Rotterdam (At Last)

On Laura's final weekend in The Netherlands, we stopped for a night in nearby Rotterdam. Although Rotterdam is only a little farther from Delft than The Hague and MUCH closer than Amsterdam, we went nearly a full year without really venturing into the city. (Well, we tried to see the city back in winter, but were confronted with wind so cold that we basically walked out of the train station and right back into it.)

Rotterdam doesn't get the international pub of Amsterdam or The Hague, but it has some bragging points. It's always in competition for "busiest port in the world," though Wikipedia says it is currently second to Shanghai. It's also known as a tremendously young city - sometimes called the youngest in Europe - and is the 2009 European Youth Capital. Also, there's a bit of a rivalry between Rotterdam and Amsterdam that is manifested primarily on the soccer field.

A vast majority of Rotterdam was destroyed in May of 1940 when Germany invaded the Netherlands. Since the war ended, Rotterdam has been the center of a lot of architectural experimentation, which makes it both strikingly modern in some respects and obscenely ugly in others. (The Netherlands is in fact a modern architectural epicenter, and it wasn't long ago that I encountered a whole train car full of US architecture students touring the country.) The part of Rotterdam that all the guidebooks tell you to see is Delfshaven, which is the historical part that looks like every other city in the Netherlands. Now, I like the canal looks of this country a lot, but to those guidebook writers I have to ask, "Why am I going to go to Rotterdam, unique for the fact that it doesn't look like every other Dutch city, to see the part of it that does?" (Delfshaven wasn't one of our stops, though I'm sure it's nice.)

Our visit centered on the waterfront, which we saw by pannenkoek boot - that's "pancake boat," a boat that serves pancakes. The pancakes were mediocre but the view was very nice, with towering, colorful buildings and creative bridges. We set off from next to the Euromast (above right), the tallest structure in Rotterdam. We didn't go inside it, but it offers food and drink, a panoramic view of the city, and various creative ways for visitors to plummet from the tower's apex.

Erasmusbrug ("Erasmus Bridge"), nicknamed "The Swan"
We were particularly excited to stay in the "cube houses" one of the aforementioned architectural experiments that was recently converted into a StayOK hostel. As you can imagine from their shape and unconventional orientation relative to the earth's gravitational field, the rooms are awkward. (That doesn't make staying in one any less cool.)

Cube Houses
Near to the Cube Houses in Oude Haven, we had a nice view of the harbor area while we enjoyed some Heinekens.

Willemsbrug is near to Erasmusbrug and both span the Nieuwe Maas
Witte Huis ("White House"), the tallest "skyscraper" in Europe when it was built in 1898
You can find a few more pictures on Flickr.

The Weather

Maybe the weather in the Netherlands isn't so bad after all...

Lazy Saturday

They told us it would happen; we didn't believe them. They were right; we are in disbelief.

It was warmer in April than it is now - something about the rain and wind. Sometimes the wind is so bad I think our apartment is going to blow over; our apartment is a high rise made of concrete and steel.

Today we stayed in Delft to do a little exploring. We popped into the TU Delft Botanical Gardens for a quick look at their spring planting. I also took Matt to the tropical house and showed him the quails. I was excited to find baby quails in the garden!

Next we stopped by the market to pick-up some lunch. I meant to get some poffertjes since I saw them at the market on Thursday, but I guess I forgot. Bummer. More about poffertjes and my new favorite Dutch food later. After lunch we headed out to Delftse Hout to ride around the lake and visit the petting zoo.



More pictures can be found here.

Botanical Gardens

Pictures from my visit to TU Delft Botanical Gardens; more can be found here.

The Girl with the Pearl Earring

Today we rode our bikes to Den Haag to the Mauritshuis Museum to see The Girl with the Pearl Earring. The bike ride was wonderful; the air was crisp and the sun was shining. Tulip like wildflowers were just starting to bloom up along side the canals and paths to Den Haag.

This trip was inspired by my earlier viewing of the movie and visiting the Vermeer Center in Delft. After learning about Vermeer's life in Delft and his superior skill in painting light, I knew I had to see the famous painting in person. The painting is magnificent. The audio guide calls her the Mona Lisa of the Netherlands, but I think the Mona Lisa is the Girl with the Pearl Earring of Italy. She just shines on the canvas; the light and luminosity is amazing.
She may be the hallmark of the gallery, but the rest of the collection is quite impressive. The gallery houses two other paintings by Vermeer - a lovely landscape of Delft and one of his first works, Diana and her Nymphs. In addition, there are a dozen Rembrandts, a couple Ruebens and van Dyck (famous wedding portrait painters) and an interesting painting by Willem van Haecht. The painting, Apelles painting Campaspe, is a painting of hundreds of paintings - or an art gallery. The picture below isn't the same painting, but is done in the same style. The level of detail in the mini paintings was amazing - he had to be a master at many techniques.After we finished with the museum, we rode back to Delft enjoying the sunshine and flowers on the way.

