It's early Saturday morning here in Amsterdam and I just checked my flight status... still scheduled to go out on time. There are terrible storms here right now... gale force 9 winds are expected. I'm not exactly sure what that means, but everyone around here is talking about it. The apartment rental agency guy told me I should have a back-up plan in case my flight is canceled... the hotel front desk where Dan and his friends are staying told them a HUGE storm was on the way. The wind is really loud and I thought it was going to break my windows last night... can't wait to get up in the air! : (
Well, gotta get ready... cab is coming at 7:20am. See you in the States soon!
Friday, February 29, 2008
Last night in Amsterdam
The final apartment inspection went well... the guy from the rental agency told me that the place was the cleanest anyone has ever left it. I think he also wanted to get out of there fast so he was trying to get the owner to stop looking through all the cabinets and stuff.
One thing he did find... apparently, I did not know the correct place to remove the lint from the dryer. Here is a pic of the wad of lint that had built up over the past four months (OOPS!)... the guy from the rental agency took it out of the dryer so the owner didn't see it! thx! : )
After the inspection, I hit the gym for one last time. Then, I met up with Dan and 6 of his friends that were in town for dinner and a few drinks. Dan is traveling around (Barcelona, Dublin, Munich) with one of the guys for the next week or so, and the other guys are going to Italy. They are all meeting back up in Amsterdam for a day before flying back to the States.
A few people from the Rotterdam office were at a concert in Amsterdam, so we met up with them at an Irish pub. I should have paid better attention to how late the trams run because I left the bar at 12:45 and turns out the last tram to Centraal Station was at 12:34. Nice. Considering Amsterdam is a pretty safe city and there are people everywhere at all hours, I decided to just walk home... made it back just fine, but saw some strange people along the way. : )
One thing he did find... apparently, I did not know the correct place to remove the lint from the dryer. Here is a pic of the wad of lint that had built up over the past four months (OOPS!)... the guy from the rental agency took it out of the dryer so the owner didn't see it! thx! : )
After the inspection, I hit the gym for one last time. Then, I met up with Dan and 6 of his friends that were in town for dinner and a few drinks. Dan is traveling around (Barcelona, Dublin, Munich) with one of the guys for the next week or so, and the other guys are going to Italy. They are all meeting back up in Amsterdam for a day before flying back to the States.
A few people from the Rotterdam office were at a concert in Amsterdam, so we met up with them at an Irish pub. I should have paid better attention to how late the trams run because I left the bar at 12:45 and turns out the last tram to Centraal Station was at 12:34. Nice. Considering Amsterdam is a pretty safe city and there are people everywhere at all hours, I decided to just walk home... made it back just fine, but saw some strange people along the way. : )
Happy Friday
And Happy Leap Year Day. I was watching the news this morning and they were going through all the history of Leap Year and why we have them... and they were talking about a tradition in the UK, which coincidentally my Dad had already mentioned to me a few days ago. I guess it is tradition that women may propose to their boyfriends on February 29th... and if the guy says "no", he has to buy the girl a gift. (Warning to Matt: you might not want to answer the phone today when I call.. just kidding!!)
Well, I'm all packed up! I managed to fit everything into my bags... amazing feat, I know. I do have a box full of stuff here at the office that I'm shipping back. Without that box, I would've had some problems getting all my crap home. Last night, I cleaned the apartment and ironed the last set of sheets I washed. I meet with the rental agency tonight after work and then I'm all set.
I picked up a box of chocolates and some cookies to hand out at work today as this is my last day in the Amsterdam office. The bakery had lots of Easter stuff already, so I got these little guys... too cute! : )
Tomorrow at this time... I'll be on a plane on my way home! I can't wait! : )
Well, I'm all packed up! I managed to fit everything into my bags... amazing feat, I know. I do have a box full of stuff here at the office that I'm shipping back. Without that box, I would've had some problems getting all my crap home. Last night, I cleaned the apartment and ironed the last set of sheets I washed. I meet with the rental agency tonight after work and then I'm all set.
I picked up a box of chocolates and some cookies to hand out at work today as this is my last day in the Amsterdam office. The bakery had lots of Easter stuff already, so I got these little guys... too cute! : )
Tomorrow at this time... I'll be on a plane on my way home! I can't wait! : )
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Packing is no fun
My apartment looks like a tornado hit it right now... such a mess! I managed to get everything out of the drawers, closets, cabinets and "organized" so that it will be easy to pack. I'm still not sure everything is going to fit in my suitcase and duffle bag. I brought a bunch of my shoes to work so that I can pack them in a box here and ship them back to the Chicago office. My shoes (a lot of boots!) are big and heavy and take up a lot of room, so hopefully I can free up enough space for the rest of my stuff in my suitcase. We'll see!
I didn't plan the cash situation too well... I ran out of cash yesterday and had to take out more this morning. I'm sure I'll find a way to spend whatever is left over, though. I'm looking forward to the duty-free at the airport! : )
I arranged the "check-out" with the apartment rental agency. They are coming to my place on Friday at 5:15pm to go through the inventory of the apartment. Also, they are going to check how much "energy" I used while here. There is a fee if I used too much, but I'm not sure how much is "too much" and what that fee is... hope I don't have to find out. I've ironed most of the sheets (they requested this... I would not do this on my own) and will do a final cleaning of the place tomorrow night. Apparently, I am cleaning the place for the next person, who might possibly be moving in the afternoon of the day I leave.
