The final episode in our spring trip: after Amsterdam, we went to Germany for a couple of days, to see Cologne and Aachen.
Cologne's a little sad: all the beautiful old buildings, except for the cathedral, were destroyed in 1945 and the reconstructions just aren't the same. The cathedral is incredible: towering Gothic architecture and looming spires that dominate everything around it. You can climb the tower, as you often can, which Stefan and I did (Dad's knees, even the new ones, never would have managed it). You can't get to the full height of 150+ metres, but you can get to about 100 metres. Totally worth the climb, just for the view.
Aachen survived the war much better, being of little strategic importance for the last thousand years or so. It used to be the home of Charlemagne, so the cathedral is amazingly decorated and the treasury is the most incredible one I've ever seen, including St. Mark's in Venice. There's a giant gold hand containing Charlemagne's arm bone, with exquisite detail on the hand, veins and wrinkles and everything. There are medieval bishop's robes in silk and velvet and brocade that look like they could have been sewn yesterday. There are jewel-encrusted gold crosses and reliquaries and incredible carvings. Definitely one to see, and the city's very, very pretty.
We came back to Eindhoven after that. There are a few photos from Eindhoven, but mostly we just took it easy: shopped a bit, sat in the square and had a beer, and so on. All in all, a very nice vacation, and it was great to see my parents again :)
Here are the pictures from Germany and from Eindhoven, and stay tuned for the next edition of "Stefan climbs every cathedral tower in Europe," which is coming as soon as I get around to downloading photos from my camera.
5/29/2011
5/22/2011
Amsterdam (and tulips)
Episode three in our spring trip:
After Brussels, we headed up to Amsterdam. April 30th is Queen's Day, so we wanted to make sure we were in town for that. It's basically their national holiday, like Canada Day. In theory, it's celebrated on the queen's birthday. In reality, it's celebrated on the queen's mother's birthday, because the current queen's birthday is in January and that's far too cold for outdoor celebrations (they really are a very practical people). Plus, my mom timed her visit specifically so that she could see the tulips. The gardens are only open for two months a year, and the tulips are only in bloom for about a month, so you have to time it really, really well.
Amsterdam was lovely, as usual. Most of my photos are from Queen's Day, as I like people-watching, and people dressed up in pylon-coloured clothing and drinking two-euro beer they purchased on the street are particularly good for watching. I have to say, as with Carnival, I was really impressed with how quickly they cleaned up. There were just piles of garbage and beer cans and everything in the streets by the evening of Queen's Day... and it was all gone by noon the next morning. A Sunday, at that, and no one here works on Sundays.
We did go to the Anne Frank House, which I didn't see last time (as Stefan's been through about six times and we knew both sets of parents would want to go). It's one of the best museums I've ever been through. They've set up the narrative very well as you travel through the house, and it's very, very moving. No pictures allowed (fair enough, as it would detract from the experience), so I can't show you anything but the outside. I highly recommend it, though, at least once.
On a side note, my Dutch is apparently better than I think it is. One of the waiters we had even managed to guess correctly that even though my parents were tourists, I lived in the Netherlands. Nearly everyone here speaks enough English that it hasn't really been a problem anyway.
That's about it for Amsterdam... like I said, it was only a few days, and most of that was tulips and Queen's Day anyway. The photos from Amsterdam are here, and (if you feel like looking at many, many photos of tulips, which I realize not everyone wants to do) the photos from the tulip fields are here.
After Brussels, we headed up to Amsterdam. April 30th is Queen's Day, so we wanted to make sure we were in town for that. It's basically their national holiday, like Canada Day. In theory, it's celebrated on the queen's birthday. In reality, it's celebrated on the queen's mother's birthday, because the current queen's birthday is in January and that's far too cold for outdoor celebrations (they really are a very practical people). Plus, my mom timed her visit specifically so that she could see the tulips. The gardens are only open for two months a year, and the tulips are only in bloom for about a month, so you have to time it really, really well.
Amsterdam was lovely, as usual. Most of my photos are from Queen's Day, as I like people-watching, and people dressed up in pylon-coloured clothing and drinking two-euro beer they purchased on the street are particularly good for watching. I have to say, as with Carnival, I was really impressed with how quickly they cleaned up. There were just piles of garbage and beer cans and everything in the streets by the evening of Queen's Day... and it was all gone by noon the next morning. A Sunday, at that, and no one here works on Sundays.
