Rembrandthuis Museum

June 3, 2011- Today I went to the Rembrandthuis Museum in Amsterdam.  This museum was really interesting and showed the house that the famous Dutch painter Rembrandt lived in.  In the house there was many paintings done by Rembrandt throughout his life.  His painting studio was pretty neat and showed the tools that Rembrandt used when creating his paintings.  

Rembrandt also created etchings which are small detailed oriented drawings.  These etchings could be easily reproduced through a process where a metal base had a drawing imprinted on it which was filled with ink and paper was run over top which created a new drawing.  Rembrandt also had a collection of paintings from Lucas Van Leyden which were normally very small paintings with great detail.  A picture named “David’s Prayer” is shown below from Lucas Van Leyden.  

This painted was about 4.5”x3”.  Also in Rembrandt’s house was a room with sculptures and animals hanging from the ceiling which were probably used as props for paintings.  

This museum was very interesting and had a lot of information about Rembrandt and his life.

Jewish Historical Museum

June 3, 2011- Today I went to the Jewish Historical Museum, or Joods Historisch Museum in Amsterdam.  This museum had a lot of information about the Jews living in the Netherlands as well as Jewish traditions in general.  The museum had several different parts, one focusing on Jews of the Netherlands from 1600 to 1890 and the other on more recent Jews living in the Netherlands.  There were stories of Jews who lived in the Netherlands and other places around the world and showed some of the hardships that they faced.  This museum had a very large collection of paintings by Jewish painters and also had a lot of ceremonial objects that are normally located in Jewish synagogues.  I felt this museum was somewhat interesting and would not really suggest people to visit.  But one of the interesting things I learned there is how tedious and time consuming the writing of the Torah really is and how the Torah can only be written by professional scribes.  Overall the museum was somewhat interesting and wouldn't really be a museum I would suggest people to visit.

Biking in the Netherlands

Biking around the Netherlands is both fun and easy.  The Dutch definitely like their bikes as it seems everyone has a bike!  

Bike Parking Garage by Central Station

Biking is the easiest and most used way of transportation around town.  I use my bike just about every day whether it is going to the grocery store, school, or further downtown in Amsterdam.  What I especially enjoy about biking in the Netherlands is that there are paths everywhere.  Bicycles basically own the streets in Amsterdam.  Bikes always have the right away over cars or pedestrians.  Well most of the time, caution is still advised when biking anywhere.  Also, it seems like 80% of people don’t stop for red lights while biking if no cars are coming.  I have to admit, after a couple days I quickly started running red lights too.  Oops.  But like my mom taught me, look both ways before crossing the street, so don’t worry, I have not been hit by a car yet.  Another thing I noticed about biking solid the bikes are made in the Netherlands.  I say that even though just about everyone from our group had bike problems at some point.  Many people had flat tires, had to replace tires, parts fell off, or just broke completely.  I was one of the more fortunate people with only having a flat tire and my chain falling off, easy but expensive repairs.  

My bike

But with all that said, the bikes are designed to last for a long time and withstand a lot of abuse.  All of our bikes were really old which caused all of our problems.  I guess that is what we get for buying the cheapest bikes we could find.  I have gone on several long bike trips also.  Early in the semester I biked to Haarlem and back to Amsterdam while biking a total of 50 km.  I also took a bike trip with a couple other guys to see the tulip fields (see earlier post) which had a total of 80 km in one day.  This was a really long trip but we were able to follow a bike route the whole way.  Biking is definitely the easiest and cheapest means of transportation around the Netherlands and it is also very healthy.  That may be one factor as to why there aren’t very many overweight people in Holland.  Biking in the Netherlands has been very enjoyable.  There is nothing better than taking a nice bike ride along a canal on a beautiful day.  I plan on biking quite a bit when I get back to the United States, I guess the Netherlands has changed me.

NEMO

June 1, 2011- Today I went to the NEMO museum which just so happens to be a children’s museum.  This museum was really cool and had a lot of neat interactive science exhibits.  But even though it was really cool, I felt way out of place there.  Kids were running around everywhere and was a little too old to fight with the kids over who got to play with the machine next.  So I did not stay there for very long.  But what I did find interesting was the section on electric cars.  Since I am an engineer, I naturally walked over there and looked around a bit.  After that I left.  There was this very strange section about life as a teenager.  I was shocked about what I saw there and could not believe it was in a children’s museum.  But other than that the museum was cool but would have been a lot better if I was younger or had someone else there with me.