I set up my taxi to the airport online and I'm supposed to get a call on Friday night telling me what time they are picking me up Saturday morning. The email they sent said if I don't hear from them by 8:15pm Friday, I have to call some 0900 number to find out the time. This is so typical and drives me crazy here. Every number I've had to call for customer service is an 0900 number, which charges a crazy fee per minute. And when you call, you are always put on hold for at least 3 minutes... such a rip-off!
Countdown... less than 4 days to go! : )
I didn't plan the cash situation too well... I ran out of cash yesterday and had to take out more this morning. I'm sure I'll find a way to spend whatever is left over, though. I'm looking forward to the duty-free at the airport! : )
I arranged the "check-out" with the apartment rental agency. They are coming to my place on Friday at 5:15pm to go through the inventory of the apartment. Also, they are going to check how much "energy" I used while here. There is a fee if I used too much, but I'm not sure how much is "too much" and what that fee is... hope I don't have to find out. I've ironed most of the sheets (they requested this... I would not do this on my own) and will do a final cleaning of the place tomorrow night. Apparently, I am cleaning the place for the next person, who might possibly be moving in the afternoon of the day I leave.
I set up my taxi to the airport online and I'm supposed to get a call on Friday night telling me what time they are picking me up Saturday morning. The email they sent said if I don't hear from them by 8:15pm Friday, I have to call some 0900 number to find out the time. This is so typical and drives me crazy here. Every number I've had to call for customer service is an 0900 number, which charges a crazy fee per minute. And when you call, you are always put on hold for at least 3 minutes... such a rip-off!
Countdown... less than 4 days to go! : )
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Jimmy Kimmel responds
First, just a little background on this whole thing... I don't watch the Jimmy Kimmel show, so if I mess up the story, I'm sorry. But I guess that every night before signing off, Jimmy Kimmel does a little joke where he says "Apologies to Matt Damon, but we ran out of time", like he wasn't important enough to be on the show or something. Well, Matt Damon finally came on the show and Jimmy brought him out on stage and then bumped him at the very end saying they ran out of time. Then Matt Damon got crazy angry and stormed off the stage (it was a skit, but I think some people thought it was real because Matt seemed so mad... you can check it out here for yourself). Well, then Sarah Silverman (Jimmy's girlfriend) made the video which is linked below and then he responded... pretty funny stuff! : )
About a month ago, Sarah Silverman had something to tell her boyfriend Jimmy Kimmel (see video).
Well, now Jimmy Kimmel has responded back to the news by dropping his own bombshell on his post-Oscar show the other night (see video). I love all the cameos in this thing... hilarious!
About a month ago, Sarah Silverman had something to tell her boyfriend Jimmy Kimmel (see video).
Well, now Jimmy Kimmel has responded back to the news by dropping his own bombshell on his post-Oscar show the other night (see video). I love all the cameos in this thing... hilarious!
Monday, February 25, 2008
Really makes you want to fly
Pilot dies mid-flight... these are the kind of stories I don't like to see 5 days before I'm taking a long flight! Apparently, this pilot died of "natural causes" (at the age of 43???).
I had to stop watching "Air Crash Investigation" on the National Geographic Channel here because I kept freaking out every time something happened while I was on a plane. I'd think to myself... this is EXACTLY what happened right before that plane ran off the runway in Canada! I hate flying enough as it is... don't need to make it any worse.
I had to stop watching "Air Crash Investigation" on the National Geographic Channel here because I kept freaking out every time something happened while I was on a plane. I'd think to myself... this is EXACTLY what happened right before that plane ran off the runway in Canada! I hate flying enough as it is... don't need to make it any worse.
Monday = less tourists : )
I really like Mondays here... it's quieter and much easier to walk around at night. There aren't the hordes of tourists that invade the city starting about Thursday night every week. On Mondays, no one is yelling, singing, etc. at the top of their lungs outside my window, less cabs come through honking at the oblivious tourists... it's just so much more peaceful. I went to the gym tonight and barely had to dodge any people... so nice!
After being so light on work last week, today I finally got the data in for a huge Amsterdam project I was assigned to... figures! We had requested the information from the client back in early January. At that time, I was told it was a "rush" project and I had to "drop everything" to work on it. I looked through the data today and all the descriptions/legends are in Dutch (not a big surprise), but no one seems to be able to tell me what I'm actually looking at (or more likely, wants to take the time to tell me). Great... I tried popping words into an online translator, but that is even more confusing because it does a literal translation... which is actually pretty funny sometimes (an example: the word for gender translates to either "family" or if the word Partner is after it, it translates to "slaughtered" for some reason. So instead of "gender of the partner/spouse", I get "slaughtered partner" from the translator). I'll be so glad to get back into the English speaking world again! : )
I am REALLY looking forward to coming home... normal food, regular television, people who speak English (for the most part anyway), getting to see Matt : ) and my family and friends again, so many reasons! One thing I am NOT looking forward to is the weather. I looked up what the weather is in Chicago compared to here... it's so cold!!! And the forecast doesn't even factor in the windchill! : (
Although it rains almost every day here, at least it's warmer. I was hoping Chicago would warm up before I had to come back... no such luck, I guess.