Vermeer

Since I had a few hours to kill, with Matt busy plugging away at models and simulations of page-long mathematical equations, I was looking around iTunes for a movie to rent and found Girl with the Pearl Earring (a fictional account of the Vermeer painting above) on sale for $.99. By pure coincidence, I had checked out the book Girl in Hyacinth Blue (a fictional tale of a long lost Vermeer painting) at the library a few days before. Since Delft is Vermeer's home town, I thought it was time I learned more about him and his work. We haven't made it to the museum in Den Haag yet that houses the painting, so I thought the movie and book would be a good introduction to Vermeer and his work.


While little is know about Vermeer's life and the subjects in his paintings, the movie weaves a believable tale. Every scene is captured with the light and color that are signatures of Vermeer's work. In addition to the beautiful masterpiece like scenes, the movie shows glimpses of what life was like in Delft in the 1600s.

After being intrigued by the movie, I took a trip to the Vermeer Center in Delft this morning. While the center does not have any of Vermeer's paintings, it is a worthwhile museum. The exhibit starts with a 5 minute introductory video of Delft around the time of Vermeer. It was quite fascinating to see how the places I walk by every week looked in the 1600s. Although the originals are housed elsewhere, the museum does have a life size print of each of Vermeer's confirmed works in chronological order with commentary. In addition, the museum explains how he mixed paint, which elements he used, his lighting techniques, and where he possibly learned his craft.

This weekend we will be going to Den Haag to the Mauritshuis to see some of Vermeer's paintings, including The Girl with Pearl Earring and the landscape View of Delft.

Afternoon Bike Ride

Matt got home early from an out of town class today, so we took a bike ride to the park to feed the ducks. While not quite spring yet, we could tell it is on its way with the wild flowers starting to bloom. I can't wait until the end of the month when we can take rides through the tulip fields.

Straight from the Farmer

A few weeks ago, during one of my runs, I discovered a farmer just outside of town that sells his milk, eggs, yogurt, honey, and potatoes right out of the barn. I had intended to go back the next day to get fresh-from-the-cow milk and laid-that-morning eggs, but life got in the way (broken finger, snow, travels, etc.).I finally made it back this morning to purchase my weekly dairy products. For only €3.50 I got a liter of fresh milk, a liter of homemade yogurt, and 10 eggs (no such thing as dozen over here). I had the yogurt in my Honey Hoops (or Honey Nut Cheerios - the cereals all have different names over here, even though they are the same thing and the same brand) this morning and it was delicious!
When we are done, I will clean the bottles out and bring them back next Monday to be refilled.

Delft Blues Day Two

And back we went.

After enjoying dinner at the Ruif with Matt's lab mates, we all headed to the Stars & Bars for the second night in a row, this time to watch Memo Gonzalez & the Bluescasters perform. The place was packed to see Memo perform on his harmonica. I am not sure if he was "three hundred pounds of Texas dynamite" or not, but the band did play a nice mix of country and blues.

When Memo took a break, we headed back to old town and to De Waag to hear Professor Deaf & His Eardrums. We knew the Professor (dressed in a graduation gown and mortar board) must be good when we saw the place was so packed that the crowd was bursting out the doors. We squeezed in to listen to the eclectic group, with their funny hats, play a range of instruments.

The music was good, the atmosphere was excellent, and the draft beer was better, so we stayed a few hours to listen to bluesy-jazz music. We stayed all the way to the end - long enough to hear the encore of Elvis hits. Although our group of friends headed on to the next performance, we headed back home. Matt was due to play 5 frisbee games the next morning and it was time to get some rest.

Valentine's Day

While the holiday is known and celebrated over here (unlike Halloween), Valentine's Day is a much different affair. There is no monstrosity of candy, flowers, and over-priced fixed dinners, but rather subtle window displays and a few heart themed offerings.

Tonight we are not going off to a romantic dinner for two, but rather out with a group of Matt's lab mates. When Matt inquired as to the lack of Valentine's plans, most responded that their girlfriends/wives had no interest in the holiday. Even in strolling the market today, while references to Valentine's could be seen, there was no mark-up in the cost of flowers. Not even for a dozen, long-stemmed, red roses - they were still just €8.50 (compared with $50 to $100 in the US delivered).
Unfortunately, this also means there are no heart-shaped Reeses' in stores. I just hope they still have Cadbury eggs at Easter.

