Texel, Netherlands
Texel, Netherlands, a set on Flickr.
Today we took a day trip to Texel, an island in the North of Holland. We took an 1 1/2 hour train, a 20 minute ferry, then cycled for 30 minutes to the dunes, had lunch on the beach and went to an interesting museum that boasts a collection of items that have washed on the shores of Texel in the past 70 years. Did you know the number one hazard to navigation at sea is rogue containers that have fallen from ships? They float just below the surface and they’re steal… bad to run into one, but you never know what you’ll find inside if one washes ashore!
Volendam
Volendam, a set on Flickr.
Today we took a little trip to Volendam. It’s about a 30 minute train ride and then another 30 minute cycle. We saw some lambs and possibly the smallest beach ever…
Our Pirate Ship Mural
While Heath’s mom was visiting she took some time to create this mural on our wall.
The cat pirate flag.
W & H. Can you spot the cat? 🙂
One step closer to gills
Friday night Heath and I had the opportunity to try out full face masks underwater.
With these you can hook up communication devices and talk to each other – as if breathing underwater wasn’t crazy enough! Heath is already certified, but this was my first time. I learned how to properly don the mask and even how to take it off and put it back on underwater. We’re now ready for the Abyss… and able to let each other know when a shark is heading our way!
The new Rainbow Warrior
Yesterday in Bremerhaven, Gremany Greenpeace launched the new Rainbow Warrior III. She’s a purpose-built motor-assisted sailing yacht specifically designed for environmental campaigning. She’s one of the greenest ships afloat now – all materials, from the paintwork to the insulation, have been chosen with a view to sustainability, and each component has been supplied with transparent ethical sourcing. At full sail she can travel at 14 knots.
She’s a beautiful ship and it was great to be at the ceremony. I hope one day to be able to sail with her!
54 meters of mast!
Al Jazeera covers the launch:
Broek in Waterland
Kayaking in Broek in Waterland, a set on Flickr.
Back in July we went kayaking/canoeing with a couple friends in Broek in Waterland (Pants in Water Country). It’s about 12km north of Amsterdam.
Ice from the North Pole
The Greenpeace’s icebreaker vessel, Arctic Sunrise, recently returned from a trip to the Arctic with scientists from the University of Cambridge’s Polar Ocean Physics Group who conducted research into the thickness and volume of the sea ice.
Some of this research included taking samples of ice that formed tens of thousands of years ago from deep beneath the North Pole. They brought some back and Heath and I got a piece. Check it out!
So what do you do with a big chunk of ice from the Arctic?
Make cocktails of course!
Het Scheepvaartmuseum
Excited about the re-opening!
The glass roof of the inner courtyard. The self-supporting structure measures 34 by 34 metres and weighs 200,000 kg. The roof was designed by Luxembourg native Laurent Ney. His design was inspired by the compass lines on old sea charts. The pieces of glass all have different dimensions. Because the building has sunk somewhat over the years, the inner courtyard is no longer completely symmetrical. There are individually adjustable LED lights at all 868 intersection points of the steel frame.
Middle of the glass roof
History of Navigation Exhibit
Sailors
Stained Glass and Reflection
Masts on the Clipper Stad Amsterdam
At the helm
Molly face
Molly enjoying the warm sunshine while she still can!
Boats Underway
When it’s sunny out the waterways get busy and become entertaining for a lazy day on the balcony.
Some even dive ride in. Too cold for me!
Some of our neighbor’s houseboats.
Heath chillin’ out on our balcony
Full boat
The big boat on the right was carrying a band. Just cruising around playing music. These fellow boaters must have liked what they heard has they handed them some biertjes!
SAIL 2010
For two weeks we have watched our neighborhood transform for Sail 2010, the festival of tall ships. It only comes to Amsterdam every five years, so we’re lucky to not only to be here for it, but to be so close! In 2005 there were 1.8 million visitors and I have a feeling there will be more than that this year.
On Thursday, Heath and I watched the tall ships sail in. There are two bridges that connect the island we live on to the mainland. They removed two sections from one of the bridges so that the ships could sail through.