After being so light on work last week, today I finally got the data in for a huge Amsterdam project I was assigned to... figures! We had requested the information from the client back in early January. At that time, I was told it was a "rush" project and I had to "drop everything" to work on it. I looked through the data today and all the descriptions/legends are in Dutch (not a big surprise), but no one seems to be able to tell me what I'm actually looking at (or more likely, wants to take the time to tell me). Great... I tried popping words into an online translator, but that is even more confusing because it does a literal translation... which is actually pretty funny sometimes (an example: the word for gender translates to either "family" or if the word Partner is after it, it translates to "slaughtered" for some reason. So instead of "gender of the partner/spouse", I get "slaughtered partner" from the translator). I'll be so glad to get back into the English speaking world again! : )
I am REALLY looking forward to coming home... normal food, regular television, people who speak English (for the most part anyway), getting to see Matt : ) and my family and friends again, so many reasons! One thing I am NOT looking forward to is the weather. I looked up what the weather is in Chicago compared to here... it's so cold!!! And the forecast doesn't even factor in the windchill! : (
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Although it rains almost every day here, at least it's warmer. I was hoping Chicago would warm up before I had to come back... no such luck, I guess.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
One week to go...
My last weekend in Amsterdam... today, I crossed off a few more things I wanted to see before I leave.
Nieuwe Kerk (The New Church)
This is a church in Dam Square that has a temporary exhibition right now with a bunch of artifacts from Afghanistan. It was interesting to read about the history of the country and how the artifacts were hidden from the Taliban and just recently restored and put on display. Apparently, the artifacts had been stored in a vault in the Central Bank in Kabul with 7 locks on the door... where the key to each lock was given to a different person who would hand down the key to his eldest son at his death. The Taliban even tried to use explosives to open the vault, but failed.
The exhibit was cool and all, but the whole thing totally hid the church, which was disappointing because from what I could see of the church, it was really beautiful. I overheard a man complaining to the ticket taker about just that, too.
Some random pics from Dam Square
These crazy girls dressed all in colorful Punky-Brewster style clothes went up to the street performers and started dancing around them in a circle... pretty funny. The other pic is of some dogs I thought were pretty.
Albert Cuyp Market
Since my failed attempt at going to the Albert Cuyp market last Sunday (only day it is closed!), I decided to walk through today. So many interesting things on sale there... if you need something, you could probably find it there.
I bought a fresh fruit smoothie with banana, strawberry and orange juice. I also picked up some smoked almonds... very tasty.
Some Britney-style wigs and a bunch of fish
Fresh fruit/veggies and Herring & pickle sandwiches
Stedelijk Museum (Contemporary Art)
No pics here... this museum was not exactly what I had expected. Maybe because this is a temporary location they've scaled down the amount of stuff, I don't know. But it was only two floors and much smaller than I thought it would be. There was a really interesting exhibit of photos taken over the past 60 years by the Magnum agency... kind of chronicled the major events over that period of time.
Verzetsmuseum (Dutch Resistance Museum)
This museum was named the best historical museum of The Netherlands. It tells the story of the Dutch people in World War II, with the German occupation and the Dutch resistance movement between 1940-1945. This was definitely a favorite museum of mine. The museum was set up really well with everything laid out chronologically including pictures, clothes, documents, propaganda, radio broadcasts, films, personal stories/quotes... gave a very good overview of what happened.
Nieuwe Kerk (The New Church)
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This is a church in Dam Square that has a temporary exhibition right now with a bunch of artifacts from Afghanistan. It was interesting to read about the history of the country and how the artifacts were hidden from the Taliban and just recently restored and put on display. Apparently, the artifacts had been stored in a vault in the Central Bank in Kabul with 7 locks on the door... where the key to each lock was given to a different person who would hand down the key to his eldest son at his death. The Taliban even tried to use explosives to open the vault, but failed.
The exhibit was cool and all, but the whole thing totally hid the church, which was disappointing because from what I could see of the church, it was really beautiful. I overheard a man complaining to the ticket taker about just that, too.
Some random pics from Dam Square
These crazy girls dressed all in colorful Punky-Brewster style clothes went up to the street performers and started dancing around them in a circle... pretty funny. The other pic is of some dogs I thought were pretty.
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Albert Cuyp Market
Since my failed attempt at going to the Albert Cuyp market last Sunday (only day it is closed!), I decided to walk through today. So many interesting things on sale there... if you need something, you could probably find it there.
I bought a fresh fruit smoothie with banana, strawberry and orange juice. I also picked up some smoked almonds... very tasty.
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Some Britney-style wigs and a bunch of fish
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Fresh fruit/veggies and Herring & pickle sandwiches
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Stedelijk Museum (Contemporary Art)
No pics here... this museum was not exactly what I had expected. Maybe because this is a temporary location they've scaled down the amount of stuff, I don't know. But it was only two floors and much smaller than I thought it would be. There was a really interesting exhibit of photos taken over the past 60 years by the Magnum agency... kind of chronicled the major events over that period of time.
