The North Sea Beach for the Little Nephews

This post is specifically for the little nephews.  Everyone else can pretty much ignore it.  The Netherlands has a perennial problem with having her beaches washed away by the Sea.  I guess this is probably a problem for a lot of beaches but it is especially problematic here.  The response is to ship in sand and rebuild the beaches.  I guess they rebuild them every year, over the slow winter season.  When I went, there was probably a three-foot drop-off between where they had put in the new sand and where they hadn't.  They had a half-dozen bulldozers out moving the sand around and getting ready for the summer.  It was pretty interesting to watch, actually.  Well, being the good Auntie that I am, I took some videos, just for the little nephews (welcome to the "little nephews" group, adorable baby Otis!)

These are videos of three of the different bulldozers which were helping to rebuild the North Sea beach at Den Haag.

They made lots of beepy noises, pushed lots of sand, and one of them drove really fast.

Just for you guys!

The North Sea

After I got done with the Peace Palace, I decided to go see the North Sea.  Because it was pretty close and sounded pretty nifty.  It was big and cold and gray and cold and misty and cold and pretty nifty.  For the record, the last time I was at the beach was when I went to Virginia Beach with Grace and Jael a few years ago over Easter weekend.  As I recall, that trip was also quite, quite cold.
I walked out along the beach for quite a ways, just for fun and to see what things are like out there, starting out from the lower left little blue bubble and going along to the upper right little blue bubble.  Since it was January, it wasn't too busy, although there were a few people and a few animals out.  There were some couples out walking.




And lots of dogs.  While I was there, someone came with her two gorgeous Red Setters who really seemed to enjoy running free on the beach.  There was a really huge dog there early, apparently.  Just look at the size of these paw prints!

And people also were out riding horses on the beach as well.  Actually, there seem to be an inordinate number of horses in Dutch cities.  In fact, while I was waiting for the tram near the Peace Palace, in the middle of the city, someone rode her horse down the street right in front of me.  While I was riding the tram on the way to the Peace Palace, the tram stopped to allow a carriage pulled by four horses and accompanied by a bunch of mounted attendants to go by.

The beach is definitely set up like any beach town.  It looks a lot like a slightly less tacky Virginia Beach, although that could be a function of the fact that it is definitely the off season.

The beach front architecture is pretty spiffy, though.  If you notice the flags, you will see just how windy it was while I was there.

The beach is made of lots and lots of sea shells.  I thought of picking some up to bring back for Huldah to make earrings out of but I don't know if they would work very well.  But a lot of them were really pretty.  I imagine that it would make walking barefoot on the beach quite unpleasant.

There were a lot of larger shells as well.  I didn't know what a lot of them were but, while I was walking through the pier, they had a display of different shells and things and they identified them.  This is the American or Atlantic Jackknife or Razor Clam.  It is called that because it is very sharp and because it looks like the handle of an old fashioned razor.  It is an invasive species and apparently has had a fairly detrimental affect on the local fauna.  I think it's kind of pretty, though.  

This is the underside and top side of what I am fairly certain is a Common Swimming Crab of the family Portunoidea.  It  is a pretty little shell.  However, if you click here you can see a video of one of these little crabs swimming and it looks way to buggy and spidery for me to be really comfortable with the idea of being in the water with them.

There were neither red "swimming forbidden" nor yellow "swimming dangerous" flags out, but I wasn't very tempted.  

I did think, briefly, about taking my shoe off and sticking my toe in the North Sea, just because, but it was really, really cold.  And wet.  I decided that it sounded terrible after all.  Then I thought about running out and sticking a finger in the North Sea, just to say I had, but, as previously noted, it was really, really cold.  Also, the tide was coming in pretty enthusiastically so I was pretty sure that I wouldn't make it unscathed.

So instead, I just put my foot really, really close to the water, narrowly avoided the water, and still got pretty close to the North Sea.  I did get a little North Sea on the hem of my pants, though.

Then I walked out to the big pier.  There are a couple of restaurants in there, a casino, and loads and loads of little shops and things, most of which were closed, because of it being January.  You can see the pier pretty clearly in the map that is towards the top of this post.

The pier is really long.  I walked the whole length of it, which was kind of boring, actually.  Some of the little shops were open and had lots of touristy stuff.  Almost all of the stuff said "Holland" instead of "The Netherlands".  I suppose that this fits on things better, being shorter, but I think that it doesn't show a lot of national pride.  There were loads of wooden shoes and Delft colored kitchen magnets and loads and loads of really, really inappropriate post cards.

If you notice the dark black lines on the lower half of the pylons that support the pier, you can see just how high the tide gets when it comes in.  It comes up a long, long way.  In the picture below, you can see a guy standing on the edge of the beach, which will give you an idea as to the scale of the pier.