Delft Blues

This weekend Delft is hosting the Delft Blues Festival - a musical play on their fame of blue Delftware. Bars and cafes all over town are hosting solo, duet, and group performances, with free entry. We took this as an opportunity to visit places we might not have frequented otherwise.

We started by celebrating Valentine's day (a day early) with dinner at De Zeven Zonden (The Seven Sins) and music by Bluesinn. The atmosphere was cozy and unique; the dinner was delicious and unique. The restaurant was filled with these wonderful custom made light fixtures, in fact most of Europe is filled with wonderful custom made light fixtures.

I opted for the special Bluesmenu and was not disappointed. My dinner started with a kangaroo carpaccio with a mango sauce; I wonder if they import the kangaroo steaks or if there is a kangaroo farm somewhere in the Netherlands. Regardless, the carpaccio was wonderful - it almost made me wish Matt had ordered the kangaroo steak for dinner. But neither of us were disappointed when we got our dinners, completed with the perfect roasted potatoes. Here in the Netherlands, they put bowls of potatoes on your table just like an Italian restaurant would put bread on your table in America.

It was strange to be sitting in a restaurant in the Netherlands, eating kangaroo, while listening to Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown and Walking in Memphis. You never would have known it was a Dutch blues band up there and not blues trio out of the south.

After licking ever bit of yogurt ice cream and strawberry Indonesian cake off our plates, we headed off the Stars and Bars - probably the only country-western bar within an hour train ride and the CLEANEST bar and pool hall I've ever seen. Charley Cruz and the Lost Souls - a pop/country/blues band was supposed to be playing, however, I think they let their kids perform the warm-up act. The teenagers were pretty good, but I didn't care for the beer on tap and time is relative thing here so we headed home after the warm-up group. But we might be back tomorrow to hear Memo Gonzalez & the Bluescasters - straight from Dallas, Texas.

My Vase

I got the vase I painted with my mom back today. I have to say I was quite pleasantly surprised.
Now we will just have to wait on mom to send us pictures of her vase when it arrives in the States.

Royal Delft

Delft is famous for Delftware - the hand painted white and blue china - and a visit would not be complete without a tour of one of the factories. While researching the different tour options and places, I found out you could paint your own tile or vase and I knew this was the perfect activity for mom and me.

We arrived at the factory with our creative juices flowing and signed up for a painting workshop. Even after being warned vases are harder than tiles, we quickly signed up to paint our own flower vase (hey, I will now have two vases for flowers in our apartment). Then it was on to a tour of the factory to gather ideas and inspiration.One thing I did not know before visiting the factory was that at some point the clay for Delftware was hard to get and the factory made these gorgeous clay wall tiles and decorations instead.Having gathered our ideas, we were off to the workshop to begin our vases. The artist suggested we use one of their patterns that they apply to the vase with a charcoal rubbing. Yeah right, use someone else's ideas - no way, we had our own!

We started by sketching our designs on the vases with pencils. Mom went with a more modern approach and I used traditional designs.Painting on the vases was like painting with one color of watercolor - everything shows up and and there is no eraser. The paint looks black, but turns the trademark blue in the firing process.Two and half hours later we had finished with our vases. And frankly, I hope they come back from the kiln better than they went in.

Even if our vases get relegated to a storage closet, it was a great experience and hopefully I will be back to paint a tile soon!

**Thanks to Christina, my sister, for giving me this experience as a Christmas present!

Flowers, Flowers, and MORE Flowers

We went to the market on Thursday in Delft. After picking up the usual assortment of produce, fish, and cheese, I took mom to paradise - I mean the flower market. Unable to contain herself (and aware of the fact that I only own one vase), she bought 7 bundles of flowers.

Did I mention we live in a 300 sq ft apartment and only own one vase? Since we own about as many dishes as vases, it was a good thing the recyclables had not been taken out lately. Our apartment is now filled with no less than 8 containers of flowers! Matt keeps walking around and exclaiming, "Did you know we have flowers in the storage closet?"

Just kidding - Mom, they are beautiful. And don't worry - I'll continue to fill all the containers with water. I can't wait 'til you come back in April and the tulips are in season!

Christmas Day 2

Today we bundled up in our new long underwear (courtesy of Anna) and headed out for a midday picnic at Delft Midden.

Making my new favorite drink - Prosecco and fresh juice from the Albert Heijn - like a fancy mimosa. This juice happens to be the special "Feest Dagen" flavor of raspberries (64), apples (9), lime (1), and mint. Since it a seasonal flavor (and my favorite), I bought 4 bottles on Wednesday at 35% off and we are trying to drink them before leaving for London tomorrow. Needless to say, we are definitely getting our vitamins this week!

