Queen's Day 2007

Our friends Joan & Jim flew in from Chicago for a week's holiday, starting with a few nights in Amsterdam to celebrate the Queen's Day holiday. Prior to the actual holiday, we spent a couple of days roaming the streets of Amsterdam. If you've ever been here or you know anything about the city you know that there's more than enough to keep you busy ('nuf said). The city was busy as usual, but you could call it downright tranquil compared to what was about to happen on Monday. This post contains many pics, so click on photos to enlarge -- pictured: pre-party lounging along a canal; decorated boat; lonely (but not for long) beer tap.

Between our boat tour and just walking around, we saw quite a few interesting sights. You can really see the city getting ready for the party ... balloons and decorations of all types all over the place. Some red/white/blue but mostly orange. We looked on in amazement as a group of guys were tying ribbons across the street between the pubs and stores ... in order to steady the ladder on the uneven street, they used the advanced method of cardboard beer coasters! They were very confident (or it might have been the beer that they were drinking as they performed this dangerous task).

Although we've never been, we think the closest thing in the US would be Mardi Gras. The party starts early -- when we walked out on Monday morning, the streets were already crowded and people were literally streaming in from the train station. The streets get so packed, especially near the canals and the main squares, that you can barely move.

The party really starts with the street sales. People all over the city put out their junkiest wares hoping that someone is already drunk enough to buy them (they are). Also, it's a chance for people to make money in strange ways; kids playing instruments (some better than others), pie-in-the-face, and so forth. We even saw people peddling hugs and the right to pet their dogs.

There's entertainment all around the city, but our favorite activity of the day was watching the canal boat parade. The boats quickly turned from a trickle to a steady stream. There's everything from two-person motorboats to floating "decks" of people. Each one has its own sound system -- the bigger ones actually have DJs and some had brass bands! The really good ones get the crowd going -- someone on one rocking boat threw a bottle of wine to Rochelle (it's like they knew us)! One of the boats was even broadcasting for MTV. Sometimes the crowd watching the parade was as entertaining as the boat parade itself.

Sadly, the sun and excitement (not to mention liquid refreshments) led to an early end to the day for Rich & Rochelle. Even though we got an early start I'd be embarrassed to say what time we were back in our hotel room. Joan & Jim managed to stay out quite a bit later. We're amazed at how orderly the holiday is ... despite all of the partying, it begins and ends early, and people seem relatively well-behaved. Next year, if we don't have any visitors, we'll have to see how it's done outside of Amsterdam.

We're posting more Queen's Day pics daily for about a week on our daily photo blog; check it out at www.wassenaardailyphoto.blogspot.com. And look for our next post on the 2nd half of our trip with Joan & Jim (the party continues in Dublin) in two weeks. Thanks also to Jim for contributing some great shots to the pics.

Ola! Barcelona

Sunny Spain, right? Well, not exactly, there was better weather here in The Netherlands than our rainy visit to Barcelona. Oh well, can't win them all.


pictured: view from cathedral courtyard, Columbus statue at the harbor

Barcelona is truly an architecture-lovers city. The modernista movement, and in particular Antoni Gaudi, transformed the city in the late 1800s. We've pictured some highlights below...as you can see, even the lampposts are stylish. One that we can't do justice to is the Palau de la Musica Catalana; the inside is a spectacular work of modernista design. We toured the hall but photos are not allowed. Click the link and explore the "facilities" section to see more of the hall, especially the inverted stained glass dome.

pictured: Gaudi building, Palau exterior, lamppost (we liked the bat!)

The Sagrada Familia is as much a living construction site as it is a uniquely amazing building. The century-long construction has resulted in a real variety of styles. Look at the difference in the musical sculptures vs. the menacing "passion" facade. Touring the site, it's hard to imagine what it will be like when it's finished (current prediction: about 20 years).


pictured: Sagrada exterior & column, musician carvings, "passion" carvings



Saturday we took a bus tour to three sights outside of the city. The Torres winery is one of Spain's largest. An interesting tour, but if you know us you know that we were "somewhat" disappointed that we only got to taste one wine. Next we were on our way up to Montserrat, where a Benedictine abbey sits halfway up the mountain. To get there we took a "rack railway," and while we were there we took a funicular to the top. At the abbey, we saw a wedding and a drum corps/procession (we never did find out what it was for). Leaving by bus, we went to Sitges, a resort town on the medittereanean. Although the weather wasn't great, we can see why this is a popular spot; beautiful beaches and lots of restaurants and nightclubs.

pictured: montserrat & rack railroad, the abbey

Speaking of restaurants, of course we had a good time sampling the food and wine. In fact, at most places the wine is ridiculously cheap (in price, not quality), so we had the opportunity to have lots of cava (spanish sparkling wine). Our best meal was lunch at Ot, a restaurant near the Sagrada Familia. Our most interesting meal was lunch at Can Culleretes, where the only english spoken was when the hostess seated us. Our waitress, best described as a spanish version of the typical "italian mother," didn't speak a bit of english, so ordering was an adventure. We didn't do too bad, but did end up ordering three desserts by accident!

