Avontuur

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.

Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve written anything. Oregon was good; I’d forgotten how beautiful the drive along I-5 north of Ted’s hometown is. It reminds me of the scenery in Tasmania. we got to spend time with the in-laws and even with both of Ted’s grandparents. We also got to row on Dexter Lake, courtesy of the OAR rowing club, and decided we definitely want a house there. However, it might not be the house we were originally thinking of. It’s complicated and nothing is certain but we’ve put an offer on a different (nicer!) house and hope to hear back in a day or two.

It’s always incredibly relaxing to be back home, where ‘home’ is defined as any part of the US. I know how things work there, and can assume most people I talk to speak English at a level that doesn’t require me to slow down or avoid idioms. Also, I can get my favorite pretzels Because we were in the Pacific Northwest, we were able to drink lots of great beer, and because Oregon is emerging as a great wine region (and Ted’s parents are into wine) we got to drink lots of good wine too.

I’m not too thrilled with the combination of being back at work and being without Ted, but at least he’ll be here in two weeks. And I’ve signed up to go to Knit Nation in London at the end of July so there’s that to look forward to.

In other news, it turns out that not one but two people I went to school with are published authors. June Portnoy, with whom I was in junior high, high school, and youth groups, has just published her first book, The Marriage Epidemic about a woman who is determined to get married because everyone else is doing it. Donna Gephardt, a friend from grade school, has two books out, How to Survive Middle School and As If Being 12 3/4 isn’t Bad Enough, My Mother is Running for President!. They’re for middle grade readers and sound very funny; from the excerpts on her website the tone is similar to Judy Blume’s Tales of a Fourth-Grade Nothing or Sarah Cross’s Dull Boy.

Note: In both cases those are married names. I was going to list the names I knew them by, but you know what, in the interests of privacy (and in case either one uses her birth name as an identifier) I won’t put them here. If you’re my mom or someone else who would know them better by those names, just ask me. (Come to think of it, if you’re my mom in at least one case you’ll recognize the married name too, since her ex grew up around the corner from us.)

On our last day, we finally got to see something we’d been hoping for: adult male lions We’d seen a couple of adolescents, but they didn’t have manes yet. This pride had two females and a bunch of cubs, with two males that spent time with both them and another nearby pride. We also spotted a black rhino, which is much rarer than the white rhinos we’d been seeing. (They’re nearly the same color – one ranger told us that the “white” in white rhinos is a corruption of “wide” – they were originally called “weidt mond” or “wide mouth” rhinos (I have no idea how the Afrikaans is spelled).

The other thing we saw a lot in Madikwe was the wild dog pack; there are two there, two of the biggest in South Africa.

Note: All photos copyright 2010 by Ted and Paula. All of the photos in this slideshow have been posted as taken, with no photo-editing except to resize them appropriately for this page.

We enjoyed talking to our pilot over dinner, but we didn’t actually get to fly with him the next day – there were some low clouds in the area and his plane wasn’t IFR-equipped. Too bad, because we’d been looking forward to flying in a small plane from the local airstrip. We did get to see his plane, though, and so did the local animals. Instead, we were driven to the Kruger Mpumalanga airport, about 3 hours away. From there we flew to Johannesberg, then transferred to a Cessna Caravan to fly out to Madikwe. We arrived just as another storm was beginning – thunderstorms turn back on our game drives that evening and the next afternoon, so I’ve combined the photos from February 14 and 15. The indoor photos are of the main lodge and of our bathrooms – the baths in our rooms at all three of our lodges were nicer than in any house I’ve lived in!

Note: All photos copyright 2010 by Ted and Paula. All of the photos in this slideshow have been posted as taken, with no photo-editing except to resize them appropriately for this page.

February 12 was probably our best day of leopard sightings. The weather started getting very hot, and on Feb. 13 I skipped the afternoon drive – too hot for me! (They later told us it got up to 43C – that’s nearly 110 F.) But a thunderstorm came in that night and broke the heat, and we had cool weather and rain for the rest of our trip. The night of Feb 13, dinner was in the boma (a round enclosure open to the sky) so we got to talk more to the other guests who had arrived, and to the pilot who’d come in to fly us out the next day.

Feb 12:

Feb 13:

I’ll post more entries tomorrow with the photos from our time in Madikwe Game reserve. It takes a long time to sort through all of these!

Note: All photos copyright 2010 by Ted and Paula. All of the photos in this slideshow have been posted as taken, with no photo-editing except to resize them appropriately for this page.

Our first full day. Those 5AM wakeup calls were rough, since dinner didn’t finish until 9:30 or so – we definitely needed those afternoon naps. There were a couple others along on the morning drive on February 11, but after that we had Matt and Doc to ourselves for a few days.

