In February we have been to Spain -to be precise Nerja, 50 kilometers/31 miles east of Málaga- from the 16th to the 21st, both days not really included because our flights -Amsterdam-Málaga v.v. by Transavia- left late (to) and early (from) respectively. We visited an overwintering brother (in law) and his partner. A highlight was a visit to the Alhambra, the Moorish palace/fortress in Granada, situated north/north-east from Nerja.

Inside this impressive complex one sees loads of beautiful maintained gardens, like this one, though we felt slightly worried about the buxus (boxwood) hedges.

An orange-tree in the middle of winter. Stunning!

Here’s the highest tower of the entire palace/fortress…

…offering amazing views of the city of Granada. This is just one example.

The month has been extremely cold. We preferred to remain inside as much as we could. This view from inside proves us right. It’s a grim environment in Amersfoort, well Western Europe, at present.

We ‘fled’ Amersfoort again on the 23rd, to be on the island of Texel for a few nights – together with a dear couple. As we did forget to take pictures this is one we borrowed from the site of the hotel we stayed, the Havenhotel Texel (https://www.havenhoteltexel.nl/).

This was our room. Another picture from the hotel site. They won’t mind we suppose, it’s a form of advertising, isn’t it? We had a great time together, even visited a third couple that own a holiday-bungalow at the island. It was still bitterly cold, mainly caused by the wind. The old hotel-building was not entirely wind-proof and completely unprotected. So you can imagine… (It has been the coldest February since decades.)

Next to our little ship the crack in the ice meant the ‘limit of skating’. Behind it, caused by the high wind the days before, the river was not entirely frozen over.

Yesterday, still Saturday the 3rd of March 2018, we enjoyed a burning wood-stove for the first time since, err, the beginning of 2016 – after we left Antwerp. The chimney had fallen victim to a storm last summer(!). Therefore we had to wait for the installation of a new chimney until last Friday. The burning stove was real magic. And the temperature a modest 23°C – no sweater needed!