Koninginnedag. What a crazy name for a crazy day! In English, Koninginnedag means "Queen's Day", but a more rough translation is "everyone party in the street, selling whatever you want." Picture a cross between Summerfest and a garage sale, but with everyone wearing orange. The day is supposed to be all about national pride and celebrating the queen mum's birthday, but I think people just like to have an excuse to party.
I headed downtown Amsterdam at around 12:30 to join the festivities. It was so crazy!! All of the main squares of the city(Rembrandtsplein, Museumplein, Waterlooplein, Heinekenplein)had huge stages with either live music or roaring techno. Most people were already drunk by about 2 pm. I, however, was there to observe, not to drink. Apparently, about 2 million people descend upon the city center during the day, and the center is not that large. There were thick crowds of people on every street, which made travelling in a large group virtually impossible. But somehow, we managed.
The other funny part of this day is that people sell things on the street. It's like one, giant garage sale. People were selling anything from food, to used clothes, to toys, to purses. Kids were playing instruments, trying to earn some money too. One guy from my floor sold balloons filled with laughing gas...until he got in trouble with the cops, that is. I didn't buy any clothes, but I did purchase an outstanding pannekoek from a random vendor.
The canals were filled with boats blaring music and carrying loads of passengers wearing all sorts of outfits. My personal favorite was the crew that was wearing bright orange bunny rabbit suits. They were great. Another boat had a "royal family" that was not very convincing, seeing as they all had beers in their hands and were falling over. It was amazing that they all stayed on the boat!
Basically, it was just a crazy day.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
SPAIN- briefly described
Well, I've been a pathetic blogger lately. But now, after being pestered repeatedly, I am resuming my blogging again. Actually, the real reason is that I want to postpone doing my homework, but we'll forget about that for now.
So I went to Spain. And it was great. It was everything a vacation should have been. Not only that, but a freak volcanic eruption lengthened our stay, making it an even better time.
I was travelling with two guys, Willem and Andrew. For those frequent followers of my blog, I went to London with Andrew too. We were planning on going to Valencia, Spain for a few days for the sake of getting away from the cloudy, gray, sad skies of Amsterdam. Originally, we were going to go from Thursday to Sunday, so we would skip classes on Thursday and Friday. Then...well, let's just say, we saved a lot of money on the flight by extending it a bit. We ended up planning on being gone from Wednesday morning to Monday morning.
Our flight there was great, and when we landed, we made it to our hostel perfectly. Oh, that hostel. If every hostel in the world were like it, there would be no reason to ever stay in a hotel again! It was brightly colored, had a well-stocked kitchen, and a great central room for meeting people.
Willem and Andrew were figuring some stuff out before exploring the city a bit, and I started chatting with a girl that was in the kitchen. Sooner or later, I asked where she was from, and she said, "Michigan". Well, I replied that I go to school in Michigan. She asked where, and I gave the basic reply, "Calvin College? It's a really small school; you probably haven't heard of it." Her eyes POPPED! SHE WENT TO CALVIN TOO! Her name was Alissa, and she had graduated in December, taken a class in Sevilla, and now was finishing up a long stretch of traveling in Spain. Needless to say, that was a crazy, crazy coincidence.
That day, we decided to go see the botanical gardens, which took us through the park in the center of the city. This park is sweet. It used to be the river, but after a serious flood in 1957, the river was diverted to run around the city instead. Well, that left a huge open space in the heart of the city center. The government, a dictatorship at that time, wanted to make the riverbed into a highway. It was a logical plan, but the people did not like it at all. Construction started. The work was done in the day, but at night, the people would sneak in and plant trees in the way of the work. Eventually, the government caught on.
We finally made it to the gardens, which were pretty cool. My favorite part was the cacti. Some of them were SO huge. It was crazy.
After that, we went back to the hostel, made food, and explored the city at night for a while.
The next day, we slept in (aaaah, vacation. so nice.) We checked out the SWEET central market, which was less than a block away from our hostel. Apparently, it used to be a train station that was converted into a market later. Anyway, it was huge and filled with all sorts of food. We each bought 40 cent baguettes and some other munchies and were on our way.
We wanted to find this place called the Plaza de la Virgen because there was a free walking tour leaving at noon. After searching for a while (and walking basically in a circle around it we found out later), we decided that since it was a nice day, we should go to the beach instead! WOO!! Andrew made use of his stellar Spanish skills (no lie, he's good) and asked some random lady how to get to the beach. Well, it just so happened that we were right by the bus stop for the bus that went to the beach! Perfect.
We stepped off the bus, knowing that we were close to the water. Willem "saw" the water, so even though Andrew and I wanted to consult a map, we started walking. Well, what Willem actually saw was a blue fence that didn't look anything like the water at all. We wandered for a long time, shedding our jackets and sweaters, on our way to the beach. Eventually, we found it, but then we needed sunscreen. Another long period of wandering later, and we were back on the beach with sunscreen. The only problem was that it wasn't super sunny anymore! :( sadness. but we sat a little beach cafe, looking out on the water. slowly, the clouds began to roll away. aaahh, so perfect. the sun was shining, the sand was hot, the water was cold, and the breeze was gently blowing. it was gorgeous. not only that, but we had the whole beach to ourselves.
We headed back to the hostel and ate leftovers from the night before. I had kind of overestimated the amount of food we would need. oops. That night, Willem and Andrew's friend Marielle came from Granada to hang out with us too! She was so much fun.
The next day, we actually made it to the walking tour, even though we got lost on the way there AGAIN. The streets in Valencia are so crooked, and the map that we had only had about 1/4 of the streets labeled. It was a continuing frustration. Anyway, the walking tour was full of history of the city. I don't really want to go into all of it, but suffice it to say, it was very well done, and I know a lot about the city of Valencia.
After the walking tour, we waited around at the hostel for Andrew's roommate, Ryan, to come from Denia, Spain. When he arrived, we went to an awesome festival in the riverbed park (that's not it's name, obviously, but I don't know what else to call it). We each paid 10 euros and got 4 drinks and 4 small plates of food. Such delicious wines and cheeses and meats. mmm. It was just so classy. Willem and Ryan even had escargot!
The next day, we didn't really do anything of interest until we did a tapas tour. "Tapas" are little snacks that you get with drinks at a bar or cafe. It was kind of weird, though, because the tour started at 2:30 in the afternoon. Anyway, it was rainy, so we were the only people there! It was great, because by this point, the tour guide, Johnny, had gotten to know us from the walking tour, so we had a great time.
After tapas, we tried a drink called "orchata". It's a super sweet drink made from tiger nuts (and heavily sugared...did I mention that it's sweet?). It's served with a churro-like pastry, and the whole thing was just delicious. mmm...
That night, we didn't do anything, really, besides make dinner and talk for a while. It was Marielle's last night, which was sad, but the next day, SARAH ORNDORFF, one of my cross country friends, was coming from Denia!
After some miscommunication the next morning, Sarah and I finally got in touch. It was so great to see her. We went down to La Cuidad de las Ciencias y las Artes, which is a complex of museums and other buildings designed by Santiago Calatrava, who lives in the city of Valencia (thank you, walking tour). The buildings were really cool, but it was expensive to go in, so we just laid on the sidewalk outside instead. Eventually, we decided to go back to the hostel.
Now, I've been leaving out a very important part of this whole trip experience. As most of you know, Eyjafjallajökull, a volcano in Iceland, erupted on April 14. This was the day that we flew out of Amsterdam. The next day, we heard reports that the ash from the volcano was halting air travel. Well, we weren't too worried. How long can it take for ash to clear out of the sky? We met some British students at our hostel who ended up staying for an extra two nights because of it. Well, by Sunday afternoon, it was fairly clear that the skies would not be clear enough for us to return to Amsterdam the next day as we had planned.
