Morning ride

here most of the fog hd gone already, but saturday morning it was very foggy! as often these days (sometimes leading to terrible accidents on the road, like last week....). i was in the place with no internet for the weekend (i.e. groningen), so no posts... i had planned to post from the train on friday, but then the internet was not working... now im back in the train to work, and i do have a connection (but who knows for how long!!). its 6.45 and still very quiet, although crowded... last time i took this train it was filled with young kids, making so much noise!! ugh... hopefully they wont come today, i am really enjoying this quiet.

its still dark out (in the evenings its getting dark so early again too. buuuhhh), so i wont be able to enjoy the foggy fields for the coming hour or so... time to see check what i missed because of a weekend without internet (not that much, probably...)

Wind turbines

as i once wrote before, while driving through the netherlands, you see a lot of wind turbines generating wind energy. i am always trying to take pictures of them. sometimes, like above, i think they fit in the landscape. and sometimes i try to take picture as it looks so ugly!!

this was through the car window, which i didnt get entirely clean. whenever we stop for gas, i get out to clean the windshield, while tim fills up the car and pays (i guess i get the better deal here). i started doing this in the USA, on our road trips, as many of the pictures were taken while driving. just a few months back, the car was particularly dirty and we spent some time getting the windows clean. i even needed tim to help (it was not overcrowded at the station so we were not blocking the pump or anything). but then... when he went to pay for the gas, the lady said to him; "well well, you are not supposed to clean your car that long!!" it really pissed me off, he just spent over 60 euros on gas, and then we cannot use their bucket of water...? i do think it was a typical dutch reaction (3 years US made me a bit sensitive to that). somehow the dutch can never shut up, and always need to express their frustrations! how frustrating... ;)

From Osnabruck

we are away for a bit. we are now in osnabruck, germany, where we staying at the house of a friend and former colleague (while they are enjoying some time off in the netherlands). jaaajjjj!! the house is gigantic. there is a piano, and i already cannot count the number of hours tim has played... good its a free standing house...

photowise.... this is all i can show you from osnabruck. yep, thats quite bad.... but... we have had quite some rain and im not good at balancing my umbrella in one hand and the camera in the other. this i took from the car. this traffic sign tells you that you can only enter the environmental zone of osnabruck when you have the green sticker on your car. to get the sticker, the car needs to meet the german/EU pollution standards. even if your car meets the standard, no sticker means you can get fined, regardless whether you have a german or foreign car. so.... luckily it was quite easy to obtain the sticker at a local inspection zone (providing the license plate was sufficient, together with a payment of 5 euros).

today its raining again, but lets see, perhaps i will take some more interesting pics!

Only rain

this weekend it rained. and it rained. and then it rained a bit more. ah, there was quite some wind too. beeehhh. we didnt do much. partly because of that... 

today there was a marathon in our neighborhood, and i really wanted to watch. but even for watching the weather was just too shitty (imagine those running!!). we did do the dishes, as they hadnt been done in quite a while (it felt a bit like a marathon, we had used up all the plates, and most of the cutlery, and we have quite a lot...).

as you can see, when we drove here it rained as well. driving in the netherlands is more frustrating than driving in the usa (except that the roads are much better here than in massachusetts); people are less patient and more aggressive. the speed limit varies constantly, and sometimes its not clear how fast you are allowed to go... and at exactly those spots (or so it seems), they check your speed, resulting in several tickets by now.... :(  whereas we drove a real big american truck in the usa, we now have a normal car, and i still feel small next to all these big trucks. i especially hate it when they are trying to pass each other. trucks are on a strict speed limit, 80 km/hr, but somehow they always need to pass each other, slowing down all the other traffic thats going 130 km/hr. like above, where i suddenly felt trapped between all those big vehicles....

Fancy place?

we saw this castle while driving, yesterday. overlooking the vineyards and the little town at the banks of the mosel river.

this morning i didnt even try to upload a picture, the slow crappy internet. and... we had to pack and tidy up the bungalow, getting ready to go back home. yesterday evening many more people had arrived to the park, probably staying for a long weekend (again, most of them dutch!). we drove back and visited luik (liege) in belgium, where we wandered the flea market. too bad they were just packing up. then it was another 2+ hours to get back to amsterdam....

Hiking etc..

yesterday it was really sunny, so we decided to hike around in the neighborhood. we had a very brief description of several hikes around mont royal. choose one that would lead us down into the valley and back up again. in 3 hours. there were hardly signs so we choose the wrong turn a few times and had to go back. finally down we were not where we were supposed to be, according to the description... the names of most villages are somewhere on their vineyards, like above, but ofcourse we couldnt see any during our hike. and surely it started to rain while we left all rain clothes, umbrellas etc in the car. the clouds looked more threatening than it eventually was, but we didnt find the path back up and had to walk along the road. beeeehhh. that was not what we had planned. after 11.5 km we were back up.

then we drove around the neighborhood a bit, while we drove on this narrow bridge i took this pic.