Verzetsmuseum (Dutch Resistance Museum)
This museum was named the best historical museum of The Netherlands. It tells the story of the Dutch people in World War II, with the German occupation and the Dutch resistance movement between 1940-1945. This was definitely a favorite museum of mine. The museum was set up really well with everything laid out chronologically including pictures, clothes, documents, propaganda, radio broadcasts, films, personal stories/quotes... gave a very good overview of what happened.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Run out and buy these!
Apparently, Reebok and Kool-Aid have teamed up to make Kool-Aid scented tennis shoes for adults... has anyone seen these yet? Strange.
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Week Wrap-Up
Sorry I have been slacking on the blog this week. The week hasn't been that exciting... you aren't missin' much. : )
Let's see...
Tuesday
I went to the gym. While I was there, I saw this vertically challenged guy who had to be less than 4 ft tall. He was all built up and looked like one of those little plastic He-Man dolls. He was dressed in a tight tank top and those little tight half-short type things. Too bad I don't have a picture. It was quite a sight.
Oh, and when I left the gym, the guy at the reception desk told me (in a somewhat scolding manner) that I had to bring a separate pair of shoes next time to wear while working out... you can't come in with the same shoes on that you want to work out in. I've never been told that before in all the times I've been to Bally's back in Chicago, so I was surprised he said that (and that he acted all offended that I hadn't changed my shoes), especially considering how ghetto I think this gym is. The floors are old wood that's all scratched up and the equipment is pretty old. I could understand it if the gym was like high-class or something. All the streets here are brick and there isn't any grass around anywhere, so it's not like you could track in tar or mud. Whatever.
Wednesday
Seriously boring day... nothing exciting happened. Didn't even make it to the gym.
I did find something out at work about the canal boats in this city... according to a tour boat operator that Jonathan met, if you see a boat that is sinking in a canal and the police have tagged it as "abandoned", and you have means to restore it, you can take it for free. I guess it saves the police money on towing and storing it.
I hadn't seen a boat that was under water until today (Friday)... I'll have to let Jonathan know!
Thursday
I went shopping because I really wanted to pick up a date book (or agenda as they are called here) and I figured they would be on sale now. I went to a few places, but finally hit the jackpot at my favorite dept store (Vroom & Dreesmann). The only problem with these agendas is that they all had the months shown with the days listed on the left and the weeks on the top (so there were 7 rows and 4 columns instead of 4 rows and 7 columns). At first, I thought this wouldn't be bad, but it was on each page and the more I looked at it, the more it bothered me. I finally found ONE that was the other way and I bought that. It was nothing special... looks like a checkbook and it was only 2 euros on sale. Can't complain about that!
Friday (today)
I haven't been very busy at work, so I took Friday (today) off. Actually, quite a few people have been taking time off at my company. The Amsterdam office's work load is right in between two busy times, so people are taking advantage of it. Just another reason why I think they had us stay a few weeks too long.
I thought I would spend my day off walking around Amsterdam and sightseeing, but the weather is SO crappy today that it's just no fun to even walk anywhere. It's raining horizontally!
I went to the gym this morning, it was pretty dead. At one point, I looked around and I was the only person in the treadmill/bike room.
When I left, the girl at the front desk says to me "you sure haven't come into the gym much, have you?!?!" I was thinking... geez, I've been in here on average every other day since I signed up... they must be hard-core here. Well, turns out they haven't been signing me into the computer when I come in, so it looked like I'd only been there twice. Fine, mystery solved... but still, does she really need to make the comment?
I stopped off at the grocery store on my way home. There is a huge Smurf promotion going on right now at the store. Is there a new Smurf movie coming out soon or something? I google'd this and turns out, there is supposed to be a trilogoy of animated 3D Smurf movies coming out with the first one due in 2008 (which is also the 50th anniversary of the Smurfs... really, they are that old???). It also turns out that the Smurfs were created by a guy in Brussels, Belgium... that explains why there were so many Smurf figurines there. Anyway, the grocery store is giving away little Smurf toys if you spend 15 euros or more. You can also collect stamps and get a stuffed Smurf. Too bad I had already done my big grocery shopping before the promotion started. I had just stopped in today for some of the fresh juices they have there... they are SO awesome! Pure fruit smoothies... there's even a little tag on the side that shows how many of each fruit is included in the bottle. I love this stuff!
Sometimes, I wish technology would allow me to do a scratch-n-sniff blog... every time I walk to the front door of my apartment building, I get a huge whiff of pot. I can't even explain how overwhelming it is sometimes... that's where the scratch-n-sniff would come in handy! : ) I live really close to a famous coffeeshop (my door is on the left in the pic below and the coffeeshop is a few buildings to the right). On weekends, it gets even stronger because more people are out and about hitting up the coffeeshop. When I came back from the grocery store today, it was particularly pungent.
Let's see...
Tuesday
I went to the gym. While I was there, I saw this vertically challenged guy who had to be less than 4 ft tall. He was all built up and looked like one of those little plastic He-Man dolls. He was dressed in a tight tank top and those little tight half-short type things. Too bad I don't have a picture. It was quite a sight.
