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.

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.

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.  Inspired by this book, the BBC is following The Box on it’s journey around the world.  But just aesthetically, I can’t help but find this industrial landscape beautiful.

Goodbye Ireland!

We had a great weekend and I’m sure we’ll come back to visit again someday.

The snow-covered rocks were very beautiful!

We were prepared for cold weather, but not precipitation.

The views of the canyon were remarkable despite the overcast sky.  It must have been warmer at the bottom of the canyon since there was no snow below the Bright Angel shale.

It snowed even more on our second day and the the canyon was filled with clouds.  It was like looking into a wall of fog.  We were glad it had been relatively clear the day before, but we had a great time romping around in the snow.

Sage thought it was really funny to walk around with her hat over her eyes.

We had planned to descend into the canyon on the South Kaibab trail, but decided that views from the inside of a cloud weren’t worth the risk of an icy trail along thousand foot cliffs.  The south rim trail provided plenty of entertainment.

We came across a herd of elk near the road.  They didn’t seem bothered at all as we approached quite close.

The kids ate plenty of snow and threw balls any that were to big to be consumed.  Watch out!

Visiting the canyon in the snow was very different from the way I remembered it, but it was still very beautiful and we had a great time!

Our friend, Gudrun, has also been visiting Scotland recently and took another amazing rainbow photograph.

We spent the night in a Victorian era hotel in Strathpeffer, just north of Inverness.  Apparently, it was one of the first locations to have electricity installed.  Sage has been learning about Victorian times and was excited to tell us about how they would have done things when the hotel was first built.

We stayed on the third floor and it was a veritable labyrinth to get to our room. We didn’t mind the walk, though, and we loved the character of the hotel. The garden outside was beautiful as well.

From Strathpeffer, we went to Chanonry Point to look for dolphins and seals swimming in the Moray Firth. For those like me who were not familiar with the word, a firth is a narrow inlet of the sea or an estuary. The most northerly population of bottlenose dolphins lives in the Moray Firth and can often be seen swimming close to shore here.

We quickly spotted several seals who kept poking their heads out of the water to look around. We spent some time exploring the beach, but were just about to leave without seeing any dolphins when we noticed one in the water off the point. There was a pair of dolphins that leapt through the water together. We couldn’t tell if there was more than one pair, though, or if they just kept swimming in circles and reappearing in the same place. Anyway, they were beautiful to watch.

Next, we went to see Culloden battlefield, the location of the last battle between Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Jacobite forces and the government soldiers. We have an interest in the Bonnie Prince because he and his army camped in the fields outside our house near the Swarkestone bridge before retreating back into Scotland. Also, one of our local pubs is “The Bonnie Prince”.

Anyway, the new visitor centre there is fantastic. The interpretive displays presented the background of the conflict and the details of the battle in a very accessible way. It is perhaps the best historical presentation I’ve ever seen. We saw interactive maps showing how the armies moved through Scotland and England, heard accounts from soldiers from both armies, and got a chance to hold some of the rifles and pistols used in the battle.

Finally, we drove along Loch Ness towards our accommodation on the Isle of Skye.  Loch Ness was beautiful and very, very long. We talked a lot about the Loch Ness monster and Molly read about the evidence for and against the existence of such a creature. River was convinced that it was a hoax.

We stopped to check out the ruins of Castle Urquhart, located picturesquely on the north shore of the loch.

And we stopped at just about every wide stop in the road, just because it was Loch Ness and it was a particularly beautiful, sunny day in the Great Glen

Then we headed for the Royal Mile, the famous section of streets between the Holyrood Abbey and Edinburgh Castle.  We ate a late breakfast in a cafe and then wandered towards the castle.  River took quite a few pictures along the way.  Some of the highlights include these classic red telephone boxes.  These are now being replaced by more exposed public phones that offer internet and text messaging in addition to the traditional phone service.  They aren’t nearly as aesthetically pleasing, though.  

We also encountered Adam Smith, father of modern economics and creator of the invisible hand metaphor.  It seems to me that the market’s guiding hand hasn’t been merely been invisible recently, but perhaps absent altogether? 

Nearby is the Heart of Midlothian, marking the spot where the tolls where collected at the old entrance to the city.   Apparently, some people have a tradition of spitting on the heart or leaving their chewed gum here.  There are several interpretations of the origin of this custom, but all of them seem pretty barbaric to me.

At the top of the Royal Mile, Edinburgh Castle is perched on the basalt plug of an extinct volano.  This position provides an incredible view over the city as well as making the castle almost impossible take by force.  The water supply, though, was restricted due these geological circumstances and became a severe weakness during sieges. 

There is an incredible historical legacy in this castle.  We learned a bit about the people who lived in the castle, including Robert the Bruce and Mary Queen of Scotts, while looking for clues to complete puzzle sheet the kids were working on.  While exploring the castle, we saw the sword, sceptre, and crown known as the Honours of Scotland and heard the one o’clock gun that ships in the harbor once used to set their chronometers.

This lion guards the entrance to the Scottish National War Memorial in the castle.

We also saw the churchyard known as Greyfriars Kirk where the scottish terrier Greyfriars Bobby is buried.

