The EuroMast and Het Park

On Friday, when the weather was so nice, and I was strolling around town, (it was about a five mile stroll, on the sunniest day we have had for a very long time and, unsurprisingly, it also turned out to be one of the warmest days we have had in a while as well) I decided to go check out the EuroMast.

At one time (not very long ago) it was the tallest point in the Netherlands.  That is despite the fact that it stands in the lowest part of the Netherlands (for one reason or another, it was built in the bottom of a large hollow that was dug out of the already low ground in the park).  While it is no longer the tallest point in the Netherlands (some skyscrapers have it beat although there are apparently discussions underway about making it taller so that it can reclaim its title) it is certainly taller than any of the land anywhere near it.










For a small fee, you can go up to the viewing level and get some pretty spectacular views.  For a small additional fee, you can ride the small car (see the little thing part way up the tower?) an additional 80 meters higher, to a total height of 185 meters (or a little over 600 feet).  As the little car ascends and descends it turns around the pole, giving everyone in it a 360 degree panoramic view of not only the city but also of a good portion of the country.  I was kind of psyched and was trying to think of good ways to put the pictures on the blog so that you would get a good idea of the scope of the pictures.

And then I got to the tower.
And I looked at it.
And then I remembered that I hate heights.
And I am pretty sure that I especially hate heights that you are twirled up to and then twirled down from, while riding in a little pop cap attached to a TV antenna.

So, instead of going up the EuroMast, I walked around Het Park, under the shady trees, and over little rippling canals, and down windy lanes, and never more than 67" off the ground.

The Park (it deserves the capitals--that is its official name and it is an awfully nice park with a lot of history) has been in existence as a city park for just about 150 year.  It reminded me of the gardens at Nymphenburg, in Munich, especially the parts that were back in the woods. The park is large and very quite, so that you don't even hear the Rotterdam traffic.

 There were a lot of people there, mostly lying in little piles in the sunshine, but most of them were napping or reading so it was still very pleasant and quiet.  I counted no fewer than five couples getting their wedding pictures taken in the park.  I don't know if they were all getting married there today or if they were just getting their pictures done, but it seemed like it was pretty popular.  I didn't take pictures of most of them, because it seemed kind of intrusive.  But I did take pictures of one couple because they (1) were far enough away that they wouldn't know I was being intrusive, (2) were behind a statue that I was photographing, so it mostly looked like I was just taking another picture of that and (3) were possessed of a very adorable white beetle that just demanded to be photographed.

There are several restaurants throughout the park.  At least one of the buildings on the premises used to be a night club so rowdy that, because of the number of times the police had to come in and shut it down, the city decided to close it a few years ago.  The first restaurant I noticed, though, was the "Chalet Suisse" (The Swiss Chalet).  I cannot think of a more inappropriate place for a mountain chalet than on the edge of a puddle, in the bottom of a hole, in a city that sits below sea level, but to each his own, I suppose.  And, to give it its due, it does look kind of like a Swiss Chalet.

One of the buildings looked like it was being used for a wedding the day I was there.  It was really pretty and would have made a really nice wedding venue.  This building is called "Het Herenhuis" (The Great House or The Master House).  The formal gardens in front of the building, and the canal that runs through, are mighty attractive.

This is the Carriage House or "Het Koetshuis".  It looks like it is uninhabited now but it sounds like it is often used as a private residence.  I can definitely think of worse things to wake up to every morning than a stroll through the park.

There is also an aviary in the park.  It looks kind of run down and it definitely looks like they worry about vandals but the birds (mostly parakeets, doves, and pheasants) looked cheerful enough and were hopping around eating and chirping and doing bird-y things.

I didn't see everything in the park.  When I was looking up stuff about the park after I got home, I saw that there is a Norwegian Seaman's Church located on the park and I totally missed walking along the large canal that marks the southern and western boundaries of the park.  So I will probably end up going back sometime soon.  Or at least sometime when we get some more sunshine.  And who knows, maybe next time I will forget how much I hate heights until it is too late and I will get some pictures of the Netherlands in the round.

De Botanische Tuin (The Botanical Garden)

One of my favorite things about Afrikaanderplein, and something I only discovered last week, is that there is a botanical garden on the back side of the park

It is cool and shady (which I think substantially limits the kinds of plants they can grow there) because it is under a bunch of trees.  It is small but it is really precious and it is well designed.  They have loads of plants, in nicely arranged settings.
