Oh, and when I left the gym, the guy at the reception desk told me (in a somewhat scolding manner) that I had to bring a separate pair of shoes next time to wear while working out... you can't come in with the same shoes on that you want to work out in. I've never been told that before in all the times I've been to Bally's back in Chicago, so I was surprised he said that (and that he acted all offended that I hadn't changed my shoes), especially considering how ghetto I think this gym is. The floors are old wood that's all scratched up and the equipment is pretty old. I could understand it if the gym was like high-class or something. All the streets here are brick and there isn't any grass around anywhere, so it's not like you could track in tar or mud. Whatever.
Wednesday
Seriously boring day... nothing exciting happened. Didn't even make it to the gym.
I did find something out at work about the canal boats in this city... according to a tour boat operator that Jonathan met, if you see a boat that is sinking in a canal and the police have tagged it as "abandoned", and you have means to restore it, you can take it for free. I guess it saves the police money on towing and storing it.
I hadn't seen a boat that was under water until today (Friday)... I'll have to let Jonathan know!
Thursday
I went shopping because I really wanted to pick up a date book (or agenda as they are called here) and I figured they would be on sale now. I went to a few places, but finally hit the jackpot at my favorite dept store (Vroom & Dreesmann). The only problem with these agendas is that they all had the months shown with the days listed on the left and the weeks on the top (so there were 7 rows and 4 columns instead of 4 rows and 7 columns). At first, I thought this wouldn't be bad, but it was on each page and the more I looked at it, the more it bothered me. I finally found ONE that was the other way and I bought that. It was nothing special... looks like a checkbook and it was only 2 euros on sale. Can't complain about that!
Friday (today)
I haven't been very busy at work, so I took Friday (today) off. Actually, quite a few people have been taking time off at my company. The Amsterdam office's work load is right in between two busy times, so people are taking advantage of it. Just another reason why I think they had us stay a few weeks too long.
I thought I would spend my day off walking around Amsterdam and sightseeing, but the weather is SO crappy today that it's just no fun to even walk anywhere. It's raining horizontally!
I went to the gym this morning, it was pretty dead. At one point, I looked around and I was the only person in the treadmill/bike room.
When I left, the girl at the front desk says to me "you sure haven't come into the gym much, have you?!?!" I was thinking... geez, I've been in here on average every other day since I signed up... they must be hard-core here. Well, turns out they haven't been signing me into the computer when I come in, so it looked like I'd only been there twice. Fine, mystery solved... but still, does she really need to make the comment?
I stopped off at the grocery store on my way home. There is a huge Smurf promotion going on right now at the store. Is there a new Smurf movie coming out soon or something? I google'd this and turns out, there is supposed to be a trilogoy of animated 3D Smurf movies coming out with the first one due in 2008 (which is also the 50th anniversary of the Smurfs... really, they are that old???). It also turns out that the Smurfs were created by a guy in Brussels, Belgium... that explains why there were so many Smurf figurines there. Anyway, the grocery store is giving away little Smurf toys if you spend 15 euros or more. You can also collect stamps and get a stuffed Smurf. Too bad I had already done my big grocery shopping before the promotion started. I had just stopped in today for some of the fresh juices they have there... they are SO awesome! Pure fruit smoothies... there's even a little tag on the side that shows how many of each fruit is included in the bottle. I love this stuff!
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Sometimes, I wish technology would allow me to do a scratch-n-sniff blog... every time I walk to the front door of my apartment building, I get a huge whiff of pot. I can't even explain how overwhelming it is sometimes... that's where the scratch-n-sniff would come in handy! : ) I live really close to a famous coffeeshop (my door is on the left in the pic below and the coffeeshop is a few buildings to the right). On weekends, it gets even stronger because more people are out and about hitting up the coffeeshop. When I came back from the grocery store today, it was particularly pungent.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Boring Monday
Today, it was actually still light outside when I left work for the night! I am loving that the days are starting to last longer. Of course, I did leave work right at 5pm.
I think they had me stay a week or two too long here in Amsterdam. The work has totally slowed down and there isn't a lot for me to do... except leave early. : ) I hate not being busy at work, though... makes for long days. There really is a limit to the amount of slacking off one can do during a day before total boredom kicks in.
I think on Tuesday I will resort to cleaning off my desk and reading through training materials... you know it's getting bad when that happens.
After work, I went to the gym and worked out... training for the Shamrock Shuffle... ran 4 miles and walked 1 mile. Not bad for someone who before two weeks ago hadn't officially worked out since... well, for a very long time! I guess all the walking I've been doing here helps some. Luckily, the gym wasn't too crowded and no one smelly was anywhere near me this time. : )
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Sunday in Amsterdam
I decided to stay in Amsterdam and do some sightseeing on Sunday. Dan came over from Rotterdam on the train and we met up at the Rijksmuseum. It was really sunny out, but still chilly. There were lot of people hanging out at the Museumplein.
Rijksmuseum with ice skating rink
Currently, the Rijksmuseum is under construction, but it is still worth the trip inside. We did the audio tour which takes about 1/1.5 hours to get through everything. We saw sculptures, cermonial silver plates, a huge model ship, two more dollhouses similar to the one we saw in Utrecht yesterday, delftware, Rembrandt & Vemeer paintings and many other artists' works.
