Tourist guide

the tallest buildings in a US city are skyscrapers, in the Netherlands it is the church... above the st. bavochurch or "grote kerk" (large church) in haarlem, where we were yesterday. it is truly enormous and placed on a large square.

if i were to write a tourist guide, this would be my advice: for lunch or breakfast, goto the V&D warehouse, dont be fooled by the ground floor small dining area, but goto the uppermost floor, where you will find a large dining area with nice seats and a magnificent view of the city. i before showed you utrecht, and here is haarlem, as mentioned. the other advantage is that the food will be cheaper, and you will loose less time than in a restaurant or cafe, where the service, especially in larger cities, really is not that good (usually); at the V&D you yourself take what you want and bring it to your seat. ok.. maybe we got used to the service in the US; much faster! and now became too impatient for the dutch waiters. on tuesday we went out to dinner in utrecht, and we had to wait over an hour for the main course! even after asking the waiter he did not show any effort or compassion... dessert; same story, even so the cook just had to slice some applepie and put it on a plate. although the food was good, they did not once ask whether it all was fine and whether it was enough (probably it was enough... but i would have liked a bit more fries, im here only a few days!! and they were soooo good!). he forgot to bring the drinks several times... etc etc. thats because in the netherlands waiters get a decent salary and do not depend on tips (like in the us); you thus are not at all obliged to give a tip, and defenitely not 20% as is common in the US. in utrecht most waiters are students that have this job on the side and they just do not care at all! so... that would be the next point in my travel guide; if you find the service bad; do not tip! maybe then they will finally learn....... and you will save money; dont forget; you are in the netherlands, so why not behave as a dutch?! :)

Freezing books

"de vries" is a very common last name in the netherlands, but leaving out the "de", you get freezing books, as pictured above.... :) yup, it is still freezing, and the snow is still abundantly present... also at the beach!

de vries is a bookstore in Haarlem, and has been there since 1905; the shop seemed huge and very pretty, and most importantly; stuffed with books... we didnt go inside, (im already worried how to get everything we accumulated the past few days back to boston) but i liked their christmas decoration so much that i took a picture... the girl above then said to her mother: we have to show these stars to dad. her mother asked: but how? and then the girl said; well, we should also take a picture!

the new york city neighborhood harlem is named after haarlem; but there the resemblance stops... i would say, after having seen both....  however, in this time zone it is very late now, so if you want to catch up on your harlem wikipedia reading, click here, and for the dutch haarlem, click here... good night!

Utrecht mirror

this mirror is on the tolsteegsingel in utrecht. the street goes along the water and it all is soo pretty there! the houses, the water, simply everything... with the snow even the mirror becomes worthwhile... :)

it has hardly snowed since we arrived on saturday; most of the snow fell just before... (buuuh, i missed that!), but it has been freezing since, so the snow is everywhere, as for whatever reason nothing is being undertaken to remove it from the streets. most people are just biking as if there is no snow... i keep being amazed and tim keeps telling me that i talk like an 80-year-old, all those people are dutch after all, and know how to bike... :)

Amsterdam streets

we went for some shopping in amsterdam today! there is snow here since friday, and totally nothing has been done to get rid of it.... so all the streets now have a greyish, mouchy (is that a word?) layer of snow, at other places its not mousse, but just a thick layer of slippery ice. at one particular spot where it was real slippery, they had placed 5 policemen, and they prevented people to walk there; that looked so stupid to me!! they rather should have given them a shovel to remove the ice there, no?

this is at koningsplein (king's square), on the bridge. as you can see, many bikes are attached to the bridge, as rule number one for trying to not get your bike stolen is to lock it onto something. its often quite hard to find a parking spot for your bike; the good places are usually taken... :) 

the girl in the front looks rather dutch to me, and behind her is a real dutch bike, a "bakfiets", they became quite popular in recent years as you can use them to transport whatever you want (your 3 children, or your groceries or even to move your furniture...)

not the best pic, but i wanted to show the dirty streets!

