Harlaam 6/30/07

On this last day of June I went to the city of Harlaam. Roughly a ten minute train ride north of Amsterdam this city appeared to be a micro-version of Amsterdam without all the tourist traps. We first stopped by the central-square which is dwarfed by St. Bavo's church.





The interior of the church was dominated by a 5,068 pipe organ. It was installed in 1738 and was used for performances by Mozart and Handel in the 18th century.



After exploring St. Bavo's we went to the Teylers Museum alongside the canal. This museum was unique for its complete hodgepodge of a collection. Upon entry, one is faced with a sampling of fossils from the Triassic to the Ice Ages. The true crown jewel of the museum though is the extensive scientific equipment it possess from inventors and experimenters from the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution.



From the museum we decided to get a sampling of the food I'll be eating in Madrid next weekend. Tapas are quite delicious, I do say.

Apenheul and Kroller Muller Museum - 6/21/07

After nearly missing the bus, I took a 40 minute drive to the east to go to the Apenheul. It's a large open area dedicated to monkeys/primates, with most of the monkeys allowed to go free throughout the park. The highlight for me was when a monkey hopped on my back and climbed all over me. Pictures of that will be forthcoming, when they get sent to me. For now you'll just have to view me acting like a monkey by the Orangutans.



Afterwords we went to the Kroller Muller Museum. The bus driver dropped us out at the gate 5 kilometers away from the museum. To get there we rented bikes and biked up the road straight to the museum. After spending a couple hours looking at the pieces of art, including a fun walk through the rain to view the outside sculptures, I decided to spend my last hour looking for a castle I had seen a sign for.





Biking without a clue for where I was going, I jutted out about 15 minutes from the only road I knew until I stumbled upon this scene.





Unfortunately, I tried a "shortcut" to get back to the bus. 45 minutes later of frantic peddling and exploring nearly all of whatever natural park we were at, I made it back. The lesson learned: one should actually look up the name of where they came from, so if you do get lost, you can find your way back. I now leave you with baby ducks.



Update 7/9/07: I now have the pics of the monkey on me.

Den Haag - 6/18/07

This will be a brief post with some pics from Den Haag (aka The Hague). I went there yesterday to meet up with some prosecutors at the ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia) and to watch a couple of trials with a small group from my program. While I would have loved to take photos of the courtroom and the proceedings, the ICTY took away my camera when I went through the first security check point, so you're stuck with photos of the exterior of the building. The first pic is of Parliament from the windows of my tram.

The next is a group photo from outside the ICTY. Look - there is finally a photo of me on this site.

After the trial in Courtroom III had adjourned for the day we all met up near the Parliament building for some Mexican food. It's kind of sad that there is better Mexican food in Europe than there is in Cleveland. I'll end with a group photo of us at dinner. More pics should come later this weekend after I tour the monkey park and return to Amsterdam.

Amsterdam - 6/16/07

Above is the view of the canal district from our hotel in Utrecht. While this has nothing to do with my trip to Amsterdam, I wanted to throw that picture in. After a very late start on Saturday, a few of us meandered to the train station to check out Amsterdam. I am impressed with the TV they had in the train station and have decided that it will be a suitable graduation present (hi parents.)

Dark grey clouds greeted us in Amsterdam upon our arrival. After wandering around aimlessly for a couple hours we got caught in a downpour right around this church.

Due to the rain we were forced to duck into a nearby Indonesian restaraunt. After about 90 minutes the rain finally let up, which let us head to the Anne Frank House. The building itself was nothing remarkable architectural wise, but the church next door was quite remarkable.

While I am disappointed that I did not get to go to more museums on Saturday, I'll be back in Amsterdam this weekend so I'm hoping to add some more pictures. Later today I'll be throwing up pictures from my trip to the Hague yesterday.

Brussels - 6/15/07

Today featured a trip to the EU Parliament in Brussels, Belgium. I was expecting an experience of awe-inspiring politics like my trips to Capitol Hill three years ago. Unfortunately, the experience was more akin to visiting an office building in any other city. It was a little under-whelming when I realized that by simply walking through a single metal detector with unarmed guards would be the extent of the security. Even worse, nearly the entire parliament had picked up to move to Strasbourg for the week, so the building was virtually abandoned. While we did meet with a MEP from the Netherlands briefly, the only notable highlight was to view the chambers briefly.

The trip got much better when we left the EP and went to the Grand'Place. Not only did this square have incredible architecture, it also had great waffles.

After wandering around for a bit, we then were reeled into a Greek cafe by perhaps the best waiter I have ever encountered. Despite his pleas for us to not post his image on the Internet so his three wives wouldn't find him there, I simply have to pay homage to the man who made Brussels a great place to be.

Paris - 6/8/07

I touched down in Paris around 10am local time. Thanks to the efficiency of our modern air trafficking network my flight arrived a little over two hours late, despite the winds being in our favor. First thing I did was get on the subway from DeGaulle to the hotel in Paris. That was a little harder than planned since the map I had purchased was in German, but I can read lines, so I found my way to the hotel.
From the hotel we first went to the Notre Dame

From there we hopped back onto the subway to North Paris to the Basilique de Sare Coeur.

From there we walked on down to the Avenue des Champs Elysees. Starting from the Place de la Obelisque near the Concorde subway stop, we walked up the avenue to the Arc de Triomphe.

I suppose I should point out my cohorts from my adventures. From left to right are Kristin, Krista, and Catie. Here they are going over maps since they refused to endorse my walk in a random direction for a few miles to see where we end up strategy.

Finally I went to the Tour Eiffel before dinner. After a great steak at a cafe I returned to the hotel to crash, since I had to get up at 5am to take the train to Utrecht. I'll post more later this weekend after I go to Brussels and Amsterdam.