You aren't allowed to take any pictures in the museum... but here are a two of the famous paintings we saw while there.
Rembrandt's 'Nightwatch' and Vemeer's 'The Milkmaid'
After the Rijksmuseum, I had the bright idea of walking to the Albert Cuyp market... only to find out that the only day it is closed is Sunday. Oops! We stopped off at the Groene Vlinder for lunch, where the cook forgot our lunch and we waited over 30 minutes for toasted sandwiches.
I had wanted to check out the Houseboat Museum, so we jumped on a tram over to the Jordaan area of Amsterdam. The Houseboat Museum is ok. You could definitely feel it moving and I don't think I could live on one of those. I guess you get used to it, though. This houseboat used to be a barge that hauled sand, gravel and coal until the 1960's and then was renovated. The living area was pretty large but the ceiling was low... I barely cleared it. The sleeping quarters were tiny! I would have felt so claustrophobic in there.
Besides the outdoor urinals I've taken pictures of before... here is another option for men who maybe want a little more privacy. This was right by the entrance to the Houseboat Museum. I took this pic while a guy was in there and the flash went off... oops, busted. So much for being conspicuous.
After that, I showed Dan where Gollem was, that Belgian bar that I love. We had a beer there and then went across the alley to the Cracked Kettle, which sells all sorts of Belgian beers... and has a watch-cat that guards the door. : )
Rijksmuseum with ice skating rink
Currently, the Rijksmuseum is under construction, but it is still worth the trip inside. We did the audio tour which takes about 1/1.5 hours to get through everything. We saw sculptures, cermonial silver plates, a huge model ship, two more dollhouses similar to the one we saw in Utrecht yesterday, delftware, Rembrandt & Vemeer paintings and many other artists' works.
You aren't allowed to take any pictures in the museum... but here are a two of the famous paintings we saw while there.
Rembrandt's 'Nightwatch' and Vemeer's 'The Milkmaid'
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After the Rijksmuseum, I had the bright idea of walking to the Albert Cuyp market... only to find out that the only day it is closed is Sunday. Oops! We stopped off at the Groene Vlinder for lunch, where the cook forgot our lunch and we waited over 30 minutes for toasted sandwiches.
I had wanted to check out the Houseboat Museum, so we jumped on a tram over to the Jordaan area of Amsterdam. The Houseboat Museum is ok. You could definitely feel it moving and I don't think I could live on one of those. I guess you get used to it, though. This houseboat used to be a barge that hauled sand, gravel and coal until the 1960's and then was renovated. The living area was pretty large but the ceiling was low... I barely cleared it. The sleeping quarters were tiny! I would have felt so claustrophobic in there.
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Besides the outdoor urinals I've taken pictures of before... here is another option for men who maybe want a little more privacy. This was right by the entrance to the Houseboat Museum. I took this pic while a guy was in there and the flash went off... oops, busted. So much for being conspicuous.
After that, I showed Dan where Gollem was, that Belgian bar that I love. We had a beer there and then went across the alley to the Cracked Kettle, which sells all sorts of Belgian beers... and has a watch-cat that guards the door. : )
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Saturday, February 16, 2008
Day in Utrecht
Saturday, Dan and I met up in Utrecht, which is about 25 miles southeast of Amsterdam and is the home of Holland's largest university. The city is described as being similar to Amsterdam on a smaller scale. The canals are different because the water level is a lot lower than the street level, so restaurants and shops have opened up on the lower levels.
We spent the first hour walking around the city and through the markets that were set up outside the train station and along the canals.
We walked to the Dom tower, which is the tallest tower in Holland and also considered the largest musical instrument because it has over 50 bells inside. You can actually climb the steps to the top, but Dan and I voted against it. It was pretty cold out and close to noon... the bells were loud enough already and we were on the ground.
The interesting thing about the Domplein (Dom Square) is that there is all this space between the tower and the church (Domkerk) that actually is where the nave of the huge cathedral that connected the church and the tower once stood. It must have been one huge church! The middle of the church was destroyed by a freak tornado in 1674 and never rebuilt.
We went inside the Dom Church... not as much stained glass as most of the churches we've seen. We were staring at this interesting statue on the wall when a woman who worked at the church came over to explain to us what had happened to it... apparently, during the Reformation (16th century), churches were not allowed to have statues with faces on them, so the faces on here were lopped off. Strange.
After the church, we grabbed some lunch at Stadkasteel Oudaen, an old 13th century castle turned brewery on the Oudegracht (Old Canal) ... no pics of the place... I forgot. We tried the blond and wheat beers, which were both good.
Since we both have museumcards, we decided to hit up a few of the museums that allowed us free entry. You can buy a museumcard for 40 EUR (about $60) and it grants you access to over 400 museums throughout Holland... pretty good deal and nice because I wouldn't have gone to as many museums if I had to pay for them individually.
Our first stop was at the Museum von Speelklok tot Pierement (National Music Box and Street Organ Museum). If you've ever been on the pedestrian shopping street in Amsterdam on a busy weekend, you've probably heard one of these street organs... really loud and a guy is usually standing nearby shaking a can full of coins asking for donations. I'm not a fan of these things.