So beautiful

today we were at the airport again; this time to say bye to a friend of tim's, and to get his car keys. as his car was close to utrecht, we went there and i marveled at the beauty of this city!! the entire time i lived there i realized how pretty it is, but after being gone and seeing it again i could only think; it truly is a beautiful city. with or without snow!of course not much changed while we were gone, but my favorite sandwich shop (that i discovered only 2 months before we left) was gone... :( we were already imagining which one we would take and then sneak into the place with the view. buuuuhhhh!!

even though none of the small roads was cleared of snow, sooo many people were biking! i am always terrified and probably because of that i usually slip and (almost) fall. roads are on either side of this gracht ("canal") and in the right corner you see the Dom.... you can see its beauty from sooo many angles while walking through the city.... :)

Snowy suitcase

i am now awake for more than 36 hours.... beeeegghhh. first work yesterday morning, then the supermarket (icelandair makes you pay for your meal in the plane and we are dutch, after all, even after 9 months US (or even more so?)), then cleanup of the apartment, then airport with a too heavy suitcase and 3 transfers; ah no, our perfect apartment is not located optimally considering airport access :) seeing boston in the dark from above was real cool, but i didnt recognize anything... 

i was a little worried as there was quite some snow again in the netherlands and the news had stories that it was a total chaos on the roads and many flights delayed or cancelled. but we left snowless boston without problems, landed into iceland that surely looked icy but snowless as well, and then approached an entirely white netherlands; beautiful from above as well. scary during landing (at least for me), wouldnt that be slippery?! but it all went smooth (except me sleeping; didnt happen). luggage was kind of a mess, so many people and it lasted forever; then we discovered many people that were waiting there for their luggage had in fact just checked in in amsterdam, but due to cancelled flights, had to pick it right up again.... i guess we were very lucky as many many flights got cancelled (also an earlier direct flight from boston).

the combination suitcase and snow turned out to be less fun.... pictured above... buuugh. i like that in the background another couple was posing, and i just saw that the building on the left has the word "oren" (i.e. ears) on it, most likely the T got just cut off (ie toren; tower).

now finally time for bed... although a little early in this timezone....

Going home!

currently im at boston airport, waiting for our flight to iceland.... and then to... amsterdam, the netherlands! after 9 months we now go back for christmas!

above you see another city, utrecht.. where we certainly will go as well, as i prefer it over amsterdam... this view is from the food/dining area of the V&D (a warehouse comparable to Macy's, i guess); i used to always drag everyone to this place as the view is so magnificent (and, if you do it secretly, you can bring your own food and just buy a coffee/tea while enjoying the view). look how different it is from usa.... :) in the back is the "dom" the most beautiful church in utrecht; every time  i look at it i am amazed by its beauty.. even after having lived in that city for 5 years. it is the tallest church tower in the netherlands, built in 1382 (!!) and it used to be the tallest building in utrecht; until 1 or 2 years ago, it was not allowed to build a building exceeding the length of the tower... but they recently started to build a huge bank building.. (maybe it got finished during the time we were gone?)  perhaps you can see, or not, but behind the church tower is the other part of the church that is not (anymore) connected to the tower. due to a fierce (found that word on wikipedia!) storm in 1674 that part was destroyed, probably due to bad construction; they had put all their effort to create that beautiful tower..... :)

ah, im looking forward to go home.... how will it be after being gone for 9 months? (and take some pictures of the dom with my new fancy camera!!)

Christmas lights

on tuesday we went back to the decorated house. i really wanted to see it in the dark... ofcourse we could not find it at first... driving around we actually saw many many houses with a lot of decoration. whenever there was, it was not just a bit, but always many lights.. on trees, on the porch... everywhere possible.. but all of those many lights were nothing... compared to the house above. sooooo much!!! it was impressive, and in the dark actually quite nice, although over the top. on the photo you cannot see how much it was, unfortunately... you can see a car standing there; they were watching too! luckily it was not a supercrowded street, but not entirely empty either, and most cars driving by reduced their speeds to have a look at the sea of light, some even stopping entirely... could be dangerous!