Dutch Resistance Museum

June 1, 2011- Today I went to the Dutch Resistance Museum, or Verzetsmuseum, in Amsterdam.  I found this museum to be very interesting.  The museum talked about the Dutch underground resistance during World War II.  The museum began by first giving a description of life in the Netherlands during the 1930s before the war started.  This gave a nice background into life which preceded the war.  The museum showed what life was like in the Netherlands during the war also.  After the Germans invaded the Netherlands, an underground resistance group began.  This group started off small and slowly evolved into a legitimate nuisance for the Germans.  The museum showed a good representation of the society also in which everything took place.  The museum did not just focus on the resistance movement but also how the Germans treated the Dutch during the war.  For the most part, the Germans were very pleasant to the Dutch as they were trying to win the Dutch people over.  They did, however, instate blackouts during the night in order to make life more difficult for Allied planes flying above as they had no bearing without the guidance of lights from major cities.  The Germans also created a ban on radios in the homes of Dutch people and induced a lot of propaganda on the Dutch.  But the Dutch held true to their values and refused to join the German cause.  The museum gave a lot of information of life in the Netherlands but also the life in the Dutch East Indies.  This museum was full of interesting information and was presented in a very nice way.

Anne Frank Huis

May 30, 2011- Today I went to the Anne Frank Huis in Amsterdam.  This is actually the second time I have been to the Anne Frank Huis because I have been there four years earlier.  But four years ago I didn’t fully grasp the meaning of everything that I was seeing.  Obviously I knew the story of Anne Frank from school but I took for granted everything the Jewish people and the people hiding them had to sacrifice and were willing to risk during World War II.  The second time visiting I had a better understanding of the significance of the Anne Frank Huis and what the Jews had to endure during the German occupation.  I read some excerpts from Anne Frank’s diary which barely gave me a taste of what life was like while in hiding.  I couldn’t imagine living in constant fear and being unable to go outside or even make a noise.  The Jews during World War II really went through a lot.  By visiting the Anne Frank Huis, I got a somewhat better understanding of their life but I will never be able to fully comprehend what they experienced.

Canal Boat Tour

May 23, 2011- Today I took a free boat tour around the canals in Amsterdam with Dan and Ian.  Apparently there is service at Boom Chicago located in Leidseplein where they offer free boat rides if you sign up a couple days in advance.  After discovering this opportunity, Dan signed a couple of us up and we went on the boat ride.  Taking a boat through the canals gives an entirely different view of Amsterdam.  

Tour Guide

You see things that you normally wouldn’t from the streets.  One of the things I noticed and thought was cool is how they do construction on buildings located right next to the water.  Huge cranes are set up across the canal and a large dumpster is put on a boat.  

Building under construction

It was really cool to see.  The boat driver was Spanish and just moved to Amsterdam a year ago but he gave a little more description of what we were seeing.  He said the canal houses all have hooks near the very top so that furniture can be lifted using ropes and inserted into the houses through open windows.  The tour lasted a total of 80 min and we drove all around the canal system in Amsterdam.  It was a really cool experience and a different way to see Amsterdam.  Donations were encouraged though.

Leaning buildings

Muiderslot Castle

May 12, 2011- Today we went to the Muiderslot Castle located a little east of Amsterdam.  Most of us rode our bikes to the castle which took about an hour.  The castle has a basic square design with four walls with a courtyard in the middle surrounded by a moat.  This castle was built in 1280 and served as a toll station for boats trying to pass.  While we were at the castle we got a tour.  This tour was very interesting and it went into a lot of detail about the history of the castle and the people who lived there.  An interesting fact that stuck out to me was how the kids were not allowed to speak at the dinner table and also had to stand the whole meal.  Also on the tour we got to see what knights normally wore at that time in history.  The castle was a lot of fun and the bike ride was very nice.  

London

May 8-10, 2011- We arrived at London Stansted Airport at midnight on May 8 and had no idea how or where we were going to sleep.  We weren’t quite sure if we were allowed to sleep in the airport but we decided to try our chances anyways.  Matt and I found a little corner cubby to sleep in which was located right next to the bathroom.  

Where I slept first and third night in London

I actually slept ok that night considering the ground was rock hard and super cold and it seemed like the whole airport had to go to the bathroom at the same time the whole night turning on the blow dryers which were just as loud as a freight train.  But after that rough start, we began our adventure in London.  We totally got ripped off while converting our Euros to British Pounds but what can you do?  I still couldn’t get over the British accent.  I don’t understand why I thought it was so cool because I have heard the accent many times before, maybe it was just the fact that I was in England and still could not believe it.  I don’t know.  We then jumped on a bus and headed for downtown London.

After the nearly two hour trip, we made it to London and began walking around.  We didn’t really know what to do in London because we did absolutely no research or preparation at all for this trip but we started walking to Buckingham Palace.  

