As if no time had passed at all
I'll start this post out with a lovely little fact of geography: Norway is a lot closer to Germany than the U.S. is! I've shared with you before that I lived in Germany for about a year in 2011-2012, so while I'm in Europe, I decided to hop over and visit. I got clearance from Andrew to be gone for a whole week, and I'll spend that time meeting with colleagues and visiting friends.
I actually started by flying to Amsterdam for the weekend to see a dear friend. Stefanie and I first met on the icebreaker Polarstern in 2011, during my first research cruise ever. We spent a lot of time together in Bremerhaven after the cruise because we met every Sunday afternoon to cook together.
Shortly after I left Bremerhaven, Stefanie did too, and she's now doing her Ph.D. at the University of Utrecht, in the Netherlands. When I landed in Amsterdam, she met me at the airport with a bouquet of orange flowers and a Dutch flag. Every time I see Stefanie, it feels like no time has passed at all, even though our meetings are separated by as much as a year. Actually, the last time I saw her was exactly a year ago, when she visited me in Oregon.
I really enjoyed seeing Stefanie's new city. Her apartment is on the second floor of a tall, narrow building, and to get to it, you have to climb what is possibly the narrowest, steepest staircase ever built. She described the staircase as "typical Dutch."
In the spirit of a true Dutch experience, Stefanie took me on a bike tour of Utrecht yesterday. If you're not aware, the Netherlands are the bike capital of the world. This country is exceptionally flat and significantly urbanized, and these two factors combined mean that the most efficient way to get around is in many cases by bike. The Dutch are crazy about their bikes, too. In fact, they probably spend more money on their bikes than they do on their cars. I've never seen such fancy bike seats, cargo bags, and bike locks - oh, the bike locks! - anywhere else in the world. And the kid carriers! It's not unusual for a Dutch parent to have one child seat on the front of their bike, one on the middle bar below the handlebars, and one kid on the back. Parents drop their kids off at school this way. Sometimes, they'll have large brown cargo wagons on the front of the bike, which can be used to transport everything from kids to couches. When the Dutch move apartments, they do so by bike. It's flat-out ridiculous.
Well anyway, Stefanie and I got bikes and headed out to Kasteel de Haar (De Haar Castle), about 14 km outside of the city. Stefanie called de Haar "the Neuschawanstein of Holland." The current castle building is actually a re-make of a castle that used to stand in the same place, and it's used today as a meeting place for the Dutch rich and famous. The castle grounds are beautiful, so we spent a good amount of time just walking around and admiring the castle. We even found a hedge maze and had a lot of fun getting ourselves lost.
It was really great to spend time with Stefanie and experience Dutch life. More from Utrecht tomorrow!
I actually started by flying to Amsterdam for the weekend to see a dear friend. Stefanie and I first met on the icebreaker Polarstern in 2011, during my first research cruise ever. We spent a lot of time together in Bremerhaven after the cruise because we met every Sunday afternoon to cook together.
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| Stefanie brought me a bouquet of orange flowers at the airport! |
I really enjoyed seeing Stefanie's new city. Her apartment is on the second floor of a tall, narrow building, and to get to it, you have to climb what is possibly the narrowest, steepest staircase ever built. She described the staircase as "typical Dutch."
In the spirit of a true Dutch experience, Stefanie took me on a bike tour of Utrecht yesterday. If you're not aware, the Netherlands are the bike capital of the world. This country is exceptionally flat and significantly urbanized, and these two factors combined mean that the most efficient way to get around is in many cases by bike. The Dutch are crazy about their bikes, too. In fact, they probably spend more money on their bikes than they do on their cars. I've never seen such fancy bike seats, cargo bags, and bike locks - oh, the bike locks! - anywhere else in the world. And the kid carriers! It's not unusual for a Dutch parent to have one child seat on the front of their bike, one on the middle bar below the handlebars, and one kid on the back. Parents drop their kids off at school this way. Sometimes, they'll have large brown cargo wagons on the front of the bike, which can be used to transport everything from kids to couches. When the Dutch move apartments, they do so by bike. It's flat-out ridiculous.
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| Kasteel de Haar |
It was really great to spend time with Stefanie and experience Dutch life. More from Utrecht tomorrow!
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