Narrow bridge

up until the moment we got off this bridge, i wasnt sure we were going to fit. and then the second one came, as you see above. and that one was even more narrow!! 

it felt a bit like that one time we drove through a sequoia tree in califonia. that was something i somehow really wanted to do, even though we had to pay for it (theres my dutch mentality again!). the actual driving through the tree was quite disappointing and it was mostly just scary; the cut was clearly made when cars were a bit smaller. we had to flip the side mirrors and instead of enjoying this glorious moment of driving through a tree (really, what did i think?!!), we were just making sure we werent scratching the car. until i realized i wasnt taking pictures and well... uugghh... the car that came after us tried and tried, but really didnt fit and had to turn around.....

so... for this bridge we didnt have to pay, but it was equally scary, even though i realized that it was made for cars to drive on (right??!! or had we missed some sign, maybe? didnt we?!). and then we were on the other side.... :)

Early evening

this was saturday evening, when driving home. the sky was so pretty! and all the black dots are birds that were flying around in a huge flock.

right now its an early morning and the only color outside is grey. with lots of rain. beeeehhhh!!

Water barrier

with much of the country below sea level, we have many dikes to protect the land from the water... like the one above! we drove there yesterday. dont know whether the person walking on the dike was aware that i specifically wanted to include her in the picture (while sitting in the car, haha)

Dutch meadow

and heres the typical dutch flat (very flat!) landscape. at least, when you leave the city.... 

so yes, we do have a car again. we didnt go long without one, selling the previous one sometime last december...

today we brought some stuff to goodwill. our house is too small and the amount of stuff too big. but then we went inside the store and bought some new stuff... an endless cycle. hahahahaha. then we drove around amsterdam, going through the small towns with the cute houses, the tiny streets, and the green pastures connecting it all.... so pretty! an added bonus; at some moments it almost looked sunny...

While running!

so... last friday we left for france in the evening, and arrived at tims parents somewhere around 3 in the night after an 8+ hour drive..... (beehhh! it was boring and dark). we had brought our running shoes, so on sunday we decided to go for a run.... whereas in the usa i found running outside much more difficult than on a treadmill, i discovered in the netherlands that running outside is actually easier. in france i realized whats the obvious reason for this difference; the netherlands is flat! in amsterdam we never have to run up any hill. its flat, flat and flat... in france it wasnt flat at all.... pfew, that was not easy! whereas i felt i was cheating when running downhill, it was hard not to just give up when running uphill. but.. the views were stunning and the silence amazing.... as you can see above (actually taken while driving, not running!)

La photographie

so... we were in france! we had always wanted to see where photography was invented, in 1822... :D no, actually its not too far from where tims parents live and i certainly did not possess active knowledge as to where and when photography was invented. but now i do, and so do you!!

along the road is this giant plaque to make everyone aware that in the tiny french village of Chalon-sur-Saone mister nicephore niepce took the first photogravure etching, in 1822. this was the first important step for the development of photography. close to this place there is a museum, but we did not visit it (maybe next time?).

nicephore niepce (such a funny name) was an inventor of all sorts; together with his brother he also conceived, created and developed the worlds first internal combustion engine. despite this, he died a poor man; his brother spent all the money and there was not even enough money to pay for his funeral and grave. 

Wheres that?!

sorry for my absence.. we unexpectedly went on a little trip. we left on friday evening and just returned today. the above picture i took this morning, while driving. any idea where it might be..?

Speed limit

this is a picture i took while we still had a car....on many highways in the netherlands the speed limit depends on the time of day, like above. here you can go no faster than 100 km/hr between 6 in the morning and 7 in the evening. after that time you can go 120 km/hr (i think). i think it makes driving a bit more complicated than it already is. theres a stretch of road close to our house where you can go 100 before 7pm and 80 after (or the other way around, i never can remember, but its indicated on the traffic signs. however, there is no clock underneath that sign! we were using the car of tims parents this weekend and only when everyone around us was going faster than we did, did we remember that the clock in the car was off by 5 minutes (it was around 7). tim has been looking for cars ever since he sold ours! we checked out 2 of them this weekend. the first one was just not interesting, the second one had "a slight red bull smell" the seller said. when we took it for a test drive, that slight smell turned out to be red bull mixed with dirty dog. it was so horrible that we drove just a few hundred meters with the windows open as far as possible. just thinking about it makes me cringe again...

and well, so much for posting everyday in 2014! i just missed 3 days! no excuses, just laziness and that horrible dog smell that knocked me out... ;)

While driving

i like to take pictures while driving, although many of them fail. or are never taken because i am too slow... since we are back i realize many, many streets/roads in the netherlands are lined with trees, like you can see above. it looks often so neat and organized, or like a tunnel made of trees....

too bad we sold the car again! it was a bit expensive with the taxes and gas and upcoming repairs etc etc. buuuhhh. now of course i am thinking of all that we cannot do anymore without a car. luckily we have most of the big things for the apartment by now. but not everything. my clothes are still in boxes and its really frustrating... :((( having a car makes you a bit lazy too. ooh, its raining? lets take the car! and we didnt really, really need it. supermarkets are at walking distance, and you can bike around the city easily, as opposed to biking in/around boston. but for now, no more tree tunnels to drive through....

