Sacre Coeur

Another favorite area of the city. Once you got away from the throngs of tourists, "real" scenes like this quickly emerged.

Picnic on the banks of the Seine

With Notre Dame framed by the setting sun, Parisians flock to the banks of the Seine with a bottle of wine, a baquette of bread and a chunk of cheese to enjoy the cool evening.

Office view

Beth's office in Paris overlooks this ornate church. It's a tough gig!

Molen

Being from Holland, I couldn't resist this little French windmill tucked onto the hillside of Montmartre. The hill used to host several hundred mills...now only 3 survive.

Modern Fountain

Very cool modern architecture, art, and fountains were scattered about the city. This fountain was littered with creaking, squeeking, rotating, and squirting modern art pieces. The contrast with the medieval church in the background was absolute.

Louvre

Allright, so this photograph is very cliche . But you have to admit that it's pretty damned impressive. Look at the scale of these structures against the people walking around. After seeing the Louvre, I can understand why there was a bloody revolution against the aristicrats. Overt opulence is an understated description of this former royal palace.

La Defense

I found modern France as intriguing as historical France. This office complex on the outskirts of the city was pretty incredible. You can just see the Arc de Triumph in the distance.

Look at the pedestrian activity - not just another souless suburb.

La Defense

Wow!

AAAAYAYAYAY!!!!

Feast your eyes on our hotel room. With all the cool things out in the city, where does this gnarly taste in decoration come from? The wallpaper was horrendous. Scenes of happy little French peasants dancing around a deflated hot air ballon. Bizaare to say the least. The curtains matched the bedspread and the carpet was a blue-green flower pattern. I won't scare you with a description of the chair beside the bed. I couldn't photograph it all at once for fear of causing sensory overload for some of our coffee shop friends in Amsterdam. Yikes!

Rural Legends?

You’ve all heard of cow tipping, right? This is the semi-mythical rural American ritual where young, usually drunken country boys go out to cow pastures late at night when “de cows is sleeping standing up”. Three or four of the burliest young drunkards sneak up on the “sleeping” cow and charge it with shoulders lowered like the front line of a football squad. The idea is that since the cow is fast asleep and its balance mechanisms are shut down that the charging drunks will somehow be able to knock the cow over…or “tip” it.

Is the phenomenon of cow tipping fact or fiction? Well, only those of us who were drunk and stupid enough in our youth to attempt a cow-tipping will ever know….because we were all sworn to secrecy concerning the events of May 23, 1982 (12:47 AM).

However, today I did discover that another rural legend is not a legend at all. I want to reveal the startling truth behind a deadly threat to sheep populations around the world.

The following events occurred as I was biking across the Oudespaarndammer polder on my way up to Spaarnwoude to do a little mountain biking. (The Spaarn is a large local river, so a lot of things are named after it). This particular polder sits right on the outskirts of Haarlem and is still used for grazing sheep and cows. It’s a great jumping off point to quickly get out of the city on a hot day. I was on a narrow single-track gravel trail, my MP3 player blasting some old Boston tune directly into my brain stem, and I was just starting to get into a good groove for putting a lot of kilometers behind me in a hurry, when about half way across the polder I noticed a dog sitting in the trail ahead of me. Not unusual. But the woman who jumped out of the thickets, frantically waving me over to the side was definitely out of the ordinary.

I could see her mouth moving very quickly as I pulled off the trail. I took out my ear speakers and asked her in respectable Dutch to please repeat her question….which she did, but way to fast and frenzied for me to understand. All I could hear from her was “Sheep”, “Back”, “Dead”, and “Help” – not necessarily in that order for those of you who know the somewhat bizarre word ordering of the Dutch language.

“Het spijt me. Mijn Nederlands is niet zo good. Kunt u iets langzaam spreken astublieft?” I asked her in pretty respectable Dutch. At this point she picked up on the non-native accent and like 99% of the rest of the people in Holland, she went right into flawless English.

“There is a sheep in the field over here.” She said pointing across the polder. “He is on his back and he is going to die unless we get him up.”

