Well, we had a busy day on the solstice yesterday. Derby had his final “puppy class” first thing in the morning. He did great though his enthusiam to see all the other puppies can be a little, well, enthusiastic. From there we went to watch River bowl at her rounders match. She played really well, giving up only one half-rounder, the equivalent of a walk. She also made some nice hits. It is great to watch her play; it’s clear that she is really having fun! They won 12-6, incidentally.
From there, we went to Sage’s ballet performance of Narnia, the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. She has been dancing at Stephanie Parrott’s school of dance in Burton. Sage did a great job as a snowflake and a butterfly. I wad really impressed with all the performers and the quality of the production.
This morning I awoke late to find that the girls had taken Derby out for his morning business and made breakfast including strawberry juice fresh from our own garden. They also made me a pair of shorts decorated with hand, foot, and even paw prints. A very nice way to start the day!
A happy Father’s Day to all the other fathers out there!
At the end of March, I met my friend Sean in Amsterdam. It had been quite a while since we’d last seen each other, but we had a great time exploring this fascinating city.
The Van Gogh museum had an excellent exhibit of his evening and nighttime scenes, reflecting his view of the dark hours as a time for reflection and creativity. Among the many wonderful works was his famous Starry Night:
Amsterdam is an amazing place and we had a fabulous time wandering around the city. There are an wonderful diversity of restaurants and we sampled some terrific food. The coffee produced from the ubiquitous espresso machines was also incredible: thick and brown and a bit frothy on top.
One of the things that I noticed everywhere in the Netherlands was the architecture. They seem to have achieved an ideal balance between preservation of historically interesting buildings and the integration of new modern architecture. I suppose urban planning has long been an important facet of Dutch culture, especially given the nature of their relationship with the sea. It was fascinating to see a map showing a cross-section of the Netherlands labeling the relative elevation of some landmarks.
The amalgamation of Baroque, Art Nouveau or Jugendstil, the Amsterdamse School of Art Deco, and modern buildings is particularly congenial. I didn’t manage to take any particularly good photographs of the modern architectural gems, but I did find these photos on flickr which will give you a sense of some of the area.
The other aspect of Amsterdam which particularly fascinated me was transportation. A network of canals forms a lattice running throughout the city. There were a number of boats plying the waterways, including various craft to convey tourists. I have been curious about canals since living so near one in England. I imagine that the canals are now more valuable aestheically than as trade or transport routes, but they certainly lend a Venetian charm to the city.
The main form of transport in Amsterdam is the bicycle. Bicycles are everywhere, some 465,000 of them. These are serious bike people. Apparently, about 30 percent of people regularly make their daily commute by bicycle and a further 40 percent occasionally cycle to work. There are bicycle lanes on both sides of the road. I don’t think you’ll find many car parks, but rows and rows of parked bicycles are everywhere.
Bicycle fashion amongst these bike people is quite different from that in the U.S. or the U.K. There are no spandex shorts with logos plastered on the bum and helmets are verbotten, even for kids riding in the local version of the mini-van shown below:
Bicycles are such an important part of the fabric of life in Amsterdam. After nearly getting run over a few times, we decided we had to try it for ourselves and we rented bicycles for the day. How else to understand what is means to live in Amsterdam? It turned out to be relatively easy to navigate the streets and we managed to see large parts of the city that would have been out of range of pedestrians. I would highly recommend this to anyone visiting Amsterdam.
One advantage of being below sea level is that the area is essentially flat, making complicated gearing systems superfluous. Almost all the bicycles in Amsterdam are variations on the same basic design, simple and functional:
I came across these observations on bike culture from a San Fransisco visitor and this video:
Overall, I got a sense of the culture in the Netherlands to be a unique combination of social responsibility and independent freethinking that has resulted in a particularly engaging city to visit. Particular thanks are due to Gail for taking care of our new puppy while I was gone.
River has been enjoying playing rounders recently. She played on the team last spring as well, but this year she is the bowler. In baseball terms, that means she is the pitcher.
They use these tiny little bats.
River’s coach mentioned to me recently how much they will miss having her on the team next year. We are sure proud of her and have enjoyed watching her play.
There was another match scheduled for today, but it was cancelled due to rain. River was pretty disappointed, but I have to say I wasn’t looking forward to watching in the downpour.
It is now well into June and there are still things from April that I haven’t posted about. April was a month of amazing weather and we spent a lot of time outside enjoying the sunshine. According to the Met Office, it was the third warmest April on record since 1914.
The hammock came out of storage and was strung between the climbing frame.
Dandelion season is over now, but we did our share of seed dispersal.
