I have a weakness for chandeliers. I love how beautiful they look – and how they come in all shapes and sizes. I had mentioned the chandeliers in a previous post about the Royal Palace in Amsterdam. The ironic thing is that I recall those chandeliers with more fondness than the actual art itself, though that of course was beautiful too.
Without further ado, let’s take a look at the chandeliers…
As mentioned in one of my previous posts earlier this month, the royal palace of Amsterdam had been undergoing renovations to its exterior when I visited. Roger was kind enough to take a picture of the outside for me recently (taking time out of his sprint-from-the-train-to-the-ferry commute!):
Amsterdam Royal Palace, 2012
As you can see there is a lot of people walking through the courtyard — and a lot of birds who have no fear of humans anymore.
In other news, het is vrijdag! It’s Friday! But I have to work tomorrow afternoon, so any weekend exhilaration I might have is dulled by this fact — for now. Tomorrow at 5PM, I might be singing a different tune…
The next thing I am doing for my Dutch language learning is viewing episodes of Het Klokhuis — an informational program aimed at kids which still manages to have interesting content for adults. I’ll admit that part of the reason I chose this program is because most of the episodes have ondertitels (subtitles) in Dutch. It makes it a bit easier to follow along, though it’s still not that easy.
Today’s first two pictures come from Roger, Amsterdam’s #1 train commuter! It’s a long commute too: first biking to the Hague bike station, dropping off his bike, getting on the train, praying it’s not 15 minutes late again, and then sprinting from Amsterdam Centraal Station to catch is ferry to get across the river IJs. Crazy times.
Hold on to the edge of your seats. I am going to give you a shocker. The real reason I am moving…
is chocolate!
That’s right folks. Marco had a craving for sweets a few days ago, and brownie mix was all he had in the house. So he whipped up a batch and then sent me the evidence. Tempting, tempting…
Marco’s brownies that he made from scratch
Take a walk around Den Haag and you will find yourself in front of the filmhuis (film house). They show a lot of foreign movies from around the world in the film’s native language, though I personally have not viewed one there yet. Maybe if the film was Spanish and had subtitles…
Filmhuis in the Hague
Another place that we visited in Delft was Prinsenhof, where William the Silent was assassinated. They turned his place of assassination into a museum, but I’ll leave that post for another day. For now, let’s just look at the beauty that awaits outside.
Statue within the Prinsenhof courtyard
Before I get into the subject of Oude Kerk in Delft, I would just like to take a moment to say that I hate colds. I am in day 7 of mine. I don’t get sick very often (last memorable time was October 2009), but I knew something was up when a student overheard me talking to someone else; he joined the conversation and was able to describe my symptoms down to a T. Ugh. Lots of hot tea for me. Why did I agree to an 11 hour shift tomorrow again?
As you might have realized from my previous posts about Delft, I like Vermeer. I didn’t really know anything about him until I met Marco of course. When I started to fall in love with the Netherlands, I visited my public library and tried to find all the material I could about the country. Even though this is New York, there is not a lot. There is some material I could get from other libraries in the system, I just prefer to have it right at my fingertips without sending for it and waiting a week.
The first time I flew to the Netherlands was also the first time that I flew out of the country. I remember how cool it was go to the post office and get my picture taken for my passport, and waiting for it to arrive in the mail. (And nervously waiting for them to return my birth certificate, which they did.)
The first time I had a very short stop in London to visit another friend, so each way I flew British Airways. On the flight to London I secured an exit row seat, which was nice for the sleeping aspect. On the way there, flights generally take 6 1/2 or 7 hours from NY. On the way back to the States, it takes a bit longer due to head wind. I like to take a red eye flight (6:10PM or 9:30PM are the choices) when heading to the Netherlands and on the way back I take a late morning flight.
Shortly after my first visit to the Netherlands, I went to the New York Ren Faire in Tuxedo. It was a lot of fun – that was where I decided that my favorite beer (on tap at least) is Sam Adams cherry wheat. The mix of cherry and beer in the same concoction was actually rather good!
After a wait for a bus from the parking lot to the faire itself, we entered. One of the first things we came across came from the Netherlands…
So in other news, Marco’s fridge arrived yesterday. It will take some getting used to having the freezer on the bottom, but otherwise it looks very cool. Unfortunately, it’s a bit too tall to have the microwave on top… but at least this way I can also use the microwave without having to stand on my tiptoes!