Confused, blank stare from me.

“Can you help me to stand the sheep up?” she asked slowly, as if I was daft.

I looked around, just to assess the situation and make sure that there weren’t any “surprises” waiting for me in the weeds. Most of all I was worried that there would be a whole elaborate setup from one of those “hidden camera” shows filming me as the butt of some bizarre Dutch joke. “Look at this American dork. He stopped to help a woman flip over a sheep. HA HA!”.

After feeling confident that there was no one else around, I said “Sure” with more than a little bit of a smile on my face and skepticism in my voice. I leaned my bike against the fence and followed the woman across the polder toward a group of what looked to me like comfortably resting sheep.

“How do you know that a sheep on it’s back is unable to get up?” I asked in a sarcastic tone.

“I read about it in a book.” She said. “If they are not yet sheered and have a lot of wool on them, they can roll onto their backs but can not flip back over.”

It sounded pretty ridiculous and in the same mythical genre as “cow tipping”. I turned around again to check to see if someone was stealing my bike. Still there. No one else around.

As we got closer to the sheep, they started to get up from their naps, obviously annoyed at the intrusion, and began trotting away from us. All except one.

The sheep still on the ground let out a horrific, bleating scream. His legs started flailing wildly in the air, and if it weren’t so pathetic to see, it would have actually been quite comical. It twisted its head from one side to the other and tried with every muscle to stand up. You could almost hear it shouting “Help! I fallen down and I can’t get up!”

We walked toward the gyrating sheep, and it flailed even more as it saw us closing in. But as we stood over the him, he seemed to calm down. Anticipating our next move.

I looked over at the woman, with a little more respect now, and asked her how we do this? She looked back at me and laughed. “I don’t know.”

So, we both just stooped down, grabbed onto the thick wool and gave him a quick yank off his back. He was remarkably light….all wool…and when his feet hit the ground he bolted off with the rest of his compatriots.

I stood there somewhat stunned at what I had just witnessed. We walked quietly back to the path and said goodbye.

For some reason, all I could think about for the rest of my bike ride was going to the Bor Snackbar down the street to get some take-out for dinner. Their shoarma is excellent.

Den Helder

Most people that we talked to said to "skip" Den Helder. The city lies at the very tip of North Holland and is dominated by a Royal Navy base. The city itself wasn't anything to write home about, but the setting was beautiful. We walked along a huge man-made seawall for 2 or 3 miles the whole way around the arc of the coastline against the North Sea. We stopped at "the point" to watch seals playing in the surf on the western coast, ferry boats taking vacationers to the island of Texel on the Northern coast, and a large herd of horses galloping full stride across the polder below us to the East. The wind almost knocked us off the bluff, but it was a spectacular view.

We took the long way home and stopped for dinner on the old harbor of Hoorn...still my favorite city in The Netherlands.

Lekker!

P.S. - I don't know why the lighthouse looks like it is leaning here. It wasn't. My camera has been giving me grief recently so maybe it is distorting the pictures.

Summer in Haarlem

Beautiful sunny weather greeted us this morning and it didn't take long for the restaurants to fill the Grote Markt with tables. It took even less time for the tables to fill up with people.

Today feels like a great day for a nice workout on the bike. If I had the time, I'd do a 2o mile loop through the dunes and along the hard packed surfs-edge of the North Sea at Parnacia. Then on the way back home I'd see if I couldn't find an empty table on the market square to relax and have an ice cold biertje!

Damn! If only I didn't have to work. ;-)

One for Posterity

Two walks tonight. It stays light so late now - almost 10 O’clock before you can even call it dusk. On my second walk I took Sage over to Caprera. For those of you who don’t know, this is the large park on the edge of the dunes. It is heavily wooded and in the evenings is very quiet and peaceful. Usually, anytime after 8:00 PM we have the full 200+ acres to ourselves. We walk the lower loop then head up the hill to a bench overlooking the dunes and the North Sea to enjoy the sunset.

