The Adventures of Lorie and Brian Groth

This is a city in France that has a mix of German and French heritage, like the similar small towns we’ve seen this week. The cheese I’m carving is a raclette, which was a meal when added with small potatoes and vegetables. The map shows where some good wines are from in the area.

We have visited Eguisheim, which is a medieval village with preserved half-timbered houses, as are all of the towns we have been in this week: Riquewihr, Kaysersberg, Turckheim, and our home base of Colmar.

We walked all around the towns and through a number of vineyards, up to a couple of castles, and unfortunately, along a couple of busy roads too (our navigation isn’t always perfect).

Less than a 10 minute walk from my house are some Highland cows, also known as Scottish cows. Tonight while walking the dog, we saw a few:

Once a year, the neighborhood in the south part of Amsterdam (Zuid) displays a variety of outdoor art. Here’s a few examples, with Piper modeling next to them, as always:

We join 6 other friends on Long Island at a large AirBnB with plenty of yard toys and pool toys.

The KLM lounge at Schiphol AirPort has a robot to carry dirty trays and I assume vacuum, but I saw it drive past a bunch of food on the floor near some kids.

When a heavy, battery operated, FedEx bicycle breaks down….

On the side of the truck, it says:

“De autohulpdienst die mensen helpt”

That translates to ” The car emergency service that helps people”

Around 480 kilometers to the South of Amsterdam is the Champagne region of France. With traffic, that’s about an 8-hour drive and makes for a fun long weekend getaway with friends.

These are only used in the spring and summer, because it gets a bit cold at the North Sea. I think the only electricity is from each building’s solar panels and the only water is at a community bathroom building at the end of each row.

Look close and you can see that some have a deck area and there are a few people cleaning up or even building to get ready for summer.

When it’s tulip season, the city sets out temporary pots full of them. These are near our house.