Avontuur

It was great to have a flying visit from our rowing friend Rebecca – she’s the first visitor I’ve had in this apartment and the first I’ve had at all since Ted’s parents visited over Christmas of 2008, so that was exciting. She was at a conference in Copenhagen and just came down here for a couple of days at the end. I was really excited for this visit, because I knew there were so many things she’d love here, especially all the bikes and the infrastructure that makes it so easy to live here without a car. I regret that the two days she was able to come were Sunday and Monday – I’d have loved to take her to the Woensel Markt (Saturday) or knitting group (Wednesday), because she’d have enjoyed those. But we did get to go rowing in a coxed quad on Sunday afternoon!

Her train came in at 9:20 AM, so we had plenty of time to hang out before rowing – we walked around town, went to the art museum cafe for tea aand tarts because the bagel place didn’t open until noon (they’re not entirely clear on the concept of bagels as breakfast food here). Then we went back for bagels, then over to the Philips Electric Light in Art museum where they were having an exhibit by a Chinese artist, Ji Liu. He had three pieces on display: a bed lit from above by hundreds of red lasers that looked like silk threads when shown off by puffs of smoke; a ‘cage’ made of green lasers that entirely made us feel like characters from The Matrix, walking through something that seemed so solid; and a blue-lit plexiglass model with holes in its many layers that looked like an encased skeleton from a few feet away.

After that we vegetated for an hour or so, then went rowing, so now Rebecca’s gotten to try “rowing in a Dutch ditch”, as our cox said. (Much of it is a very pretty ditch.) We got rained on the entire time, but since she grew up and learned to row in Seattle I think it made her feel at home. Fortunately it wasn’t too cold out, though we were chilled enough to appreciate hot showers by the time we got back to the apartment. Once showered and changed we went out for Italian food – I guess I could have cooked for her, but I was enjoying having someone to eat out and share wine with.

On Monday morning after breakfast, I worked from home while she took my bike and rode to Helmond, about 36 km. (No doubt my bike was shocked – it’s never gone more than 10 km or so at a time.) This time she only got a bit of drizzle, just enough to feel like echte Nederlands weer (real Dutch weather) And I got to take advantage of being home, and of the cool weather, by starting a pot of chili. When she got back, I fed her stroopwafels, showed her our photos from South Africa, and then it was time to go to the train station. It was too short a visit and I think she spent nearly as much time on the train as here, but it was really good to get to hang out with an old friend and talk rowing, knitting, ants (her field of study), Arizona, travel, and mutual friends. I’m a bit hoarse now

Gisteren heb ik gegaan met seven andere Amerikaners op de Rijn…. no, sorry to my Dutcreaders, but though I may have started my language lessons again but I don’t think Im quite up to blogging in Dutch any time soon!

Yesterday I went with several other Americans for a cruise on the Rhine. These are guys who are here for a couple of months for training or two build a machine that will then be installed back home at a customer site. One is a trainer who’s been coming here for extended periods for years, and he and his Dutch friend Jerry (Geri?) like to arrange this excursion a couple of times per summer. We met early in the morning in Eindhoven and drove to Koblenz, where we parked by the river nad then walked across town to the train station. We got our train tickets (with a group discount); the guys bought beer and I got soft pretzels. (Paula’s travel rule #137: When in Germany, buy soft pretzels.)

We took the train to Bingen on the Rhine, where I tried unsuccessfully to figure out why that town name had such a familiar ring. (Google helped later: I’m fairly sure that it was due to this old poem.) Normally they get on the boat at Rudesheim, but there was some work being done on the tracks. When we got off at Bingen, we had a bit of a hike from the station to the boat dock, but then there was still some time to kill, so we repaired to a nearby biergarten for beer and wine (the guys had already gone through the beer they’d bought, on the train ride). This all took a lot longer to do than to tell; we caught the boat around two, having left EIndhoven around 7:30AM.

The train ride was scenic, but I didn’t bother taking any pictures through the dirty windows. From the boat we had a much better view, castle after castle as the Rhine rolled under us. It’s a World Heritage site: Koblenz is 2000 years old, first built by the Romans, while Bingen is even older. The castles we saw date back as far as the 1200s. Some still look lived in, or have been turned into hotels. You can see how things worked, just looking at them from the river: there will be a town lining the bank, with a castle looming high above, with fortified walls, arrow slits and crenellated look-out towers. The lords of the castle collects tolls from all commerce passing down the river – I’d guess the message was something like “pay our toll and we’ll let you through – and we’ll make sure no one else attacks you along this part.” The towns are not all that far apart; while riding on the train, we saw very distinct towns, separated by fields, close enough that you could walk from one to another in an hour or two. Along the river, I’m sure it was easier to go by boat.

