After weeks and weeks of longing for my summer vacation, it was finally there. In the last week of August I started my 4 weeks of rest and enjoyment with all the free time I could wish for. One week at home, getting work related thoughts out of my head, focussing on relaxing, making long walks with Nikki and looking forward to and preparing for our trip to Italy. In week 2 we drove to Moniga del Garda, a small town at Lago di Garda, Italy.

This year the city of Den Bosch, situated in the south of the Netherlands, is celebrating the famous artist Jheronimus Bosch. Jheronimus lived 500 years ago in this city and painted iconic works depicting (often) the fight of good vs evil. He inspired many people in his time, including the people who worked on the Saint Jan's Cathedral. This can be seen by the many ornaments on this church which look very similar to the characters and creatures in his paintings. Because of these festivities the city organized a lot of activities, one of them being guided tours of the church via scaffolding and through its gutters. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity we grabbed with both hands, to see the church and the city in an extraordinary way. 

For weeks on end the weather in Holland was pretty bad. It was cold, there was lots of wind, rain and monotone grey skies. So my wife and I decided we needed a bit of warmth, sun and relaxation. We looked at a couple of countries before we decided to go to Turkey. We had never been there before, but from what we had read it had more or less guaranteed good weather, was very affordable and has some beautiful and interesting locations to visit. So last week we packed our bags and flew east.