We skipped the full tour and just tagged along at the end of another one so we could hear one of the organs played. They only play them on guided tours (otherwise the place would be crazy!) Luckily, they close the doors between each room in the musuem and the rooms are somewhat soundproofed. We walked through the place pretty quickly... street organs, regular organs, grandfather clocks, player pianos.
After that, we went to the University Museum, which has the history of different fields of sciences. I think this was definitely my favorite of the day (yep, I'm a geek!). It is set up in separate rooms with doors and you never know what you are going to walk into next. The first room we saw had a wide range of objects dealing with science throughout time... the first microscope, electricity, photography, preseving jellyfish in glass, evolution of horses, humane ways to slaughter animals for food... luckily, there was an English handout for this room.
The next room we went to really needed no handout... it was all medical stuff - skeletons, a variety of things preserved in jars like body parts, whole fetuses, animals. Pretty freaky stuff.
The next floor was dedicated to a temporary exhibit about personality and the five factors of personality. We read that you could take a personality test and learn more about yourself... but, unfortunately, everything in this exhibit was in Dutch with no English translations, so were out of luck. From what we could tell, it looked really cool. : (
They did have a table you could sit at and determine if you were made for someone else. It looked like there were only two buttons on each side of the table, though. But since it was in Dutch, I really have no idea how it worked.
Next floor was a kids room with hands-on type experiments dealing with the senses. The kids got to wear little white lab coats and pretend to be scientists. This was the nose section... a bunch of elephant trunks.
Then, there was a room with animals and some more things preserved in jars. Here's me next to a bunch of sea animals.
We were a little worried because they had these drawers you could pull open to see what was inside... lucky for us, they were all filled with nice things.
Last room we went into had opthamology and dental equipment throughout history. The dental equipment was a little much... Dan and I said we'd probably rather just have lost our teeth! Here is a nice collection of shots:
After the University Museum, we went to the Centraal Museum... again, a wide range of stuff in here. The place was arranged pretty strange with staircases and elevators and we somehow missed an entire floor on the way up, but "found" it on the way down. Some of the highlights... Petronella de la Court's Dollhouse from the 17th century. The rooms are all elaborately decorated and the paintings on the walls were miniatures painted by the famous 17th century artists themselves.
In the basement was a huge 10th century boat that they excavated from the bottom of a canal and restored. The boat was made from a hollowed out tree... must have been a huge tree!
There was also a room full of Roman artifacts... including dice! I had one of those "oops, let's get out of here fast" moments. When we were walking up one of the stairways, I was reading the map of the museum and not paying attention to the big case of artificats on the wall and smacked right into it. Killed my shoulder! I kept walking into the next room and Dan said everything in the case was still moving. I didn't hear anything break, though. DOH!
After the Centraal Musuem, we walked to the Spoorwegmuseum (Dutch Railway Museum).
They had a train up on rafters so you could see what it looked like from underneath. There was also a tank.
We walked into a room where everyone was waiting in line for some sort of ride. The sign on the wall was in Dutch, but it said something about people with heart problems and young children shouldn't ride this ride. You couldn't see what it was because you had to wait for a light to turn white and then you walked through a doorway into this room that looked dark with blacklights. Here is the only thing we saw...
Some woman saw that we were totally confused and told us you ride in a mining car and it's like a roller-coaster/haunted house. Dan hates spiders and I hate roller-coasters, so this oughta be fun. We figured kids go on this thing, so it can't be that bad. The light finally turned white and we went in the door and got into this little mining type car. The woman made sure we were all buckled up and we were on our way. It was a very weird ride. Most of it was pitch black, which I am not a fan of. We kept creaking slowly up and down little hills... nothing bad at all. Every once in a while something would pop out of a train near us, but we kept waiting for spiders or something big to jump out at us. There were a couple of times where they make you feel like you are going to crash with a train... pitch black and you see a speeding train's headlights coming at you and you are speeding up... as a kid, that would have given me nightmares. Then at some point you get to a wall and they spin you around and drop you down to the floor below. Then it just ended. We both said as kids it would have scared us... I was scared of everything as a kid, though.
Anyway, the bathrooms in the museum were strange and I took a pic (of course!). Dan said the men's was weird, too.
I was totally worn out after all that and went home and crashed at like 9:30. Yep, exciting Saturday night for me. : )
We spent the first hour walking around the city and through the markets that were set up outside the train station and along the canals.
We walked to the Dom tower, which is the tallest tower in Holland and also considered the largest musical instrument because it has over 50 bells inside. You can actually climb the steps to the top, but Dan and I voted against it. It was pretty cold out and close to noon... the bells were loud enough already and we were on the ground.
The interesting thing about the Domplein (Dom Square) is that there is all this space between the tower and the church (Domkerk) that actually is where the nave of the huge cathedral that connected the church and the tower once stood. It must have been one huge church! The middle of the church was destroyed by a freak tornado in 1674 and never rebuilt.
We went inside the Dom Church... not as much stained glass as most of the churches we've seen. We were staring at this interesting statue on the wall when a woman who worked at the church came over to explain to us what had happened to it... apparently, during the Reformation (16th century), churches were not allowed to have statues with faces on them, so the faces on here were lopped off. Strange.
