Istanbul - Bridge to Asia

This city has been high on our travel list for many, many years but we never seemed to have the time to get there. So after we had to cancel our spring skiing trip to the Alps due to some work issues, we started looking for reasonable flights for a long weekend away and Istanbul popped up as a cheap destination. We jumped on it!

I must admit that the city did not live up to my expectations. However, in all honesty, my expectations were extremely high. I really wanted to see remnants of the thousands of years of history straddling two continents as the seat of three gigantic empires. Those remnants were there, but they weren't in-your-face like Rome. You have to dig a little deeper. But the effort paid off as we uncovered layer after layer of this fascinating city with the help of the extremely friendly and hospitable local Turks.


The sprawling complex on the left of the hill is were the sultans ruled their empire from - Topkapi palace. The Roman and Byzantine palaces were also here, although they were down on the waterfront.

The Blue Mosque at night. Beautiful to see from almost anywhere in the city.

The Haghia Sophia has been altered over thousands of years. It started as a church, then was converted to a mosque. We loved the orange half-moon only visible from this particular angle because of the dome in front.Beth did a TREMENDOUS amount of shopping. She loved the Turkish markets. This is the world famous Grand Bazaar. A huge labyrinth of covered shopping. We liked the Spice Market better, but didn't get any good photo's down there.

Haggling is the way to do business in Turkey. Beth was getting pretty good at it by the end of the trip as you can tell by the annoyed look on this vendor's face. She was shopping for Katie and Jodie for Christmas and this guy didn't want to budge on price. Needless to say, Beth finally got them two gifts for the price that she wanted. "You are taking food from my children's mouths!...But, if you want carpet, I have brother..."



Amsterdam coffee shop? Nope, a Turkish hukka lounge. We stuck to beer.




We hiked out to the old wall that successfully protected the city for more than 1000 years against countless sieges. It's really amazing how much space they walled in for the city.





The sultan was finally able to take the city (then Constantinople) by building the "Fortress of Europe" further up the Bosphorus. They built this purely to take Istanbul....and it worked by allowing them to dig in a protect against counter-attack. Amazing.



This Egyptian obelisk was looted by the Romans and set up in the middle of the Hippodrome - a massive arena to rival the Coliseum. We were shocked how crisp the carvings were for something that outlasted all of the Roman buildings and ruins.


The city was crawling with feral cats, which of course Beth befriended. The cats actually seemed pretty well cared for. We saw a lot of food put out for them and the many soldiers/police around the city were seen frequently playing with them.



But the feral dogs were really interesting to watch. We were sitting at the cafe pictured here when a family walked by with a dog on a leash. There are 4 feral dogs in the picture below. The leader is the dog lying by the grate in the upper right hand corner. He caught wind of the new dog and barked out a few orders. The pack quickly assembled (6 in all) and surrounded the domestic dog to attack. Several people had to jump in and scare the feral dogs off. This picture was taken after all the excitement when the pack settled back in to "lounge" mode. We saw lots of packs in the city. One was chasing cats through a back alley and another gave us a nervous scare in a remote part of one of the parks. Crazy!



This picture is primarily for Beth and I's memory benefit. Just one of those crazy things that we walked past every night on the way back to the hotel - this little one-seater bench on a quiet alley. We're wondering which bureaucrat requested this bench. "I have brother. He makes nice bench for you."

The call to prayer was pretty cool to hear echoing through the city (5 times a day). This little cafe was just behind the Blue Mosque, so the sound is a bit tinty.

And this video is for my mom. We always talk about how much we like the markets here in Europe so I tried to capture a bit of the feel as we walked through this one.

Drunk parking

Forget about all the dangers of drunken driving. Would you want to try and park here after a few beers? We watched this guy pull into this spot without a care in the world. He backed it in just like parallel parking on any suburban street and then climbed out the passengers side. Look how close to the edge that sucker is! Good thing it's in Amsterdam and you don't have to go anywhere near your car for a night on the town. No drunk driving...no drunk parking/swimming.