With the tide coming in, you could see lots of rip-tides.  It was pretty impressive.  This is a video of the tide--toward the back, you can see a big rip tide thing where the waves kind of curve around and smack each other.

For lunch, I ate a restaurant called "De Mollige Haan"or "The Chubby Chicken".  It was right on the edge of the Boardwalk so I could watch the tide come in while I had lunch.  It was really pleasant.  There weren't that many folks there but there were pillars throughout the restaurant with gas fires in them so that you could be warm and get the feeling of sitting beside a fireplace.  On the chairs that were around the tables outside, they had fuzzy red fleece blankets so that you could cuddle up while you drank your coffee.  I had the "Mollige Haan" sandwich.  It was lettuce, chicken, cheese, peaches, and mayonnaise on a roll and it was pretty much impossible to eat neatly.  I am still not sure if you were supposed to eat it with your hands or with a fork but the roll was really hard (I don't think it was very fresh) and that made it even more difficult.  The mayo wasn't like American mayo--it had a much lighter taste (not as in light but as in fluffier or less something).  It was also sweeter--kind of like it was mayonnaise mixed with whipped yogurt or something.  It was actually pretty tasty.  But it made for a fun beach trip lunch.

The Peace Palace

When I was at Den Haag I visited the Peace Palace.  The Peace Palace is the site of the International Court of Justice and the Permanent Court of Arbitration.  The International Criminal Court (where war crimes trials, such as that for Saddam Hussein, are held) is in a different building a few miles away.

This is a Wikipedia photo of the Biltmore Estate. 

The building reminded me a lot of the Biltmore Estate so when I got back, I looked it up, and they don't look all that much alike, really.  I finally decided that the similarity is because of the silhouette and all of the little window turrets all over it.  There are, however, similarities in the period in which it was constructed and in who commissioned it.

The Peace Palace was funded and built by Andrew Carnegie who was interested, at the beginning of the 20th century, in promoting international peace.  In a little historical irony, once the construction was completed, the importation of the furniture and all of the ceremonial gifts from different nations was disrupted by the beginning of World War I.

You are only able to see the Peace Palace with a reservation and a guided tour and even then you don't get to see the gardens, which are supposed to be quite beautiful, although I suppose that it doesn't make that much of a difference in January.  Security is really tight.  You have to go through a metal detector and your bag has to go through a scanner.  I waited (in what turned out to be the wrong line) to get in.  There were a whole bunch of extremely plummy English lawyers talking about the differences between Dutch lawyers and English lawyers and the incompetencies and abilities of their superiors.  It was pretty entertaining.  Then, when I got to the front of the line they said that I needed to wait and then they would make a new, special line later, for the tour.  The Palace was pretty busy as, besides the court cases that are going on, they have lots of conferences and legal courses going on.

The exterior grounds of the Palace are decorated in "Peace" themes.  There were a few benches with mosaic peace themes.

 






There is also a world peace rock garden surrounding the world peace flame.  Each of the rocks in the boarder around the circle were the gifts of different nations, presumably with rocks which are significant nationally.  


Some of the nations had really pretty agate-type rocks and marble type rocks.  They were really nice.


The U.S.  did not.  That long, rectangular, boring, inconspicuous rock is the U.S. representative.  I thought perhaps that someone had taken the U.S. rock or it had come out but I looked at it, and that is what it is supposed to look like.  I thought that it was quite disappointing.  

There were also inscriptions along all of the borders of all of the names of the nations that had signed on to a certain international peace accord.


And they had a giant plaque which you could use to find the stone of a particular nation and which explained that the flame of peace has been drug around the world to be set at different peace negotiations.


You weren't allowed to take pictures on the Palace grounds or inside the Palace, which is a shame because it was pretty beautiful.  We did have a pretty good tour guide who gave us a lot of information on the history of the Palace and on what goes on there.  There are art pieces all over the Palace which were donated by different nations.  If you click here you will go to the English language site of the Peace Palace.  You can see about the history of the building, its purpose , and other general information.  If you click on the "Pictures" tab on the left, you will go to a gallery of the Palace.  The Dutch version of the website, which you can find here, has a lot more pictures than the English site.  If you click on the links under the "Gebow" (Building) label, you will see lots of pictures of the interior.

One of the things which the U.S. sent is the ceiling of the Smaller Court of Arbitration (you can see the picture here).  I forget what wood was used but it is made in 8 layers with a dovetail design which uses the weight of the ceiling itself to hold it together.  It contains no glue, pegs, or nails.  Which, when you look up at it, is kind of nerve racking.  But it hasn't fallen in in 80 some years, so I guess that it is pretty safe.