Sarah and Ryan suggested that we come to Denia to visit them while we waited for the air to clear. Well, who can resist that? Sarah called their professor, and it was all worked out! Good thing that Calvin profs like to take care of Calvin students, wherever we are. We took the bus to Denia that night.
The next day, we went to the UNED, where the Calvin students take their classes, and tried to work out how to change our flight. We figured that we should rebook for Thursday, since most experts were saying that was the earliest planes would start flying. Then we were off to the beach with all of the other Calvin students. It was so much fun! Although, somehow I ended up buried under about two feet of sand at one point. It was still fun in a way at the time, but finding sand in my hair for the next three days definitely wasn't.
That night, we hung out by a lighthouse right on the water with a bunch of other people from the Denia group, and it was such a great night. I was so glad that we got to connect with another group of students that are abroad through Calvin!
The next day, we heard reports that the Netherlands was opening its airspace! YAY! Now we wanted to go back and re-rebook our flights for Wednesday instead. Well, that proved difficult. After hours of waiting and calling and having the person on the other end set down the phone next to them, we finally gave the task to Maria Elena, the Spanish professor from Calvin. On her fourth call, she finally found us tickets! Such a relief. That meant that we were leaving for Valencia again that night. Kind of sad, but it did feel good to know that we were getting back.
We took the bus that night from 10 pm-12 am, and then we decided, being the brave and cheap people we are, that it was not worth it to pay a taxi to drive us to the airport. No, we wanted to walk. Besides, who likes to sit in an airport anyway? Our flight didn't go out until 7:15 so we had plenty of time. I asked the information guy at the bus station how to walk to the airport, but he didn't really tell us anything useful. I guess I might have been misinterpreting too, but I'm pretty sure he just didn't feel like helping us.
Anyway, we found lots of maps at bus stops, pointing us in the right direction at least. None of these maps, however, had the actual airport on it. We knew that it was going to be a long walk, though, so that was understandable.
About an hour in, the walk started to lose its fun. We were carrying everything on in backpacks, my feet were getting sore, and I was hungry. We were also walking along a sidewalk next to the highway. It really wasn't a bad walk; I was just tired. We did stop a few times for snacks, which Willem had packed in advance. We just kept following the highway signs for the airport, until suddenly, it was the exit for the airport!! YAY! We found it and walked right in.
After a crappy night's sleep in the airport, we boarded our plane, and the trip was over. It was so much fun, but we were returning to piles of schoolwork. In the end, though, I think it was worth it.
PS- Of course, the whole "brief" thing didn't really happen. My bad. There was a lot to cover.
So I went to Spain. And it was great. It was everything a vacation should have been. Not only that, but a freak volcanic eruption lengthened our stay, making it an even better time.
I was travelling with two guys, Willem and Andrew. For those frequent followers of my blog, I went to London with Andrew too. We were planning on going to Valencia, Spain for a few days for the sake of getting away from the cloudy, gray, sad skies of Amsterdam. Originally, we were going to go from Thursday to Sunday, so we would skip classes on Thursday and Friday. Then...well, let's just say, we saved a lot of money on the flight by extending it a bit. We ended up planning on being gone from Wednesday morning to Monday morning.
Our flight there was great, and when we landed, we made it to our hostel perfectly. Oh, that hostel. If every hostel in the world were like it, there would be no reason to ever stay in a hotel again! It was brightly colored, had a well-stocked kitchen, and a great central room for meeting people.
Willem and Andrew were figuring some stuff out before exploring the city a bit, and I started chatting with a girl that was in the kitchen. Sooner or later, I asked where she was from, and she said, "Michigan". Well, I replied that I go to school in Michigan. She asked where, and I gave the basic reply, "Calvin College? It's a really small school; you probably haven't heard of it." Her eyes POPPED! SHE WENT TO CALVIN TOO! Her name was Alissa, and she had graduated in December, taken a class in Sevilla, and now was finishing up a long stretch of traveling in Spain. Needless to say, that was a crazy, crazy coincidence.
That day, we decided to go see the botanical gardens, which took us through the park in the center of the city. This park is sweet. It used to be the river, but after a serious flood in 1957, the river was diverted to run around the city instead. Well, that left a huge open space in the heart of the city center. The government, a dictatorship at that time, wanted to make the riverbed into a highway. It was a logical plan, but the people did not like it at all. Construction started. The work was done in the day, but at night, the people would sneak in and plant trees in the way of the work. Eventually, the government caught on.
We finally made it to the gardens, which were pretty cool. My favorite part was the cacti. Some of them were SO huge. It was crazy.
After that, we went back to the hostel, made food, and explored the city at night for a while.
The next day, we slept in (aaaah, vacation. so nice.) We checked out the SWEET central market, which was less than a block away from our hostel. Apparently, it used to be a train station that was converted into a market later. Anyway, it was huge and filled with all sorts of food. We each bought 40 cent baguettes and some other munchies and were on our way.
We wanted to find this place called the Plaza de la Virgen because there was a free walking tour leaving at noon. After searching for a while (and walking basically in a circle around it we found out later), we decided that since it was a nice day, we should go to the beach instead! WOO!! Andrew made use of his stellar Spanish skills (no lie, he's good) and asked some random lady how to get to the beach. Well, it just so happened that we were right by the bus stop for the bus that went to the beach! Perfect.
We stepped off the bus, knowing that we were close to the water. Willem "saw" the water, so even though Andrew and I wanted to consult a map, we started walking. Well, what Willem actually saw was a blue fence that didn't look anything like the water at all. We wandered for a long time, shedding our jackets and sweaters, on our way to the beach. Eventually, we found it, but then we needed sunscreen. Another long period of wandering later, and we were back on the beach with sunscreen. The only problem was that it wasn't super sunny anymore! :( sadness. but we sat a little beach cafe, looking out on the water. slowly, the clouds began to roll away. aaahh, so perfect. the sun was shining, the sand was hot, the water was cold, and the breeze was gently blowing. it was gorgeous. not only that, but we had the whole beach to ourselves.
We headed back to the hostel and ate leftovers from the night before. I had kind of overestimated the amount of food we would need. oops. That night, Willem and Andrew's friend Marielle came from Granada to hang out with us too! She was so much fun.
The next day, we actually made it to the walking tour, even though we got lost on the way there AGAIN. The streets in Valencia are so crooked, and the map that we had only had about 1/4 of the streets labeled. It was a continuing frustration. Anyway, the walking tour was full of history of the city. I don't really want to go into all of it, but suffice it to say, it was very well done, and I know a lot about the city of Valencia.
After the walking tour, we waited around at the hostel for Andrew's roommate, Ryan, to come from Denia, Spain. When he arrived, we went to an awesome festival in the riverbed park (that's not it's name, obviously, but I don't know what else to call it). We each paid 10 euros and got 4 drinks and 4 small plates of food. Such delicious wines and cheeses and meats. mmm. It was just so classy. Willem and Ryan even had escargot!
The next day, we didn't really do anything of interest until we did a tapas tour. "Tapas" are little snacks that you get with drinks at a bar or cafe. It was kind of weird, though, because the tour started at 2:30 in the afternoon. Anyway, it was rainy, so we were the only people there! It was great, because by this point, the tour guide, Johnny, had gotten to know us from the walking tour, so we had a great time.