Tonight we ran into Baloo, a gigantic bloodhound and the only other dog that we’ve met in Holland that seems to have a stronger bond with it’s own nose than with his owner. We often see Baloo running in the park and never even see his owner. Baloo just does his own thing.

We met Baloo and his owner the first week that we were in Holland. He is the one who told us about Caprera in the first place and we found it a bit odd that he was stressing so much that the park was completely fenced….now we know why it was so important to him.

We’ve seen them many times since that first week and have often spoken with them in short pleasantries. We still don’t know his name (the person, not the dog of course), and never knew his occupation until this evening.

As I entered the park tonight I was expecting, and looking forward to, the normal solitude that this time of evening brings. Then I saw Baloo and his owner walking up the trail coming out of the darkening woods. A brief pleasantry I thought.

But as I got closer, I sensed that something was different about him tonight. He was unshaven and dark circles hung below his eyes. He looked exhausted, and yet he was beaming. Absolutely glowing with excitement. The “brief pleasantries” lasted only two sentences. He started his tale by justifying that he is now allowed to talk about “it” even though the press event and formal announcement isn’t until June. The patents are filed and technology has been proven. I think he just really needed to share his burden and felt safe handing it off to some American schmuck that he met in the dog park. I’m glad he did.

He had just returned from the Philippines. He’s spent a great deal of time there in the past six months. It seems that his company has discovered a way to convert water into hydrogen. On-demand. By the microgram.

Think about that for a minute. Hydrogen has been one of the most promising, environmentally benign fuel sources for the past 15 or more years. Why hasn’t it caught on yet? One main reason is because of it’s extreme volatility. Storing compressed hydrogen in the back of your car, or near a power plant has been logistically unfeasible. Add in the monopoly that the oil companies have on fuel distribution channels, the government’s lack of investment or interest in breaking that monopoly and you have a floundering, “future” technology.

Until now. With his process, all you have is a water tank. Hydrogen is converted and burned as it’s needed. Need to refill your car? Pour in a gallon of water.

If he’s right, and his enthusiasm indicated that he truly believed that he was, then this will be a discovery found in all future history books. Of course the initial splash won’t be so big. For example, it will not be available for cars right out of the gate. The process currently requires platinum, which is not exactly inexpensive enough for your average family’s Ford minivan. But it will be immediately available for power plants and industry. A power plant running on water. A steel mill or aluminum smelter running on hydrogen (water). The possibilities would impact the world and seem endless in their nature. An end to acid rain? An end to coal mining? An end to nuclear power plants?

Maybe I’m gullible. It’s like the fuel cell announcement 10 years ago, right?. Probably I’m gullible. But his enthusiasm was infectious and you know what? It’s nice to feel hopeful for a change. We’ll find out when they fire up the process in the Philippines on June 21. If it works, and it actually makes the mainstream press, you can say that you saw it here first – all from a guy who I met in a quiet little dog park in Bloemendaal, North Holland. Pretty cool.

If it doesn’t work, well…I guess that I’ll just have to go back and delete this post.

I just thought someone besides me should know.

Carnival

It’s been a slow week or so since Queensday. It seems like everyone drank a bit too much over that 4-day celebration and are now enjoying some much needed down time. Most of the schools have been closed on spring holiday for the past two weeks as well.

So the main excitement is the Kermis (Carnival). It has been running for 3 weeks at 3 different locations in Haarlem. The largest setup was in Zannenpark, which if you don’t know is our neighborhood park where we go each evening to meet our (and Sage’s) friends. While the Kermis is not actually set up IN the park, it completely surrounds it and has shut down several of our local streets. The only ride that was put up in the park was a pretty cool looking little rollercoaster. The one running it this year is a pretty good outfit. They must have had 25-30 rides, all the required junk food booths, 2 gambling halls (yes, gambling halls for the kiddies), and pony rides.

Of course the pony rides in the park are what caused us the most grief. Sage was very “curious” with these little critters and caused the handlers a bit too much concern. Add in the discarded junk food from the fair and the park has been off limits for the past two weeks.