Buckingham Palace

We took some pictures of the guards with the big furry hats and continued on.  As we walked, we suddenly heard some music.  After a while the noise got louder and we realized it was actually bagpipes playing.  We followed the music and arrived at the Guard’s Museum.  

Bagpipe Guards

A group of Royal guards were playing their bagpipes and drums playing the stereotypical bagpipe songs which were really cool.  We continued our walking tour of London and made our way to Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.  

Big Ben

Houses of Parliament

There we met up with Tyler and Dan at noon and started walking along the river.  We passed sights such as the London Eye, Globe Theatre, London Bridge, and Tower Bridge.  

London Eye

Shakespear's Globe Theater

London Bridge

Tower Bridge

We walked across Tower Bridge and saw the Tower of London which looked more like a small castle than it did a tower.  

Tower of London

After this we decided to take the tube back to our hostel which was located in Arsenal, the eastern part of London.  The hostel was actually located above an English pub which was pretty cool.  The point of heading to the hostel was to drop our bags and change our clothes because we weren’t going to go to the Sunday evening service at Westminster Abbey.  

Westminster Abbey

This was a really cool experience because it normally costs 15 Pounds to get in unless you are attending a service to worship, which is of course free.  The church itself was huge on the inside.  Many of you may remember seeing the inside of the church if you watched the Royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton which took place in the same place only a week earlier.  After the service we went downtown to explore more and got some old fashioned English fish and chips which was the end to our night.

The second day in London was quite relaxed.  We had seen all of the major sights with just a few more locations we wanted to visit.  One of these was the British Museum which was free!  The museum had a lot of information about world history and also had a really cool exhibit about clocks.  

British Museum

After the museum, Tyler, Matt, and I decided to head over to Wimbledon to see the tennis courts.  We unfortunately could not see the courts without paying for a tour.  

The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club

We were only allowed into the gift shop.  After that disappointment we walked around the whole building looks for an opportunity to get a good view of the courts but with no luck.  We began heading back to London and met up with Dan in Hyde Park.  We took a nice stroll through the park enjoying the weather and also climbing trees.  

Awesome climbing tree

Later that night we went to Abbey Road and did the classic Beatles album cover walk across the road with the four of us.  Afterwards we made our way to Baker Street to see where Sherlock Holmes “lives.”  

221B Baker Street

Seeing that Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character, he never really lived on Baker Street but we found 221B Baker Street anyways.  This was the last thing we did before heading back to London Stansted Airport.  Once at the airport I made my way back to my spot from a couple days before and attempted to sleep.  That was one of the worst nights of sleep in my life.  But overall the trip to London was awesome!  In my opinion, London is the coolest city I have ever been to and would suggest everyone to visit.

When in Rome

May 4-7, 2011-  May 4 marked the beginning of my 6 day trip to Rome and London with Matt Wever.  The plan was to fly to Barcelona, Spain where I would meet up with Matt since we had different flights and once we found each other, we would try to get some sleep in the airport.  The finding Matt part was easy as Matt found me trying to sleep on the ground, the sleeping part proved difficult.  We eventually found a table to rest our heads on and got a couple hours of sleep.

In the morning our flight left for Rome quite early which meant we arrived in Rome around 8am, a perfect time to begin our day.  We bought some Roma Passes which allowed us to take the subway and buses all over Rome and began heading downtown.  Our first stop was Saint Peter’s Square located in the country Vatican City.  

The line to get into Saint Peter’s Basilica was enormous and it turns out Pope John Paul II had his beatification earlier in the week.  The large number of people was probably due to this major event.  Despite this long line, we decided to jump in line which actually went very fast.  We were in Saint Peter’s Basilica in no time.  

I should point out that I have been to Rome before on a trip with my family four years ago.  This was the second time I went in the cathedral and it was just as impressive as the first.  The cathedral was huge and had statues everywhere.  But since I have already been there, my main desire was to climb to the top of the cathedral and look over the city since I did not do that in my previous trip.  After a very long climb to the top of the basilica, we finally arrived.  The view was absolutely breathtaking.  We could see the Vatican Gardens and also the whole city of Rome not to mention a great view of Saint Peter’s Square.  If anyone goes to Rome in the near future, I would strongly suggest paying the 5 Euros and climbing to the top!

Next on the agenda was a trip to find some pizza!  Since we were close to a huge tourist attraction, the prices were outrageous!  So we walked around and eventually found a good place where we bought some pizza.  Seeing that we were in Italy, it was only proper to eat pizza for every meal and it was delicious each time.  After we had our fill we went to the Vatican Museum.  I had forgotten how large this museum actually was.  We worked our way through massive halls filled with statues of people or halls where the whole walls and ceiling were filled with paintings.  