We’ve read several books about the British fossil collector, Mary Anning, whose work in the early 19th century contributed to the modern understanding of extinction and geological timescales. Her important finds included an icthysaur, a plesiosaur, and a pterosaur and she was very well respected in scholarly circles despite her gender and lack of formal education. She is also, possibly, the inspiration of the well-known tongue-twister:

She sells sea shells by the sea shore.

While we ate a picnic lunch on the beach, the kids collected many of the amazing stones that they found on the shore. I imagine that small grains of sand are all this uniquely beautiful if you could see them up close. Each stone was different; some bright, some patterned, some with shells embedded inside. It was easy to see why they were so fascinated.

We then wandered around the town, did a bit of shopping in one of those stores that Molly describes as “dangerous”, visited the Lyme Regis museum, bought some rock hammers, and finally ate some ice cream.

The coast near Lyme Regis is very beautiful and we enjoyed searching the shoreline for fossils.

After we’d walked a bit away from the town center, we began to find more a number of interesting fossils. There were several areas where large ammonites like this were preserved.

We eventually came to these cliffs, which I imagine are loaded with fossils. You can really visualize the layers in the sediments here. Fossil collecting is prohibited in the cliffs; besides it is fairly dangerous since rock falls can happen at any time.

It was fun to bang at the rocks with the hammers.

But we really started to find an abundance of specimens just past the cliffs where a large ongoing landslide has brought lots of material down to the water.

Most of the fossils we found were small ammonites, which are spiral-shaped shelled creatures that are reminiscent of the modern nautilus, but are actually more closely related to squid and octopi.

River and Sage were both inspired by this trip.  When we got home late on Sunday night, River asked me if I would read to her (we’ve been reading “Awesome Archaeology“) and if she could get fossils for Christmas.  The next day, they both spent quite a bit of time arranging their finds into displays on the collection table.  Each display is sorted generally by the type of rock or fossil and marked with color-coded labels indicating the date and location of the discovery.

Overall, it was a very interesting trip.  We’re considering returning to the area again sometime as well as checking out some other fossil collecting sites nearby.

The Bath Abbey is also a pretty amazing architectural gem.

This fountain outside the Abbey is inscribed “Water is Best”, revealing the reason Bath has been so special to everyone including the Celts and the Romans thousands of years ago.

This is the entrance to the Roman Baths and the associated Pump House on the same plaza as the Abbey.

Inside you can get a sense of what it might have been like in Roman times.  I tried to imagine folks wandering around in togas.  Actually, there were a few actors who played the part fairly effectively.

This carving was once over the entrance to the baths.  It is most commonly assumed to be of a gorgon, one of the symbols of Minerva, the Roman goddess to whom the baths were dedicated.  Traditionally, the gorgons were female, but If you look closely, you can see some snakes in his hair and beard.  It may also represent some sort of water god, reflecting the more ancient Celtic traditions.  Beautiful work, regardless.

This is the King’s Bath, the source of the hot water from deep underground.  Water from this pool was brought to the various other pools in the complex.

The drain from the King’s Pool was stained red with iron deposits.  I can only imagine how magical this must have seemed to people many years ago who could have had no way of imagining where the hot water came from and why it turned things red.  It still seems miraculous today, even with our more advanced geological knowledge.

The water was pleasantly warm in the main pool.  I wouldn’t really want to swim laps, but I can easily imagine lounging here.  It seems like a giant hot tub!

In other rooms, the floors were heated using this ingenious system.  Piles of tiles created space for hot air to circulate under the floor, warming the cold stones.  A swim, sauna, and massage sound pretty nice about now.

Later, in the Pump House, we tasted the waters from the bath.  The tea room known as the Pump House has apparently been a fixture of the Bath social scene for hundreds of years.  The waters have long been prescribed as medicinal.  People came here to imbibe as well as perform their ablutions.

The kids loved this merry-go-round right next to Clifford’s Tower, a 13th century fortification.

After revolving rapidly for several minutes, we went into the adjacent York Castle Museum, which has some amazing historical recreations from Britain’s past. Among other things, the ladies had a chance to try on some Victorian undergarments.

We also spent some time wandering around York Minister. The majestic arches and towers of the cathedral truly inspire awe. I recently read Ken Follet’s The Pillars of the Earth, a historical novel about building cathedrals. While I can’t unreservedly recommend the book, it did give me a new perspective on the process that must have occurred here.

I took quite a few photos of the interior as well, but somehow they don’t capture the soaring nature of the building. You can’t help but look to the heavens.

The stained glass was incredible.

We happened to coincide with a choral service. The sound of the organ filling the church was quite amazing.

We returned to York on Monday morning for more. The Jorvik Viking Museum was very interesting. We went through a recreation of York as a Viking city complete with actors in costume. There was also a fascinating display of bones and a discussion of the types of archaeological details they can reveal. Some it was quite graphic – one skeleton in particular displayed a number of wounds, any one of which would presumably have been fatal. River is especially interested in archaeology these days, so our visit was apropos.

There are lots of other interesting things to see and do in York and we are hoping we will get another opportunity to visit again before too long.