The interior--stairs, walls, floors, pillars--is designed with 127 different types of marble from all over the world, although they were all donated by Italy.  It is amazing the variety in colors and designs in the natural marble and it makes a pretty striking layout.  If you click on this you can see the entry hall.  All of the designs on the floor are made with various sizes and shapes of different kinds of marble and it is really beautiful.  If you notice the stairs, they are modeled on some famous stairs somewhere else, but on a smaller scale.  To make the stairs look right, on the smaller scale, they are made in gradations.  The lowest stair is convex and the top stair is concave and the stairs in between gradually change their shapes to make the stairs look longer, deeper, and wider than they really are.  It is really interesting and, despite what you might fear, it doesn't seem to make the stairs dangerous.  If you click here, you can see some of the pillars.  The large "Russian Vase", which you can see here, is made out of jasper, which looks kind of like a dark green, veined marble.  I guess that I had never really seen jasper before but, having seen it now, I could see where a vision of a city walled in jasper, clear as crystal would be a pretty affecting sight.

When we were in the Court of International Justice, the guide mentioned that this was where states (as in, nation-states) could sue one another over treaty violations and international wrongs as a means of limiting the need for war-like disputes over those kinds of things.  That is where things went bad:

"So", said one guy, "this is where you could sue the U.S. over Iraq?"
"Well, " said the guide,
"Yeah," said a lady, "that would be great.  Somebody should do that."
"Yeah," said a British lady (oh, the irony), "why hasn't anyone done that?"
"Well," said the guide, "most of the cases that come here are for treaty violations, and that isn't really the issue in the Iraq case, probably."
"But you could do it, couldn't you?" said the first guy.
"Well, yes" said the guide.

Then one of the Chinese tourists asked a question about something else.

"Why haven't they then?" asked the first guy.
"Well, the U.S. has a permanent member on the court, so they can veto the acceptance of the case."  Said the guide.
"So they can block getting sued?!!" said the guy "That is so stupid."
"Yeah," said the British lady, "that is soooo stupid!"
"Why would they ever let the U.S. have a permanent member? Ugh, that is terrible."
"Can't we just get rid of them and kick them off."
"Oh, it makes me so mad."

It continued pretty much like that until the guide made everybody leave the room and started talking about the stained glass windows and the poor Chinese tourist never got his question answered.

I think the take away from this story is that, whatever the news media seems to think, everyone else in the world would be just as happy if the U.S. adopted a Ron Paul foreign policy.  (Or else they were just a bunch of grumpy folks who were unhappy with the U.S., but I think that it still works.)

This is not an edifying post

When I opened up my email this morning, there was a new post from the "Stuff Dutch People Like" blog.  I thought you  guys might appreciate it.  It is not edifying.  It is weird.  It is terrible.  As much as I try to remember, I don't know that I can prove the story's premise from first-hand experience although I may just be repressing it.

To see the story, click here: Stuff Dutch People Like--

(Keep in mind that while not edifying this post is quite clean.  However, I can't promise the same for other posts on the blog or for the comments.)

(By the way, the study that the story cites says that the result of this is that 10% of Dutch ATMs are infected with the staphylococcal bacteria which causes the flesh-eating MERSA infection.  I do not know if this is different from the ATMs of other countries or not but I am now all paranoid about ATM machines.)

Elfstedenkoorts.

Elfstedenkoorts means "11 City Fever" as in "still really, really, really hoping that the Elfstedentocht will go after all".  Despite the fact that it got up to about 48 degrees today (and has been above freezing for the better part of the week) Twitter is still full of people with "Elfstedenkoorts".

Some people have developed a nasty sense of humor.  For the last little bit, people have been posting things like this:

"BREKEND: It giet oan!  Hee, het ijs is 15 centimeter!"

BREAKING NEWS: It's on!  The ice is 15 centimeters!"

(15 centimeters is the minimum ice depth required for the race to run.)

And then they had pictures of this.

As far as advertising campaigns go, this seems crueler than most, considering how close we got this year.  

("IJs" is used both for ice and for ice cream.  This is 15 centimeters (about 6") of ice cream for about 75 cents, which actually isn't that bad--it's cheaper than McDonalds, I think.)

Some people decided to use their disappointment for more productive ends.  

Check out this video of four folks doing the Elfstedentocht route (or at least part of it).  It is about six and a half minutes long, but I think it is worth watching.  For one thing, it is tiring to see them skate for just those six and a half minutes--just imagine what it would be like to skate like that for six and a half hours!  These four folks (a Friesian couple, a fellow from the Northern corner of Belgium, and one other fellow) took the trip on February 11th.  

They were undeterred by the bright sunshine, the fact that the snow had melted off the banks of the canals, the fact that there was standing water on the edges of the canals in several places, or the fact that, at one point, they were skating through standing water.  They had to duck to skate under low bridges, get down on their hands and knees to crawl under really low bridges, and run around other bridges, in their skates.  There were a lot of folks out on the ice at the same time.  

