Real american....

...hotdogs! you can get them in amsterdam.....

i didnt try them. in the supermarket we also have "real american pizza", but then i went to america and couldnt find that "real american pizza" as i knew it....

like the "dutch cheese" thats not always dutch cheese if its not actually from the netherlands.... and so on and so on....

just recently i read in the newspaper that the ducth like starbucks. they dont mind to pay a little more for that coffee as it gives them the feeling of doing like the new yorkers do, walking around with a cup of coffee... i dont get it! we have good coffee and one of the things i missed when in the usa were the cafes where you could really sit down and get a real good coffee (not the diluted american stuff) in a real cup (tastes so much better in a cup as compared to a carton-to-go). but well.... i guess those dutch just want to goto new york!! (and i wouldnt mind a visit either... its been over a year now...)

Flower ladies

i just couldnt resist..... 

many of the tourists (especially the ladies) were almost diving into the tulips, and wanted to be photographed like you see above, surrounded by an ocean of tulips. somehow i didnt have this desire myself..... i also wouldnt know what to do with such a photo of myself.... :P

others had cameras on long sticks and were swirling around between the flowers, while taking pictures of themselves.... yep, at some point i was more fascinated by the people than the flowers.

Canada & broccoli

im on tims computer and was looking for a photo to post... then i checked the 2012 folder and realized it was just a year ago that we visited niagara falls. a year! i was really surprised... somehow it feels like ages ago already. if im not mistaken, we were staying in one of those fancy glass buildings and paid way too much for our stay. but it was so amazing to get to see the falls! and to be able to drive there... now it all seems (and is, ofcourse) so far away!!

here, back home im still debating whether i like the overly used american "excuse me" and the americans that rather move aside more than necessary in order to avoid too close contact with strangers, or the dutch way of just bumping into someone if you dont move quickly enough. i have to admit; i never liked the "excuse me" while in the us and never have been able to utter it myself, but now back home i realize that dutch strangers sometimes get far too close to me and i then still wonder why they dont say "excuse me".

also, broccoli tastes different here. i really liked brocccoli in the usa, but here i like it less. while eating broccoli today, i mentioned this to tim and he agreed!! we couldnt really pinpoint what it was (the taste? or the florets are a little different, maybe smaller, here?), but i was glad not being the only one thinking broccoli is a bit of a disappointment in the netherlands... :)

Fascinating clouds

another picture from the zaanse schans where we were 2 weeks ago. the clouds were absolutely stunning while we were there. the upper path is for pedestrians and the lower for bikes (and the occasional car, i guess only people who live around here are allowed to drive there). whenever a pedestrian dared to set foot on the bike path, bicyclists furiously rang their bells.... i guess they are tired of all those tourists constantly slowing them down by suddenly jumping in front of them...

it has gotten pretty cold this week. no biking without gloves anymore! however, especially when going for a longer bike ride (i would say longer than 5-10 minutes) you should really dress less than what you would want. yes, the first few minutes on your bike you will be cold, but each and every time there is this moment where you suddenly get hot, and then you will be glad not being overdressed (of course, you do need to wear a hat and gloves, but the jacket really should not be too warm). the other option of course is to bike slowly, but then be prepared to be overrun by impatient "real bicyclists". (tim already thinks i am biking too slow, although i think im going at a decent speed....)

Too bad!

as you can see, they were just doing some work on that cute house, so its covered with this ugly white cloth... :( too bad!! up close the wooden house was indeed just painted to shiny green perfection. this is still at the zaanse schans, just like yesterdays picture. i wouldnt mind going back anytime soon just to take some more pictures (even though its one of those places that has been photographed by everyone already, apparently it gets almost 1 million visitors per year). too bad you of course do have to pay for parking... (7.50, some 10 dollars if you stay longer than 30 minutes, which you will most certainly do).

Too pretty!

yesterday we went to yet another very very dutch place. very touristy too. suddenly we were one of the few dutch people amongst mostly asian tourists. but we had big cameras too, and took as many pictures. unfortunately, looking at them today, i was mostly disappointed... :( we even had those great typical dutch clouds as you can see above! lots of them in crazy formations, some very dark, others more white, all perfect, but my photography not so much....  this is one of the few i actually liked. 

here we are at the zaanse schans, a neighborhood of the town zaandam (not too far from amsterdam). there are 8 windmills of which you see a few here, and they all have a name! those are sawmills, oilmills, a dyemill and a mustardmill. i was just disappointed there wasnt a flour mill so that i could buy some for my bread baking... (as opposed to the US, different types of flour arent that readily available in supermarkets). 