Uitlaat

When I returned to work a few years ago, one of the biggest challenges that Beth and I faced was what to do with Sage during the day. Beth travels so frequently for her work that we couldn't count on one of us to always be there to take care of Sage, and with her being so high-strung (Sage, not Beth), it was an extra complication.

Welcome to the world of Uitlaat Service in Holland! Because the Dutch love their dogs so much there is an entire (regulated) industry built up around meeting the doggy day care challenge. Our friends Sean and Sandra had used a couple of different uitlaat services for their dog Clover, but they didn't really have a good recommendation for us because they had a few bad experiences with the ones that they used. Clover has hip dysplacia and the doggy walks can get rather rowdy with 8 different dogs running wild through the woods. Clover frequently came home very sore after the walks and the services were reluctant to give her the extra attention that she needed.

So, I turned to the internet to look up a few of the other local services. And what does a typical guy look for when searching for a doggy walk business on the internet? Price? Location of where they walk the dog? References? Nope, nope, and nope again. Well, don't get me wrong, all of those things matter, but the real decision factor for me was when I saw the pictures posted on each of their websites. I knew immediately that AAI was for us. Adrianna was hot!

So I called her up and we scheduled an "intake" for Sage. Can you believe it? Sage had to go through an interview process to make sure that she was suitable for the uitlaat service. Don't forget, I was going to pay 190 Euros per month to this service to take her out and walk in the woods! Unbelievable!

Well, when Adrianna came to the house that day we could hear her coming more than a block away. Her rickety old blue van came sputtering down the street, pistons pinging and smoke coughing out of the tailpipe. Baying and barking dogs were the only noise louder than the van itself. The van parked in the middle of the street and Adrianna got out to pick up Sage for a test run. I was a little nervous, but Sage seemed to like her so we sent her off like anxious parents on their child's first day of school, wondering if everything would be ok...and hoping that she would behave and be accepted into the service.

It was a nail biting 1 hour, but when Sage got back an hour later, tired, hungry, and stinking like cigarettes, the reports were all good. Adrianne would take Sage on as a customer.

Since that day, there has only been one bad incident with Sage and her uitlaat service (which will have to wait for another post to tell, or maybe even the next book given the amount of story telling material that it provided).

Sage loves her uitlaat!

Even when both Beth and I are working from home, Sage will still go to the front hall around 11.00 and wait for her uitlaat. She wouldn't miss it for anything.

The only problem is that Adrianna finally bought a new van and Sage can't hear it coming down the street anymore. So from 11.00 until Adrianna arrives, Sage barks at every car that comes by, thinking that it is there to take her to the park.

Grappig, toch?





This is the only picture of the old van that I could find. This thing broke down so many times that it was almost funny...except that I would get an SMS at work from Adrianna saying that she couldn't pick Sage up because the van was in the shop again. Beth in Germany. Me in Utrecht. And a wound up dog waiting at home for her uitlaat...argh!!!

But now there is the nice, new snazzy van, complete with window seats for the doggies. You can see that Sage really likes it. Open door! Open door!

Don't worry....be happy!

There are two platitudes that I have inexplicably latched onto and use as boundary stakes for guiding me along as I try to make my way forward in my life. I know that sounds a bit strange, but it seems to be working for me (so far).

The first one grounds me in how I approach the randomness of life:

"The only difference between adversity and adventure is attitude."

Kind of a definition statement for platitude, right?

Well, it really does have some reinforcing value when faced with adversity. That adversity can be as simple as the inconvenience of a torrential downpour on mile 15 of a 30 mile bike ride. Or as complex and impacting as losing your job during an economic meltdown. Whenever you feel the tension of adversity building, it's always good to step back and run this little equation based platitude through your head. Adversity? Or adventure? The only variable is you. How you face your situation, and therefore experience it, really is your choice.

Speaking of experience....the second platitude is slightly more inane:

"Experiencing something is far more valuable than possessing something."

Hmmm. What the hell does that mean?!?

Well, for me anyway, it means that I enjoy the accumulation of experiences a lot more than the accumulation of things. It doesn't mean that I'm a hermit with no earthly possessions - not at all. I can spend money on stuff with the best of them. But I do get a far greater kick out of an experience than I do out of a purchase. I've never really been able to explain it better than that...until today.