After the church, we grabbed some lunch at Stadkasteel Oudaen, an old 13th century castle turned brewery on the Oudegracht (Old Canal) ... no pics of the place... I forgot. We tried the blond and wheat beers, which were both good.
Since we both have museumcards, we decided to hit up a few of the museums that allowed us free entry. You can buy a museumcard for 40 EUR (about $60) and it grants you access to over 400 museums throughout Holland... pretty good deal and nice because I wouldn't have gone to as many museums if I had to pay for them individually.
Our first stop was at the Museum von Speelklok tot Pierement (National Music Box and Street Organ Museum). If you've ever been on the pedestrian shopping street in Amsterdam on a busy weekend, you've probably heard one of these street organs... really loud and a guy is usually standing nearby shaking a can full of coins asking for donations. I'm not a fan of these things.
We skipped the full tour and just tagged along at the end of another one so we could hear one of the organs played. They only play them on guided tours (otherwise the place would be crazy!) Luckily, they close the doors between each room in the musuem and the rooms are somewhat soundproofed. We walked through the place pretty quickly... street organs, regular organs, grandfather clocks, player pianos.
After that, we went to the University Museum, which has the history of different fields of sciences. I think this was definitely my favorite of the day (yep, I'm a geek!). It is set up in separate rooms with doors and you never know what you are going to walk into next. The first room we saw had a wide range of objects dealing with science throughout time... the first microscope, electricity, photography, preseving jellyfish in glass, evolution of horses, humane ways to slaughter animals for food... luckily, there was an English handout for this room.
The next room we went to really needed no handout... it was all medical stuff - skeletons, a variety of things preserved in jars like body parts, whole fetuses, animals. Pretty freaky stuff.
  |
The next floor was dedicated to a temporary exhibit about personality and the five factors of personality. We read that you could take a personality test and learn more about yourself... but, unfortunately, everything in this exhibit was in Dutch with no English translations, so were out of luck. From what we could tell, it looked really cool. : (
They did have a table you could sit at and determine if you were made for someone else. It looked like there were only two buttons on each side of the table, though. But since it was in Dutch, I really have no idea how it worked.
Next floor was a kids room with hands-on type experiments dealing with the senses. The kids got to wear little white lab coats and pretend to be scientists. This was the nose section... a bunch of elephant trunks.
  |
Then, there was a room with animals and some more things preserved in jars. Here's me next to a bunch of sea animals.
We were a little worried because they had these drawers you could pull open to see what was inside... lucky for us, they were all filled with nice things.
Last room we went into had opthamology and dental equipment throughout history. The dental equipment was a little much... Dan and I said we'd probably rather just have lost our teeth! Here is a nice collection of shots:
After the University Museum, we went to the Centraal Museum... again, a wide range of stuff in here. The place was arranged pretty strange with staircases and elevators and we somehow missed an entire floor on the way up, but "found" it on the way down. Some of the highlights... Petronella de la Court's Dollhouse from the 17th century. The rooms are all elaborately decorated and the paintings on the walls were miniatures painted by the famous 17th century artists themselves.
In the basement was a huge 10th century boat that they excavated from the bottom of a canal and restored. The boat was made from a hollowed out tree... must have been a huge tree!
There was also a room full of Roman artifacts... including dice! I had one of those "oops, let's get out of here fast" moments. When we were walking up one of the stairways, I was reading the map of the museum and not paying attention to the big case of artificats on the wall and smacked right into it. Killed my shoulder! I kept walking into the next room and Dan said everything in the case was still moving. I didn't hear anything break, though. DOH!
After the Centraal Musuem, we walked to the Spoorwegmuseum (Dutch Railway Museum).
They had a train up on rafters so you could see what it looked like from underneath. There was also a tank.
  |
We walked into a room where everyone was waiting in line for some sort of ride. The sign on the wall was in Dutch, but it said something about people with heart problems and young children shouldn't ride this ride. You couldn't see what it was because you had to wait for a light to turn white and then you walked through a doorway into this room that looked dark with blacklights. Here is the only thing we saw...
Some woman saw that we were totally confused and told us you ride in a mining car and it's like a roller-coaster/haunted house. Dan hates spiders and I hate roller-coasters, so this oughta be fun. We figured kids go on this thing, so it can't be that bad. The light finally turned white and we went in the door and got into this little mining type car. The woman made sure we were all buckled up and we were on our way. It was a very weird ride. Most of it was pitch black, which I am not a fan of. We kept creaking slowly up and down little hills... nothing bad at all. Every once in a while something would pop out of a train near us, but we kept waiting for spiders or something big to jump out at us. There were a couple of times where they make you feel like you are going to crash with a train... pitch black and you see a speeding train's headlights coming at you and you are speeding up... as a kid, that would have given me nightmares. Then at some point you get to a wall and they spin you around and drop you down to the floor below. Then it just ended. We both said as kids it would have scared us... I was scared of everything as a kid, though.
Anyway, the bathrooms in the museum were strange and I took a pic (of course!). Dan said the men's was weird, too.
I was totally worn out after all that and went home and crashed at like 9:30. Yep, exciting Saturday night for me. : )
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