Empty roads....

this is when we drove from amsterdam to groningen. anyone who knows where this might be...? :) i will tell you tomorrow...

if you take a picture at the right moment, dutch roads can appear as empty as many of the roads we took in the US during our road trips... ;) but you certainly shouldnt get out of your car on this road, or sit in the middle of it....

Pollard willows

see?! this is how grey and rainy the netherlands is right now. beeehhhh!! again a rainy day today. we drove on this narrow road, which is actually a 2-way road. every now and then there was some space so that cars could pass each other (but we didnt see any other). the trees you see above are so very dutch! they line many small roads and pastures. according to the digital dictionary, in english you call them pollard willow (we call them "knotwilg"). by heavily cutting back the branches of the tree close to its trunk, you get that bushy growth on top. this has been done by people for many centuries; its cut off branches were used to make all sorts of stuff; from houses (or more like building blocks of houses) to weaving baskets and other utensils made by braiding some branches... nowadays we dont use their branches for that anymore, and more and more trees disappear. but those trees are such a dutch thing, some people are trying to actively keep them in the dutch landscape. to keep the trees healthy; their branches need to be cut periodically. if not, their top becomes too heavy and they will die. nowadays this is mostly done by volunteers. birds (mostly owls) like to make their nests in these trees and lots of vegetation grows on them as well....

before posting this picture, i just knew the dutch name of these trees, and that they are very dutch...!

Autumn storm

we have a real storm at the moment in the netherlands! the wind is howling like crazy and we saw some big tree branches broken off already... trains are not going (or less), and flights have been cancelled as well. ah, and the check of our leaking roof (which happend over 2 weeks ago now) was cancelled too; too dangerous to climb on the roof right now. they will come tomorrow. right.... 

i guess in boston such a storm would have happened with more preparation prior to it; shops would have been emptied of milk, eggs, bread and water. and candles of course... 

our roof is making all kinds of noises. i do hope it will stay attached to the house..... ;)

the above picture was yesterday, by the way. then it was a bit stormy already, with very dark clouds. but the next moment it was sunny again. only to be followed by very heavy rain... and sun again.... in the US, many highways dont have lights, like you can see here. and i always thought; oh, in the netherlands the highways are so perfect, and always very well lit!! now guess what; just recently the government decided to shut off the lights around 9 in the evening, to save electricity and repair costs etc... so our roads are very dark now too.... grrrrrr

It's closing!!

of course i still follow the news from boston every now and then... but the news that the above restaurant is closing i first saw on facebook... when i saw it posted here as well, i knew it was true... this is on route 1, in saugus, not too far from our apartment, and so we drove by it quite often in weekends. the lawn is decorated with lifesize cows, and the place (just like the cactus) is gigantic. at first we were hesitant to visit the place (after the cows and the cactus we were afraid what would be inside), but once we finally did, we kept coming back every now and then. for me it was not so much about the food (the vegetables were absolutely awful, even the corn!! but tim loved the baked potato), but more the "experience". i think the decor has never changed since it was built (the 2 story restaurant opened in 1961), and i wouldnt be surprised if the waitresses were still the same as well (once our waitress asked tim when we got seated; "whats the matter son, you hungry or somethin?!" with that typical boston accent). there is crazy carpet on the floors, beautiful booths to sit in and weird cowboy-stuff on the walls. i think some of the guests had been coming there since its opening as well, so every time we were there i just couldnt get enough of watching around... if only i had been brave enough to take pictures from the inside, had asked people for portraits... but well, i didnt... (here is the last burger i had there).

according to this article, at its top days, the hilltop employed 50 cooks, 180 waiters and served 5000 meals a day. when we were there, it was usually not too busy (except the one time we took someone there and had to wait over an hour). this picture was during our last drive on route 1, we had just had to bring our couch to the dump and i was frantically photographing all that crazy american stuff on route 1 one more time... for us foreigners, this was really a typical american place, like we see in the movies, and if we were ever to visit boston again, it would be a place to go back to. but.... they are closing october 20th already!! i wonder what will happen to it. i hope at least the cactus will stay.... (and they should make a museum out of the place!!)
here you can see a video about the closing (they interview 2 guests inside the restaurant)

Wind turbines

i noticed that the netherlands has a lot of these wind turbines. often i dont really think they fit the landscape, but here it was sort of ok. this is in the province of flevoland, the province with the highest number of wind turbines. wind power is one of the renewable energy sources. building such "wind farms", as they call them, is quite expensive! a wind farm built out on the sea in 2008 cost over 500 million euros (but sufficient to power 125,000 homes).....