At one point, they stopped for a snack of koek and chocolademelk--which is the traditional snack of the Elfstedentocht.  The koek is kind of like a little apple tart and chocolademelk is a very sweet version of chocolate milk.  The one fellow is very enthusiastic about his chocolademelk.  

Maybe I haven't posted enough things with Dutch folk talking for you to be able to notice, but all of these folks talk weirdly--they have very distinct, and fairly unintelligible, accents, which is funny to hear.  They also spell things differently, as I noted before.  For instance, at one point, there is a label which says 

"Dene Belg op zyn'e knibbels!"

These are not Dutch words, or at least not the way I learned them.  (On a side note, there is no "y" in Dutch.  That "y" is really the "ij" diphthong.)

I think  that what they were saying is "The Belgian on his knees!" which fits the context and the Nationalist discourse between the two nations.  (People still remember that the Belgians thought they were too good to hang around with the Dutch.)  But in Dutch this would it would say this instead:

"De Belgische op zijn knieën!"

At one point, they got lost (the label says "in Arum de verkeerde afslag genomen") and they had to get directions.  The Friesians were the ones that asked the locals and they speak Fries (I know this because the label says so) and it is entirely not understandable, at least for me.

These Dutch folk take their ice skating seriously.

Den Haag Trip

A couple of weeks ago, I went to 's Gravenhage.  's Gravenhage is the original name of Den Haag or The Hague.  's Gravenhage means "the Duke's hedge/wood/hunting preserve" (kind of like "Pennsylvania").  The name dates from hundreds of years ago (I gather) from the period in which the Netherlands were the ducal possession of the Spanish Hapsburgs.  The " 's" is an old-style, archaic article/preposition which is only used, really, for old names and a few phrases that have just stuck around such as " 's morgen" (the morning/in the morning/A.M.) and " 's avonds" (the evening/in the evening/P.M.).  There are also a few place names which still use it but a lot of them have shortened their names like Den Haag--'s Hertogenbosch, for instance, is now known as Den Bosch.  Den Haag is the official Dutch name but The Hague is used almost as much because it is such an international city.

This is the map of what I went to see but if you want to see an interactive map where you can click on the sites to see them closer, you can click here.

Den Haag is the capital of Zuid Holland, which is the province in which I live.  It is also the de facto capital of the Netherlands as a whole.  Although the official capital of the Netherlands is Amsterdam by virtue of the Dutch Constitution, the Dutch Eerste and Tweede Kamers of the Staten-Generaal (respectively, the Senate and House of Representatives of the Dutch Parliament) are located at Den Haag, as is the official royal residence.  It is also the site of major international courts including the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, and the Permanent Court of Arbitration, which makes the area full of internationals and very important for U.N. functions.  In fact, Den Haag is the site of the only organ of the U.N. (the courts) not located in New York City.

I went many interesting places (which I will post about separately, later).  I didn't see everything because, by the end of the day, it was pretty wet and miserable out.  However, since they have updated the metro system in December, I can now get on the Metro at the stop by my house and then get off at Den Haag without ever having to change over, which makes the trip pretty cheap and super convenient.  I thought that Jael might enjoy seeing Den Haag when she gets here but even if she doesn't or if we run out of time, I can still get back for an afternoon sometime pretty easily.

In the late afternoon, it got pretty wet and cold.  I stopped at the VVV (Vereniging voor Vreemdelingenverkeer--literally the "association for the regulation of the movement of foreigners" or, in a more friendly translation, "tourist office").  The Den Haag VVV is inside a book store/library and they had a little coffee shop and people were singing karaoke.  So, I decided to stay in the warm, dry inside and have some coffee.  Unfortunately, I either ordered wrong or interpreted the menu wrong.  I thought that I was ordering a flavored coffee.  What I got was warm, extra sweet, chocolate milk with lots of whipped cream and coffee flavored sprinkles.  I am pretty sure I almost died of a diabetic coma.

De Oude Kerk, 's Gravenhage
(The Old Church)

De Oude Stadhuis, 's Gravenhage
(The Old City Hall)

Herman van Veen

I was recently reminded of my earlier post on Herman van Veen, the super-famous Dutch singer.  Then, when I was looking up a video on fancy dog tricks to send to Huldah, a Herman van Veen video popped up as "something I might like to watch".  So, I looked him up again and found out that he is still famous enough to be touring.  In fact, this April I could go see him, live, in Germany, just north of Düsseldorf.  For only around $60, you can see van Veen in concert with a super-famous Dutch guitarist.  (You can see the information here, in case you wanted to come out to see it with me.)  Edith Leerkes is world famous--she used to play with Herman's Hermits, among others.

