Amsterdam, Part I: Bikes

Well! I certainly have been slacking. I have a lot of work ahead of me to catch you up on places I've visited in the past few weeks: Amsterdam (twice), Luxembourg, The Hague, and Delft. Plus a couple stories from around Brussels during my lovely red-haired counterpart's visit.

To keep things interesting and to help out the visual learners out there, I'll organize my posts around the pictures I have. I accumulated a nice little collection of bicycle pictures while in Amsterdam, so let's start with that.



The Dutch love their bicycles. According to Wikipedia (but without a source cited, so it could be a lie), there are around 700,000 of them in Amsterdam. The city government encourages the bike culture by creating bike paths everywhere and charging high prices for parking cars. There is also a gigantic bike parking garage next to the central train station, so that people can take the train into the city, pick up their wheels, and ride to work.



Perhaps to make picking their own bikes out of a crowd a little easier, people do a lot of customizing. Sometimes it's practical: big wooden wagons attached to the front or back for hauling around groceries, dogs, and miscellany; up to three child seats for picking up the kiddies from Sue's house; little baskets for transporting tulips; and of course a bell or horn for frightening the tourists. Other times, though, it's just pretty: artificial flowers woven through the frame, hand-painted designs or just a good coat of spray paint, and streamers, beads, or other girly embellishments.



Amsterdam has more than 1200 bridges over its oodles of little and big canals, and they are prime bike-parking spots. I'm not sure I can think of anything more charming than this.



As if they weren't already environmentally friendly enough, people in Amsterdam also find uses for dilapidated old bikes past their cycling life. Often times they hold signs for little boutiques, markets, and galleries.



My favorite reincarnated bike, though, was a planter outside someone's house. Note the litterbox full of daffodils: the "Kitty WC."



All of this leads quite nicely into my next post, which I'll try to write from Paris tomorrow: Amsterdam, Part II: Flowers, Art, and Other Pretty Things.

(For more bike pictures, check out my album.)

Happy Birthday, Papa Bear!

How to Patronize the Arts

I know, I know. It's been a while. But we've been busy. Amsterdam, midterms, Lucy, Luxembourg...

Next week is sure to be eventful as well. On Tuesday we'll be at the theater for a production of Robespierre, a play that Allie's French class read. Wednesday I'm going to a football match between Anderlecht and Beker-Coupe and Thursday we're going to The Hague, Netherlands with our program.

The title of this post refers to all the artisticness surrounding the Amsterdam trip and my day trip to Antwerp with Gino. Soon I'll write about that, but first let me try to make up for the recent lack of posts by taking you on a little photo tour of my area.


Gino with one of his first "sons" and the son's family.


Sitting room at Christmas (just before I arrived).


The famous dining room table where we eat every night. Decorated in this picture during Christmas.


This is my metro stop. They just filled the fountainage with water. It makes me happy because it is pretty and also because that means it should be warming up a bit.


Spitting animals. This is also the church famous because there is a designated place to pee on the side of it, which is really convenient for all the drunks and bar hoppers. One place that you don't have to pay ,30 euro cents to pee. No picture of that for obvious reasons.



View of St. Catherine and fountainage right when you exit the metro.


Saint Catherine is dirty.


Here's where we can stop on the walk home if you'd like to join me for champagne and caviar at Mer du Nord's outdoor bar.




My street boasts many restaurants that make me wish the dollar didn't drastically dwindle dinner druthers. The orange sign stage right is for the Thai resto where Allie and I ate during our first visit to the area.


Here is the view you would see if you ate sting ray with Gino and me one night. FLU POWER FLU is a work of modern art commisioned by the beurs theater. The piece was the subject of a 15 minute Gino rant on how history repeats itself, etc. As you might expect, the sign is always lit. Translation: FLOW POWER FLOW.



This one needs some explanation. This view is funnier at night when both places are more busy. On the right, you'll see people slurping up and wolfing down McDonald's (aka Macdo). To the left, the business crowd lounges in the Marriott hotel, sipping cocktails and congratulating themselves on how wonderful they are. (See me in the window?)



The stock exchange (Bourse). Gino works at a building in this square.



Different view of Bourse.



Splurge on the room and skimp on the board.




I'd take you this direction if you wanted to see a movie. Can you make out the Coca Cola sign in the middle of the picture? It's pretty big in person.



Fritland is a cure-all for drunchies and munchies. They have frites and (if you're more hungy) sandwiches with frites piled on top. Mmmm.



Yes, please.


I was stupidly heteronormative and didn't even realize this is a gay bar.


That Homo sapien invaded my picture, seemingly to complete the evolution of man.



Here's the big thing set up in the Grand Place where Gino's royal society will put on costumes to pretend they are their ancestors. It is going to be on TV. Hopefully someone YouTubes it and I'll postya the link.



Royal people in the Grand Place




I caught them waving flags around, but not in costume.