One more...

... picture of the view from rockefeller center! the sky was just sooo beautiful! to me it looked like a painting.. :) to the right you see a black building with kind of a white frame around it; thats from the bank of america. here you cant see it, but this building is not entirely flat; towards the ground this building is shaped like a bell. or, as i prefer; this skyscraper is like a giant chute! behind you see central park. it is sooo huge! i still have not been to the far end of it, maybe next time... its amazing to imagine that manhattan once was entirely like central park.....

and i do agree with biebkriebels; the view from rockefeller is probably nicer than from the empire state building, and the line indeed was less long. or as someone else said; its better because you get to see the empire state building, rather than standing on top of it... :D

Rockefeller center

for 22 dollars you can climb rockefeller center. or rather, get into the elevator to the 67th (i think) floor to view manhattan from the observation deck. just like at the empire state building, this is a very streamlined process. you wait in line for tickets, you are led through security, you walk a little more, wait in line, get pushed forward, and at some point end up in an elevator that you cannot operate yourselves. then you are rushed out of the elevator and stumble upon many other tourists that are already blocking the view... when you are lucky, you get a small spot and can take some pictures... :) or pose, or will be asked to take someone else's picture. when you have taken pictures from every side, its time to go down again.... and then at home you realize you should have taken some more time to take better pictures. and wait, did i ever enjoy the view without looking through my lens? :)
right in front you see the empire state building, and to the left you see a small part of the chrysler, but its mostly obscured by the metlife building. the rockefeller center itself stems from 1933, and i never knew, but this famous picture was taken during its construction.

Brooklyn bridge

yup, we had quite some rain while in new york. just like in boston; the weather has not been that good yet, this year... :( here we were at the brooklyn bridge, and taking pictures with a big fancy camera and an umbrella turned out to be challenging! just like the couple above.... :)

this bridge is just so beautiful! we walked to brooklyn, which is named after the dutch city breukelen (just pronounced american). just read on wikipedia that brooklyn has the following motto "Een Draght Mackt Maght", which is old dutch for "in unity there is strength". haha, whats also interesting is how the name breukelen evolved into brooklyn: from Breuckelen, to Brockland, to Brocklin, to Brookline, to Brookland and eventually, to Brooklyn....

and thats it for today! good night! :)

Flatiron building

picturing skyscrapers is not the easiest thing to do.... :)

we're back from NY! it was soooo cooooll! and i am behind on my photos here... no internet connection after day 1, but surely i will catch up in the coming days...

here a pic from yesterday, when it was sunny (we had a lot of rain too, unfortunately). the flatiron building on 23rd street. i very well remember, and probably have told the story already a million times, the first time i went to see the flatiron building. that was in 2004. i went to the exact location, but.... where was the building?! i looked left and right, but eehmmm, no! i couldnt find it. then i walked a little, and yes, ofcourse, there it was.... since i had been standing exactly underneath it, i couldnt find it....

Quick update

taken while we drove through New York yesterday! not perfect and crooked, but soooo NY, I think!!

NY family

pictured this pretty family while we were in New York, last september! they were all sooo well dressed... waiting for the staten island ferry...

i thought it is an appropriate pic, since we goto NY for a few days tomorrow! jeeejjj!!

Citgo sign

the citgo sign, close to fenway stadium, is a part of the boston skyline since 1940! not pretty; i think its comparable to the ugly colgate clock, which you can see from manhattan, while looking out over the hudson river towards new jersey. but its such a famous landmark that, upon seeing, immediately reminds you of boston... i guess.

im currently a bit lazy concerning my blog and/or checking other blogs... :( or rather; too busy!

so... if you want to read more about the citgo sign, you can click here!

Be unstoppable

saw this advertisement underneath the harvard stadium. but.. ehmmm.. doesnt it kind of defeat the purpose? unstoppable wouldnt be good in this case!

anyhow... the crappy weather and rain seems unstoppable too. its cold, grey, windy and this week's forecast; rain, every day. beeeuughhh! i want summer!

Real fan

i guess this lady is a real fan of the boston red sox. as seen at the fenway stadium, right after a game... but what about the girls in the stroller? :)

im still one post behind... but as always, too much to do, and too little time... :(

American dream

my sister is visiting us! she has never been in the us of a, so i assume it is quite an experience... i really do think this is an entire different world than back home, the netherlands. for example, our apartment  complex looks like a hotel to her (from the outside, i assume... :D).

on thursday she and tim were at the museum (that one has free entrance on thursday evenings; the mfa on wednesdays...), and then took the ferry to charlestown, it was just before sunset, so they had a beautiful view on boston. all the while i was working.... :( they were also lucky to witness and photograph the above, while.. i was working.... :( so you will have to do it yet again with a tim picture, because... i was working.. :( ah yes, so is the american dream, no?

just wondering whether tim had a similar face as the guy with the pink camera.. while i was working... :( also wondering whether those colorful cameras belong to those guys?!