The food market is huge ... everything from meats to seafood, cheeses to spices ... but the best thing is that there are even tapas bars right in the market! We sat down to some cava and a big plate of serrano jamon that was carved right off of a leg hung by its hoof.

pictured: fruit/nut and seafood stands at the market

Other than the weather, the only other bad point in Barcelona is the amount of "non-violent" crime. Within our first 20 minutes of walking around we were approached twice by pickpocket scams, even by two old ladies (trying to "sell" flowers, they distract & steal money). Luckily we had been forewarned, and Rochelle's use of the dutch "Nee!" (no!) stopped them in their tracks. See, we are learning to speak dutch!





NEXT EXPECTED POST DATE: May 7

Paris Redux

For our second trip to Paris, we decided to make the Musee d'Orsay our main sight. Situated right on the river Seine in an old train station, it is a fantastic museum with extensive impressionist and art nouveau collections. We really enjoyed the setting and the artwork.

Pictured (click to enlarge): interior of Musee d'Orsay

After satisfying Rochelle's otter-like love of oysters for lunch (not to mention wine for Rich), we toured the Cimitiere du Pere Lachaise. Although the vandalism is a shame, it is a beautiful cemetery. Music lovers can visit the graves of Rossini and Chopin, among others. Those with more modern taste can brave the throngs looking for Jim Morrison's grave. It's now blocked off with a fence and guarded by an armed guard. I'm not sure he would appreciate the tacky flowers and cigarette butts, but who knows?

Pictured: graves of Jim Morrison, Gioachino Rossini, wine lover?

Saturday we headed off to the market. When we first got off the metro, we followed some equally clueless English people until we found some signs that pointed in the right direction. At first we were bummed that we made the trip -- the first market we came to was filled with cheap stuff (clothes & tourist junk) and scary guys hawking pirated DVDs. After a while we found the antiques section. We weren't really shopping for anything, but it was interesting to see everything from huge chandeliers to art filling stall after stall.

Pictured: Notre Dame gargoyles and rose window

We headed back to the Ile de St. Louis to tour Notre Dame. While the inside view of the windows is beautiful, it's the details on the outside that really make it interesting. There must be some sort of gargoyle record here! At dusk, we took a boat ride on the Seine which provided some great views of the Eiffel Tower (pictured below).

Looking for some refreshments, we stumbled on a Canadian pub called The Beaver on the Ile de Cite. We went upstairs and played darts for a while before a group of french students came up. We decided to let them play a round and then quickly decided that we'd move downstairs before we were killed (the darts were real, and the students were real bad)! Downstairs we talked to some friendly Canadians while the France-Scotland rugby match played. This explained the kilt-wearing men we saw all weekend (unfortunately, France won by a landslide).

Catching a restaurant on a weekend night in Paris can be an adventure, especially if you're looking for something other than the typical bistro. We got lucky both nights, finding a spanish/catalan restaurant Friday night and a french/ place on Saturday. But we had to do quite a bit of walking past overflowing places first!

Sunday we did more walking around the latin quarter. We stopped at the Pantheon, checking out Foucault's pendulum (pictured) and the nationalist surroundings. All in all, it was a great 2nd trip to Paris and we've barely scratched the surface of all of the things to do and see there.

Sting in Antwerp

Onze Lieve Vrouw (Cathedral)

We hopped on the train last weekend over the border to Antwerpen, Belgie. The primary reason for the trip was to see Sting in concert, but that was a great excuse to do some sightseeing and enjoy the great Belgian food.


The weather wasn't too great when we arrived Friday night, and Saturday morning greeted us with gale-force winds. We didn't let that stop us, as we walked to the river to check out the old castle De Steen, which is now the Shipping Museum. Needing to get inside, we headed to the old Vleeshuis (meat market), which is now a museum for musical instruments. This was a great find -- you get an audio/visual guide that lets you learn more about the instruments on display (albeit in Dutch) and listen to audio selections.

pictured: De Steen

Antwerp is proud of its artistic tradition, particularly Peter Paul Rubens. The cathedral has two large altarpieces. We also visited the Rubenshuis, which gave a glimpse of how he lived, worked, and collected art.

pictured: Rubens' The Raising of the Cross

The skies parted in the afternoon, and we met up with one of Rochelle's colleagues from the states. Coincidentally he was in Antwerp for a weeklong course. It was great to have an early dinner with him and get the scoop from back home.


The concert itself was not your typical Sting concert. Last year Sting did an album of music by the Elizabethan lute composer John Dowland. The encore included some Sting/Police songs performed "unplugged" with lutes. No one whipped out their lighters, at least not that we saw.


pictured: Bird Market



Sunday we walked around the "Bird Market," so named for its origins as an animal market. Today it's more of a flea market, but there are still vendors that sell rabbits, guinea pigs, and birds.

After the Rubenshuis and lunch, it was a quick train ride home. The train station is, by the way, a great example of the Art Nouveau style for which this area of Belgium is so well known.