After tapas, we tried a drink called "orchata". It's a super sweet drink made from tiger nuts (and heavily sugared...did I mention that it's sweet?). It's served with a churro-like pastry, and the whole thing was just delicious. mmm...
That night, we didn't do anything, really, besides make dinner and talk for a while. It was Marielle's last night, which was sad, but the next day, SARAH ORNDORFF, one of my cross country friends, was coming from Denia!
After some miscommunication the next morning, Sarah and I finally got in touch. It was so great to see her. We went down to La Cuidad de las Ciencias y las Artes, which is a complex of museums and other buildings designed by Santiago Calatrava, who lives in the city of Valencia (thank you, walking tour). The buildings were really cool, but it was expensive to go in, so we just laid on the sidewalk outside instead. Eventually, we decided to go back to the hostel.
Now, I've been leaving out a very important part of this whole trip experience. As most of you know, Eyjafjallajökull, a volcano in Iceland, erupted on April 14. This was the day that we flew out of Amsterdam. The next day, we heard reports that the ash from the volcano was halting air travel. Well, we weren't too worried. How long can it take for ash to clear out of the sky? We met some British students at our hostel who ended up staying for an extra two nights because of it. Well, by Sunday afternoon, it was fairly clear that the skies would not be clear enough for us to return to Amsterdam the next day as we had planned.
Sarah and Ryan suggested that we come to Denia to visit them while we waited for the air to clear. Well, who can resist that? Sarah called their professor, and it was all worked out! Good thing that Calvin profs like to take care of Calvin students, wherever we are. We took the bus to Denia that night.
The next day, we went to the UNED, where the Calvin students take their classes, and tried to work out how to change our flight. We figured that we should rebook for Thursday, since most experts were saying that was the earliest planes would start flying. Then we were off to the beach with all of the other Calvin students. It was so much fun! Although, somehow I ended up buried under about two feet of sand at one point. It was still fun in a way at the time, but finding sand in my hair for the next three days definitely wasn't.
That night, we hung out by a lighthouse right on the water with a bunch of other people from the Denia group, and it was such a great night. I was so glad that we got to connect with another group of students that are abroad through Calvin!
The next day, we heard reports that the Netherlands was opening its airspace! YAY! Now we wanted to go back and re-rebook our flights for Wednesday instead. Well, that proved difficult. After hours of waiting and calling and having the person on the other end set down the phone next to them, we finally gave the task to Maria Elena, the Spanish professor from Calvin. On her fourth call, she finally found us tickets! Such a relief. That meant that we were leaving for Valencia again that night. Kind of sad, but it did feel good to know that we were getting back.
We took the bus that night from 10 pm-12 am, and then we decided, being the brave and cheap people we are, that it was not worth it to pay a taxi to drive us to the airport. No, we wanted to walk. Besides, who likes to sit in an airport anyway? Our flight didn't go out until 7:15 so we had plenty of time. I asked the information guy at the bus station how to walk to the airport, but he didn't really tell us anything useful. I guess I might have been misinterpreting too, but I'm pretty sure he just didn't feel like helping us.
Anyway, we found lots of maps at bus stops, pointing us in the right direction at least. None of these maps, however, had the actual airport on it. We knew that it was going to be a long walk, though, so that was understandable.
About an hour in, the walk started to lose its fun. We were carrying everything on in backpacks, my feet were getting sore, and I was hungry. We were also walking along a sidewalk next to the highway. It really wasn't a bad walk; I was just tired. We did stop a few times for snacks, which Willem had packed in advance. We just kept following the highway signs for the airport, until suddenly, it was the exit for the airport!! YAY! We found it and walked right in.
After a crappy night's sleep in the airport, we boarded our plane, and the trip was over. It was so much fun, but we were returning to piles of schoolwork. In the end, though, I think it was worth it.
PS- Of course, the whole "brief" thing didn't really happen. My bad. There was a lot to cover.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
London Trip, Day One
Well, the day started early, at 5 am. We needed to catch a 6:23 train from Amsterdam Zuid. I got up, finished packing, ate, and went down to get the other two people, Deborah and Andrew.
Deborah was up and ready when I came at 5:45, our agreed upon time. Andrew wasn’t answering his bell or his phone so we thought he might be outside. Well, he wasn’t. We went back in, this time, knocking on his door while calling him. At this point, it was about 5:55. We were planning on biking down to the station, but Deborah’s bike had a flat. She tried riding on the back of my bike, but I couldn’t get going. At this point it was 6:05ish, so we went to the tram stop, and decided that she should take the next tram instead.
Meanwhile, Andrew and I biked to the station…
When I showed up to the station, I couldn’t find Andrew or Deborah, and it was already 6:19. Our train was leaving in 4 minutes, and there was no sign of either of them. Andrew called me, and it turns out he was there and was just on the wrong platform.
At this point, it was super close to when our train was leaving. We started discussing options if Deborah didn’t get there in time. What do we do?? AAH! The train came, and Andrew got on. I was standing on the platform, and just as I decided that I should wait for Deborah and take the next train, risking missing our flight, the doors began to shut. The train started to leave as I looked down the platform to see Deborah running towards me. I was so helpless! Andrew tried pushing the button to stop the train, but it just kept going.
The next train didn’t leave for another half hour. We were already nervous about the timing of the earlier train, and we didn’t know if we would enough time with that one. It was such an awful feeling.
The whole train ride felt so long. Andrew called with details about how to get on the right bus from the station to the airport which was helpful. After the 1 ½ hour train ride, we took a bus for another 20 minutes, arriving at the airport at precisely 8:44 am, and our flight was leaving at 9:25 am.
It was a little tight, but the Eindhoven Airport is tiny, so the lines for everything were really short. When we finally met up with Andrew in the boarding line, it was 9:23. Just a little bit close. But we made it.
Once we arrived in London Stansted, we had to take a bus from that airport to Central London. We had booked it in advance, and it was rather uneventful. Just a long bus ride through traffic.
After a long morning of travel, we finally arrived at BAKER STREET!
After we got to this point, we needed to get to our hostel. We decided to walk so that we would see more of the city. Thus begins our walking days.
After going a little bit too far, we finally made it to Russell Square, which was right by our hostel.
The hostel was nice: decently clean, large rooms, basic beds. It wasn’t fancy, but it didn’t need to be. We went there, and planned the rest of our day.
But the plan was diverted right away by the sign for 1.99 pound Subway sandwiches. We put off our plans for fish and chips and ate cheap American food instead. We did eat it in the square though, so at least we absorbed a little more culture that way.
We had purchased Oyster Cards in the morning so that we could take the Underground if we wanted. All of the travel things I read said that this was the best way to get around London.
The Underground is so efficient! I loved it. You could go anywhere in zone 1 for 1.80 pounds, which is a decent deal for longer trips. We took it our to St. Paul’s to begin our touring. St. Paul's was impressive, with it's massive dome and steps. I took a lot of pictures there.
As we walked down from St. Paul’s toward the Thames, we spotted this old looking place called the College of Arms. The sign’s description made it sound like a museum type thing where you could look at old coats of arms.
In reality, it was a place where you could go to look up your ancestry or coat of arms. Still cool, but not really anything to see.
After the College of Arms, we crossed the street, and then crossed the Thames on the Millennium Bridge.
The best part is, Andrew and I knew all about the bridge from Differential Equations! We studied it one day because on it’s opening day, it started swaying uncontrollably. Apparently, it had to do with the resonant frequency of the bridge and the pace and step of the thousands of people walking across the bridge.
