Adventure of the month

Everyone knows that few things are better than seeing a place with a local, so we were both extra thrilled when our friend Marc (aka "The Flying Dutchman") offered to show us around his hometown of Almere. Then he even sweetened the deal. After 3 weeks of eating out, his mom was going to cook for us. Almere is part of Flevoland, an 1400 sq. km area of reclaimed land and therefore the newest province in the Netherlands. Prior to the 1920's, there was no Flevoland, only ocean. This kind of outside-the-box thinking did not end with the reclamation of the land. The city of Almere sponsored a contest for architects to build "Fantasy houses" which would be exempt from all the usual building codes. The winners would be given financial assistance and a 5 year lease on the property (the intent being for the houses to be dismantled in five years time). The project was such a success that the houses are still standing, mak...

I am totally going to cheat on this one and copy the information directly from Aalsmeer's official website. Every day Bloemenveiling Aalsmeer sets the world price for flowers and plants. This happens by bringing supply and demand together by means of the auction clock- a fascinating process during which large and small batches of flowers are sold within fractions of seconds. Each day, 19 million flowers and two million plants are sold through 13 clocks at 'Bloemenveiling Aalsmeer'. It takes place within an area of almost one million m2. This means that Bloemenveiling Aalsmeer has the largest trade building in the entire world! As a visitor to Bloemenveiling Aalsmeer, you will walk over a specially designed gallery. You can take a look at the auction without being noticed. Enjoy the gorgeous flowers, experience the hustle and bustle of auction. Come and take a look at Bloemenveiling Aalsmeer! More information: http://www.vba-aalsmeer.n...

A mere 30 minute bus ride from our home near Schipol airport brought us to Haarlem, one of the many reminders of New York's Dutch origins. During our stay we also came across Flushing and Breukelen (Brooklyn). Still no word on who we have to thank for Ronkonkoma. In the interest of brevity, I will just mention the highlights of our visit. First and foremost, the Frans Hals museum . This is why we went to Haarlem and it certainly did not disappoint. It is housed in a former house for the poor, where Frans Hals, in fine starving artist tradition, reputedly spent some time. Along with his work, there are paintings from several other Dutch masters from the region on display. This is also where we acquired our new best friend, the Museum Card. For 40 euro each, we got id cards which get us into almost every museum in the Netherlands for an entire year! Even better, the Museum card is not advertised anywhere tourists might hear about it (we learned about it from ...

I just finished updating the Copenhagen post which I began back on July 25th. Some may call that procrastinating. Me, I prefer to see it as letting a post age until it is ready. Anywho, as I was writing that very belated post, I realized that I had not uploaded any pictures of Copenhagen's terrific anti-littering campaign/ public arts project. After seeing the first couple of pieces, I was hooked and became determined to find them all. This resulted in us running around on our last day asking people if they had seen the giant banana peel and/ or the overgrown pack of gum. Sadly, we determined that both had been taken away, but it did make for some very interesting conversations.

My arrival in the city confirmed something for me that I really should have known all along. The Dutch are manic when it comes to their bicycles. Sure, I had seen the parking garage at the Amsterdam train station that holds 2,500 bikes. I had read the statistic that there were over 600,000 in Amsterdam alone, but nothing had prepared me for this....thing. I initially thought that our bus was pulling in next to a beer garden, but as I was getting off said bus, it struck me as a bit odd that the picnic table and all its inhabitants were now cruising down the street. Turns out they had somehow managed to combine two of the most popular Dutch pastimes, biking and drinking. It was a bar-bike, or a bike-bar. I don't know what you would call it, but it is pictured above. We were actually visiting Edam in pursuit of yet another Dutch pastime. Cheese. I realize that a foodstuff does not a pastime make, but any lesser term would underestimat...

It may seem that I am combining the fishing villages of Marken and Volendam as a way of speeding through my Dutch travelogue. This is partly true. However, the two really are inextricably linked by a 45 minute ferry ride and a world of tourist brochures. If ever you find yourself in a conversation with someone who has just visited Marken (unlikely I know, but it could happen), the correct response is "But did you go to Volendam? Volendam is much nicer." If it so happens that the person originally mentions that they went to Volendam, telling them that Marken is much nicer is also perfectly acceptable. The bottom line is that touristic conventions require you to visit both. Funny thing is that despite the geographical proximity and the shared commercial backgrounds, I found the two to be quite different from each other. Marken, which was once an island highly prone to flooding, still ret...

So, I have returned to my home base of Miami and am staring at half a dozen bags that need to be unpacked. More dauntingly, I am realizing how much I have done and seen during the past few months, all of which I intended to blog about. To give a brief idea of the task ahead of me, I should point out that in the prior 2 months, I have visited 21 cities in 4 different countries, taken 1483 photos (not counting the many that were deleted for various reasons) and worked a total of 21 days. In the Netherlands alone, which was home base, I visited (in order): Amsterdam (of course), Marken, Volendam, Edam, Haarlem, Alsmeer, Almere, Lelystad, Delft, Gouda, Geithoorn, Zaanse Schans, Den Hague, Texel, Utrecht, Alkmaar, Maastricht and Rotterdam. Add to that some overnight trips to Copenhagen, Denmark; Brugges, Brussels and Krakow, Poland and you may begin to see my cause for concern. Oh and did I mention that I leave for a 10 day trip to Venice (the one in Italy, not the one in California) in 5 ...