It's finally time to write about my trip to The Netherlands from September! I've got hundreds of photos that I took there, so of course it's not possible to put them all up here for all to see. It's not even possible to put a 1/10 of them here. So, I've decided to write just two posts here on the family blog, and put some of my more "artistic" photos up on the photography blog. First up: Amsterdam!
My colleague Kristin and I arrived in Amsterdam on Saturday morning. We spent the day walking around to try and avoid sleeping (to deal with jetlag), and saw a good chunk of the city, which is beautiful. It's probably the most green city I've been in; there's just so much vegetation everywhere! And the canals criss-crossing through the city are stunning.
We also had to hit the red light district. I didn't take any photos of the girls, as that just seemed terribly creepy, but this statue shows how much the city is known for its legal prostitution. The whole thing seems depressing and desperate to me, but at least the girls have a number of organizations that look out for their welfare. Even so...it's just not something we here in the US are used to!
On Sunday, our colleague Paige arrived, and our colleague Matt (who was already in the NL) drove to Amsterdam from Wageningen (where our office is) to spend some time with us and drive us out there for the work week). Here are myself, Paige and Kristin on the canal boat tour we all took that day. It might have been touristy, but it was a really great way to see the city and learn a little history.
We had to switch boat lines at the Amsterdam Central train station, which is huge and beautiful!
I tried to find a photo that exemplifies travel in Amsterdam, and I think this one does: bridge, canal, and bicycles. While there are plenty of cars driving around, most people travel by bicycle. On average in the Netherlands there are 2-3 bicycles per person. And the accessories! Carts, wheelbarrows, kid seats...it was pretty great. And strange to see kids zipping around in a major city without any sort of protective safety gear.
A large number of house boats also reside in the city. I couldn't get a good photo of them from the canal boat tour, so this is one that I took from a bridge. The house boats are fairly stationary (many had so many plants and outdoor furniture on top there's no way the boat could move without losing all of it), but they're all occupied, and looked very modern from our glimpses through the windows.
Kristin and I then returned to Amsterdam on Friday night, after our work week, but I was feeling somewhat miserable from a cold I picked up on Thursday, and we only had a few hours. We stayed right near the train station and red light district, so got to see what that looks like on a Friday night (basically, crazy). We then had to be at the airport by about 8am on Saturday to fly home, so I don't have any photos from that last night except for these two that I took with my phone.
One of the stops we made were to the massive Flower Market. We knew we wanted to purchase some tulip bulbs to bring back to the US; it took a while to choose which ones we ultimately wanted. We all settled on some blue ones that you can't find here in the US, as well as some that are on the "approved" list. I gave away most of the ones I brought back, and I'm looking forward to planting my own, which needs to happen soon!
One other thing we saw was the Van Gogh museum. I had no idea of the breadth of his work before going there! Unfortunately the museum was in the process of moving (that site permanently closed the following week), so we didn't get to see everything but I think most was still on display. Even worse, however, was that they did not allow any photography! I understand why, but for me it was still quite frustrating. I'll just say that his paintings are beautiful...and wow was he messed up in the head.
We had to switch boat lines at the Amsterdam Central train station, which is huge and beautiful!
I tried to find a photo that exemplifies travel in Amsterdam, and I think this one does: bridge, canal, and bicycles. While there are plenty of cars driving around, most people travel by bicycle. On average in the Netherlands there are 2-3 bicycles per person. And the accessories! Carts, wheelbarrows, kid seats...it was pretty great. And strange to see kids zipping around in a major city without any sort of protective safety gear.A large number of house boats also reside in the city. I couldn't get a good photo of them from the canal boat tour, so this is one that I took from a bridge. The house boats are fairly stationary (many had so many plants and outdoor furniture on top there's no way the boat could move without losing all of it), but they're all occupied, and looked very modern from our glimpses through the windows.
Kristin and I then returned to Amsterdam on Friday night, after our work week, but I was feeling somewhat miserable from a cold I picked up on Thursday, and we only had a few hours. We stayed right near the train station and red light district, so got to see what that looks like on a Friday night (basically, crazy). We then had to be at the airport by about 8am on Saturday to fly home, so I don't have any photos from that last night except for these two that I took with my phone.
LEFT: Amsterdam at night
RIGHT: taken from a "specialty shop" in the red light district. I don't even want to know how that thing works, but it was displayed so artistically that I had to take a photo and share it here. Oh, Amsterdam!
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