Ugly picture

annoyed because blogger was unavailable yesterday and i couldnt upload my picture! now today i am indecisive and therefore choose an ugly picture.. this is somewhere in malden, the city next to ours, melrose. while melrose is like a small, pretty town like in the movies, malden is the bigger, ugly and kind of dangerous version(at least it looks like that)... :) but basically, we never goto either city and only drive through one or the other, depending on where we are going.

the advertisement above is very american, i think. "for our nation. for us all". it reminds me of starship troopers, by now an ancient movie we recently watched again... perhaps i should consider a master's in leadership indeed.... :D

hmm, today's pic i will choose tomorrow, im tired now..

Harvard bridge

on sunday we went to the "MIT lightshow". if i remember correctly, it was because MIT exists 150 years, and they celebrated it with some inventive MIT inventions.. :)

for example, they had put lights all along the harvard bridge above, colors were changing every now and then, and sometimes the lights would follow the movement of people walking on the bridge, as they had placed sensors everywhere as well!

it was cool to see and for me impossible to photograph. above a picture tim took...

more info and photos here!

Americans posing

to me, these students look very american! the dresses, the shoes, the hair... :) they were posing for whatever reason on the steps of an MIT building, last sunday.

just frustrated my pic is not very sharp.... :(

Boston firefighter

last week, or perhaps the week before already, we suddenly were surrounded by fire engines. a small street in the center of boston, and 6 or 7 trucks. the ladder out. a lot of spectators. but no fire.... actually not much happened. they were just standing around..... i think it was an overheated eeehhmm... dont remember. but something got overheated... luckily it didnt seem too dramatic or dangerous...

im wondering whether this firefighter can run at all! ;)

In line

we went to the MFA today, since it was the first weekend of the month, we had free entrance with our bank of america debit card. the line at the front entrance was sooo long, so we thought we were clever and went to the back entrance; but as long a line as the front entrance. it was mother's day, so mothers were apparently dragged to the museum en masse...

ah, and there was a new exhibit, chihuly, the reason we went there; glass art. however, if you wanted to see that, it meant waiting in line for 2 hours, and by that time the museum was about to close. so went to see a photo exhibition instead. the only glass art was this green icicle tower, of which you see only a little bit, i was more fascinated by the girl's fascination...

Mother's day

its always easy to let the church speak! we drove by today, but there wasnt much traffic (at that point), so i had to quickly take a picture...

tomorrow its mother's day.. i guess that inspired them. 

a mom's words shape the future of a child... is that true? hmmm..... let me think a little more about that.

what do you think?

Girl jumping

boston is very green, currently. so pretty!
girls are flying around.. what else would you want... ? :D
this was at the boston common, last sunday....

Zoomed in

a blossom! with the new lens... i think that lens is magic!

good night, or morning, or afternoon... :)

Street photographers

on sunday i finally saw "the guys with cameras hanging around downtown crossing". i came to know about them here, after watching the short news item. apparently, they are around downtown crossing very often, taking pictures of strangers. some people claim they do this in a very annoying way, following people, and taking pictures of "body parts". here is another article, that generated a lot of responses. i dont know... when i saw those 2 (but there are supposed to be more men..), they were just talking, and not taking pictures. ha, i took a picture of them! 3 pictures, even...

i dont know... taking pictures like this should be fine, no? im doing the same! actually, they have an exhibition coming up, starting tomorrow, as you can read here. 

ah, and look at the advertisement behind them! about the british prince and his wife... :)

Bostons original

is that a bostons original? or mister nut? :) at the boston common.

on sunday we were suddenly amidst the "walk for hunger", right at the finish; we found out when people were saying to us; "thank you! well done! great job! thanks for walking! some water?" eeehhmmm?

not much more to write today. at work i received emails to warn real americans for the potential threat when traveling, after yesterday's happenings with ob/sama. ah well.. im not american and not traveling, but security is up; more policemen at subway stations, more security checks to be expected... etc etc. if really curious, here is the link for the travel alert regarding anti-american violence.