One of the ships came in with a “bang”.
Dancing on the masts.
We decided to ride on the scary ferris wheel, despite how windy it was.
Aerial view. And yes, we took our little boat out in this!
Tall ships.
Aerial view of the island we live on. Our building is just beyond the tall gray one.
Heritage boats.
Heath checking them out.
They’ve done this a couple times before.
The tallest one.
Not sure what the submarine was doing at the tall ships festival, but I like the name.
The Dutch Naval ship was huge.
The best part was the fireworks every night!
Dry Suit Certification
Sorry I haven’t posted since December! Trying to get back into the swing of things. Lots has happened since then (Morrocco, Egypt, diving the Red Sea, Heath’s mom visiting, Pootie coming to live, Heath’s dad and his wife visiting, me visiting the States, moving into a new flat, various trips throughout the Netherlands, Heath on the Rainbow Warrior in the Med, etc.- not in that order!)
Anyways, for Heath’s birthday, we decided to get our Dry Suit Certification. These people make it look fun at least!
We no longer live near the warm Florida Keys, so unless we travel far there isn’t much warm diving around here! In dry suit diving, you wear warm clothing underneath and like the name of it – the suit keeps you completely dry, so diving in cold water is possible. We studied all week, watched an ‘entertaining’ PADI DVD, quizzed each other and then went down to Vinkeveen to meet the instructor for the day.
Aerial of Vinkeveen:
We were definitely not the only divers there. The entire parking lot was full and orange dive buoys were bobbing all across the water surface. We did two open water dives which required us to complete certain skills for the certification. Diving in a dry suit was much different than a wet suit… and proved to be more challenging. One of the skills was how to recover if you have too much air in the legs of your suit (which then causes you to start floating to the surface – legs first!). The instructor filled our dry suit with air, spun us upside down… and let go! How do you get out of that before shooting to the surface? Simple – bring your knees into your chest then do a forward somersault until you’re upright, then vent the excess air from your exhaust valve. Needless to say, we were very exhausted at the end of the day.
But now, we’re both officially certified. Bring on the deep, cold depths!
Let it snow!
I promise he’s liking it!
All the birds huddle to the only area that isn’t frozen yet.
Sarphati Park
Snowman in progress.
All types of birds have to get along now.
This girl was chatting on her cell phone as her dad was pulling her along.
This dog was a little confused about what happened to the “ball” once it was thrown.
Even the bike lanes get plowed!
‘Cause even a little sneeuw won’t stop the peddlers!
Oh Christmas Tree…
Here is our (little and slightly crooked) Christmas tree!
Complete with a bike light as the star, ribbons from my last birthday and spokey dokes for ornaments!
Now the only thing missing is presents…
Zwarte Piet
Let me introduce you to Zwarte Piet (Black Peter)…
Who is Zwarte Piet you ask? Well Santa’s helper of course. Sorry, I mean Sinterklaas, I’ve been corrected by the Dutch that is he not the same thing as our American version of Santa Claus, even though it’s an old white man with a white beard wearing a red robe that delivers presents. Anyways, I’ve recently been introduced to Zwarte Piet and the Dutch holiday that he is part of.
December 5th is St. Nicholas Eve here in the Netherlands where they celebrate Saint Nicolas, the patron saint of children. In the weeks leading up to December 5th there are several celebrations and events throughout the city. Such as the one I am watching on TV right now. Hundreds of ‘Black Peters’ are parading about the streets in search of Sinterklass who is arriving by boat from Spain. And yes, those would be white Dutch men and woman with black face makeup, black curly-haired wigs and bright red lipstick.
The historical version is that Zwarte Piet was a Moor, which makes sense with him coming from Spain. However, today they tell the children Zwarte Piet is black because he climbs down the chimneys to bring them their presents. Zwarte Piet is America’s version of receiving coal on Christmas… however if you’re naughty Zwarte Piet will kidnap you and bring you back to Spain!
The other day I was eating some yummy Dutch cookies called kriudnoten. Later, I learned that these are what the Zwarte Pieten throw at the children… to lure them onto a boat to Spain!