Across the way, you can see the Tate Modern, an art museum that we went to later in the trip.
Well, the stress of our day wasn’t over. Right after we walked by the Globe Theatre from the bridge, Deborah realized that her wallet was missing. We still don’t know if she was pick-pocketed or if it fell out of her purse while we were taking pictures/walking.
In any event, it was gone.
We discussed the options and decided to look for an internet café so that she could cancel her debit/credit cards. It was stressful. We looked around for a while, and Andrew bravely asked in various shops for directions, but no one really knew of any. Finally, Deborah just called her mom using Andrew’s phone. It was a bad time.
After the call, we moved on toward the next site: Tower Bridge, crossing the London Bridge to do so.
On our way to Tower Bridge, we saw the Southwark Cathedral. After reading a few signs, we learned that it is super old. Pretty cool, I think.
We saw that the Evening Prayer started at 5:30, and since it was around 5:00 anyway, we thought we should stick around to go.
While we wandered around, wasting time, we stumbled upon this ship. Kind of cool, but it’s just a reconstruction. We stood and talked for a while by the river, though, which was fun.
Evening Prayer was fine. It wasn’t the best service ever, and I was running on only 2.5 hours of sleep which makes it hard to pay attention to anything. Andrew took a nice little nap (accidentally, of course), while Deborah and I fought back sleepiness to appreciate the prayers being offered.
It was nice to sit down though. We had been walking for a long time by this point. But that’s kind of the story of all of our days.
After the service, we headed toward the Thames again to get a good view of Tower Bridge. We had to take some classic tourist photos, you know? It was just starting to get dark, so the lights were all on, but we didn’t need to use the flash on our cameras yet. In other words, picture-wise, I think it was good timing.
Well, after crossing the Tower Bridge, we came to the Tower of London. Due to poor planning, we didn’t know that it would be closed. Sad day. It still looked great though. I’ll just have to learn about it instead of seeing it in person.
By this time, it was about 6:30, and we were hoping to go to a show that night, so we hopped on the tube to Leicester Square.
Well, we got to Leicester around 7 and found the half price tickets place. After waiting in line for another 10 minutes, we finally got tickets for The Phantom of the Opera! It was starting at 7:30, so we booked it to the theatre, found our seats, and enjoyed the show!
It was incredible!!!! I love live performances so much more than movies. I was so impressed by all of the voices and acting. Definitely worth the 30 pounds.
After the show, we found a place to eat and drink, then headed back to the hostel for a good night of sleep.
Deborah was up and ready when I came at 5:45, our agreed upon time. Andrew wasn’t answering his bell or his phone so we thought he might be outside. Well, he wasn’t. We went back in, this time, knocking on his door while calling him. At this point, it was about 5:55. We were planning on biking down to the station, but Deborah’s bike had a flat. She tried riding on the back of my bike, but I couldn’t get going. At this point it was 6:05ish, so we went to the tram stop, and decided that she should take the next tram instead.
Meanwhile, Andrew and I biked to the station…
When I showed up to the station, I couldn’t find Andrew or Deborah, and it was already 6:19. Our train was leaving in 4 minutes, and there was no sign of either of them. Andrew called me, and it turns out he was there and was just on the wrong platform.
At this point, it was super close to when our train was leaving. We started discussing options if Deborah didn’t get there in time. What do we do?? AAH! The train came, and Andrew got on. I was standing on the platform, and just as I decided that I should wait for Deborah and take the next train, risking missing our flight, the doors began to shut. The train started to leave as I looked down the platform to see Deborah running towards me. I was so helpless! Andrew tried pushing the button to stop the train, but it just kept going.
The next train didn’t leave for another half hour. We were already nervous about the timing of the earlier train, and we didn’t know if we would enough time with that one. It was such an awful feeling.
The whole train ride felt so long. Andrew called with details about how to get on the right bus from the station to the airport which was helpful. After the 1 ½ hour train ride, we took a bus for another 20 minutes, arriving at the airport at precisely 8:44 am, and our flight was leaving at 9:25 am.
It was a little tight, but the Eindhoven Airport is tiny, so the lines for everything were really short. When we finally met up with Andrew in the boarding line, it was 9:23. Just a little bit close. But we made it.
Once we arrived in London Stansted, we had to take a bus from that airport to Central London. We had booked it in advance, and it was rather uneventful. Just a long bus ride through traffic.
After a long morning of travel, we finally arrived at BAKER STREET!
After we got to this point, we needed to get to our hostel. We decided to walk so that we would see more of the city. Thus begins our walking days.
After going a little bit too far, we finally made it to Russell Square, which was right by our hostel.
The hostel was nice: decently clean, large rooms, basic beds. It wasn’t fancy, but it didn’t need to be. We went there, and planned the rest of our day.
But the plan was diverted right away by the sign for 1.99 pound Subway sandwiches. We put off our plans for fish and chips and ate cheap American food instead. We did eat it in the square though, so at least we absorbed a little more culture that way.
We had purchased Oyster Cards in the morning so that we could take the Underground if we wanted. All of the travel things I read said that this was the best way to get around London.
The Underground is so efficient! I loved it. You could go anywhere in zone 1 for 1.80 pounds, which is a decent deal for longer trips. We took it our to St. Paul’s to begin our touring. St. Paul's was impressive, with it's massive dome and steps. I took a lot of pictures there.
As we walked down from St. Paul’s toward the Thames, we spotted this old looking place called the College of Arms. The sign’s description made it sound like a museum type thing where you could look at old coats of arms.
In reality, it was a place where you could go to look up your ancestry or coat of arms. Still cool, but not really anything to see.
After the College of Arms, we crossed the street, and then crossed the Thames on the Millennium Bridge.
The best part is, Andrew and I knew all about the bridge from Differential Equations! We studied it one day because on it’s opening day, it started swaying uncontrollably. Apparently, it had to do with the resonant frequency of the bridge and the pace and step of the thousands of people walking across the bridge.
Across the way, you can see the Tate Modern, an art museum that we went to later in the trip.
Well, the stress of our day wasn’t over. Right after we walked by the Globe Theatre from the bridge, Deborah realized that her wallet was missing. We still don’t know if she was pick-pocketed or if it fell out of her purse while we were taking pictures/walking.
In any event, it was gone.
We discussed the options and decided to look for an internet café so that she could cancel her debit/credit cards. It was stressful. We looked around for a while, and Andrew bravely asked in various shops for directions, but no one really knew of any. Finally, Deborah just called her mom using Andrew’s phone. It was a bad time.
After the call, we moved on toward the next site: Tower Bridge, crossing the London Bridge to do so.
On our way to Tower Bridge, we saw the Southwark Cathedral. After reading a few signs, we learned that it is super old. Pretty cool, I think.
We saw that the Evening Prayer started at 5:30, and since it was around 5:00 anyway, we thought we should stick around to go.
While we wandered around, wasting time, we stumbled upon this ship. Kind of cool, but it’s just a reconstruction. We stood and talked for a while by the river, though, which was fun.
Evening Prayer was fine. It wasn’t the best service ever, and I was running on only 2.5 hours of sleep which makes it hard to pay attention to anything. Andrew took a nice little nap (accidentally, of course), while Deborah and I fought back sleepiness to appreciate the prayers being offered.
It was nice to sit down though. We had been walking for a long time by this point. But that’s kind of the story of all of our days.
After the service, we headed toward the Thames again to get a good view of Tower Bridge. We had to take some classic tourist photos, you know? It was just starting to get dark, so the lights were all on, but we didn’t need to use the flash on our cameras yet. In other words, picture-wise, I think it was good timing.