Below is a YouTube video of Edith Leerkes and Herman van Veen performing together last year.  You'll notice that he can't help dancing just a little bit.  From what I can tell, the song is a Herman van Veen original song and is kind of a folksier, Dutch version of "Under the Boardwalk."  I thought it was really pretty.  I have supplied a modified Google Translator version of the lyrics because it seemed like an awful lot of work to translate them all myself. =-)

Dutch Lyrics Voor de zon die op het water speelt voor het water dat de zon bespeelt we leunen bij het grijze water dat nooit teleurstelt of nooit verveelt En ik voel de warmte van je hand in ons kleine koninkrijk Onder aan de dijk Was mijn vader hier nu bij hij keek steevast heen en weer van het water naar het polderland naar de vissers op het meer En ik voel de warmte van je blik in ons kleine koninkrijk Onder aan de dijk Zou hij ons zijn zegen geven hij zou ons zijn zegen geven Ik weet het lief, ik weet het zeker hij zou ons zijn zegen geven En ik voel de warmte van je blik in ons kleine koninkrijk Onder aan de dijk Voor ons is het lichte water achter ons de zware dijk denk aan nu en niet aan later onder aan de dijk

Translated Lyrics The sun plays on the water The water is played on by the sun We sit by the irrigation canal that never disappoints and never fails And I feel the warmth of your hand in our little realm Below the dike My father used to stand there Always going to and fro to see the water draining off the polders (fields) out to the fishermen on the lake And I feel the warmth of your gaze in our little realm Below the dike Will he give us his blessing he will give us his blessing I know this truely, I know this surely he will give us his blessing And I feel the warmth of your gaze in our little realm Below the dike The sweet water is behind the heavy dike think of now and not tomorrow below the dike

Zwarte Pieten, Black Face, and America

In December, for my last class before the holidays, we had a guest speaker.  He's a Ph.D. student here at Erasmus but he did exchange studies for his Master's degree at Central Michigan University--it's a small world.

Anyways, we were chatting before class started and he said that he really liked his time in America and, having traveled all around, thought that he wanted to get a job and live there once he graduated.  I realized, though, when he said that, that I think that is the first time someone has said something nice about America since I got here.  Granted, most of the discussions I have heard have been as part of overall discussions of empire, which generally gets people started on an unhappy note, but, in general, most folks seem to consider America to be bossy and unnecessarily inquisitive and her people to be loud, obnoxious, racist, and provincial.  This fellow said that while he had gone to America with similar preconceptions, he had been converted by meeting people and talking to them (it probably didn't hurt that he spent a lot of his time hanging out in Michigan where people are nice--not quite "Minnesota Nice", but pretty close).

Since we were talking about race relations, the Zwarte Piet tradition came up and he said that colored people in the Netherlands find the tradition very offensive.  I mentioned that I was surprised because in discussions I had seen, negative reactions were credited to American over-sensitivity and discounted.  He said that there is a large divide between the white Dutch and the colored Dutch (who, by the way are collectively called "blauwen" (blue) instead of "black" as they are in the States.  "Zwart" (black) is used sometimes but apparently has fairly negative connotations.)  He said that this year several colored students wore t-shirts that said "Black Pete is Racist" (or the equivalent in Dutch) to the official landing of Sinterklaas at Dordrecht and they got put in jail (I don't know if they were causing trouble or not but it sounded like he thought it was just because of their shirts).  So, while it couldn't have translated to America in any case, it sounds like this holiday tradition might have a limited life expectancy in the Netherlands as well.

=-(

"There is too little ice in southern part of Friesland so, for the time being, the race has not been scheduled."

ICE!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Dutch people like skating, especially like skating really long ways in the cold, and especially, especially like the Elfstedentocht.  Well, things are getting pretty exciting around here.  It has been really cold.  Really, really cold for the Netherlands.  Which has been freezing stuff.  A lot.  And people are getting hopeful.

On Sunday, the Elfstedentocht committee had a special meeting.
This is the first special meeting that they have had in 15 years.
Normally they meet in the summer to have discussions, approve members, make rules, etc.  (You are only eligible to skate in the race after your second year of membership--which is a really great way to keep memberships up after years of no race.  Apparently loads of membership applications have been flooding in this week but none of those folks will get to participate.)  They only have special meetings in the winter when they are planning to measure the ice to make sure that they don't accidentally drown all of the racers.  So the fact that they are having a meeting at all is pretty, pretty exciting.

Then on Monday, they had a press conference.  They didn't know what would happen, they said.  They would have another press conference on Wednesday.  If the race happened, it would probably happen over the weekend but they didn't know.  Everybody has been going hysterical ever since.