this is not only a tourist destination; actual people are living here too. they bike around and we experienced that they are VERY annoyed when you dare stepping on the bicycle path, even if you are not blocking their way (just the possibility that you might slow a dutch person down while they are biking is enough for most of them to make it very clear that you have to stay out of their way). dont you worry, i do that too.... sometimes... :)

Climbing allowed

this is the I Amsterdam sculpture in amsterdam (actually, there are 3, one at the museumplein, one at the airport and the one above, which apparently changes location every now and then. here its in amsterdam north. the entire sign says "i amsterdam", with the i am in red. climbing is optional. a small note on the side of the sculpture actually says that climbing is at your own risk and that its not made for that, but everyone does it anyways. not like similarly large sculptures in the US, where climbing is not allowed and where that is strictly enforced (like with this sculpture that was really a huge climbing temptation for many).

the girl crawling around on the top had some trouble getting off the sculpture again, but not before her mom had taken several pics!

Last March

in march we were in death valley, california, and now im back in amsterdam since a while already. its still  so weird! i really miss these sceneries and the relative ease with which we were able to visit all this beauty.... now im back to good old (and yes, pretty, but pretty in such a very, very different way) holland, and not taking that many photos... also, im skipping days with posting for whatever reason.... (i guess a combination of laziness and lack of new photos). im still not entirely out of the "getting-used-to-be-back-home-again-phase", i guess.... i miss the endless empty roads in the us, and the hours you could drive seeing extremes in landscapes. in the netherlands you are out of the country within 3 hours!! (thats why the speed limit on most highways in 100km/hr, otherwise you would be out of the country even faster).

here in death valley we had parked the car down the little hill, and walked up under the sizzling hot sun. we did it because everyone else did it, eager not to miss anything. i think it was the ladies you see here in the front that said to us when passing "well, that was a total waste of our efforts!". that was just so weird to me! i thought it was pretty, and even in the hot sun its nice to be out and not seeing everything just from the car....

Swan boats

these are the famous swan boats in the lagoon in the public garden. they are sort of a boston landmark. you can take the 15 minute boat ride around the lagoon, sitting on the benches in front of these swans. the seats you see here are for the operator of the boats, who move them forward by pedaling, similarly to riding a bike. we never did this, but it is very popular, and apparently something you do when in boston... :) 

they are in operation since 1877!! something i didnt know until i read the wikipedia page about them just now... the oldest boat currently in operation was built in 1918! here you can read more about the history of the swan boats.

Where's this?

yes.... niagara falls. we went there the past weekend, finally! it was quite a drive, some 8 hours, on a mostly booooring highway (and we had to pay a lot of toll, in total perhaps 20 dollars). we both had never been there. first we watched them from the american site (as you can see above). we went to the information booth along the highway. we got some booklets, but there was absolutely nothing about the canadian side! not even the roads were marked (and canada is right across). as the man behind the counter said; "well, yes, guess which side we are trying to promote here, huh". we also discovered our tomtom is for the usa only, it was blank as soon as we crossed the border, haha.

as you can see, there are a lot of hotels with a view of the falls. and the ones you see here are just a few. there is basically an entire entertainment circus built along the falls. casinos, shops, hotels, restaurants. very touristy, nothing outstanding... really, it was so cool to see the falls! yes, ive seen pictures, but seeing and hearing it in real is so different! but i think it would be nicer if you would first have to walk through a forest or something, and then they suddenly appear...(imagine the explorers that discovered these falls!). now it was walking through a forest of signs for how to pay for parking, where your hotel is, or where you should eat. beeehhhhh.... on saturday it was pretty crowded, but we stayed another night (as driving 8+  hours on 2 consecutive days would be a bit too much), and on sunday the little entertainment town was dead. yes, all the restaurants were open, only hardly anyone was there... 

anyways, we really enjoyed seeing the falls for real. i took a lot of pictures, but none does them justice. you should go there in person! (and ignore the "ballentent" as we dutch would call that circus of hotels and casinos around it)

Harvesting cranberries

so... this saturday we went to plymouth to see how cranberries are harvested! i had no clue how they do that, so i was curious, and we were supposed to also go cranberry picking ourselves... all i know is; they are plentiful in supermarkets during the fall and early winter, and cheap! (especially when compared to the netherlands).

