Yes, I too love Amsterdam. It is one of the places we visit regularly and we love it. We even keep on going to some of the common restaurants I blogged about here . And yes, when you are there, you definitely need to visit restaurant Hemelse Modder . But, why not expand our horizons and visit some of the lesser known places in The Netherlands. This one happens to be close to the place to see Van Gogh paintings ( read about Kröller Müller here ): Wageningen. Situated just west of Arnhem (of A Bridge too Far - WWII fame) and Utrecht, this small city packs a punch and hosts a large university, a quaint old city center, heather fields, and the Rhine river, all in easy walking and biking distance from each other. But first, back to our regular routine... Just Been There Art Look at or buy art inspired by this trip. If you like this trip, but can't go, or you too have just been there, this unique art may rekindle fond memories of your own trip. Click the image for a link to the online st...

In this post we venture out of the box onto the largely unbeaten path of traveling around one of the lesser known islands in the Philippines. Negros Occidental and Oriental - all part of Negros island have a lot to offer, in many case without the touristy buzz (like Boracay, El Nido, and Coron) but with the great food, beer, and astonishing art. So sit back, and start to learn about Negros - sugar capital of the Philippines and about Bacolod City and Dumaguete City. Just Been There Art Look at or buy art inspired by this trip. If you like this trip, but can't go, or you too have just been there, this unique art may rekindle fond memories of your own trip. Click the image for a link to the online store. Note: you will be leaving this site and connect to the artists site.   Early Morning at the Market   All art copyright by: Christine Ong-Dijcks  Bacolod City - City of Smiles The most common place to arrive is likely going to be Bacolod City. It is the capital and has a...

Many people go to Spain. Some people think there are too many tourists and not enough housing for common working people. You can see this in the protests in Barcelona . I believe that there is a real point to that and while solving the problem is complex, one way is to leave the beaten tracks and obvious places to go.  Instead of Barcelona, why don't you go to the north of Spain as described a while back here . Or consider the south, which even in a hot summer is really beautiful. You can find details on a week in the south described in this post. Spreading ourselves, being polite and considerate, so we don't become a nuisance might just be help a little bit... And with that... back to our regular programming. Travel like Just Been There A week of Spain traveling like just been there can look like this: Arrive by plane in Sevilla and travel to Granada by train Two days Granada A day trip to Córdoba from Granada One more day in Granada Two days in Sevilla Travel out of Sevilla b...

 On a recent trip we stayed in Sydney, and because the public transit is so good, we decided to pick a location a little off the beaten path. So not around Darling Harbor, The Rocks, or close to Circular Quay. Instead we stayed just off Central Station in Chippendale, right across from the University of Technology Sydney. Travel like Just Been There A few days in Sydney can look like this: The Bridge, Opera House, The Rocks - try to catch the market on a weekend, Darling Harbor and much more... Take the ferries to Manly as it is a great boat ride and the beach is nice (special tip below for those shoppers amongst us) Enjoy the great food, which is the main topic of this post Just Been There Art Look at or buy art inspired by this trip. If you like this trip, but can't go, or you too have just been there, this unique art may rekindle fond memories of your own trip. Click the image for a link to the online store. Note: you will be leaving this site and connect to the artists site. Bu...

A quick post on some exciting food destinations we found and tried off the Strip in Las Vegas. Don't let these strip malls scare you away. Off strip, in strip malls doesn't mean chains and blandness. We found some real great breakfast, lunch, and dinner places.  Ichiza's Partial Menu Here goes... Breakfast - German Bread Bakery Yes, found another one, and while this one is not in as cool a location as our find in Tehachapi ( read more here ). This bakery has the classic rolls (brötchen) and lots of other goodies. If you go for the brötchen, consider stopping by Smith's and get some jam or any other things you like on bread. Makes for a classic German breakfast.  Smith's does have a Starbucks, so if you want to do your picnic breakfast, stop by there. It is in the same complex.  Note, there are two locations, the other location is south of the airport, in Paradise. Breakfast option II - Sambalatte This place is wonderful, it is a very cool coffeeshop. Check out the u...

Well, it has been a while... and lets face it, while we are pretending normal has returned, we are still not back to actual normal. Although, we are gearing up for a first flight in about 3 years... What a difference a virus makes. Here are some of our travels including tips, sights and other fun things. Lasson National Park - Volcanoes!! This really was one of our first trips after a full year of Covid-19. We decided to visit an old favorite and then some. Our trip to Lassen started in mid June, and to our surprise, some of the trails like Bumpass Hell were just about open. There was still quite a bit of snow on the paths and ground. So check ahead and don't miss out on these.  We stayed at Drakesbad Guest Ranch, which is in the south side of the park. Drakesbad is special to us and many people... check it out . We are just keeping our fingers crossed that it survived the wild fires that hit the area the same year we were there. A drink at Drakesbad If you stay at Drakesbad you ar...