while taking pics lights started to go off.. thats why i choose this pic, despite the car; it has the most lights still on... maybe the electrical current got overloaded with soo much needed to light all this?!

the house next to it did not have one light... :)

No crime

although you are not allowed to watch inside the great hall when the freshmen have their food, its no crime to look through the window when its empty, right? above what me and my camera saw... doesnt it look like harry potter? :)

as for the harvard library urine incident: it happened actually already a few weeks back, and then was reported as an accident by the person who tripped over the bottle of urine. only later it somehow got listed as a possible "hate crime" and was investigated by the university police. they however came to the conclusion that, although it were gay and lesbian books, was "just" an accident, and there was "just" a bottle of urine located at the wrong place. nowhere it was mentioned WHY there was such a bottle with pee in a library in the first place??!! now i found a post on this website where someone poses the following: it is finals week at the university, so everyone is studying real hard. possibly... someone was studying soooo hard in the library, that he/she could not even get up to go to the restroom and instead did it in a bottle. seems plausible... although... crazy?! i especially like the last sentence: "Harvard's damaged books on gay issues turning out to be a accident instead of a hate crime is quite a relief to the compus' GLBT community. Finals are tense enough without thinking someone they study with could be that nasty."

so, thats it, no hate, no crime, just harvard pee..... not very prestigious though...

Wet accident

above the memorial hall in cambridge, from harvard univeristy. according to my friend wikipedia it is now a national historic landmark. in 1877 it was completed. the hall's great room is used as the dining hall for freshmen, and you are not allowed to have a look inside (those poor hardworking students are at harvard, and need to study! they arent monkeys you can watch...). i did however once have a peek inside, and that was soooo cool!! it totally looked like the great dining hall in the harry potter movie (at least so i think..).

clearly this picture was taken when there was more sun out.. but i just read something sooo weird in the newspaper related to harvard that a harvard pic was necessary... :) according to the newspaper, 36 books, all dealing with gay and lesbian studies, were damaged by urine. urine??!! harvard issued a statement that the books were damaged "when a library staffer accidentally knocked over a bottle of urine that had somehow been placed on the shelf where the staffer was stocking books". eh? how did that get there? why? the headline of the newspaper thus is "hate in the halls of harvard?" 

surely i keep you updated if more news on this follows....

Tobin bridge

above you see in the back a part of the tobin bridge. i still do not know whether i find this bridge pretty or ugly, but surely i find it fascinating. it leads you from chelsea (where the photo was taken) to charlestown. this is only a small part of the bridge, it is 3 km long! and has 2 levels. we drove a few times on the lower level, and i find it a little scary, it all seems so narrow and low. on top of that, there is always a digital traffic sign saying "please drive safely", indicating to me that on this bridge you really have to be careful, thereby making me feel even less safe.. it crosses the mystic river, and therefore this bridge is sometimes called the mystic river bridge (but i never heard that). it was built between 1948 and 1950. so that explains why it looks sooo old! it is old! i have tried now already from many angles and at several locations to take a nice picture.. but never managed. luckily there is the internet; here is a beautiful picture of it! ah, and the internet also tells me that Tobin was a former mayor of boston and Mass governor. a less nice detail; someone once jumped from that bridge to commit suicide. and somewhere else i see someone calling it the "green river killer"... ah, maybe! depends at what picture you look!

Posing with...

santa! as opposed to the previous time (my goodness, was he really there already at november 7?! and wow, is time running by quickly...), now many parents wanted their kids pictured with santa. not all children were happy about it, some were crying and some could not be made posing with santa no matter what, he remained a big scary bearded man in a red suit. but look at the boys above (twins, i presume), there is so much pride in the way they are standing there! it was really fun to observe... (it was also fun to see that santa has some kind of ass-problem.. when he got up i could see he had a special kind of pillow on which he was sitting... :D)

Christmas decoration

on the road to saugus (there we have the mall with the used bookstore and quite some other shops, as well as, a little further, a huge thrift store) we passed this house today. while passing i couldnt believe how much was in that garden, so we turned, drove back and stopped to take some pictures. the light is not the best, but clearly, there is a lot of christmas decoration. its not even everything!! on the left side is a bridge entirely decorated and we were in fact standing in the other part of the garden, that was also entirely filled with decorations and lights and i dont know what. the owner was busy putting up some more... there were several notes that you should not walk on the (private) driveway; however, they did make an "observation area" (where we were standing). never saw something like that before...!

now i want to go back in the dark, to see all the lights!!

