Kind of last-minute we decided to take a long weekend to relax, and drive to Stockholm. The drive itself was challenging in the beginning due to slippery roads but it was a nice journey. We decided this time not to go to every tourist attraction, but enjoy our stay and relax, also at our hotel Nordic Sea. We went to Gamle Stan, the old city of Stockholm which I truly can recommend. We had a great Thai Massage and food there as well. When you are there, I would like to recommend the restaurant “De Svarte FÃ¥ren” and enjoy the fillet of lamb (from Gotland, Sweden) Oxtail sauce, pancetta (Italian bacon), pearl onion. It was heavenly.

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A little more than a year after our marriage we travelled to Rome for our honeymoon. We had an amazing time, seeing all the sights and attractions – we walked our feet off. The food was great, especially the restaurants that were located far away from the famous attractions. After 3 days in Rome having seen everything we wanted to see we hired a car and drove to Naples. Roman drivers are crazy, they fill each and every space on the road even if there is no actual space, but it was an interesting and fun experience, and we survived :-) We took hundreds of photos, and here is a selection of them.

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Since the beginning of December last year we have been building out in Verdal. We left beautiful Ekne and awful rented house for a nice and cozy place in Verdal, where we have sheep around us, a nice big garden and a well isolated new house. Here I will dump some photos that were made during the process.

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As most of you already know, we got married on the 19th August 2012. A great day, filled with colleagues, friends, and family! Thank you to everyone who came to our wedding. We had a lovely time. After several weeks of anticipation, our professional photographs have arrived. Thanks to our photographer Nils Kristian for the beautiful photographs that captured our special day. A lot of people made some nice photo’s during our wedding and party (thanks!) and some of these photos I will post here. We still want to make some wedding photo’s in the mountains, but due to bad weather that plan is delayed :)

• Anne-Gudrun in Holland March 2009

We decided to celebrate May 17th, the national holiday of Norway, in a special way. We read that a guided tour on skies was organized at the highest mountain of Norway called Galdhøpiggen (2469m high) in Lom. We called one of the organizers and she said it would be suitable for everyone, young and old, experienced and novices (I am not really that good on skies). The tour started at the nice cottage Juvasshytta, and would end at the top of Galdhøpiggen. Unfortunately, the weather was not so good and there was fog everywhere. Even though advertised as being for everyone, the reality was different. The people that could not keep up the pace (including us) were sent down again after about one-third the trip. Because we were there for the social aspect it was a good choice to return and we have met a lot of nice people on the way back. The day after we decided to drive to Ålesund and spend the next two full days exploring this city. Driving through the valleys is a terrific journey by itself, and I wished I would have taken more photos on the way. May 18th we arrived in Ålesund. Ålesund is a beautiful little city at the coast of Norway, and has a lot of buildings in Art Nouveau architecture. That is because this fishing town burned down to the ground on January 1904 and had to be rebuilt completely. The touristic spots in town can be seen in one full day, but since we stayed for two days we took it easy. We had some great fish at the restaurants there and we enjoyed the nice view on the fjords that our hotel offered.

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On 14 december 2011, I successfully defended my PhD thesis against a committee consisting of Nico Karssemeijer and Peter Lucas (as my promoters), Tom Heskes, Mathias Prokop, Boudewijn Lelieveldt, Roland Holland, Frans Vos, Marina Velikova, and Bram van Ginneken.

Just send me an email if you are interested in my work (msamulski at gmail dot com) and want to request a hardcopy of my thesis (for free). Or get it online here or here

Thanks to everyone that was at my defense, and thanks for all the presents. It was an unforgettable day. Click on more to see the photos my fiancée made.

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It has been a long time very silent on my blog, even though there has been a lot happening in my life. An emigration to Norway, leaving my family, a new employee, writing my thesis, yes, they were busy months. But now I have some time to write a new post again. A post devoted to someone we have a lot of joy with. It’s our border collie pup Texel! We named him after a Dutch island and ofcourse after the sheep-race. He’s playful, smart, energetic and just very fun. And dog trainers agree he is very promising as a sheep dog. Continue reading

Me and my fiancée spent a long weekend in London; it is the very first time that we have been to this city. We took the Eurostar high speed train from Brussels to London, and this was a comfortable and reasonably fast way to travel. We have seen just about all the major (touristic) sights, and enjoyed our time. Apart from our hotel at Harrow, which was a disappointment to us. However, the location of the hotel was quite good. It was close to the Underground Tube system, which brought us everywhere, affordable and fast. If I had to choose the best touristic sight we had, I would say the Tower of London. This amazing fortress was also used as a prison in British history. What I didn’t knew is that also the crown jewels are kept here… A must see.

View video of London.

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