Well, after crossing the Tower Bridge, we came to the Tower of London. Due to poor planning, we didn’t know that it would be closed. Sad day. It still looked great though. I’ll just have to learn about it instead of seeing it in person.
By this time, it was about 6:30, and we were hoping to go to a show that night, so we hopped on the tube to Leicester Square.
Well, we got to Leicester around 7 and found the half price tickets place. After waiting in line for another 10 minutes, we finally got tickets for The Phantom of the Opera! It was starting at 7:30, so we booked it to the theatre, found our seats, and enjoyed the show!
It was incredible!!!! I love live performances so much more than movies. I was so impressed by all of the voices and acting. Definitely worth the 30 pounds.
After the show, we found a place to eat and drink, then headed back to the hostel for a good night of sleep.
Monday, March 1, 2010
An Interesting Weekend
This past weekend, my friend Bonnie and I went down to the southern tip of the Netherlands to the city of Maastricht. We were visiting a Calvin alumna who lives there. She had been contacted by our professor from Calvin, Prof. Aay, and she then offered to host us. It was a great experience, but it wasn't quite what we were expecting.
First of all, we had to take the train to Maastricht. I don't know how much Dutch geography you all know, but Amsterdam is near the center of the country. Maastricht, as I said earlier, is quite far south, meaning that Bonnie and I had to take a 2+ hour train to get there. Tickets were confusing (and slightly expensive), but once we figured it all out, we were on our way.
When we got to the station, Trudy, our Calvin alumna, was there to pick us up. A few minutes drive, and we were at her house. Now the...confusing? part: her "lady friend" Isabel lived there too. We really never knew their relationship, but obviously, we couldn't ask either. In any case, they were both very kind people. Trudy was 72 years old, and Isabel was 58. The first night, we didn't do that much, but they certainly fed us well. Delicious pasta with a cheese sauce made with fresh Italian goat cheese, plus mushrooms and some kind of meat; heaps of broccoli (to keep us healthy!); a salad with fantastic toasted walnuts. Oh, it was so good, and they had a lot of it! Even I was full, and that's a pretty rare occurrence anywhere!
The next day, we got up to a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs (which were cooked in the bacon grease...so good), bacon, and bread. Oh man, we ate so many buns and slices of bread. It's all so fresh! I'm forgetting the fresh squeezed orange juice too. All "lekker" (nice/good).
After breakfast, we took a little trip to Germany. Just like that. No big deal. I was struck by the contrast of taking a trip across a EU border instead of one of our borders. You don't even have to stop driving; all the sudden, you are just in a different country! It's great. We went to a city called Achen, which is the city where Charlemagne was crowned and ruled over his empire in the late 8th century (I think, I'm not great with dates). It was a very historical place, and I was once again struck by the youth of our own American country.
The most striking historical landmark, at least to me, was the cathedral where Charlemagne was crowned. The inside of the dome area is covered in intricate mosaics, depicting saints, as well as complex designs. The floor is a work of art itself--all varying shades of marble set in geometric patterns. The pulpit was overlaid with gold and precious stones; the gold was shaped into pictures and images as well. The height of the dome was impressive as well. I'm terrible at height estimates, but there was another story, and the ceilings of both were quite high. Part of the cathedral was undergoing a renovation/excavation, so we did not get to see the throne of Charlemagne or a statue of him, but the rest of the cathedral was worth the visit.
Other highlights: the town hall, which was where Charlemagne ruled; apple kuchen (a German apple pancake, coated in butter and cinnamon sugar...yum!); a cool statue where all of the parts are movable like puppets; fountains; and of course, it would not be a Dutch excursion without a cup of coffee at the end.
I should note that I now know why at family gathering we have coffee before, during, and after meals. It's a Dutch thing! Since I don't like coffee very much, I consumed a lot of tea over the course of the weekend. I did have a cup of coffee once or twice though.
After Achen, we returned to their home for a nice lunch (sandwiches and soup); then we were off on a bike ride! They live in a little village, so after about two minutes we were surrounded by fields and farms. It was beautiful. I took a few pictures while biking (so skilled, I know), but they don't really capture the beauty of the landscape. In Maastricht, there are actually hills too! We visited the farm where Isabel grew up; now it is part living space, part gay sauna. Yup, it's the Netherlands all right.
Dinner was served when we got back. Potatoes, super tender beef of some sort, and beans. So delicious. At some point, we tried the local pies too. One was gooseberry and the other cherry. The cherry pie had the most wonderful crumb topping I have ever tasted. mmm...can you tell that the food made an impression on me? It's a lot different when I'm cooking for myself. I can't rationalize making things like pies or even huge meals when I'm just cooking for me, so everything seemed even better than usual.
That night, we watched a Dutch movie, "Bride Flight", which was very good. I really liked it. It was "Dutch" in some of its liberal themes, but more than anything, it was just a good movie. Then it was off to our warm beds, complete with down comforters and hot water bottles for our feet.
Sunday we toured the city of Maastricht after another hot breakfast (I had HAGELSLAG, the delicious chocolate sprinkles you put on bread). Maastricht is another old city, and the walking tour that we took led us to several old churches and the city wall. It was interesting, but the intense wind made it a little less fun. After a cappuccino, we headed back to the house for a quick lunch, and we were off on the train home! Oh, and you know how I was kind of mad that tickets were expensive? Our kind hosts gave us 50 euro for our travel expenses. Pretty nice, huh?
Overall, it was a great weekend. A little bit different, but filled with good food and great company!
First of all, we had to take the train to Maastricht. I don't know how much Dutch geography you all know, but Amsterdam is near the center of the country. Maastricht, as I said earlier, is quite far south, meaning that Bonnie and I had to take a 2+ hour train to get there. Tickets were confusing (and slightly expensive), but once we figured it all out, we were on our way.
When we got to the station, Trudy, our Calvin alumna, was there to pick us up. A few minutes drive, and we were at her house. Now the...confusing? part: her "lady friend" Isabel lived there too. We really never knew their relationship, but obviously, we couldn't ask either. In any case, they were both very kind people. Trudy was 72 years old, and Isabel was 58. The first night, we didn't do that much, but they certainly fed us well. Delicious pasta with a cheese sauce made with fresh Italian goat cheese, plus mushrooms and some kind of meat; heaps of broccoli (to keep us healthy!); a salad with fantastic toasted walnuts. Oh, it was so good, and they had a lot of it! Even I was full, and that's a pretty rare occurrence anywhere!
The next day, we got up to a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs (which were cooked in the bacon grease...so good), bacon, and bread. Oh man, we ate so many buns and slices of bread. It's all so fresh! I'm forgetting the fresh squeezed orange juice too. All "lekker" (nice/good).
After breakfast, we took a little trip to Germany. Just like that. No big deal. I was struck by the contrast of taking a trip across a EU border instead of one of our borders. You don't even have to stop driving; all the sudden, you are just in a different country! It's great. We went to a city called Achen, which is the city where Charlemagne was crowned and ruled over his empire in the late 8th century (I think, I'm not great with dates). It was a very historical place, and I was once again struck by the youth of our own American country.
The most striking historical landmark, at least to me, was the cathedral where Charlemagne was crowned. The inside of the dome area is covered in intricate mosaics, depicting saints, as well as complex designs. The floor is a work of art itself--all varying shades of marble set in geometric patterns. The pulpit was overlaid with gold and precious stones; the gold was shaped into pictures and images as well. The height of the dome was impressive as well. I'm terrible at height estimates, but there was another story, and the ceilings of both were quite high. Part of the cathedral was undergoing a renovation/excavation, so we did not get to see the throne of Charlemagne or a statue of him, but the rest of the cathedral was worth the visit.