On Monday, the Elfstedentocht committee also set up a Twitter account.  (They never had one before.  Nothing to announce)  If you want to follow them, their account is @11stvereniging.  They have been up for three days and have 13,402 followers (including me) .  Pretty quick work, if you ask me.
Updated to add:  In the last 10 minutes, they are up to 13,689 followers.

On Monday, there was also a Facebook post by Sabaï Doodkorte.  Sabaï  is in charge of international students at EUR and is the one who organized the Pannenkoekenboot trip last year, among other things.  It sounds like, if they have the race, they might try to get some kind of group from the University together to go see the race.  That could be pretty fun.

I asked a colleague about the race but he said that he did not think that it would occur.  I hope that he is wrong.  This is the weather forecast for Leeuwarden, the start and finish point for the race.  It seems hopeful, doesn't it?

I looked it up and the train tickets to go to Leeuwarden would be about $40.  The train trip itself is around 3 hours long, one way, and includes between 2 and 4 transfers, depending on which route you take.  That however, is based on the normal train schedule.  I don't know how the transport system troubles will affect this.  (Whatdoyaknow, I am talking myself out of this trip as I type.)  Also, presumably, the trains will be absolutely jam packed with people going up to see the race.  So, maybe I will go.  It could be fun.  It could be an absolute disaster.  If I can figure out where the race ends (I have no plans on being at the start of the race, which I believe is at 5am) or where it passes by, so that I don't end up just aimlessly wandering around the Friesian countryside, it might be worth it.

The Dutch are so excited about the ice and the race that they can barely stand it.  There are forged (?) letters from the Elfstadentocht committee going around saying that the race will be run on Monday.  And everyone is trying to buy skates.  Skate manufacturers and shops are getting pretty excited and apparently with reason.  Marktplaats.nl is kind of the Dutch equivalent of Craig's List, where people sell mostly second-hand stuff.  According to nu.nl, in the first three weeks of January of this year, there were 16,277 searches for skates on the marktplaats.nl website.  In the fourth week, it shot up to 174,450.  These Dutchies take their ice skating seriously.

I will keep you updated on the Elfstedentocht progress.  In the mean time, here are some pictures of Dutch people skating on canals from a Dutch news service nu.nl.  Click here if you want to see some utterly adorable children being Dutch.

Winter weather (and politics)

For all that I like to scoff at wint'rs that know no frosts (to paraphrase the Immortal Bard), this has been a rough winter for a lot of folks in the rest of Europe.  So far, more than 250 people have died in Europe this winter and 122 people have died in the Ukraine in the last week.1   Also, while it sure took its time getting here, winter has come with enthusiasm.  There have been record setting low temperatures--the coldest in 27 years--at -10 (-23 Celsius).2   The cold weather has been having an extremely deleterious effect on public transport.  So far it still hasn't gotten back in order--there are fewer metros, they are driving more slowly, and there are way more people trying to cram onto them.  Even the hearty Dutch are unhappy riding bikes when the actual temperature is around 7 and the windchill is about -10.  I opened up a Dutch news website on Monday and saw this headline:

"PvdA: 'Schultz heeft gefaald'"

("Labor Party: 'Schultz has Failed'")3

It seemed unneccesarily harsh and totally unprovoked. It turned out that the Labor Party (the Partij van de Arbeid--which is a "progrssive social democrat party"4) was talking about Melanie Schultz who is the Dutch Minister of Infrastructure and who is in charge of making sure that all trains run (sort of) on time.  Because of the snow and the cold, trains haven't been running right for almost a week and there were thousands of people stranded at train stations all over.  Apparently Schultz is getting blamed for everything, though to be fair, she is facing the worst weather in a quarter century.  It probably doesn't help that the Public Transport system keeps posting messages like this on Twitter:

"We don't believe we have anything to apologize for.  

In fact, we figure that you really ought to apologize to us, for all of your complaining."

(I am going on the assumption that its a joke, though.)

If you want to see some pictures of what the Dutch infrastructure looks like in the middle of a giant snow storm, you can click here.  Apparently they don't expect regular train service to resume until sometime next week when the weather is supposed to warm up a little.

On a marginally related note, I looked up the PvdA to see why they didn't go with the more obvious (and shorter) "Arbeiderspartij" name.  I thought perhaps there were multiple Worker's Parties (there aren't, at least not now).  Perhaps they are attempting to create distance from old German political parties.  What was very interesting though, when I looked up Dutch political parties (you can see the Wikipedia page here) was the diversity of the parties.  "Democrat" and "Republican" seems so boring now.  My favorites are the Partij voor de Dieren ("Animal's Party"--they say they are not a one issue party, though) and the Piratenpartij Nederland ("Pirate Party"!). The Pirate Party's goal is to legalize digital piracy. I guess they want to be the privateers of the 21st century. I was expecting good things from the Partij voor Naastenliefde, Vrijheid, en Diversiteit (the Party for Neighbourly Love, Freedom, and Diversity) but I was sorely dissappointed. Let's just say that their LEAST offensive platform plank was universal public nudity.

