A Week at a Time: June 25 - July 1, 2011

I can't believe it has been almost 3 weeks since we returned from our Eastern Mediterranean vacation. It seems like everything has been on fast forward since we stepped off the airplane. If the next few weeks go by as quickly, we'll be back in Texas in the blink of an eye.

Anyway, on Saturday (the 25th), we spent our last day in Venice, which I've described here. During our relaxing stroll through the city of canals, I took the following picture of a particularly photographic building. I love the effect of the brick showing through where the stucco has worn off. I also love the matching effect of the colorful laundry and the flowers. 

June 25 - Colorful Laundry

Sunday, it was time to leave Venice. As we waited for the bus (which showed up about 20 minutes after its scheduled arrival), I took a picture of the speed limit sign, painted onto the street. Even though we had several waits that day (at the bus stop, at the airport, and at the train station), I couldn't help but feel a little giddy since Mr. Traveler and I were celebrating our one year anniversary.

June 26 - Waiting for the Bus

Monday was our first day home from vacation. Mr. Traveler worked from home and in the afternoon, we went for a short walk to the store. I snapped this picture of an ice cream truck on the way home.

June 27 - Ijs

Tuesday, the temperature almost hit 90 degrees, and I could feel the energy draining from my body. I know, my friends and family in Texas are probably rolling their eyes, but without air-conditioning, the heat was truly debilitating. I stuck close for home until the evening when I had to run to the grocery store. On the way home, I spotted some fans in front of the local hardware store and decided we needed one immediately.

June 28 - Cool Down

For the first few days back, much of my time was focused on sorting through vacation photographs and starting vacation blogs. Since I spent a lot of time around the house, I ended up with some not-so-exciting photos, like the one of a leaf in our garden, which I took on Wednesday.

June 29 - Little Leaf

On Thursday, I decided to run up to the town center and take care of some errands (i.e. returning a camera bag a little too skinny for my over-sized point and shoot). I brought the camera along and snapped a few pictures of some familiar sites, including the one below of "canal bikes" on the Oudegracht.

Canal Bikes

On Friday, I went to an IWCU walk from Muidenberg along the IJmeer. We had some amazing views of Muiden Castle, below, and also got charged by a cow that wasn't particularly happy about a dog (one of the ladies brought along her pet) walking through hrt pasture. Luckily, once we made it out of the field, the rest of our walk wasn't quite as eventful.

Muiden Castle