Villa Flora at Floriade 2012 Venlo

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Sights seen .... facts read ... trivia learned ...

All the pictures are from day three at Floriade, spent at Villa Flora where the competition flowers are housed and where other international countries displayed their seeds, desalination methods, happiness quotients, the availability of herbal spas and festivals celebrated with flowers

The animals observed up to now include, at the camping, in a small enclosure include a mule, some brown chickens with feathers right down to their feet, and two goats. It was at the entrance of the campground on the first day that I saw the sheep being herded into a transport container by two border collies. Have since learned that the sons of the owner of the camping and their wives all have outside jobs.

On the way to the Floriade can be seen the sheep-mowers. A fence is erected to contain them in a specific area. Seems they remain there at least overnight. One day on my return they were all gathered by the exit gate and all the grass had been cropped. The sheep scratch their itch along fences and against trees. This fleece could be collected ... enough to spin wool for an egg warmer.

At one of the ferry stops that takes day trippers with their bikes upriver (The Maas ... begins in France and empties into the North Sea) there were sheep-mowers along the shore. One of them had escaped. More than five people tried to get him back over the little plastic fence. Finally out of sight of the passengers on the ferry I am sure they managed because the people on shore began to disperse.

Speaking of which .... the ten eggs bought for 2.15 euro in general grocery store have ORANGE yolks.

Three mares graze in a fields that I pass. All three have colts and these were observed suckling from their mothers. It is interesting that the mares stand towards the road and the colts remain behind them.

I have seen four pheasants ... the true pheasants, in all their glorious colours, that are depicted dead hanging by their feet or about to be shot or snared in famous paintings. The tails are so much more impressive than those of the little grouse that struts in my garden.

Six pieces of various cake and one round bread sliced came to 14 euro. One piece of cake was 1.80 euro.

In the Agua Pavilion it was made known as to how many litres of water go into the production of the following:

1kg cheese = 5000

1 pair jeans = 4000

one dressed hamburger = 2400

250gm beef = 3875

250gm pork = 1500

1 bunch grapes = 450

1 cup coffee = 140

1k tomato = 50

1 eggplant = 25

1 load in dishwasher = 22

washing dishes by hand = 8

1 Kenya rose = 10

Only road kill observed so far: one dead rabbit; one murdered pigeon.

Rabbits were seen in a field near a school. A plastic owl stood guard but the rabbits ignored her. The pigeons here are bigger, have longer necks and their head has dark green feathers whereas the rest of the body is a steel grey. I have seen six different ducks, the mallard, the painted and the common white domestic duck among them. Another duck which is all black with a pure white face is named meekoet in Dutch and fulica atra in Latin.

The German news tells about 5km long traffic jams. Sometimes the jams are longer.

Here at the camping guests are asked to separate glass,paper, plastic,garbage as per usual. When the garbage truck came Friday all the containers were dumped into the same chute. Now? Where have I seen that before??

There are two million dogs in Holland. And doggy buggies have been seen ...two at Floriade. The kids in the restaurant were as excited at the sight as was the canadian tourist/traveller who attempted to shoot clandestine photos of the apparatus.

NCIS and the Mentalist were observed not watched, dubbed, on German TV.

The distance from Venlo to my cousin's house in Germany was miscalculated ... it took twenty minutes by car on THE AUTOBAHN. If no numbers appear there is no speed limit on the autobahn. My cousin's son was doing 140 ... showing he could? My cousin husband drove a regular speed ...110-120km/hr when he brought me home in the afternoon.

Built in kitchens with refrigerator, in wall oven, glass cooking surface, air vent and various sizes in cupboards start at 1600 euro and can go up to 5000 euro if you desire glass fronts. The glass cooking surface can be 21x40cm. No matter the shape or size of the pan the surface recognizes it and heats up accordingly. Dishwashers can be had with some additional cost.

On the ninth day of the trip the watch battery died.

500gms of local strawberries sold for 3euro on the grounds of Floriade. I'm still looking for the vending machine that sells for 2 euro vending machine.

And here is something to think about. In Canada does a kilo equal 1000gms or 900gms?

A pound equals 450gms, like the butter. So if something costs $3/kg and it is listed as $1.50 a pound. But the pound is only 450gms. What happens to the 50gms from the 1000gm kilo? This question will be posed to my local grocer, Mr. Batistelli.

I have seen garbage and dropped cans and bottles on the side of the bike path and under bridges.

The showers here at Heidehurst are communal and super clean.

A grey hair plus grey bearded man has put his caravan in front of the hut. All the windows of the caravan and the screened access tent have been covered since he arrived three days ago. ???? when asked what he had done today/yesterday his answer was " not much". It's his holiday!

There is a rental house in the campground. The people are on vacation. The windows of that house are also totally covered by curtains. Other caravan windows are also covered.

Oi VEE! Neither covered my windows nor cleaned them before leaving. The rigorous ... dare I say obsessive ... window washing has been observed more than twice.

I spoke to two Australians on the way out of Floriade. They were going to board their bus so I tagged along when they told me they had been ti Istanbul. I was a bit worried about not speaking the language but they assured me that English can be used. I did not get on their bus.

They were on their way to Amsterdam. Won't be there until the middle of June.

The big decision is Food or Floriade. I have five days left with the bike. Museums are closed on Monday ... almost universal ... so it has to be early shopping and then Floriade. Have to be back by 19:00 because I have been invited to eat asparagus ... white asparagus ... no less.

At present I am suffering from Wisteria Envy. I see it growing everywhere!

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Photos

Sweeping - Green Vibrant - Villa Flora
There are about 12 other great shots which I will send just as pics with captions.

Not my lunch ...
All of the eating places are clean organized and full

A recycled container
Sprayed with vinegar the metal becomes a lovely brown rust colour. This is the last of a longer list of pics. Its cold in the laundry room ... the only good access ti wifi ... its pissing rain again and the ten pics took 30min.