hortus

i left a bit early to the vive la vie booklaunch (more on that later) yesterday to visit hortus botanicus. this botanic garden dates from 1638 and started as a medicinal garden after the plague epidemic. during the 17e and 18e century the voc brought many exotic herb- and decorative plants to the hortus. it's quite small, only 1,2 hectare but it houses many species of plants and trees.
butterflies live in one of the three small greenhouses among them this greta oto or glasswing. due to the warm and moist air in some of the greenhouses my cameralens got foggy, i still like the photo's.
the hortus has a monumental palmerium where you can get married, too bad i am married already...

after wandering through the gardens i went for a quick lunch to de plantage. it recently opened and it was jam-packed. because i was a party of one i ate at the bar and had lovely spinach-sheepcheese-fig-salad. (petite passport has a great review on this place with some amazing photo's.) i was trying to be all 'woman of the world' but i really missed my boys and my love and felt a bit lost in the crowd, but a damn good salad it was!