so.... above you see how they do 95% of the cranberry harvest: they flood the field where the plants are growing when they are ripe (6 to 8 inches of water above the vines), and then they move over them with the machines you see above. the only thing these machines do is creating movement, which is sufficient for the cranberries to leave the vines. as they have airpockets inside (you know that when you have ever cut into a raw cranberry; they are mostly empty inside!), they will float up. it was a beautiiful sight! see the pink glow? those are the cranberries coming right up after the machine. when they have done the entire field, its one sea of reddish pinkness, and then they are pumped out of the bog into a truck, ready for processing! i think one field takes about 1-2 hours in total, and gives you a truckload of cranberries!! those are then flashfrozen or processed into juices and such, as those wet harvested berries tend to rot within 2-3 days, and are more damaged than if you were to pick them dry (thats the other 5% of the cranberry harvest; the bags of fresh ones you see in the supermarket). we got to bite into a fresh cranberry; yegh! not tasty at all... so sour! (funny also that ive bought cranberries quite often, but never had the urge to bite into one before i turn them into cakes and pies).

we were supposed to get an entire tour of the farm, and speak with the farmers, but there were many, many people, and organization was a chaos... :( we also never got to pick our own cranberries, so "picking some fruit while in the us" is still on my list. but.... we did each get a pound of fresh cranberries, some of which i turned into this very tasty cake, and some dried cranberries, which i used in a whole-wheat bread, together with pecan nuts. yumyumyum!! we still have a LOT of fresh cranberries left, so i cant wait to make something else with them... luckily, they dont go bad that fast, apparently you can keep them in a cool dry place for at least 3 months!

here on flickr i posted some more pictures of the entire cranberry-harvesting-process.

Another street...

after a boston and new york street the past 2 days, now a "street" in california.... :) i dont know exactly where we were here, i think somewhere in the mojave desert, back in may. it was simply amazing driving there. the emptiness, the landscape. really, really amazing. and yes, i just had to sit on the route 66 sign, as probably all tourists do.... it was extremely windy (later we got into a sandstorm), so i couldnt see much with my hair blowing into my face, haha!

now i want to go again!!

Blogging holiday

whoops! i took a little holiday from blogging the past weeks, together with my trip to europe (how american to say "europe" instead of specifying to which countries i went).... before i went to sweden for my practical course, i was briefly in the netherlands, where i had not been for almost 2 years!!! i had not told my parents, so it was a surprise for them to see me, haha... :)

this is utrecht from above, where i used to live before moving to boston. isnt it cute?! me and my sister climbed the largest church tower in the city (you can see that tower here). to the right in the front you can see the terrace of one of the many, many cafes, right next to the canal. it was so very, entirely, totally different from the us! and i really felt like a tourist, not having been there for almost 2 years.....

i got home last wednesday already, got back to the lab monday but somehow did not get back to my blog... from now on i hope to be back again! hope to write more about what i observed in the netherlands after 2 years of absence tomorrow....

Some sightseeing

its not too cold here, but often quite windy, and then its suddenly chilly! many clouds make it very pretty... here we were at the sea side, where many people were still swimming...! i didnt try, seemed so cold.....

I was.....

in..... New York! i guess that was not a very difficult one....

my sister is here and we went for 2 days (tim joined for one day). and now i am soooo tired!! so, more tomorrow, and perhaps in the coming days... (havent checked my pics yet).

if you are curious about the steaming chimney, i once blogged about that already (here). now i just want to sleeeeeeppppp!!

Harvard yard

this is harvard yard; the oldest part and center of the campus of harvard university. the oldest building still standing dates back from 1720. harvard yard was locked down for several weeks last year, when some students played "occupy boston" and had tents in the grassy area behind the people you see in the pic (as you can see in my old post here). it was then only accessible to those with a harvard id, and thus rather empty, while normally its a very touristy area! it is also the home of harvard freshmen (first year students); 13 of the 17 freshman dormitories are located in harvard yard (you see 2 of them in the pic). must be weird living in a tourist hotspot, although i think most harvard students actually enjoy this attention....

as you can see, also here the grass turned freshly green; it really makes everything around here very pretty (only now you are not allowed to walk on it anymore).

Caged Gracie

this is a life-like statue of grace sherwood allen. she died before turning 5 years old, of the whooping cough (an awful bacterial infection still affecting nearly 50 million people each year, killing nearly 300,000), in 1880. the statue is made of marble, by sidney h morse. without the glass vitrine, it would not have been white like this, being exposed to harsh winters and hot summers for over 100 years. it would have been greenish from algae and what not, like all the other stones and statues. but.. to me it was a little eerie. poor little gracie. caged forever. even worse; during winter this glass cage is covered by a metal one to further protect this "historical object" that it now became.

this is at the forest hills cemetery, of which i showed you pictures earlier. early march, the trees were still bare and the grass was yellowish (normally covered by snow, or just recovering from snow during that time of the year). we had visitors this weekend (from texas), and they themselves wanted to see a cemetery! jeejjj! so we drove to this one, as i have decided it probably is the most beautiful/interesting cemetery in boston. had it been beautiful last time, it was even more amazing this saturday, with the grass so green and blossom trees full in bloom. that time i sort of searched for gracie, but could not find her. we did see some metal thing that we joked could be a rocket of some sort; she then was still caged! and we just had walked around and around and had no clue that gracie was patiently standing underneath. poor little girl. 

her dress is very pretty, also from the back, but i now see i did not really take pictures of that side..... next time, as we will surely return to see how this cemetery looks like in summer.... (if i have the patience to wait till summer).

for more taphophilia, go here..., and here are some more pics of little gracie.