Some coffee?

 

on boylston street, when there were a lot of people out on the streets.... 

in cars, on strollers, sometimes even in the couch... everywhere there are cupholders for your beverage. i do think thats a very american thing.... :)

and your beverage of course goes into a plastic/carton cup (disregarding the few that "go green" and bring their own) that you can trash afterwards. often the coffees/ ice-coffees are sooo huge (and in case of iced coffee with sooo much ice!), i always wonder whether people finish them entirely...

and nope, that was not my cup... although.. whenever i have to give my name, i always say cat (and sometimes even spell it), but almost always it will come back as Kat, which i never understood (kat is actually the dutch spelling for cat; the pet). but then a real american explained me its because many girls go by kathy, with a K.

So tired....

..today. absolutely no energy for any blogwriting. so just this peaceful picture. its the jamaica pond in jamaica plain.

Photographing strangers...

...like these fancy ladies a few months back at boylston street (i was sitting on the stairs of the public library and they didnt notice me) is what i like most, but what i also find most scary...  for me, it also depends whats going on, if there is some kind of gathering, or festivity, i feel more free to take a picture than when its just 1 person, or especially, 1 or 2 cops; they are really too intimidating (at least to me). but, in the US, you are allowed to photograph anything, except: (1) certain military installations or operations. (2) people that are in places that are not easily visible to the general public (ie at home). (i stole this from here). you thus can photograph whatever you can see in public space (thus also police officers, or children, for that matter). it happened however already a few times that we were kindly, or less kindly, asked not to take pictures (for example in the cinema (???), or the area around my lab in charlestown, which is rather industrial and sooo cool!).

here is a link i found very useful, and actually i recently printed the statement posted there and now always have it with me (just in case). found it at this photoblog (also in boston!)

Posing proudly

when obama was in town, they released an enormous amount of police officers into boston. they were their charming macho self.... great. as for example those guys with bikes above. they were just standing there, displaying their cool.... suddenly there was this girl that asked whether she could get her picture taken with them and with some small gestures they made clear that that was fine. else they remained as they were.. the girl put herself in front of one and posed until there was a picture that they were happy with. ofcourse, when they did it, suddenly everyone else dared doing that too, so several pictures of people with cool cops were taken..... 

at least they were useful for something.... i guess....

Freaky santa

last week we went out to dinner for tims birthday. we went to a simple place (the pizza is soooo gooood!!), and the "restaurant" was sooooo tiny, i had only been there during summertime and then they have a big terrace, but inside there was space for only 5 tables.... its on newbury street in boston, a street with many fancy, expensive stores. some shopwindows were very pretty, but the one above was rather freaky, i would say..! santa's dress was moving up and down... what about children passing by? or am i too old-fashioned?

Other side

and here are the beach houses from the other side... as said, i cannot choose!!
here i had to cut off tim, he was on the left side, but i liked the pic better without him... :)

Ocean houses

im 2 or 3 days behind with blogging.... :( then this weekend i was sick so no new pictures... 

ah well.. this is in provincetown, where we went last week at thanksgiving. we passed by this seemingly endless row of houses and i made tim turn and stop there so we could have a look and take some pictures. it was deserted!! i could stand in the middle of the road and take pics... (see above). these houses are to rent on a daily basis, but only during the summertime. you cannot see that here, but they are right on the beach.... sooo beautiful!! i took many pictures of these houses, all more or less the same and couldnt really decide which one to take.

ah, its finally really getting colder, its freezing right now! and actually i saw some teeny tiny snowflakes on saturday (or was it sunday) morning... but tim didnt even see them, so...