There is even a little cabin for the tools and things.  You have to cross a little bridge to get to the garden, because it is on the other side of the canal.  There were only two other people when I went to look around.  Two men that I would guess were in their 70s who were in there watering and weeding.  One of them tried to talk to me but I couldn't remember any words about gardens and he didn't speak English so I just said " 't's mooie, heel mooie" ("It's beautiful, very beautiful") and smiled a lot and nodded, and he smiled and nodded and then we went our separate ways.




At first I was kind of disappointed.  The first section that you see is all lilies and things like that and, since it is well past their blooming times, it was just bunches of spiky leaves.  However, although they have a fairly small space, they make good use of it and, as I wended my way along the little bitty lanes between the plants, there was a lot of stuff to see.

These were the first blooming things I saw.  I don't know what they are, although they look kind of like bleeding hearts.  I just like the juxtaposition of the pink and the purple flowers.  And all of the green keeps it from looking too frilly.  Another thing that I like is that you can see, if you look really closely, that they have one, small, rhododendron bush further back in the bed.  It made things feel all homey (in a Southern kind of way).

They also had boxwood hedges in parts of the park, which made things smell all homey in a Grandma-and-Granddad's-house kind of way.

This tree is not very prepossessing (you can barely tell it is a tree, in fact) but I took a picture anyways because it sounds like it would be beautiful.


Its name "Sneeuwvlokkenboom" means Snow Flake Tree.





I found a picture of the tree in bloom on a Dutch gardening website and I think the name does it justice.













There were rows of different kinds of old roses as well but they had almost all bloomed and finished already.  However, I was intrigued because you could see all of the rose hips (and they were quite attractive, too).  I had always thought of rose hips as being red.  I did not know that they came in other colors as well.






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I do not know what these are (I couldn't find a label) but they looked vaugely like a rhubarb and they were almost as tall as me.

 They also had what I am pretty sure was actual rhubarb in the garden as well. 

This bush makes me remember all those fun days of making "ink", and writing secret messages, and staining our hands and clothes with purple juice, and trying really hard to decide if it was worth dying a painful death, and 'fessing up to Mom, if we tasted those berries and it turned out they were poisonous.


Apparently this is an American variety.

This tree I thought was very pretty but I had never heard of it before.  I looked it up when I got home.  Apparently it is a highly toxic tropical plant from which we get castor oil.  I think I liked it better before I knew that.

The garden was a lot of fun and very peaceful and idyllic.  I think I will probably wander back through there again later.  Maybe after having learned some Dutch gardening vocabulary.

. . . and Again . . .

This Tuesday I went to the Dutch Cafe for a third time.  I was the only student there again.  It is a shame that more people aren't taking advantage of free Dutch language practice.  On the other hand, though, it does mean I get loads and LOADS of practice.  This time there were two of the teachers there--my teacher and the teacher who was there last week.

We talked about organic farming, needlework, home-ec and the "home-arts" schools that girls in the Netherlands used to go to instead of, or in addition to regular school, to learn how to make a home.  We talked about when and why women's suffrage came to America and the Netherlands, milk and dairy product production in the US, how you say "butter" in Dutch, Dutch history, and the way that the Dutch Language program works.

(The "butter" question was important--I tried to find butter at the store on Tuesday and could not find it.  So I asked a clerk who didn't speak much English.  And I couldn't remember learning the Dutch word for butter, so I hoped that it might be similar to the French word (since, because of Napoleon, there is a fairly large incidence of French words in Dutch).

"Waar is de beurre?"  I asked.
She looked puzzled.
"Beurre? Berrrre? Buuuurrrrrrrr?" I said.
She showed me where the batteries were.

Then I had a lightning flash of inspiration--the Dutch use the same word for margarine as we do.  I could use margarine instead of butter or perhaps the margarine would even be stored next to the butter.
"Margarine?!" I asked triumphantly.
She looked puzzled and started talking to a customer standing in the check-out line.
"Markhgareen" said the customer.
"Ohhhhhh" said the clerk.  And showed me were it was.  It was next to the "boter".)

I could tell that it is harder to remember language things after not using them very often.  I haven't gone to the library, or watched Dutch TV, or listened to Dutch radio in a while and I think that it showed in the fact that it took so long for me to come up with sentences.  And in the fact that many of my sentences were grammatical nightmares.  So, back to the Asterix and Obelix comic books and the dubbed over Sponge-Bob-Square-Pants television shows I go.

It's for homework.

I promise.