Feb 11:

Note: All photos copyright 2010 by Ted and Paula. All of the photos in this slideshow have been posted as taken, with no photo-editing except to resize them appropriately for this page.

We weren’t actually at Kruger, but in the adjoining Sabi Sands Game Reserve. The private lodges have concessions in the reserve, and they have a lo more freedom to go off-road and get closer to the animals than in the National Park. (Check out the Feb 13 entry to see how close; there’s a picture of Doc, the tracker in front of our Land Rover, with an elephant behind him.)

When we arrived at Simbambili, we were introduced to our ‘butler’, Reinas, and our ranger and tracker, Matt and Doctor. We had lunch, time to rest, then went on the evening game drive – each day after that we were woken up at 5AM for the morning drive, had breakfast, then hung out in our room, resting, using our private (!) plunge pool or reading until lunch at 2 and the evening game drive at 4. Dinner was at about 8, and the food was amazing.

Feb 10:

Note: All photos copyright 2010 by Ted and Paula. All of the photos in this slideshow have been posted as taken, with no photo-editing except to resize them appropriately for this page.

We flew into Johannesberg, stayed there a night, and then spent a couple of days driving along the Panorama Route to Kruger National Park. These photos are from along the drive, and Oliver’s Lodge where we stayed one night.

I was sort of hoping to choose 20 photos or so and just have one slideshow, but there’s no good way to winnow 2700+ photos down that far – there are too many I can’t bear to cut. Instead, I’ll have to do a slideshow for each day. I’llput them in separate entries, so they upload faster.

Note: All photos copyright 2010 by Ted and Paula. All of the photos in this slideshow have been posted as taken, with no photo-editing except to resize them appropriately for this page.

This was one of our best trips ever. Hopefully I’ll get some photos posted sometime this weekend; by actual count (iPhoto’s, not mine) we took something like 2700 photos. But really, what else can you do when there’s a giant male lion swatting down the cubs trying to climb his tail, about 20′ away from you? Or an elephant refusing to get out of the road you’re trying to drive on? Though actually the rarest animals we saw were some of the smaller ones, the African wild cat, caracal and jackal.

This was one of our more expensive trips, but it was pretty obvious why. Someone met us at the airport and took us to a nearby hotel for the first night. In the morning a guide picked us up and then spent a day and a half driving us along the Panorama Route – beautiful country. We spent four nights at Simbambili Game Lodge in Sabi Sands Game Reserve, where we had our own plunge pool, our own butler, and for some of those days our own ranger and tracker – we were the only ones there for a couple of days. One night they served us dinner (amazing food) on our private back deck. Then a pilot came out to fly us off to our next stop, but there were some storms in the area so we had a transfer by road instead to Kruger Mpumalonga Airport, thence a flight to Johannesberg, then a smaller flight (Cessna Caravan) to Madikwe Game Reserve.

At Madikwe we stayed at Impodimo Game Lodge. It was interesting comparing the two. Simbambili focused on privacy; we were mostly seated by ourselves and we even had the game drives to ourselves several times, though that was mostly just because they happened not to be full then. We had our own pool and an outdoor day bed for napping in the afternoons between game drives. Impodimo was nearly as luxurious and we certainly had our privacy – we had an outdoor shower as well as the indoor one – but at meals we sat with the other guests, there were a number of families with children (spring break week in England and some of Europe) and the most comfortable seating was in the main lodge instead of in our private area.

Both places at similar schedules, with game drives very early in the morning and late in the afternoon early evening, so you spent the day making up on sleep. One more difference: at Simbambili we had vervet monkeys peering in our windows, while at Impodimo elephants came and drank out of the pool – and startled the daylights out of a Swedish family who were sunbathing there at the time! We had expert rangers driving us at both places, and got to see all of the ‘big 5′ (lions, leopards, elephants, rhino, buffalo) as well as giraffes, zebra, kudu, impala, nyala, bushbok, waterbok, jackal, caracal, wild cats, wild dogs, hyenas, hippos, hornbills, eagles, hawks, buzzards, bustards, vultures, owls, lizards, tortoise, mongoose, ibis, giant spiders, a puff adder, and a dung beetle (rolling a ball of dung, as advertised). I’m probably forgetting something. It’s amazing what you can do and see in a Land Rover!

I think it’s time for the big moving / comparisons post. This is still not definitive, though – I’m pretty sure there will be more stuff. These are in no particular order.