I just came across this new study that seems to remove the "inaneness" from my second platitude. I hate when that happens! It makes me feel so ordinary.

But, it does hit the nail on the head about how I feel. I especially relate to how the study found that experiences are more rewarding because of how they are shared within your social network. And it was also interesting how cities and towns should focus on building opportunities for experiences for their citizens to help improve the quality of life.

Even if you don't agree, or find these types of journalistic studies inane in themselves, you might find a few nuggets for yourself in this one. Don't worry! Be happy!

Read study here.

Ice, Ice baby!

The Netherlands is crazy about ice! And after 12 years of luke-warm winters, anticipation was building as the cold weather set in over New Years and the local ponds and ditches began to freeze. It all came together one spectacular weekend in mid January when the temperature stayed well below zero and the days were filled with chalky blue skys. It was three days of heaven - now just a distant memory melted away by the typical late January drizzle.

But what an experience! Here are of few of the memories:

It started out with Sage's little pond in Caprera. She couldn't figure out how all those people got out onto the water.

Then, on the first night of the big freeze, we encountered a huge bon-fire and party at the local mill park. It was packed with skaters.

By the next day the ice on the large canals was thick enough - it was party time! This is the Ringvaart, a large canal (63 KM) that drains the polder now used for Schipol airport.

The "sidewalk" cafes moved onto the ice so that the skaters could stop and get cocoa or coffee. The National Train Service (NS) had to slow down the trains on several routes because so many skaters were crossing the tracks because the canal was not frozen under a train bridge. In some places, carpets were laid across roads for the same reason...so the skaters could cross the street without damaging their skates as they got to the next frozen section.

Everyone stretched out the skating until the last brilliant sunset...

...even as the ice was melting and the ducks were starting to reclaime their turf.

By the way, we never even go close to cold enough for the elfstedentocht...they were even still running icebreakers on the huge canals up north. Everyone is hoping for a cold February...

Veluwe

We normally go to Spain over New Years for a short winter holiday, but this year we decided stay a bit closer to home and visit the largest national park in The Netherlads - The Hoge Veluwe. The idea was to spend two days of vigorous hiking and then a day of complete relaxation at one of the largest sauna's in the country. We're sooo glad we decided to go this route this year. Here are a few pictures from the holiday.


These windswept grasslands could have been in Africa.


The park is famous for it's wildlife and we saw a lot of wild boar and red stag. But I have to admit that it felt a bit creepy to cross these game gates....kind of like Jurasic Park.


Another famous feature of the park is the white bicycles , available to just jump on and off at a whim.

With hundreds of kilometers of trails in the area, why wouldn't you take advantage of them to reach some of the remotest corners of the park?

It was a bit chilly, but having the handwarmers inside our gloves kept us nice and toasty.


"And that's the truth. Plphhhb!"

The old hunting lodge with frozen pond. (wait till you see the next blog entry with all the skating in the rest of the country).

It snowed on our last day in the park, so we began with one last hike through the white stuff. It was beautiful.

But more importantly, the coating of snow also made it perfect for spending the last day of this little excursion in nothing more than a bathrobe and slippers (or not) at The Zwaluwhoeve Wellness Resort. This place is a massive complex of saunas, steambaths, restaraunts, bars, relaxation rooms, fireplaces, ice-caves, gardens, hottubs, and swimming pools (both hot and cold). We go to our local sauna's almost every month, but after our few days of hiking and biking, we decided to do it up right and even signed up for a "Dance Warmup" session and a hot stone massage. Being a rythmically challenged white guy, the best part of the Dance Warmup for me was watching the instructor, but the hot stone massage was fantastic. The heat from the stone sears into your muscles and seems to hold there, slowly rippling out across your body, iliciting a slight groan of both pleasure and pain . Very cool.

This is our first all-day sauna excursion, but it most certainly won't be our last. This is high on the "Dan and Beth" recommendation list for a day of pampering.

Happy New Year!!!!

From the war zone....

With the economic turmoil around the globe this year, there seemed to be fewer fireworks on the streets in Haarlem. But the display - put on purely by individuals (some of whom drove down to Belgium for the illegal cluster displays), is still pretty impressive and lasted for almost 45 minutes.