Just yesterday they shut everything down and cleaned up the park. Amazing what these carnies can do in 24 hours. I guess when you do it 10-15 times a year or more you get pretty good at it.

Rosie gets back from Spain this weekend, so we’re really looking forward to some long evenings in the park again.

Hope all is well in your world!

Party boat

Koninginnedag! HUGE party day in The Netherlands. It's a country wide holiday where the themes are drinking, orange, selling junk, orange, outdoor concerts, orange, smoking ;-), orange, and drinking...oh yea, and orange. We biked into Amsterdam with some friends to check out the heart of the celebrations. This is the largest street party that I've ever been to...they say 2 million people on the streets of Amsterdam...I'm guessing it's one of the top 5 in the world - rivaled only by the likes of the Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Bands were playing on every plein and the streets were clogged with partiers. But for me, the highlight was the canals. Holy shit! The canals were packed with party boats. The larger boats had DJ's blasting music and people were dancing and jumping between them. It looked like a bumper boat parade there were so many. The sides of the canals and bridges were lined with many parties of their own and the whole scene was somewhat surreal.

I took these pictures...but it doesn't really do it justice without audio. I have a bit of a crappy video clip from my digital camera if anyone with higher bandwith would like to see it.

Clogged canal

Naptime?

This was not the only person that we saw passed out by 3:00. But most people chose a bit of grass near the music for a nap. This guy (probably a Brit) was lucky not to get tipped into the canal.

Is this really a good idea?

When Beth seems to be the expert reading the map, you know that we're having trouble trying to navigate our way around the jam packed streets of Amsterdam. At least she was wearing "Orange".

Hoorn's inner harbor

The more I saw of Hoorn, the more I fell in love with Holland. What a great city! The Golden Age when Holland ruled the world trade markets is still very evident here. The buildings ooze history and the harbor is so intact from the 1600's that you can almost see the crates of exotic spices and casks of German beer being unloaded onto the quays...you can almost hear the hustle of the traders in one of the worlds busiest ports. What an amazing place to get lost in time in!

Tall Ships of Hoorn

More like classic "schooners", these ships are still very impressive. Most of these boats offer trips out on the Markemeer (1 day to 1 week). The accomodations can go from primative to plush. We saw a group of college kids sprawled amongst their backbacks on the decks of one of these ships. They were laughing, loving, and living it up as we all did back in those carefree days. Ahh to be young again - wandering around Europe with friends, letting each day unfold as it will. I wish that I still had such an opportunity in front of me. ;-)

Flowers!

Incredible! We've never seen anything like it before in our lives. The bulb fields are absolutely beautiful. This was the view from a windmill in the Keukenhof gardens. You can get a sense of scale with the two people walking through the fields. The colors were so brilliant...the camera doesn't do them justice. The next several pictures were from the gardens.

Bulb fields 

Bulb fields and canal 

Water Garden 

Gardens 

Canal Kayaking

On Sunday we took advantage of the sunny, warm weather with a lazy afternoon kayaking the canals of Haarlem. We put in just near the central train station and were able to paddle a 7 km loop through the old canals that criss-cross the heart of the city. The perspective from the water is very different and a bit disorienting. Even though we know the surface streets very well now, we found ourselves questioning where we were at in the boats.

We've spoken with many people who want to take us boating this summer. They tell us about all the great paddling here in The Netherlands - from the famous canals of Amsterdam to the wildlife sanctuaries of the northern polders. Little did we know that we'd have such a nice afternoon route right here in our new home town of Haarlem!

Hooligans!

Haarlem's most wanted!

Security cameras captured this image of an Ajax hooligan "marking" their territory in North Haarlem. "God, they urinate everywhere" said one distraught homeowner who just decorated the sidewalk with these new spring planters. These hooligans are known to be very territorial and should be approached only with extreme caution...especially if you are not wearing any orange on voetball day. Anyone with information on the whereabouts of this particular hooligan, please alert the authorities immediately.