Other highlights: the town hall, which was where Charlemagne ruled; apple kuchen (a German apple pancake, coated in butter and cinnamon sugar...yum!); a cool statue where all of the parts are movable like puppets; fountains; and of course, it would not be a Dutch excursion without a cup of coffee at the end.
I should note that I now know why at family gathering we have coffee before, during, and after meals. It's a Dutch thing! Since I don't like coffee very much, I consumed a lot of tea over the course of the weekend. I did have a cup of coffee once or twice though.
After Achen, we returned to their home for a nice lunch (sandwiches and soup); then we were off on a bike ride! They live in a little village, so after about two minutes we were surrounded by fields and farms. It was beautiful. I took a few pictures while biking (so skilled, I know), but they don't really capture the beauty of the landscape. In Maastricht, there are actually hills too! We visited the farm where Isabel grew up; now it is part living space, part gay sauna. Yup, it's the Netherlands all right.
Dinner was served when we got back. Potatoes, super tender beef of some sort, and beans. So delicious. At some point, we tried the local pies too. One was gooseberry and the other cherry. The cherry pie had the most wonderful crumb topping I have ever tasted. mmm...can you tell that the food made an impression on me? It's a lot different when I'm cooking for myself. I can't rationalize making things like pies or even huge meals when I'm just cooking for me, so everything seemed even better than usual.
That night, we watched a Dutch movie, "Bride Flight", which was very good. I really liked it. It was "Dutch" in some of its liberal themes, but more than anything, it was just a good movie. Then it was off to our warm beds, complete with down comforters and hot water bottles for our feet.
Sunday we toured the city of Maastricht after another hot breakfast (I had HAGELSLAG, the delicious chocolate sprinkles you put on bread). Maastricht is another old city, and the walking tour that we took led us to several old churches and the city wall. It was interesting, but the intense wind made it a little less fun. After a cappuccino, we headed back to the house for a quick lunch, and we were off on the train home! Oh, and you know how I was kind of mad that tickets were expensive? Our kind hosts gave us 50 euro for our travel expenses. Pretty nice, huh?
Overall, it was a great weekend. A little bit different, but filled with good food and great company!
Monday, February 22, 2010
Well, I've been bad at updating this...polders, windmills, artwork, and life.
So it's been a while since I've written anything. I'm sorry! I haven't had a ton of time, and I feel like I've spoken to a lot of people about most of the things I would write anyway so I just haven't written.
First off, the other field trip. On Sunday, Feb. 14 (yes, it was Valentine's Day), we went to visit polders and windmills. Polders are areas of land that have to have their water level maintained by pumps. In some rare cases, this means pumping water into the polder, but most times, it means pumping water out. We visited a few polders, which were kind of cool, but there isn't a ton to see. Basically, around each lake that was drained, a ring canal was put in. All of the water from the lake passes into this canal. Pumping stations are set up in strategic locations around the lake, bringing the water up from the lake into the ring canal. In the early days of land reclamation, these pumps were...you guessed it, WINDMILLS! so exciting. They were sometimes set in series in order to make their pumping capacity higher as well. As the lake became less full, drainage ditches were cut into the bottom to make the drainage more systematic. These ditches were also used to divide the newly formed land into plots for people to farm on. And when, you may ask, was all of this done? The 17th century, of course! Now, the polders must still be maintained using electric pumps (which, ironically, are actually less efficient than windmill technology).
After we were done seeing a bunch of polders, we came to the best part: visiting a real windmill. It was so impressive. First of all, windmills are massive. The pictures that you see don't really capture their size that well. The inside of the windmill, however, is still a small place for large families to live. I would get super claustrophobic living in one. Above the living space are the gears and shaft that power the pump below. Again, I was struck by how immense every piece of the windmill was. The main gears were wider than I am tall. The shaft reaches from the top of the windmill all the way down to the bottom. The Archimedean screw, the device that actually pumps the water, is attached to another gear system, which was not actually running at the time because the canal was frozen. Overall, the windmill was a super cool experience. If you are ever in Noord-Holland, it's worth a visit.
Okay, that was from forever ago. Now on to more recent things. On Thursday, Bonnie (my friend from our group) and I visited the Rijksmuseum, which is a huge art/artifacts museum near downtown. Right now, it is undergoing a major renovation, so only the best 400 pieces were on display. I was very impressed. A few of my favorites....First, I liked this doll house that was tall enough for them to put two staircases up in order for you to see inside. The detail was incredible--real, miniature Delftware hanging on the wallpapered walls, tiny toys in the nursery, silver dishes in the dining room, etc. It was crazy. There were also several painting by Rembrandt and Vermeer. My favorite Rembrandt was "The Night Watch" (here's a pic of it at the Rijksmuseum itself...http://images.google.nl/imgres?imgurl=http://i1.trekearth.com/photos/1887/nightwatch800.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Europe/Netherlands/South/Noord-Holland/Amsterdam/photo339541.htm&usg=__qkZ58Y7qEZbx8c_uKn1qtf7QjYM=&h=562&w=800&sz=145&hl=en&start=9&itbs=1&tbnid=2aTzTdbO_dsA7M:&tbnh=100&tbnw=143&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dthe%2Bnight%2Bwatch%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1) Wow, super long link. Anyway, the painting is much more impressive in person. As you can see from the picture, it is HUGE! It is a painting of 18 men who formed some militia...I don't really remember the details, but I was very impressed. My next favorite painting was one by Vermeer (he's the guy that did "Girl with a Pearl Earring"). It's called "The Little Street". It's not quite what he's known for, but it was my favorite by far. (pic at...http://images.google.nl/imgres?imgurl=http://www.daimi.au.dk/~doina/blog/dmaterial/vermeer-little_street.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.daimi.au.dk/~doina/blog/%3Fp%3D37&usg=__-JpJyDOfbNcaVzXxYOgjFtcDXKY=&h=1600&w=1311&sz=399&hl=en&start=89&itbs=1&tbnid=KFf-Pc6Wd7xuQM:&tbnh=150&tbnw=123&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dvermeer%26start%3D72%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D18%26tbs%3Disch:1) I wish that you could all see in person; the colors are so much brighter and more vibrant than the picture here shows. But that's okay. Maybe you'll all just have to visit me in Amsterdam! :D
After the Rijksmuseum, Bonnie and I met up with the rest of the girls from our group to go out to lunch for Katie's birthday. We had some Indonesian food. It was...pretty good. I wasn't a huge fan of peanut sauce, but now I know that for next time. After lunch, we wandered over to the Bijbelmuseum (Bible Museum) for a quick tour. It was a really funny place, actually. I felt like the focus was more on Jewish history than the Bible itself. There was a model of the Tabernacle that was pretty good, a room full of Egyptian relics, and an exhibit all about Jerusalem as a holy city for three different religious groups. To be quite honest, I was kind of sick of museums by this point so I didn't get that much out of the experience. The highlight came when we visited the "vaulted cellar", where they keep hundreds of old Bibles. They were interesting, but the best part was a certain picture. On this picture, all of the attendees of the Synod of Dordt were displayed, along with their names. AND GUESS WHO I FOUND?! "Wigbold Homeri", who came from Groningen, and who is my great-great-great-(I don't know how many generations back)-grandpa! I took a picture of his name, which I will have to post soon. I'm so glad I'm a Wigboldy. :D
I think that's all of the exciting stuff I've done lately. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to write about this stuff! Have a great day, everybody.