The great swathes of yellow rapeseed were the most spectacular feature of the landscape during April. I had trouble capturing the brilliance of the colours and it’s effect on the landscape with the camera, but we did find a footpath through a field, returning home covered in a dust of yellow pollen.
The flowers are almost entirely past now and the seed pods have started to swell. The wheat grains are starting to ripen now, too. It is a beautiful landscape here.
We picked Tui and Karen up from the airport and have been cruising along the canal for a while now. We just moored and are about to walk into Bath.
Happy birthday, Grana! Many happy returms of the day!
After leaving the zoo, we headed north from Dublin along the coast to Howth Head. We were searching for a place to walk in the sand and perhaps even immerse ourselves in the briny water. Originally an island, but now connected to the mainland by a tombolo, Howth Head was very rocky and did not furnish the sought strand.
We did enjoy a short walk through a meadow to the littoral zone and found some beautiful clifftop views.
Derby and the girls romped through the long grass on the the way back.
Further along the coast, we finally found the elusive beaches. It was fortunate that we had gotten the wetsuits earlier in the week since the heat at the Dublin Zoo was dissipated by the cool ocean breeze and the chilly water.
River braved the waters, Sage dug in the sand, and Derby ate shells. We later found coffee and ice cream and headed on to Malahide for dinner.
The one place in Ireland that the kids decided they really wanted to visit was the Dublin Zoo. The rest of us were skeptical, since it seemed that perhaps zoos are much alike throughout the world. We decided that since we were planning to do some things that the kids might be less interested in (like the Guiness Brewery) that we should humor them.
It turned out to be a very enjoyable visit to the zoo. The weather was perfect and we got to see the animals before the crowds turned up on Sunday afternoon. As we were leaving there was a queue waiting to enter that went all the way out to the street and around the corner.
River carried the camera and took an enormous number of pictures. I’ve winnowed them down somewhat and posted a few of them here.
I think these birds were just passing through, but the photographs are amazing:
All the primates were interesting to watch and we could have spent even more time observing them if we hadn’t wanted to see other things as well. This young orang-utan jumped up on it’s sleeping mother and started a wrestling match.
A robin, european-style.
Apparently, Sage makes this face for other people, too. I thought maybe I was the only one?
Molly’s parents came to visit while the kids were on holiday. It was really nice to see them.
Among other things, we went to Chatsworth House, the home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire and a spectacular estate. We’ve been meaning to visit for a while, so it was nice to have a chance to explore. I particularly enjoyed the gardens, which were varied and extensive.
The maze was a highlight. The kids took turns leading the group through the twists and turns and dead ends. I could have spent quite a bit more time exploring, but the rain sent us into the house, which is also amazing. The house is, often literally, covered in artwork.
There is still more I’d like to see at Chatsworth and the kids were disappointed not to play at the adventure playground and farmyard. We may try to head back again soon.
But our big adventure while Gail and Dave were here was a trip to Ireland. We rented a minivan so we could all fit in one vehicle and took the ferry from Holyhead, Wales to Dublin. The ferry was pretty comfortable, though a bit crowded and a group of rugby supporters drank and sang songs while wearing pink wigs and other accessories most of the journey. It was slightly irritating, but it does seem like there generally isn’t enough public singing in the world, and it was overall pretty entertaining.
We stayed at a hotel about half an hour from Dublin. I chose it primarily because it allowed pets and, since it had been an estate house, there was some pasture land that we could wander around with Derby off the lead.
It worked out reasonably well and the kids enjoyed the swimming pool. We had forgotten swimming costumes so we picked some up at a local department store. Actually, they had cheap wetsuits, so we decided to get those figuring that most of the outdoor swimming in England requires a wetsuit since it never really gets very hot. They’ll probably be pretty nice to have at Puffer’s Pond, too.
The next day, we decided to go to Glendalough in County Wicklow on the recommendation of our charming waitress at breakfast. Irish hospitality is no myth! She was so cheerful and pleasant and really made us feel welcome.
Glendalough, or “Valley of Two Lakes”, is located in a beautiful glacial valley just south of Dublin. The drive through the rolling countryside was gorgeous. We explored the ruins of the settlement that flourished in Glendalough from the 6th century until the 14th century when it was destroyed by English soldiers.
Sage is standing in the window of a church dating from about the 12th century to give a sense of the scale. There were a number of other buildings on the site that at one point supported a large monastery. The valley settlement has been a place of pilgrimage for over a thousand years.
Glendalough is also well know for it’s recreation and walking is a favorite pastime. We set out with Derby to explore some of the trails.
