mine was a gin and tonic with grapes.
Yet more Art Nouveau, but the tasty kind, at Restaurant Belhamel, which served fine dishes with fine ingredients. It rained heavily for most of the evening.
My favourite night-time canal photo, with the light trail created by a motor scooter.
Above, the famous Magere Brug, near where we stayed on a houseboat last time, pastries from Patisserie Kuyt, and some very shady looking goings-on at the pissoir.
To satisfy a need for cheese, mustard, and beer, we visited a supermarket in the new-for-us Nine Streets area and picnicked beside the river. Bliss!
The shower-time artwork is by Eddy Varekamp and we bought a print and postcard for our walls at home.
A truly memorable return journey to Amsterdam. I'm sure we'll be back again!
Marked on our calendar was the annual World Naked Cycle Ride, to raise awareness of the vulnerability of cyclists on our city streets. Click HERE to see last year's ride and follow the links to other years.
When life gives you lemons from Sorrento, make limoncello. Click HERE to see our 2009 visit to Sorrento.