First off, the other field trip. On Sunday, Feb. 14 (yes, it was Valentine's Day), we went to visit polders and windmills. Polders are areas of land that have to have their water level maintained by pumps. In some rare cases, this means pumping water into the polder, but most times, it means pumping water out. We visited a few polders, which were kind of cool, but there isn't a ton to see. Basically, around each lake that was drained, a ring canal was put in. All of the water from the lake passes into this canal. Pumping stations are set up in strategic locations around the lake, bringing the water up from the lake into the ring canal. In the early days of land reclamation, these pumps were...you guessed it, WINDMILLS! so exciting. They were sometimes set in series in order to make their pumping capacity higher as well. As the lake became less full, drainage ditches were cut into the bottom to make the drainage more systematic. These ditches were also used to divide the newly formed land into plots for people to farm on. And when, you may ask, was all of this done? The 17th century, of course! Now, the polders must still be maintained using electric pumps (which, ironically, are actually less efficient than windmill technology).
After we were done seeing a bunch of polders, we came to the best part: visiting a real windmill. It was so impressive. First of all, windmills are massive. The pictures that you see don't really capture their size that well. The inside of the windmill, however, is still a small place for large families to live. I would get super claustrophobic living in one. Above the living space are the gears and shaft that power the pump below. Again, I was struck by how immense every piece of the windmill was. The main gears were wider than I am tall. The shaft reaches from the top of the windmill all the way down to the bottom. The Archimedean screw, the device that actually pumps the water, is attached to another gear system, which was not actually running at the time because the canal was frozen. Overall, the windmill was a super cool experience. If you are ever in Noord-Holland, it's worth a visit.
Okay, that was from forever ago. Now on to more recent things. On Thursday, Bonnie (my friend from our group) and I visited the Rijksmuseum, which is a huge art/artifacts museum near downtown. Right now, it is undergoing a major renovation, so only the best 400 pieces were on display. I was very impressed. A few of my favorites....First, I liked this doll house that was tall enough for them to put two staircases up in order for you to see inside. The detail was incredible--real, miniature Delftware hanging on the wallpapered walls, tiny toys in the nursery, silver dishes in the dining room, etc. It was crazy. There were also several painting by Rembrandt and Vermeer. My favorite Rembrandt was "The Night Watch" (here's a pic of it at the Rijksmuseum itself...http://images.google.nl/imgres?imgurl=http://i1.trekearth.com/photos/1887/nightwatch800.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Europe/Netherlands/South/Noord-Holland/Amsterdam/photo339541.htm&usg=__qkZ58Y7qEZbx8c_uKn1qtf7QjYM=&h=562&w=800&sz=145&hl=en&start=9&itbs=1&tbnid=2aTzTdbO_dsA7M:&tbnh=100&tbnw=143&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dthe%2Bnight%2Bwatch%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1) Wow, super long link. Anyway, the painting is much more impressive in person. As you can see from the picture, it is HUGE! It is a painting of 18 men who formed some militia...I don't really remember the details, but I was very impressed. My next favorite painting was one by Vermeer (he's the guy that did "Girl with a Pearl Earring"). It's called "The Little Street". It's not quite what he's known for, but it was my favorite by far. (pic at...http://images.google.nl/imgres?imgurl=http://www.daimi.au.dk/~doina/blog/dmaterial/vermeer-little_street.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.daimi.au.dk/~doina/blog/%3Fp%3D37&usg=__-JpJyDOfbNcaVzXxYOgjFtcDXKY=&h=1600&w=1311&sz=399&hl=en&start=89&itbs=1&tbnid=KFf-Pc6Wd7xuQM:&tbnh=150&tbnw=123&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dvermeer%26start%3D72%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D18%26tbs%3Disch:1) I wish that you could all see in person; the colors are so much brighter and more vibrant than the picture here shows. But that's okay. Maybe you'll all just have to visit me in Amsterdam! :D
After the Rijksmuseum, Bonnie and I met up with the rest of the girls from our group to go out to lunch for Katie's birthday. We had some Indonesian food. It was...pretty good. I wasn't a huge fan of peanut sauce, but now I know that for next time. After lunch, we wandered over to the Bijbelmuseum (Bible Museum) for a quick tour. It was a really funny place, actually. I felt like the focus was more on Jewish history than the Bible itself. There was a model of the Tabernacle that was pretty good, a room full of Egyptian relics, and an exhibit all about Jerusalem as a holy city for three different religious groups. To be quite honest, I was kind of sick of museums by this point so I didn't get that much out of the experience. The highlight came when we visited the "vaulted cellar", where they keep hundreds of old Bibles. They were interesting, but the best part was a certain picture. On this picture, all of the attendees of the Synod of Dordt were displayed, along with their names. AND GUESS WHO I FOUND?! "Wigbold Homeri", who came from Groningen, and who is my great-great-great-(I don't know how many generations back)-grandpa! I took a picture of his name, which I will have to post soon. I'm so glad I'm a Wigboldy. :D
I think that's all of the exciting stuff I've done lately. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to write about this stuff! Have a great day, everybody.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
TERPEN!!
Today we spent the day looking at terpen (or wierden if you're from Groningen). It was...so interesting. Terpen (terps in English) are mounds of dirt and manure that people live on. Yes, I spent a full day looking at barely elevated mounds of dirt. A great use of my time.
I shouldn't have such a bad attitude about them though. They actually are interesting. The terpen were built as early as 500 BC, starting as mounds for individual farmsteads. The mounds allowed settlers to live in regions that flooded frequently near the Wadden Sea which had rich, fertile soils. Even the slightest change in elevation made a huge difference. These terpen eventually grew over centuries and generations, until full villages were built on the circular mounds built up by the farmers/villagers. The villages were laid out in a circle around a central "watering hole" that provided fresh water when the sea was flooded. Eventually, the spread of Christianity replaced the central water with a church, and the mounds became less functional with the building of dikes in the same time frame. (sorry to sound like a history book...I actually do like the history of terpen though)
So really, they are kind of cool. To study. Maybe. For one day. Or even two. But to study them in class, have three readings about them, go to a museum about them and then visit 20 of them (literally, no exaggerated numbers here)...it was a little too much for me. I did really like the first few. In Ezinge, the first site, most of the terp had been dug away as a part of archaeological digs, so it was easy to see the size of the mound itself. Only about half of the terp remained, with the church at the highest point. My "favorite" was one that Prof. Aay pointed at outside our van window, saying, "This one is pretty spectacular by terp standards." I barely even saw it. I took pictures of about 15 of the terps, and I'll try to post a few just to show you what I'm talking about.
Another bonus of the day, I got to go to Groningen and drive through Friesland where my great-great-great(?) grandparents lived (if I'm remembering our family history correctly). I know "Fennema" is Friesan at least. I wish that I could have spent more time there; I might have to go back. Oh, and Mom/Wigboldy relatives, I saw a street called "Wigboldstraat"...could it have been significant? I don't know. I don't even know where we were. But it was cool knowing that our family has a history in that region.
Overall, it was not my favorite day, but hopefully tomorrow will be a bit better. We're visiting a windmill museum so I will finally get to see inside of one!
Oh, and THANK YOU to my dear home church, Brookfield CRC, for sending me a terrific care package! It's been so nice to eat some good American candy for a change!
Tot ziens!