Of course this is up for debate, mainly between expats and the Dutch. You can read about it here.
Whatever the perception, the Dutch are proud of their holiday and the children seem to enjoy it.
Fall is here!
Growing up in Florida I never really had the chance to experience Autumn… or four true seasons for that matter. The four seasons in Southwest Florida are Summer, Hurricane, Snowbird and Summer. So needless to say I was really excited and intrigued to see the leaves changing and falling off the tree preparing itself for Winter (a season I’m not particularly excited about).
So before my first Fall has come and gone I thought I should share some photos. Enjoy!
Fall in Bruges, Belgium
Good morning?
Oh I’m sorry, did you think you were going to sleep in on this lovely Friday morning? Well think again! It was cleaning day on my street. Where do I even start?
How about the men banging on bricks with metal tools at my front door?
Honestly, I’m not really sure what they were doing here besides making a bunch of noise. They took the bricks out, moved dirt around, then put the bricks back in. Sometimes banging them with a chisel to break pieces off so they would fit. Heath’s best guess was they were cleaning stuff from the drain grate.
Next up… the garbage truck getting rid of our vuilnis. (The two bikes there are ours. Securely locked together and to the pole!)
But as you can see there are some pretty big things that the regular ol’ garbage truck just can’t get. So a different truck with a crane comes by later to take care of that. Bye, bye mattress.
Check out this old dude’s little truck. Can you guess what his job is?
First he was seen walking around with a bucket and sponge, then he was spotted doing this:
He would be what I like to refer to as “Graffiti-Be-Gone Man”. However, it must not work on brick because I just stuck my head out the window and it’s all still there on our wall. Oh well.
So this was the next cleaning machine coming down the road… the street cleaner…
… but hang tight because we see much more of him! And that’s because a few things need to be done before the streets are truly clean. Take this guy for example:
He would be the one that takes his pointy pole there and scrapes in-between the pavers to get the weeds and such out. Then it’s time for these guys to come around with brooms and a leaf blower and move everything into the street. (Note the street cleaner close behind)
The brooms are my favorite part. For one, they’re quiet. But just look at them. A branch and some twigs. I love it!
Traffic jam. Yet another advantage of the bicycle. Cars were lining up behind all these trucks and they weren’t going anywhere soon! Oh and the street cleaner is actually turning around here. That thing could almost spin on it’s axis! Look out for my bike!
So after all the trash is on the street – thanks to pointy pole man, leaf blower dude and home-made brooms, the street cleaner comes by yet again. (He must drive up and down the street 20 plus times). But I think it does quite a good job. What do you think? Click here: Street Cleaner (Note only one side of the sidewalk has been cleared yet).
Meanwhile… the water company had a truck coming down the road. But he’s making many stops. That’s because he’s opening every water drain, sticking a tube-thing in it and sucking junk out.
Wow, this guy’s job stinks! (hee, hee) Click here to see him in action: Water Net Truck
So pointy pole man, leaf blower dude and guy with broom trade in their cleaning weapons for this:
Guy in truck slowly drives behind. The other one holds the hose and yells whenever a bicyclist, woman with stroller, etc. come walking up and obviously the other guy is pressure washing the sidewalk… and my new bike. 🙂
So I got woken up early and dealt with A LOT of noise for about 2 hours, but hey, I bet we’ve got the cleanest street in Amsterdam!
Just another Sunday…
Heath and I were enjoying a lazy, drizzling Sunday afternoon watching TV when we heard what sounded like a marching band. I looked out the windows but the sound soon faded away. Shortly thereafter, we heard it again. This time it was getting louder. Sure enough a marching band comes walking er… marching down the street in the rain! http://www.vimeo.com/6571760
How random! Of course, the horns started as soon as I turned the camera off. They started playing “The Ants Go Marching“.
Well that didn’t take long!
Immediately after I finished writing the last post, we took a trip to the bike shop and Heath found a new (used) bike. Here she is…
Funny how quickly it was replaced, he just couldn’t be the only one without a bike. This coming from the guy who swore off bikes 6 months ago. 🙂
Whitney and Heath's Expat Experience 