Floriade, second visit - part 2: Tropical treasures

Another highlight of our Floriade visit was the tropical greenhouse.

Living jewels from all over the world are gathered in this big greenhouse named Tropical Treasures.

The path to the entrance went between high growing bamboo, and hidden within some statues like this Buddha.

A bit further stood this giant crane in modern style.

When we entered the greenhouse it was unbelievable, so many beautiful flowers all around: orchids, passionflowers and many more.
I took lots of pictures. Here a small selection of them, starting with some passionflowers.

above passiflora "Purple Rain Maxima"
Left passiflora "Imperatrice Eugenie", right passiflora "Constance Elliot"

I don't know the name of this koral red passionflower

orange hibiscus

left gloriosa, right ipomoea

giant leaves grow nearly to the top of the greenhouse

and many, many orchids in difrent colors and shapes

I have never seen so many wonderful and beautiful flowers together, truely Tropical Treasures!

to be continued

Floriade, second visit - part 1: World Show Stage

I wanted to visit the Floriade once more, there is so much to see that it is impossible to see all in one day.
So together with my friend Guido and Ari I visited the Floriade again.

Pavilion of China

This is a replica of one of the Classical Gardens of Suzhou. The entrance is impressive:

two lions of stone as gate-keepers

Ari in his natural habitat ;-)

Spanish pavilion

A beautiful modern building, the windows have colored wood on the outside, so the light inside the buildig is colored. Inside is a presentation of typical horticultural produce of different regions in Spain.
Guido and I both were ignorant about the produce of sherry-vinager, so we learned something new!

Bulgarian pavilion

Fragrant roses and unusual borders that are separated with wood.

And a white Buddleja with butterflies:

Pavilion of India

Here was an exquisite entrance. I was smitten by the Ganesha statues, here two of them.

Pavilion of Sri Lanka

We did not go in, but this statue screamed "take picture!", so glorious with the white background!

Nepalese pavilion

Inside was a bazaar (like the pavilion of India) with mainly jewellery and ornaments for sale. Outside were some wonderful statues that were sadly too expensive for my budget.

Pavilion of Indonesia

An other marvelous pavilion!
Two impressive gate-keepers at the entrance:

This was one of the few pavilions where dogs were not allowed inside the buildings. No problem, outside there is enough to see, like this unusual colored waterlily:

I will never see the real one, so it was nice to see a miniature Borobudur!

Pavilion of Ecuador

No pictures, like most pavilions of poor counties (like Sudan, Kenia and Jemen), a bazaar inside the building. Guido found a nice wintercoat for 40 euros, but hesitated to buy it.
I suggested to go on and decide later, if he wanted it we could come back here.
Hours later, when we were on the other side of the Floriade, Guido said at once: "Lets go to Ecuador!", so we went back and he bought the coat.
At our first visit I noticed very nice ponchos of alpaca-wool, but I did not dare to ask the price. When we returned I asked anyhow and was pleasantly surprised by the answer. So for only 70 euros I became the proud owner of a chocolate colored poncho with matching hat. I won't get cold next winter!

Belgian pavilion

The first time we passed the pavilion of Belgium it was closed. At the end of the day, when we returned for Ecuador, it was open. So we walked through the park-like roof-garden. Back inside I saw this advertisement at the videoscreen. Of course I was too late with my camera, so we had to wait for its return...

Ari had a great time at this part of the Floriade, he was extensively petted by an Afghan woman (who is probably looking for a Pekingese herself now), people from Ecuador, Japan, Nepal, India and Afghanistan at the pavilions and many other visitors ;-)

to be continued

giant apples!

The appletree did not give much apples this year, only five of them.
Two appels were on a horizontal branch, low in the tree, and they developed into giant apples, as if they wanted to make up for the tiny harvest ;-)

the two apples on the tree in July

the apples on the kitchen counter

They tasted very good!

Venray and Mönchengladbach

After the long day on the Floriade we took it a bit easy the next day (September 5th).
We drove along the river Maas, stopped at Wellerlooi where Frank and Chimay stayed for some days in January. Walked the dogs and Chimay recognised the surroundings from her previous stay.

Then on to Venray to get some shopping done. Venray has a nice center with a lot of shops and we sat a while on a nice terrace at the town square. Two little boys were playing at the fountain.


Next to the gas station was a large pet shop, I had go in to have a look around. They had a nice collection of dog strollers.... well that would be handy for Ari! I had carried him around a lot at the Floriade and he became quiet heavy in time. And it would be great to take Ari on longer walks, as Chimay is getting older and doesn't appriciate the longer walks anymore. I wanted to get Frank to show the strollers, but he already arrived in the pet shop. We briefly discussed to pro's and cons and decided to buy a stroller. Tried it with Ari in it, he loved it, so we went away with a stroller ;-)

The next day the stroller was already used when we took a long walk in a park in Mönchengladbach (Germany).

Ari liked the stroller, he walked with us at first and when he became tired we put him in the stroller.

The park is called "Bunter Garten" (= Colorful Garden) and you can see it lives up to its name.

Frank and the dogs took a little rest while I took some pictures.

At the edge of the park is the Kaiser Friedrich-halle, with a restaurant at the park side.

We were ready for dinner, but had only an hour and a half left, because Frank had to be in time at the Hockey stadium where the Leonard Cohen concert was held. This concert was the reason we went to Mönchengladbach, Frank ordered a ticket months ago.

The staff of the restaurant was great, they managed to serve us a delicious three course dinner within time. We might go back one day to enjoy their food without (a little) haste.

We went back to the car and I delivered Frank at the stadium. He had a marvellous evening. I would have loved to go with him, as I love Leonard Cohen too. Sadly I get panick attacks in big crowds, so I stayed with the dogs.


A video of the Leonard Cohen concert in Mönchengladbach
And more videos of his tour Leonard Cohen in Gent

When I went back to pick up Frank, I heard a bit of the last songs from the stadium, so I enjoyed some of the music too :-)