The smaller canals are starting to freeze; they have a very thin layer of ice floating at the top. While no one officially declares the canals safe to skate on, the general rule is 3 inches (10 centimeters) of frozen ice. The locals say they won't freeze this year, but I still keep hoping. (Mom, you might want to check and make sure your health insurance covers international spills in case they are frozen when you get here.)

We brought all of our stale bread and loaf ends to feed to the ducks, who are usually over anxious to gobble it up. Today instead we were greeted by a pair of hissing swans, who wanted nothing to do with our bread. In addition, they chase away the few coots that were interested in eating our bread. We brought our bread back home with us...

Christmas Time

There is no standing in line at 4am the day after Thanksgiving for the best bargain of the season. There is no jolly ole St. Nick to listen to your list of wishes. There is no frantic fury of gift buying on the eve of Christmas. There are no parking attendants in Santa suits directing scores of SUVs, driven by harried shoppers, into over crowded mall parking garages.

But it's Christmas time here just the same. The subtle hints of the season popping up everywhere from market squares to the grocery stores. My favorite signs of the season are:

• With the coming of holiday meals, the grocery store has an entire line of "Feest Dagen" foods. Extra dark chocolate spread for crepes and toast, special kaas stengels, rich soups, candied breads, flavored brie, and Christmas tree shaped chicken nuggets are just a few of the treasures that have shown up in the gorcery store over the past few weeks. The Christmas meal must be a fancy affair over here, because there are also wonderful prepared horderves, amuses, stuffed/spiced/marinated meats, and even fancy cauliflower! The best time to buy all this food is the morning of Christmas Eve, when almost all of it is going 35% off (because the grocery stores actually closes from Christmas Day 1 & 2).
• Almost every town square is transformed into an outdoor ice skating rink! Hopefully, weather permitting, this is where we will be on Christmas day - skating in the park with warm Christmas wine. Don't worry mom, the rink aren't schedule to close until after you visit!
  
• The streets of town are lit up with Christmas lights. In Delft there is a party in the town square called Lichtjesavond, where they light the Christmas tree for the first time. It was a lovely evening with music from the Delft symphony, dancers, torch bearers, and a small Christmas market.

I am sure next year I will be in line again at 4am the day after Thanksgiving, but it has been nice to have a low key holiday this year.

Here and There...

I know I haven't written in a while, but it's hard to type with mittens on. It's cold here and, frankly, nothing exciting enough has happen to entice me to take off my mittens. Maybe someone could convince my apartment building caretaker to raise the maximum temperature in our apartment.

We have been here for almost four months now. It is starting to feel like home (rather a home conducted in subtitles).However, there are some things I don't think I will ever get use to over here.

If you ever come to visit, undoubtedly the first night you will be woken up several times to loud explosions. Okay, maybe jet lag will save you the first night, but the second night nonetheless expect a broken sleep. No this is not because we live in a war zone, although sometimes I think that. It is because fireworks are just illegal enough to be cool over here, but not illegal enough to actually stop anyone from setting them off. For some reasons fireworks are not saved for special occasions, but rather are appropriate and fun for any time of day or night, 365 days a year. And we are not talking about wimpy fireworks you would let your grade-schooler set-off in the backyard, these are loud monstrosities that make it above low-rise (5-6 story) apartment buildings to light up the neighborhood. Come visit - everyday is a party! Next Week we'll let you how the New Year's Eve fireworks in London compare the our own nightly neighborhood show.

Gas Update

One of the most common questions we get when talking to friends and family is "What is the price of gas?" While I knew the price of gas was not dropping dramatically here like in the US, I was unsure of the answer. So today I sought out a gas station and here is the answer:

1 liter of gas = €1.239

I imagine that's not much of help to you, so...

Since 3.785 liters = 1 gallon,

1 gallon of gas = €4.69.

and with today's conversion rate of:

€1 = $1.287

gas costs a whopping $6.04 a gallon over here.

One of the many reasons we choose mass transit...

Lazy Weekend

As you can tell from the snow pictures, it has gotten cold here. We had a few lazy days at home this past weekend and took a break from the site seeing.

On Saturday we originally planned to take a walking tour of the architecture in Rotterdam. We saw exactly two building before the cold and wind pushed us back into the train station for Option 2. There really was no Option 2, since we were on a tight schedule to make it to Goes for dinner, so we ducked into a humongous bookstore and browsed for a bit.

We then traveled to Goes for the evening to visit some old neighbors. The visit was lovely and the dinner was delicious. It was nice spend an evening in a real home and catch up with old friends.

On Sunday we woke up to a snow flurry. After snapping a few pictures from our balcony, we settled in for a day of movies, books, and hot chocolate. It was a wonderfully, lazy day.

Next weekend we will get back to exploring Europe.

Snow!

the view from our balcony