Rollin' Through Rome

We recently took a weekend trip to Rome.  On our way there, we pass an awesome volcanic crater:

A point if you can name this lake.

And Rome has something that the Netherlands has desperately been missing recently: the sun.  There are some nice consequences of having the sun - happiness and sunsets.

Sunset, looking over the Ponte Sant'Angelo (the bridge lined with angels) and the castle.

A street named after Saint Pius X!

The streets of Rome have lots of fountains, plazas, and statues.  There are SO MANY of them - in any other city, they would be a major site.  In Rome, they're just another statue, just another fountain.  

On the first night in Rome, we got really lost.  The reason was that my dear husband thought that the orientation of the Pantheon on the map was the same in real life.  It turned out this was not the case - and we walked about a kilometer before we realized that we had no idea where we were.  Luckily the streets were lined with different formations of Christmas lights, so we were able to tell when we were walking in circles.   

We were able to reach this monument - the Tomb of the Unknown Solider - and with that landmark, we were able to get our bearings once again!

During the day - the Tomb of the Unknown Solider.

The soldiers who always stand guard.

The flame that is perpetually burning.

Overlooking Rome.

Seagulls, overlooking Bram.

Rome is a lot like Paris, but a lot more colorful.

We visited Rome on Epiphany.  This is the view from the top of the Spanish Steps, overlooking Rome, with a giant Christmas Tree equipped with a laser beam.

One of the many fountains in Rome is the well known Trevi Fountain.  Hundreds of people come to people-watch, and participate in a bizarre tourist ritual.

This ritual involves tossing a coin with your right hand over your left shoulder.  Many euros are lost this way, as the person taking a video or picture misses the coin toss, causing the entire ritual to be repeated again and again, sending another coin into the fountain. 

Three girls toss coins into the fountain.

The Trevi fountain - impressive in its own right!

Bram and I toss our coins together!

 

Bram tosses a coin in.  You can actually see it go flying off to his right.  

 

More wandering the beautiful back streets of Rome.

A Sea of Green(houses)

The Netherlands is a huge exporter of a lot of produce, and, very importantly, flowers.  A lot of these flowers are grown in huge expanses of greenhouses.

Greenhouses line the roads.

Two hallmarks of the Netherlands: greenhouses and windmills.

We climbed to the top of a building to look over the sea of greenhouses.  At this location early in the mornings, thousands of flowers are bought and distributed for locations across the country and beyond.

Past the greenhouses, to the buildings beyond.

Enjoying the (cold!) windy view.

Masters of the Sea - Part II

The port of Rotterdam is one of the largest in the world.  Looking across the "canal" just a short distance from the sea.

Of course, the Netherlands is famous for their windmills.  These are a more modern variety.

The cranes at the port.

The sizes of ships coming and going from this port are incredible.  So are the amount of birds that they attract.

From mainland Europe, there is a sign for England!

And this is how you get there: by mammoth ferry.

I took an HDR of Rotterdam harbor.  It makes it look much more tropical than it really is.  No, neither the water or the sky are blue in real life.

The most impressive part of the Rotterdam harbor are the dikes.  These are some of the largest in the country - built to keep the ocean out and the country dry.

In the small museum, we can see how the dikes work.   Even though the land adjacent to the dike could be above sea level, further inland can be below sea level.  A series of windmills and pumps pump water from canal to canal and eventually out to sea.

This gate can swing closed.  It's a huge contraption that is a marvel of engineering.  The gate can close over this portion of the canal, which is about 300 m wide.

Here we are at the long end of the gate - note how long the arm is!

The solid "wall" is what goes into the canal to block the water if the levels get too high, like during a storm surge.  Each side of the canal have a a gate that swing to meet in the middle.  The closing is automatic, and is ran by a program in C++.

The entire arm is as long as the Eiffel Tower is high.  And it moves!  It takes about an hour to swing closed.  If the gate needs to close, the arm rotates.  The walls float until they get close to each other, at which time they fill with water and begin to sink into the canal.

Looking at the entire gate.

And now for a point:  Assuming a constant rate of speed (ignoring the complicated process that the gate actually goes through when it closes) and that the gate arm is as long as the Eiffel Tower is high, how fast does the wall portion of the gate move (in km/hour)?

Spirits in the Sky

If you can say one thing about Dutch people it is this: they really like their fireworks. For two weeks leading up to New Years, the number of fireworks going off in our neighborhood had been increasing exponentially.

And they weren't just confined to the night. We heard fireworks from anytime from 2 in the afternoon to 4 in the morning. One particularly close one startled my husband so much that he sent his pork chop flying across the table. Unexpected explosions can do that to you.

After a while, it was more like we lived in a war zone than a peaceful northern European town.

So we looked forward, with some excitement, and some trepidation, to New Year's Eve.

And we were not disappointed.

Let's just say this: where we grew up, in the desert, almost all the fireworks we saw would be illegal. This is simply because if these fireworks were set off in our home neighborhood, the entire state would catch fire and be reduced to ashes in a matter of moments. So you can imagine our surprise when at least 14 separate groups within our neighborhood sent up more fireworks than professional displays I've seen in the past, and larger fireworks than are legal/affordable/possible for personal use at home. It was a 360 degree show that we could watch from our own window, some going off directly above us, and some sparks landing on our house.

Here's a little movie montage of the experience. The fireworks persisted very heavily for an hour, and, while the frequency dropped after that, they persisted all night long.  But as you are watching, just keep reminding yourself - this is in our neighborhood, not some public display somewhere. 

Enjoy the movie, set to some appropriate music.

Christmas market

During the Christmas season, I joined the mass of people packing the sides of the canal for the annual Christmas market. 

People gather around a nice warm fire and drink from a pot of glühwein.

There were boats lining either side of the canal.  For some reason, people hung Christmas trees from the masts of the boats. 

It all seemed very pirate-y.

Hang the tree from the mast, y'arr!

The neat part about this Christmas market was a chance to go on the different boats.

Of course, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to explore Mars.  *cough cough*  They managed to have a concert inside the boat itself, cramming about 80 people into the small room.

Beautiful boats lining the canals.

Another mainstay of the Christmas market is the giant grill, where an array of meats is laid out.  You can smell it from probably a kilometer away.

Here we go a Carolling

My friends from church got together for an evening of caroling, cookies, and glühwein. 

Even the little ones pitch in and sing.

Merry Christmas to all!