On another marginally related side note, the Dutch do not pronounce "Schultz" like the Germans do. I have been answering to "Skgholts" all year.

Nog meer sneeuw!

That is: "even more snow!"

In case you were wondering, the amount of snow needed to bring the Dutch public transport system to its knees is approximately one half inch.  Yesterday we got around a whole inch.  It is pretty delightful.  I love that squeaky crunch sound that snow makes when it is really cold out.  This morning it was down to around 8 degrees (-13 Celsius) and I don't think it ever got up above 15.  But the sun was shining almost all day and it was just beautiful.

Although the snow stopped the trains going (The transport system "tweeted", apparently in response to customer concerns about the slowness of regular train service to resume--"We don't know what all the fuss is.  They still don't have trains running in Antarctica, do they?") it didn't stop the Afrikaanderplein Markt.  Although it was pretty slushy.  But, I got eggs and plums and didn't freeze to death or slip and fall in the slush puddles, so it was a good day.

In the Netherlands, they are somewhat hampered with regard to snow removal because many of the side roads and most of the sidewalks are made out of paving stones set in sand and not out of regular pavement.  This makes repairing pipes under the streets fast, convenient, and cheap but it makes plowing impossible--if you caught a corner of a stone with the plow blade you would just rip the street up.  As a result, while a few people shoveled with little hand shovels, most people just threw out some salt and called it good.  This results in some rather disgusting slush puddles.  On the streets where there is pavement, then they did have plows out.  They even have plows with blades the correct size to clear out the bike lanes.

The picture on the right is of a sidewalk which has been ripped up a little.  They build the side walks and the roads by making a flat base of sand, lining up the blocks on top of it, covering them with more sand, then running a giant pounding machine over the blocks to settle them, and then sweeping up the leftover sand.


The Dutch, generally, seem pretty tickled about the snow.  There were loads of people out running around, playing in the snow, and seeming pretty cheerful overall.

I do not know how things are freezing up in Friesland (to run the Elfstedentoch they need to have 6" of ice all along the route) but the canals are frozen over here in Rotterdam.  I was out walking and shopping this afternoon, unfortunately without my camera, and, lo and behold, there were a whole bunch of folks playing on the canals.  They weren't skating, sadly.  They were just running around playing soccer in their tennis shoes.  I suppose that the snow was sufficient to provide traction but, as far as I was concerned, it would have been far superior if they were sailing along on skates, with their scarves floating behind them.  I might have gone back with my camera if they had been.  As it was, it mostly just looked like they were playing in a flat ditch.  I wouldn't have even known it was a canal if I hadn't seen it previously in an unfrozen state.

Back to Rotterdam

I flew back to Rotterdam on Christmas night.  I was a little worried about the night tram--the Prague public transport system was scheduled a little oddly over the weekend and I had already ended up in different places than I had intended a few times as a result of the fact that the trams' schedule had changed without warning (or at least without a warning in English).  Since I figured that I didn't want to get stuck in some back corner of Prague while missing my plane, I took a fairly early bus to the airport.  The down side of this was that it meant that I got to spend three hours at the airport on a Sunday Christmas evening.  That is not the most enchanting way to spend a Christmas evening.  Even with Christmas lights, it wasn't that fun.



 


On the bus ride, I ended up sitting behind four teenagers who spent the entire bus ride smooching in the most revolting fashion and (it appeared) critiquing one another's performances.

At the airport, nothing was open, of course, seeing as it was both a holiday and the weekend.  But I did get a "long decoffee with milk".  Well, actually, I got a cappuccino with caffeine, seeing as I knew I had a long night ahead of me but I thought that the other translation was funnier.

I had an awfully fun time in Prague.  Apparently, there are a few scams which are popular in Prague and I ended up getting some of them tried out on me.  I managed to escape them all, as far as I know, which means that I feel like I've gotten the real Prague "Experience" and which also allows me to feel superior for not having fallen into their traps.  Folks kept trying to sell me transport tickets--which is, as far as I know, is both illegal and fraudulent.  Apparently I appear either too nice or too credulous.  I didn't buy any of them, though, and could say, with perfect honesty "I don't need that, thank you".  That's another good reason to have a transport pass.

Christmas Eve

A closed Trdelník stand.  Trdelníks are awesome.