Servant Frank

there are 2 very touristy graveyards in boston, very close to each other. although we live here now almost 2 years, we had not been to either one, yet we have passed them many, many times. the sheer number of tourists made us just walk past them, every time. even though i have always liked to visit cemeteries. i guess i just like to be the only tourist, instead of being surrounded by many others...

but this st patrick's day we finally went to both! the above marker is at the granary burying ground, close to the boston common. it is the final resting place of many important americans (thats why it is a tourist hotspot); paul revere, benjamin franklin's family (he himself is in philadelphia), samuel adams, and john hancock. to be honest. i know all these names, but i couldnt tell you exactly what they all did/why they are important. is that bad? perhaps so... do i want to know? yes! but not tonight... :)

anyways.. to me the most striking grave was the one above. frank. servant to john hancock. only that. googling just that gives you many hits, and similar photos as mine, as well as many questions about frank. who was he? was he married? was he happy? what did he do? but no answers... :( one thing i did not realize when i saw this grave; the fact that he is there at all is a sign that john hancock probably held him in high esteem (this was 1771!!). franks grave is right underneath the big obelisk for john hancock (as you can see here), which was erected 100 years after his death. moreover, john hancocks tomb does not say anything about him either. no "first signer of the declaration of independence", just this: "No. 16 tomb of hancock" (unfortunately i have no picture of that).

some other time more about the graveyard itself, perhaps. now its time for bed and tomorrow some history lessons through wikipedia for me.. ;)

more taphophile stories? go here!

Southernmost southernmost

i did not know what to post today... and then decided it had to be a pic with people in it, havent posted that for a while! but my most recent pictures with people in it go back to the first of january, when we were at key west, florida. this is a sort of monument, intended to resemble a bouy, standing at the southernmost tip of key west. this is written on the side with the least number of people, and it also mentions that from here its only 90 miles to cuba (as you can see here). there were many things on key west labeled as "southernmost", the southermost hotel, house (but there was also a southernmost southernmost house next to it), supermarket, restaurant... etc... but this monument was overcrowded with tourists. there was quite a long line with people wanting to have their picture taken next to it. at some point people became impatient and just had their picture taken from the other side, as you can see here. the ones facing the sun probably ended up with a better picture, but the others have the text with "southernmost point...", having at least an excuse as to why they were standing next to that ugly big thing! :) of course, this is not really really the most southern point of the usa. on the island itself are points farther south, and also those are only the southernmost points of continental usa, the island hawaii is more southern.... in fact, i just read there is another key, key ballast, that is more southern than key west, but this island is privately owned, and therefore apparently does not count (perhaps because tourists cannot get their picture taken there?). this island had been owned by someone for the past 50 years, but last year it was for sale! for only 13,800,000 dollars.... you can see that here, on the "private island website". "private island website"... can you believe it?! 

it was hard to write a post without visiting wikipedia... :( but they are blacked out for 24 hours to protest against SOPA and PIPA...

Hello from....

.... memphis! 

above a picture of the most famous stret in memphis; beale street. this is where many black musicians performed in the 1860s, and where elvis presley later used to spend a lot of his time. today, it was pretty empty, but it showed that it now mostly is a tourist destination. i guess we were a little too early for the music to start and people to come, but we wanted to see it while it was still light out. it was sooo cold! that was a little unexpected but well... 

we arrived in memphis this afternoon (after leaving our home around 4.30 this morning, beehhh! we had an extremely long wait (4 hrs!!)  in atlanta where we had to change flights since lovely priceline decided to change our original booking),  then we had a little debate which rental car to choose (i wanted bright red; better for pictures. tim wanted black. we went for the black as red cars are supposedly stopped more often by the police (source; big bang theory), and the tire profile was better according to tire expert tim, moreover the black car has massachusetts license plates; still i would have preffered red...), found our place for the coming 2 nights easily (here you can see pictures, its quite cool, with little notes everywhere and several music instruments you are allowed to use), and then drove and walked around memphis a little. its like in the movies!! my goodness, i wanted to picture it all! we were both sitting in the car mouths wide open. ooh, look here, look at that! there! but, it was rather grey out, so the pics did not turn out that well... maybe tomorrow! then we will visit the house of elvis, among other things....

now we are both exhausted, tim already fell asleep.