We eventually made it to the Sistine Chapel and saw The Last Judgment and The Creation of Adam, both masterpieces of Michelangelo.  These paintings were huge and covered the whole wall.  The whole chapel was amazing!  To finish off our day, we bought some gelatos and sat right outside the Colosseum enjoying the fact we were just chilling outside the Colosseum in a city that dates back thousands of years.  It was amazing!

The second day started off as a complete disaster!  It turns out the public transit system was shut down from about 9am to 3pm due to a strike.  Naturally we went to the cheapest hostel in Rome which was located way outside the middle of the city.  Despite the public transit of Rome was shut down, there was one bus line which was still working.  We eventually made it to the Colosseum at noon where we saw a demonstration pass by.  

We discovered a couple days later from a British couple we met that were on our same flight to London that Hilary Clinton was in Rome the same day.  Strange.  Anyways, we decided to give up our plans to visit another city nearby Rome for the day and instead decided we would see the Roman Forum and the inside of the Colosseum.  Those plans also failed as the line for tickets closed 5 people ahead of us due to the strike.  Apparently that strike completely put Rome on hold.  So after a quick change of plans, we started walking around the city.  The first place we arrived was the Circus Maximus.  

Matt and I decided to take a nice job around the dirt track just to say we ran on the Circus Maximus.  Next we found a nice gelato place and continued walking on the west side of the city.  We saw some sites attempted to find a statue, but instead got kinda lost.  We found ourselves walking alongside a road that had sideway with only two feet on the side of the road where we could walk without being in the street.  

But we ended up finding a really cool park that we otherwise would never have.  This park seemed to be in the middle of nowhere but was massive!  

The park was beautiful and we relaxed there for a while.  After relaxing, we started heading back into town.  Once there we walked around and saw the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, and huge government building where a celebration of the 150^th anniversary of the Italian Army was taking place.  

A bunch of military vehicles including a helicopter was there which was pretty awesome!  Also, on our way to the Spanish Steps we stumbled upon some Lamborghinis!  The 2012 Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4 was on display along with two other Lamborghinis.  This made my whole day complete, especially after the rough start.

Day 3 in Rome was quite relaxing as all we really had left to do was see the Roman Forum and the Colosseum.  However, the line to buy tickets moved at a snail’s pace while standing in the brutal sun.  The line took us about 3.5 hours to get through but we eventually made it.  The Roman Forum consisted of many destroyed buildings from ancient Rome.  

Just imagining what the buildings would have looked like in the past made this a really cool experience.  Also the inside of the Colosseum was really cool to see.  The massive size and the knowledge of what used to take place there made the trip to Rome complete.

Koninginnedag!!!

April 30, 2011- Today is April 30 which means it is Koninginnedag, or Queen’s Day!!!  Queen’s Day is the largest national holiday celebrated in the Netherlands.  It celebrates the queen’s birthday, although the current queen, Queen Beatrix, has a different birthday, the Dutch people still celebrate her birthday on that day.  April 30 was chosen because it was the Queen Juliana’s birthday, the previous queen of the Netherlands.   This day consists of people all over the Netherlands traveling to Amsterdam and essentially having a huge party with everyone wearing orange, the royal color.  Also, the canals were completely filled with boats, each blasting music and partying.  

I went downtown with a couple other friends to also celebrate.  We just walked around the city for most of the time.  The streets were filled with people all wearing orange.  

They were so filled with people that there was only one way to walk, with the current.  This current of people stretched from Dam Square, to Rembrandtplein, to Leidseplein, to Museumplein.  I actually got separated from the rest of the group at a concert in Rembrandtplein.  

I made the mistake of trying to walk through a massive group of people at the concert…oops.  Once I escaped I walked around the city seeing everything that was going on and looking at various shops.  I eventually made it to Vondel Park.  Although Queen’s Day consists of a ton of people drinking and partying having a good time, it also consists of street vendors having “garage sales.”  Vondel Park is the place where children are allowed to sell all of their unwanted items and also perform a certain talent.  

I eventually made it back to Museumplein where a huge concert was going on.  

I actually ran into some friends in the giant crowd and walked around the city with them also.  But after a long day of walking around the whole city, I was exhausted and started heading back at around 8pm.  By that time, the whole city was completely trashed!  Broken beer bottles and trash completely filled the streets and it was disgusting.  I feel sorry for the people who had to clean up afterwards.  Queen’s Day was a lot of fun even though I didn’t participate in any of the partying.  Just walking around the city seeing everything that goes on was a great time.  I would say Queen’s Day is the epitome of Dutch culture.