It was a perfectly beautiful day! Actually, the weather was amazing the whole weekend and really, most of the month of April couldn’t honestly be complained about. It was kind of strange not having crappy weather to discuss in order to make conversation with folk.
Sage climbed up into a tree while River took pictures. I’ve found it pretty much impossible to take decent pictures while walking with Derby on the lead, so it was nice to have a volunteer to document the walk.
We spent most of Sunday at the Dublin Zoo, which was amazing, but will have to be the subject of a separate post. Actually, River took about 250 pictures and I haven’t had a chance to go through them yet…
On Sunday, we toured the Guiness brewery. We are in Ireland, right?
Somehow there is nothing more quintessentially Irish than Guinness. I imagine there is probably an Irish pub in every city in the world, but I think they save the best stuff for the Irish. The brewery has changed quite a bit since Molly and I visited in, maybe, 1994? The self-guided tour was interesting, but lacking in detail. I’d have liked quite a bit more information. But the Gravity Bar at the end is pretty amazing, featuring a pint and a view of the entire city.
Afterwards, Gail and Dave and I toured the Jameson whiskey distillery, which was very interesting. I’m not a huge whiskey drinker myself, but I learned quite a bit, and as they say, a little knowledge can go a long way sometimes. There was even a tasting at the end, comparing American, Scottish, and Irish whiskeys. Overall, I highly recommend the tour.
Then we headed back to the ferry. Sage and I spent quite a bit of time watching the cranes load this container ship at the dock while we were waiting to depart. One of Sage’s many ambitions when she grows up is to become a truck crane driver, so she had a special interest.
Watching the colorful containers and cranes moving systematically back and forth had a soothing rhythm in the bright sunshine. And a packet of Sage’s favorite salt and vinegar crisps certainly helps, too.
Containerisation has had a major impact on globalization. There’s even a book about it: The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger
Goodbye Ireland!
We had a great weekend and I’m sure we’ll come back to visit again someday.
We celebrated River’s ninth birthday last month.
It is sometimes hard to believe how grown up she has become. Nine years have gone quickly, and it is a pleasure to watch her grow and change.
She had a couple of friends over for a birthday dinner and some games.
I think they had a nice time.
A few days after her birthday, we went with a some other friends to Alton Towers, our local theme park.
River went on all the scariest rides, including “Air”
and “Oblivion”. She had a brilliant time!
We went on a ski holiday in the Dolomites in northern Italy at the end of March. We flew to Innsbruck just across the border in Austria. The descent to the airport was quite spectacular; the snow covered peaks are very dramatic.
Historically a mixture of Roman and Germanic cultures, the province of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol has a complicated history, passing from Austrian control to Italy after World War I. More recently, the region has gained some autonomy under the Italian constitution. The practical effects, for us, of these complicated historical contortions was that there was an interesting mixture of Germanic and Italian culture. For instance, all public signs are posted in both languages. Not really speaking any of either German or Italian, I was never quite clear which language to use when trying to communicate with people.
We stayed at this hotel in Versciaco/Vierschach. We were very happy with the hotel. It was clean and comfortable with almost a Scandinavian decor. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming.
There was an indoor pool that connected to an outdoor pool through these sliding glass doors. We generally played in the pool après ski. There was also a game room and a cinema for the kids.
Perhaps my favorite part of the hotel was the food, which was superb. Even better, though, I didn’t cook any of it. For a whole week. Don’t get me wrong, I love cooking, but it was great to have a holiday. The kids loved it too, especially the Italian noodle soup which they devoured every night. Exercising all day certainly left us with good appetites, though several nights Sage was so tired she didn’t want any dessert.
We found some time to relax in between ski and swim expeditions, though there was never quite enough time in the day.
Frequent buses ran from Versciaco/Vierschach to San Candido/Innichen. We made several trips there to stock up on supplies and once to try the ski slopes just outside of the village. This rococo cupola graced the top of a church in the main square of the town.
The skiing was great! The weather was sunny and warm all week and though the snow at the bottom of the mountain was slushy by the end of the day, it was in great condition again by morning. There was even several of inches of fresh snowfall a few nights.
The view from the top of the mountain was stunning. The Dolomites could possibly be the most beautiful mountains in the world, as the climber Reinhold Messner claims.
The kids picked up skiing pretty quickly. River had been once at Blandford in Massachusetts several years ago, but Sage had never tried it before.
We showed them the basic idea and then they joined the ski school each morning for a couple hours while Molly and I explored the mountain. They soon made it up to the top where there where a number of nice, suitable runs. By the end of the week, we had all gotten much better. River even went down some of the most difficult black routes. Then it was time for a break:
It was a wonderful holiday and we’re all looking forward to skiing in Vermont next winter!
