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.

The Fabled Dutch Contract

Congratulations to Beth! She has taken a new job at a huge software application provider founded in Germany. Living as we do in Holland, Beth has joined as a Dutch employee … and Dutch employees are entitled to a “classic” Dutch contract. While all of the EU country contracts have their own special touches, I thought that you might enjoy some of the highlights from a Dutch perspective. These items probably seem both trivial and bizarre to us Americans. We tend to go into a job with the attitude that we are sooooo lucky that the company has granted us the privilege to work for them and any bits and scraps that they happen to throw to us are all icing on the cake. Some will say that these little items are perfect illustrations of the socialistic attitudes of Europe and how their labor practices undermine their capitalist way of life. I would ask that you step back and take a look from a different perspective. I propose that these niceties are more reflective of a balanced life culture – including big business culture. And in the case of Holland they are a perfect example of the striving for “gezellig” in all aspects of society (see discussion under blog posting of Feb. 25).

Basic employment provisions – all employees

• 30 days of vacation (goes up based upon age…not tenure or position…i.e. the secretary and CEO get the same # of days if they are the same age)
• 8% vacation salary allowance (effectively a 13th month of pay to enjoy her holidays with)
• Annual allowance for bicycle
• Annual allowance for bicycle accessories
• Free lunch or lunch allowance if working off site (this is a German thing that is carried over…lunches are a BIG deal to German companies)
• Monthly allowance for fresh flowers
• Monthly allowance for fruit baskets
• Full reimbursement for use of public transportation to/from work
• Use of company properties (chalets) across Europe
• All employees – 1st two airline trips in coach….any company trips above 2 are automatically in business class
  
  Special provisions outlined in the contract – all employees:
• Employee Marriage – flowers + 1 month extra gross salary
• Employee Birthday – flowers + fruit basket
• Birth in family – flowers
• New house – plant + fruit basket
• Illness – hospital admission – flowers, sick at home (after 2 weeks flowers)
• Leaving employment – flowers + vvv vouchers
  

All other discussions aside, this is a big deal for Beth. At only 39, she is now a member of the executive team in a fortune 100 global company. Please send her a congratulations!

Smell the flowers

Too many pictures of snow on our blog! In reality, the snow lasted only about 4 days. This is the same field that we took the snow pictures in about 1 week later covered in flowers. It's so bad that I can't even take Beth there now because she gets upset when Sage and Seb go ripping through the field and knock over some flowers.

Encounter with (gasp!) non Americans!

Somewhere in the untamed wilderness of Europe, where they have just discovered the wheel and 220V electricity (110V won't be invented for another 100 years), we came across this primitive tribe of real Dutch people! And they almost look like us "normal" American's - except maybe skinnier and better dressed than your average Joe cheesburger (sorry Joe). ;-)

But how did Beth manage to talk them into pelting me with snowballs? Must have been that "lazy woman post" on our blog.

It's a good thing that you can't kick snowballs. Instead of throwing the ball for Seb and Sage, Patrick kicks it...with amazing accuracy and distance. With Soccer as the national sport, the Dutch don't have very good throwing arms. It seemed really odd at first...watching them throw is kind of comical. But after realizing that they are not raised on baseball or football, it kind of makes sense. Although of all our freinds in Holland, Sheila here has the best throwing arm that we've seen.

Winter (Spring) wonderland!

We got hammered with snow over the past 2 days. This storm was enough to even impress us "Garrett Countian's"...close to 10 inches (25 cm). It is apparently pretty rare to get this kind of snow here in Haarlem. But oddly enough, everyone brought out sleds and started dragging their little ones around the streets ... remember, this is pancake flat Holland ... the closest sledding hill is in the dunes and the roads were atrocious.

Gangs of "snowball hooligans" were all through the streets and the bikers never seemed to even flinch at pedaling on the icy, snowpacked roads....very impressive.

These views are from our third floor bedroom - front and back. Pretty close quarters...about as different as you can get from our place back in the mountains of Maryland!