Happy, Safe, and Prosperous New Year!!!

Merry Christmas

I wanted to put out a quick post wishing everyone Merry Christmas! Just a few videos and pictures from our Christmas in Holland....

We attended the annual sing-along in Zannenpark...what a lovely voice Beth has :-) ...

Not quite the midnight spectacle on the Grote Markt.

We choose nature this year for our Christmas morning traditional walk. David and Renee, you should recognize this one.

Bloody Aachen

A bit dramatic, right? Well, "Bloody Aachen" was the title of a book that I had when I was a kid growing up back in Appalachia. My brother and I both collected all kinds of World War II stuff, like soldiers, models, games, and books. This particular book chronicled the fall of the first German City to the allies during the war. The Americans thought that they would copy the German blitzkrieg model and just zip past the city on their way to more fruitful targets. But, typical of Americans with limited understanding of European history, they failed to realize the importance of the city to the Germans (Nazis) as the place where Charlemagne was buried and therefore the seat of the First Reich. (first of three if you remember correctly). Anyhow, the Germans dug in, fortified the city with extra battalions and were ordered to defend it "at all cost". The rest, so to speak, is history. The city was basically obliterated, but somehow, several of the key buildings from Charlemagne's time came out still standing.

All of this came back to me while I was scanning the map for a nearby German city to visit for our annual Christmas Market shopping, eating, and drinking extravaganza.

The city has been rebuilt, mostly to the old specifications, and the Christmas Market was fantastic! For a city that is probably not very high on tourist's list (if on the list at all), I'd recommend it as a MUST see, especially at Christmas. Here are some pictures from our little weekend in Bloody Aachen.

Beer halls are for Octoberfest. For Christmas Market, it's Glühwein. These tents were packed with merry makers.


A crowded market square in the old city...

...with plenty of sweets in the shop windows...

...and plenty of sweeties shopping for them.


Me? I went for the sausage! If I had to pick the one thing that Germans do well, it's sausage. Lekker!


This guy took advantage of the tourists by hanging his sausage grill over his shoulder and moving with the crowds. Once he had your attention, you couldn't get past him without a big, fat worst in your hand.


The city was founded by Romans (of course) due to these hot springs. Unfortunately this was Germany, so we couldn't get into the sauna in "the buff". Next time, we'll dust off the bathing suits and go for a swim.

But of course it was Charlemagne that made the city famous. He personally commissioned this door, still standing on the church that he is buried in. Amazing.

The city was rebuilt with a lot of flair...not your typical post-war construction. This sculpture was really cool and the contrast between modern and ancient is superbly done.

Of course we explored outside the center city as well. Besides the hot springs, there is no water in Aachen. So, what do you do with your parched puppy after a long walk in the woods? Take them for a swim this custom doggie dipping pool, complete with OSHA approved handrails. German efficiency!

What does it take to be the third largest economy in the world? Power! Aachen is just outside the industrial heart of Germany and when we climbed to the top of a hill, I was amazed to see 4 powerplants churning at full capacity (only three in the photo), powering the factories to the north. From what I could tell, they all looked nuclear...only the steam stacks can be seen.

Kicking off the holidays

We kicked off the holiday season this year with another delicious turkey for Thanksgiving. A whole turkey is a bit hard to come by over here, but the local butcher where I buy my wild game from always manages to get me a good one.

Sean and Sandra are moving back to America this week, so this will be their last Thanksgiving in Holland for a while.


Stuffed full of turkey and mashed potatoes, I jumped on the bullet train down to Paris for a week of training. It was an incredible facility built around one of the old Rothschild estates.




The chateau itself was the restaurant and bar, while the more modern facilities were constructed behind it.

Of course I had to skip lunch one day and get out and about on the more than 200 acre estate. I came across these old stables tucked away from the conference/training facilities.

...and looking closer at the sign, I guess that they REALLY, REALLY don't want you climbing over that fence! Land mines?!?!?!? In France?!?!?

That'll grow hair on your chest! Or your head in my case....

Don't forget to have fun on YOUR holidays!