We did go to the Anne Frank House, which I didn't see last time (as Stefan's been through about six times and we knew both sets of parents would want to go). It's one of the best museums I've ever been through. They've set up the narrative very well as you travel through the house, and it's very, very moving. No pictures allowed (fair enough, as it would detract from the experience), so I can't show you anything but the outside. I highly recommend it, though, at least once.
On a side note, my Dutch is apparently better than I think it is. One of the waiters we had even managed to guess correctly that even though my parents were tourists, I lived in the Netherlands. Nearly everyone here speaks enough English that it hasn't really been a problem anyway.
That's about it for Amsterdam... like I said, it was only a few days, and most of that was tulips and Queen's Day anyway. The photos from Amsterdam are here, and (if you feel like looking at many, many photos of tulips, which I realize not everyone wants to do) the photos from the tulip fields are here.
5/17/2011
Eurovision
This weekend, like over 100 million other people, we watched the Eurovision song competition. If you've never heard of it, it's American Idol for all of Europe. Each country gets an entry and then the votes are cast both by judges and by text/telephone in each individual country, so each country gets an equally-weighted vote in the final (and you can't vote for yourself).
You know, I expected it to be really terrible. I've never been much of an American Idol person: so many of them just can't sing. But by and large, the songs were really good. They're all online on the Eurovision website: scroll down and you'll see a country list on the right-hand side. Each country's page has a video of its entry.
I would particularly recommend the following (if you click on the country's name, it'll take you right to the song):
You know, I expected it to be really terrible. I've never been much of an American Idol person: so many of them just can't sing. But by and large, the songs were really good. They're all online on the Eurovision website: scroll down and you'll see a country list on the right-hand side. Each country's page has a video of its entry.
I would particularly recommend the following (if you click on the country's name, it'll take you right to the song):
- Azerbaijan, who eventually won.
- Bosnia and Herzegovina, who were generally awesome.
- Denmark, who I voted for and whose song is still stuck in my head.
- Iceland and Romania, who Stefan voted for (there's no limit on number of votes).
- Serbia, who had a really catchy 60s song despite the fact that I don't speak any Serbian.
- Ireland, who did depressingly well with that disaster.
- Belarus, who entered a song entitled "I Love Belarus," which (shockingly) did not make it to the final round.
- Portugal, who were going for some sort of Village People thing.
- Russia, in case you haven't heard any boy bands in a while. (See also the UK and Sweden.)
- Georgia, who went with (impressively good) metal.
- Moldova, for the hats. You'll see. (Also the unicycle fairy, who I am totally not making up.)
5/15/2011
Brussels
Now, for episode two in our trip: Brussels.
We only spent about a day in Brussels, so this one will be short. The centre, which is old buildings and winding little streets, is beautiful. From what I could tell, the rest of the city is considerably more modern, and much of it seemed to be under construction. It's the capital of the European Union, after all, so there's quite a bit of money flowing in.
It was convenient to have a day where both French and Dutch are spoken, which gave my brain a chance to switch languages properly (sudden switches always take a few days and frustrate me while I reply in the wrong language). For Matt, who likes knowing what people ate on their travels: we had some very lovely mussels, which are very popular in Belgian cooking (and here, for that matter), and, of course, waffles for breakfast, with giant piles of whipped cream and fruit and syrupy sugar. That's a breakfast food, right?
Anyway, the pictures are here, and I'll post the next installment in the next couple of days.
We only spent about a day in Brussels, so this one will be short. The centre, which is old buildings and winding little streets, is beautiful. From what I could tell, the rest of the city is considerably more modern, and much of it seemed to be under construction. It's the capital of the European Union, after all, so there's quite a bit of money flowing in.
It was convenient to have a day where both French and Dutch are spoken, which gave my brain a chance to switch languages properly (sudden switches always take a few days and frustrate me while I reply in the wrong language). For Matt, who likes knowing what people ate on their travels: we had some very lovely mussels, which are very popular in Belgian cooking (and here, for that matter), and, of course, waffles for breakfast, with giant piles of whipped cream and fruit and syrupy sugar. That's a breakfast food, right?
Anyway, the pictures are here, and I'll post the next installment in the next couple of days.
5/11/2011
Paris
There haven't been any posts for the last couple of weeks because my parents were here visiting, so we were travelling around. Instead of spending two solid days writing captions for two weeks' worth of photos, I'll just post them a city at a time and spread it out a little.