Things I am looking forward to in the Netherlands:

cleaner air: People keep telling me that Eindhoven has some of the worst air in Europe. But at least you can see through it, which is not always true in Taiwan.
colder air:I just don’t like hot weather much. It’s chilly now, but by Sunday, the high temperature here is predicted to match Eindhoven’s average high for July.
language: – This is a big one, with lots of facets: first of all, a lot more people speak English, and the ones who do speak it better than here. (Chinese and English are so thoroughly different that each is very hard for native speakers of the other – even people who are comparactively fluent here have heavy accents, and even with my small knowledge of Chinese I can often hear the difference between a native speaker and an English speaker who has learned Chinese.) Second, Dutch is much easier for me – I can pretty much handle menus, for instance, which means I can eat at any restaurant rather than just ones with pictures or English menus. Third, I’ll have Dutch lessons and the teachers and facilities were much better than the ones here.
walking around more at work: I don’t like sitting still all day, as I mostly do here. There, it’s a much larger campus and I’ll have meetings all over.
getting out on the water: rowing, not just erg. Yay!
better social life: because of the rowing club and the local Stitch’n'Bitch group.
bread that isn’t sweet: They don’t really “get” bread here. Dutch bread is great. Even better, restaurants often serve it with herb butter. Pastries are also excellent. (Another two-way street – people from here complain about the Dutch serving bread at every meal, and aren’t thrilled with the amount or quality of rice there.)
vacation time: Another big one. US: 2-3 weeks vacation plus about 8 national holidays and three days floating holiday. Taiwan, 112 hours (= 14 days) vacation time, 7 holidays, and 8 floating holidays. (This is my fourth year with this company – you get one extra day per year.) Netherlands: forty-one days vacation time – actually, 28 days (27 plus one for being over forty) and thirteen of what they call ADV days, which if I understand them right are compensation for working 40 instead of 32 hours per week.
drinkable tap water: something we didn’t have in Arizona either, so I really appreciated it. In AZ it was safe but tasted awful; in Taiwan it tastes OK but we were told it’s bad for you, though no one was clear on details.
more choices in the cafeteria: Here there are two plates, and can be some very weird combinations. I keep PB & J on hand. There it’s a much bigger site, so bigger cafeteria with a lot more choices.
cheap and good wine: Wine is expensive here, due to taxes.

Things I will miss from Taiwan:
customer service: Not a Dutch core competency, very much a Taiwanese one.
quick restaurant meals: partly related to the above (servers work hard not to catch your eye!) but more because lots of people eat out or do take out all the time here, while for the Dutch eating out is an occasion and they don’t want to be rushed. (It’s much faster in Amsterdam than in the south where I’ll be – maybe the tourist influence? But possibly also because there is a culture difference between the north and south Netherlands.)
Taipei taxis: cheap, safe (well, other than the crazy driving) and everywhere.
kindness: This is not at all meant as a slur on Dutch people, who were very nice to us. I’d be proud if a foreigner in the US was welcomed as we were. But the Taiwanese take kindness to a new level – it’s practically a national sport.
cheaper electronics: Electronics, food, and clothing are much more expensive in the Netherlands. Clothes don’t bother me because at least I can find more to fit. I can deal with paying more for food when someone else covers the housing. But electronics are very expensive!
Mexican food: Surprisingly there is some decent Mexican food in Taipei. Not in Eindhoven!
milky pearl tea: But I know it’s getting more popular in the US, so maybe the Netherlands has it as well. The good coffee there is famous and would more than make up for it, but I can’t drink real coffee, not more than a small cup very occasionally.
Costco, Carrefour, and A.Mart: I’ll miss being able to get American brands and US-style cuts of meat at Costco. Carrefour and A.Mart are hypermarkets only a short walk from our apartment.
shopping on Sundays: And until nine or ten at night. In Eindhoven, grocery stores are open until 8 or 9, but otherwise shops close at 6 except for one night a week, and they are closed on Sunday except for the first weekend of the month.
my American fridge, washer and dryer: The one is big and the other two get clothing clean and dry, quickly and without ruining it. None of those could be said of the appliances we had in the Netherlands.
our apartment guard: who translates Chinese for us (though the current one has more limited English) and can accept packages. In the Netherlands, getting a package meant waiting for the mail carrier to try delivering it twice (when we were at home) and then picking it up on Saturday at the post office.

A few other things I won’t miss from Taiwan::
guys making horking noises in the men’s room No, I have no idea why, but it’s all the time can hear them all too clearly from the women’s toilet and the pantry at work.
our doorbell: which is very loud and plays inane versions of American songs like Yankee Doodle and Merrily We Roll Along.
an uninsulated apartment: which means not only is it cold in winter, but we can hear next door’s annoying doorbell too – and their screaming kid, not to mention every time the people upstairs run the shower or flush.
having to be home for the cleaning people: I find it embarassing to have someone else cleaning my home while I sit on my butt (working on the computer, knitting or beading usually). The only reason we keep them is that we’d hate doing the cleaning ourselves even more. (They do really do a great job, except that they keep finding new and unusual places to put things every time.)