On Christmas Eve, after I got back from my day trip to Kutná Hora, I went out to see what things were like on Christmas Eve around Prague.  I expected it to be extra exciting.  I expected in vain.  In the Czech Republic, Christmas Eve is the big day--that is when everybody gets together with their families.  So, the only folks that are out are tourists.  And there weren't even really many of those.  Most of the Christmas Markets were closed--just long, empty, closed rows of stalls.  Most of the tourists that were there were either American or Chinese.  The majority were American.  I certainly hadn't heard that much English since I got to Prague and, I am fairly certain, I haven't heard that much unaccented, American English since I left America.


I looked for a booth selling the traditional Czech Christmas Eve diner of sauerkraut soup and baked cod.  I could not find a single one.  There were several stands that were advertising "traditional Czech Ham" which was being cooked on giant spits over large pans of coals.  It smelled really good.  But, I am still not convinced that that is really "traditional"--since I've been back I've been looking things up to see if I could find anything about it and I haven't.  I am a little suspicious that this was a transparent attempt to pander to tourists because baked ham sells better than sauerkraut soup.

I was hanging around waiting for a Christmas Mass which they had at the Old Town Square Market.  While I was waiting, and because it was really cold (and because I hadn't gotten to have any sauerkraut soup) I decided to try some Grogg.  It was not nearly as tasty as one might have expected.  It was, actually, really, really disgusting.  The Christmas Mass was really just music--they didn't offer a prayer to start the show off or anything else that seemed remotely religious, although I suppose that the songs could have had some religious significance.  I suppose, though, that this is in keeping with the Czech agnosticism.

I had originally planned on going to the Midnight Mass which was being held at the Strahovský Kláster, which is in the Castle Quarter.  I ended up not going because I couldn't figure out how to get back with the night train schedules and I really didn't want to be stuck walking back from across the river.  Also, it was cold and I was tired, but that wasn't the main reason.  I ended up having to walk most of the way back to the hotel anyways because I still couldn't figure out the night trams but, on the plus side, walking was almost  enough to keep me warm.

Since I couldn't get any traditional Czech Christmas Eve food in Prague, I looked up some recipes once I got back to Rotterdam.  I realize these are Slovak recipes but they look the same and sound the same as the Czech recipes and they were convenient.  So now you can make your very own Czech (or Slovak) Christmas Eve Dinner.
Sauerkraut Soup
Potato Salad
Fried Carp

Chrám Nanebevzetí Panny Marie

What does "Chrám Nanebevzetí Panny Marie" mean?  Good question.  It is the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.  It is the smaller of the two Kutná Hora cathedrals that I visited and also the simplest.

The exterior is really simple but that is at least partially because they are undergoing renovations and some of the statutes and thing are on display inside the church while they get things in order.

I really liked the stained glass windows.  They were really simple but the colored borders were quite attractive.

Although the building itself is simple, the building materials are somewhat unusual (maybe it is something in the Kutná Hora water).  When they were doing renovations, they found the bones of martyred Cistercian monks (they were dated 24th April 1421) stuffed in the walls and buried under the floor.  They have stuck those bones back where they were but put in windows so that you could take pictures of them.

There were also more official relics as well, which were donated when the church was consecrated as a cathedral in 1742 by Pope Benedict XIV.  St. Felix and St. Vincent are both labeled as "protomartyrs of antique Rome" which I believe means that they were supposed to have been killed by the Emperor Nero.  They were really short.  I bet they weren't much more than five feet tall.  The skeletons are all dressed up in semi-transparent medieval outfits so that you can see their bones but they do have masks on their faces.

St. Felix.  You can see his arm bones pretty clearly here.

St. Felix Reliquary

St. Vincent Reliquary

St. Vincent--see the ribs peeking out through the the shirt
 and between the bits of lace?

The cathedral has a a large collection of confessionals.  I don't know if it is just because they like them or if they just had them up in all kinds of different places.  These aren't your typical confessionals though.  They aren't enclosed so, theoretically, it would be easy to hear what people were saying.

  

This fellow, who sits on top of one of the
confessionals, looks mighty shocked
by whatever is being said inside.

       

This guy looks like he is from
the Lord of the Rings.

This is a very unattractive cupid
of some kind.

This is the Chapel of the Fourteen Helpers of Indigency.
It seems awfully sparkly and gilt for indigency.   

I really like the interior of the church.
It is pale yellow and white,very simple,
and decorated in curvy lines and designs.
I think it would make a really pretty quilt.

       




                       
This is the Chapel of the Virgin Mary of Sedlec (a tiny village that was incorporated into Kutná Hora).  I will say, that there does seem to be something kind of pagan about those pine trees just plopped down in the middle of the chapel.

They need some decoration.  That would be better.





Below are some of the statutes which used to be on the outside of the cathedral but which are temporarily inside for the reconstruction.