We met my parents in Paris: we can hop a train to Rotterdam from here and transfer to the high-speed straight to Paris, which takes a bit more than four hours. Having spent the last seven months in a country where I don't understand the language, it was nice to understand what was happening around me for a change. I've heard people complain that the Parisians won't speak to you in French even if you try, but I didn't get that at all. Maybe they won't speak to you in French if it's clear that your French isn't good enough for a conversation, but despite the loss of some of my once-wonderful accent, I'm still quite clearly fluent. And although most of the people we ran across seemed to speak English, we ate at a tiny little restaurant on the last night, tucked away down a side street, and the waiter spoke no English at all. Two other couples came in while we were eating, and when I saw the first couple having trouble, I offered to translate for the waiter. By the time the second couple came in, unable to speak any French, he offered to keep me! (And considering how wonderful the food was, it was tempting.)
We were only in Paris for about three days, so we saw the big things: the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame. Maybe I'm just not into that kind of thing, but the Eiffel Tower was really underwhelming. I mean, it's just a metal tower, and not old enough yet for my tastes ;) Pretty at night, though.
The Louvre is a maze. I had thought the Vatican museums were bad, but this was terrible. Random sections were closed off, so there were entire parts of the museum that were open, but inaccessible without a half-hour hike through the museum. Plus, like the Vatican, it's filled with people who've come to see (a) the Mona Lisa and (b) the Venus de Milo, and nothing else (well, maybe the Nike of Samothrace). So there are massive crowds in front of a few things, and people trooping past all sorts of interesting things in an attempt to get to the Mona Lisa (who was also not as exciting as people make her out to be, and very small). I like the random stuff better anyway. The Egyptian sections are excellent, and we barely did half of them. You could easily spend a whole week just at the Louvre and still not see everything.
We went to the prisons where the revolutionaries held the prisoners to be guillotined during the French Revolution, though, and that was really interesting (despite the fact that I've forgotten much of what I once knew about the revolution). It's called the Conciergerie and it was a really well-organized museum, with just the right amount of information to give you context without overwhelming you.
That's about it for Paris: the photos are here. What did historians do in museums before digital cameras? I would have ended up hauling around dozens of rolls of film.
We met my parents in Paris: we can hop a train to Rotterdam from here and transfer to the high-speed straight to Paris, which takes a bit more than four hours. Having spent the last seven months in a country where I don't understand the language, it was nice to understand what was happening around me for a change. I've heard people complain that the Parisians won't speak to you in French even if you try, but I didn't get that at all. Maybe they won't speak to you in French if it's clear that your French isn't good enough for a conversation, but despite the loss of some of my once-wonderful accent, I'm still quite clearly fluent. And although most of the people we ran across seemed to speak English, we ate at a tiny little restaurant on the last night, tucked away down a side street, and the waiter spoke no English at all. Two other couples came in while we were eating, and when I saw the first couple having trouble, I offered to translate for the waiter. By the time the second couple came in, unable to speak any French, he offered to keep me! (And considering how wonderful the food was, it was tempting.)
We were only in Paris for about three days, so we saw the big things: the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame. Maybe I'm just not into that kind of thing, but the Eiffel Tower was really underwhelming. I mean, it's just a metal tower, and not old enough yet for my tastes ;) Pretty at night, though.
The Louvre is a maze. I had thought the Vatican museums were bad, but this was terrible. Random sections were closed off, so there were entire parts of the museum that were open, but inaccessible without a half-hour hike through the museum. Plus, like the Vatican, it's filled with people who've come to see (a) the Mona Lisa and (b) the Venus de Milo, and nothing else (well, maybe the Nike of Samothrace). So there are massive crowds in front of a few things, and people trooping past all sorts of interesting things in an attempt to get to the Mona Lisa (who was also not as exciting as people make her out to be, and very small). I like the random stuff better anyway. The Egyptian sections are excellent, and we barely did half of them. You could easily spend a whole week just at the Louvre and still not see everything.
We went to the prisons where the revolutionaries held the prisoners to be guillotined during the French Revolution, though, and that was really interesting (despite the fact that I've forgotten much of what I once knew about the revolution). It's called the Conciergerie and it was a really well-organized museum, with just the right amount of information to give you context without overwhelming you.
That's about it for Paris: the photos are here. What did historians do in museums before digital cameras? I would have ended up hauling around dozens of rolls of film.
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