I elected to come back that night, because I’d had a busy week and expect to have another, and there’s a lot I need to do. Most of the rest of the group stayed in Koblenz and were going to go walk around the old town of Kochem, on the Moselle River, this morning. I’ll definitely do this again when Ted is here; maybe we’ll stay over that time.

Click images to make them bigger.

Oh, hell

Well, I was hoping it wouldn’t end this way. Work tomorrow may not be much fun.

But someone told me Friday, “We’re good at switching very fast to ‘Oh well, at least we go second!’ ” I hope so.

I know everyone does it, but I have to say I feel a little silly gasping or cheering out loud, when I’m sitting here alone in the room. But I can’t help it – scoreless definitely doesn’t mean boring!

Wow – another gasp – that goal just barely missed for Spain.

They took a few minutes out, so nothing much happening – here they go again.

Oh no – red card! So they’re down a player.

Sorry about all the notifications, by the way – I forgot about those. WIll try to remember to turn them off for this and all following World Cup posts.

Less than 10 minutes to go and still no score – there almost was a Dutch goal a second ago, but there was a flag on the play.

I forgot to mention earlier that a lot of people in the centrum are wearing shirts that were obviously bought in case Germany beat Spain. I saw one that said “If you h*te f*cking Germany, clap your hands” and another that said “I support two teams: Holland and anyone playing Germany”. I was actually kind of glad Spain won because I was a little worried about things getting ugly, though someone told me that really only happens for local teams, not national ones. Makes sense – there is no one here rooting against Holland right now – at least, if there is they’re staying home and not going out in public. Smart move.

By the way, the live commentary says this is only the third scoreless World Cup in history. Into overtime!! (At least, I think that’s what they mean: “We’re heading to extra time just as in 2006 after the second scoreless final in World Cup history following Brazil-Italy in 1994. “

Wow, 76 minutes in and still no score. I believe that what happens is that if it’s still scoreless (or tied) at 90 minutes (plus a couple more they add to compensate for any delays) they play two more 15-minute periods, and if it’s still tied they go to sudden death.

It doesn’t take much football expertise to see that the Spanish players are astonishingly agile – they keep doing this sort of pirouette around and over the ball.

Uh-oh, I think a Dutch player just got pulled out. They don’t seem to be short a player so I think it was just a substitution.

I don’t really understand offsides. It’s been explained to me, I just keep forgetting. So don’t bother – I should just go look it up, except I don’t know the Dutch word for it anyway so I wouldn’t know when it happened.

Things have definitely heated up after the slow start – I’ll actually be surprised if they do get to 90 minutes without a score.

By the way, there is commentary on the game from people who actually understand it here. I’m finding it helpful, since it’s actually in English and the broadcast I’m watching is Dutch.

So close!

And, two minutes later: Damn. I really thought that one was going in. (So did the player.)

Yikes, *another* yellow card. (If a player gets two, he’s pulled from the game and his team is down one person.)

Evidence suggests that World Cup finals commercials are the Europe equivalent of Super Bowl commercials – there was just an amazing Coke commericals featuring CGI-animated insects stealing a sleeping picnicker’s Coke. Also, one quick one with a deodorant can playing football that’s very reminiscent of the Bud Bowl. Albert Heijn’s singing Muppets (giant Beesies, see previous photo) could use an advertising consultant, however.

Also, you’d think the Dutch announcers of hte game could afford better haircuts!

40 minutes in and things are still kind of quiet – not only in my opinion, and not only is the score still 0-0, but the crowd has only made noise a few times and those were mostly for injuries, not scores or near-scores.

Meanwhile I went into the kitchen and carbonated some water (we got one of these things because Ted goes through a lot of sparkling water when he’s here) before realizing that was entirely the wrong beverage. Why should I be the only person in the city not drinking beer? Seriously – I was at the supermarket Friday night and they were loading up extra quantities of beer, knowing they’d be selling a lot more than usual this weekend! Lucky for me, I have much better beer on hand than the piss they’re selling at the beer tents – McChouffe Bruin. It’s Belbian, from the Brasserie d’Achouffe – I’m not sure if the Mc is suposed to imply it’s a Scottish style ale. If so, I think the farthest I’d go is to say it tastes more like Scottish ale than the average Belgian beer. But whatever it is, it’s good – plenty of chocolate malt in it.

No doubt there are finer points of the game I should be writing about, rather than what I’m drinking. Or going by crowd noise maybe not – oh, and just as I wrote that things got exciting, with some close-in volleying that nearly was a goal. Good stuff. (It turns out you don’t actually need to understand football to enjoy the exciting bits – or to know when they are.)