Although I am now back in Aldinga Beach, I still have some photographs to share with you.
Some of the following photographs relate to Koningsdag, which is a national holiday to celebrate the King's birthday. King Willem-Alexander is the current King of the Netherlands.
The celebrations include partying, wearing orange costumes, flea markets, concerts, and traditional local gatherings.
Orange is the national colour of the Netherlands due to the House of Oranje-Nassau, the Dutch royal dynasty, and its founder, Willem of Oranje, who led the country to independence in 1544.
The flag is now red, white and blue although it started off as orange, white and blue.
So on Koningsdag there is orange, orange and more orange.
The local delicacy. Tompoes or Tompouce, is made from pastry, custard cream and icing. It looks similar to the Australian vanilla slice, however not as good.
Walter and me, eating out slices of Tompoes. We were very happy with it, and no complaints.
Walter dressed in an orange polo shirt and orange socks, while I wore an orange hat, with red, white and blue bows clipped on, plus orange socks. All appropriate for the day.
Kylie took me to the flea market, absolutely huge and covered a large number of streets. On this day people sell items they no longer use, plus a couple of people selling new items. I bought a second hand jacket plus a glass bird to put in the garden.
Later on in the morning the path was filled with people. Kylie in front of me, dressed in her new orange fleecy jacket.
The bars were filled with drinkers dressed in orange clothes. The music was very loud and went on to about 11 pm
There was also a band and stalls in the Rond on the previous evening. And much drinking, plus the aftermath of plenty of vomit around. The street cleaners were very busy during the Koningsdag!
Walter, standing outside our favourite cafe, the Barista.
The stage being set up for Koningsdag..
Kylie took me to visit two garden centres. I was in my element. I loved the stands of artificial flowers.
Artificial chrysanthemums.
And more artificial flowers.
Displays in the garden centre.
A beautiful display of flowers.
The trees rapidly went from brown branches to green leaves during the three weeks.
The white wisteria in front of Aaron and Kylie's house.
The gardens on our walk between our apartment and Aaron and Kylie's house.
Cherry blossoms. The lilac bushes were also out in flower.
The courtyard in Aaron and Kylie's house starting to show its colour. The tree in the pot is a fig.
Their lovely sunny courtyard.
The woodland behind their house.
Aaron and Kylie's house just visible through the trees.
A view of our apartment block, through the glass at the railway station. Sadly the present owners are currently selling off the individual apartments, with a starting price of 250,000 euros each.