I shouldn't have such a bad attitude about them though. They actually are interesting. The terpen were built as early as 500 BC, starting as mounds for individual farmsteads. The mounds allowed settlers to live in regions that flooded frequently near the Wadden Sea which had rich, fertile soils. Even the slightest change in elevation made a huge difference. These terpen eventually grew over centuries and generations, until full villages were built on the circular mounds built up by the farmers/villagers. The villages were laid out in a circle around a central "watering hole" that provided fresh water when the sea was flooded. Eventually, the spread of Christianity replaced the central water with a church, and the mounds became less functional with the building of dikes in the same time frame. (sorry to sound like a history book...I actually do like the history of terpen though)
So really, they are kind of cool. To study. Maybe. For one day. Or even two. But to study them in class, have three readings about them, go to a museum about them and then visit 20 of them (literally, no exaggerated numbers here)...it was a little too much for me. I did really like the first few. In Ezinge, the first site, most of the terp had been dug away as a part of archaeological digs, so it was easy to see the size of the mound itself. Only about half of the terp remained, with the church at the highest point. My "favorite" was one that Prof. Aay pointed at outside our van window, saying, "This one is pretty spectacular by terp standards." I barely even saw it. I took pictures of about 15 of the terps, and I'll try to post a few just to show you what I'm talking about.
Another bonus of the day, I got to go to Groningen and drive through Friesland where my great-great-great(?) grandparents lived (if I'm remembering our family history correctly). I know "Fennema" is Friesan at least. I wish that I could have spent more time there; I might have to go back. Oh, and Mom/Wigboldy relatives, I saw a street called "Wigboldstraat"...could it have been significant? I don't know. I don't even know where we were. But it was cool knowing that our family has a history in that region.
Overall, it was not my favorite day, but hopefully tomorrow will be a bit better. We're visiting a windmill museum so I will finally get to see inside of one!
Oh, and THANK YOU to my dear home church, Brookfield CRC, for sending me a terrific care package! It's been so nice to eat some good American candy for a change!
Tot ziens!
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Delft and Den Haag
This past Saturday, a group of us went on a day trip to Delft and Den Haag. It was so fun to go out and see a different part of this country!
In Delft, we visited two museums, as well as some ancient churches. It was great to learn about a city that has such a rich history! All I knew about it was the fact that Delftware comes from there. The first place we went was the town center. The town hall faces the "Nieuw Kerk", or New Church, which is actually quite old as it was built between 1383 and 1510. Inside the church is the mausoleum for William of Orange, the famous revolutionary of the Netherlands. We thought about going inside or going up the tower, but both were 3 euros, and we're all poor. The tower would have been worth it, but it was terrifically foggy, so we wouldn't have been able to see anything anyway.
Instead, we wandered around for a bit, finally finding the "Oude Kerk"; you guessed it, the Old Church. The entrance to this building was also expensive, but I took some pictures of it at least.
As we were coming up to the Oude Kerk, we spotted some signs for a museum, and museum cards in hand, we went in. (for free...I love those museum cards!) The museum was all about William of Orange. It turns out that he was assassinated in that very building! I took pictures of the bullet holes themselves. There were tons of paintings and as well as a great look at the history of the city itself.
A few interesting facts...dissection of human bodies was a key to the discovery of things like blood cells. People would gather around as one guy literally dissected a body. There were some rather gross paintings, with like 15 well-dressed men all gathered around this torn open body. On a different note, I was interested to learn about the Golden Age of the Netherlands too. This Golden Age was in the 17th century, when the Dutch East India Company (?VOC I think?) was at its zenith. It was during this time that people in Delft started making Delftware.
After this museum, we discovered that there was a second museum all about the ARMY! I wasn't going crazy about it, but I was with some guys, so they naturally wanted to see it. We wandered our way there with the help of a guidebook and plentiful signs. The museum was actually really cool; I was slightly shocked. Once I got past the fact that everything was designed for killing, it was interesting to see how weapons and armies have changed. The museum started with the Roman time and made its way into the present from there, displaying all sorts of guns and spears and tanks along the way. My favorite part of the whole museum was an epic diorama depicting a battle between the Romans and some barbarians. Each figure was about an inch tall, and the detail was incredible.
With the army museum behind us, we went back to the town center for the most important part of the day: buying Delftware. I purchased an authentic teacup, which is wrapped heavily in bubble wrap awaited the flight home. It's pretty sweet.
Delft done, we were off to Den Haag. We didn't really know what we were going to do in Den Haag, but time was running short. Once we got there, we found the Binnenhof,the seat of the government of the Netherlands. We took some pictures, but we were rushing to try to get to the Mauritshuis Museum before it closed. This museum houses the famous painting "Girl with a Pearl Earring". We found the museum (it's right next to the Binnenhof), but it cost 3 euros with a museum card. Since there were only 15 min. left before it closed, we decided it would have to wait for another day. Tired and hungry, we walked back to the train station, and caught the train back to Amsterdam. It was a great day!
In Delft, we visited two museums, as well as some ancient churches. It was great to learn about a city that has such a rich history! All I knew about it was the fact that Delftware comes from there. The first place we went was the town center. The town hall faces the "Nieuw Kerk", or New Church, which is actually quite old as it was built between 1383 and 1510. Inside the church is the mausoleum for William of Orange, the famous revolutionary of the Netherlands. We thought about going inside or going up the tower, but both were 3 euros, and we're all poor. The tower would have been worth it, but it was terrifically foggy, so we wouldn't have been able to see anything anyway.
Instead, we wandered around for a bit, finally finding the "Oude Kerk"; you guessed it, the Old Church. The entrance to this building was also expensive, but I took some pictures of it at least.
As we were coming up to the Oude Kerk, we spotted some signs for a museum, and museum cards in hand, we went in. (for free...I love those museum cards!) The museum was all about William of Orange. It turns out that he was assassinated in that very building! I took pictures of the bullet holes themselves. There were tons of paintings and as well as a great look at the history of the city itself.
A few interesting facts...dissection of human bodies was a key to the discovery of things like blood cells. People would gather around as one guy literally dissected a body. There were some rather gross paintings, with like 15 well-dressed men all gathered around this torn open body. On a different note, I was interested to learn about the Golden Age of the Netherlands too. This Golden Age was in the 17th century, when the Dutch East India Company (?VOC I think?) was at its zenith. It was during this time that people in Delft started making Delftware.
After this museum, we discovered that there was a second museum all about the ARMY! I wasn't going crazy about it, but I was with some guys, so they naturally wanted to see it. We wandered our way there with the help of a guidebook and plentiful signs. The museum was actually really cool; I was slightly shocked. Once I got past the fact that everything was designed for killing, it was interesting to see how weapons and armies have changed. The museum started with the Roman time and made its way into the present from there, displaying all sorts of guns and spears and tanks along the way. My favorite part of the whole museum was an epic diorama depicting a battle between the Romans and some barbarians. Each figure was about an inch tall, and the detail was incredible.
With the army museum behind us, we went back to the town center for the most important part of the day: buying Delftware. I purchased an authentic teacup, which is wrapped heavily in bubble wrap awaited the flight home. It's pretty sweet.
Delft done, we were off to Den Haag. We didn't really know what we were going to do in Den Haag, but time was running short. Once we got there, we found the Binnenhof,the seat of the government of the Netherlands. We took some pictures, but we were rushing to try to get to the Mauritshuis Museum before it closed. This museum houses the famous painting "Girl with a Pearl Earring". We found the museum (it's right next to the Binnenhof), but it cost 3 euros with a museum card. Since there were only 15 min. left before it closed, we decided it would have to wait for another day. Tired and hungry, we walked back to the train station, and caught the train back to Amsterdam. It was a great day!
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