Day 107: Bike Repair 101

Since my bike is my primary and very important mode of transportation around the city and to work, it's essential that it works properly. My bike is pretty old and used, and I've had some trouble with it since I bought it. It needed a new brake, a new power generator for the light and the tube for one of the tires had to be replaced twice(the second time for free thankfully). So, i've had to spend more than I would have liked repairing it. A few weeks ago I was complaining about all the money I had spent to a Dutch friend. She went on to tell me that the prices were a ripoff and a real Dutchman would repair it himself. So, I said if she knew so much about bike repair, that next time I had a problem I would give her a call, and she could show me how. Apparently they teach this stuff in some Dutch high schools. Yesterday, when I discovered a flat tire on my bike, and a 5cm wire sticking out of it, I knew who to phone. With her help, I set off to learn how to 'lekke band plakken'. First I had to buy my own repair kit, a 'Bandenreparatiedoos'. Inside is included '3 kunststof bandenlichters', 'tube solutie', 'bandenplakkers', 'ventielslangetje', 'schuurpapiertje', and a 'buitenbandplakker'. The first step is to take the tire off the frame with the 'kunsthof bandenlichters'. Here is the instructor demonstrating:
Then the 'binnenband' has to be removed from inside the 'buitenband'. Once the 'binnenband' is out it needs to be pumped up so you can find the leak. We discovered the leak with a very ingenious method. The instructor had a small container containing plastic beads, and a grate on the bottom. By moving this device over the tire we could locate the leak by noticing when the beads started to move. I really would like to know who spent the time inventing this thing. Once the leak was located, we used the 'schuurpapiertje' to clean the hole. Then the 'bandplakker' is applied to the hole, and held in place for 5 minutes. Here is the finished result:
The 'binnenband' is pumped up to see if the 'plakker' is holding, and then the leak is fixed. Next, deflate the 'binnenband' and stuff it back in the 'buitenband'. Finally, reinflate the tire:
Finished! I took the bike for a test drive, and everything seemed to be back to normal. I can now hopefully fix my own tire the next time I get a puncture. I'm feeling more Dutch already...

Day 97: Boat trip

Saturday night I went to a birthday party in Hilversum. It was lots of fun. But, it never ceases to amaze me how easily the Dutch can switch to and talk fluently in English. And often it's not a problem, they're happy to do it! Here is an almost completely bilingual country, that only has one official language. What Canadians could learn from this...
Sunday afternoon I went with my roomate and her boyfriend on a boat tour of the Rotterdam harbour. Something I've been meaning to do for awhile. We picked a great day. It was a little cool, but super sunny which made for a great view of the port.
Here are a couple pictures looking back at the city:

Here is the S.S. Rotterdam, the former flag ship of the Holland-America trans-atlantic line. Now it's a multicultural centre.

A cargo ship on the river:

Some of the many containers that are everywhere along the side of the river:
Pictures of parts of the port:

Nice trip!

Day 96: Wereld van Witte de With

This weekend there was a festival going on, on the Witte de Withstraat in central Rotterdam. The Witte de Withstraat according to my guide book is known as the cultural district of Rotterdam because of its many art galleries. The street is named after a famous Dutch naval officer from the 17th century. Apparently during the 1970s it was know for its many 'louche'(any dutch want to help me out with that word?) cafes and for its illegal gambling houses. But the street underwent a transformation in the 90s and changed its reputation.
When I went on Saturday afternoon, there wasn't much going on. It was kind of boring actually. Some weird art and some weird things going on in the street. Some kind of fashion show where all the models clothing was made up of leftover jeans. I took some pictures of the more interesting things. Here is a giant dog made of flowers. Apparently it was made by a group that goes around the country planting illegal flowers as some kind of protest. I guess there are strict rules where you can plant flowers in this country...
Here was a giant hand, that was demonstrating various hand gestures from around the world.
Anyways, we got bored, so we only spent an hour or so looking around before we went for a drink.

Day 95: To Communist China!

Today a Dutch friend and I embarked on an adventure to Communist China. We were able to do this thanks to the friendly people at the local Art Gallery, the Kunsthal. The Kunsthal had an exhibition on Chinese propaganda posters from the 1920s on to the present day. What did we learn? The Chinese are happy, really really happy. So happy in fact their smiles almost seem like grimaces sometimes. So happy I felt I just had to visit China to find out their secret. Is it a worker's paradise? Is it the opium? Too much plastic surgery? They're smiling 99% of the time. They smile when they work, when they go to the market, when they go to school, when they're telling their Taiwanese friends to join them and especially when they get to wave their Red Books around. When are they not smiling? Well, usually when their is some capitalistic traitor, or invader often portrayed as a sickly green westerner, with expensive watches and dollar signs on his clothes. This is not something to smile about... There was lots of colour in the posters, especially red. Initially, in the early years, the Chinese were dressed in plain, sometimes traditional clothes, but eventually, especially in the 90s western clothing was adopted. One poster showed Chinese and Taiwanese woman frolicking in their bikinis. If only Mao could have seen the future... he would have wept.
Here's Mao and Stalin having a grand old time: (also Canadian guy and dutch girl reflected in the glass... can you see us?)

After the Chinese propagandist posters, we checked out some of the other exhibitions. There was one with pictures of local football hooligans, some others with dutch factory workers from the early part of the century and some of Swiss children taken during the war. Also some interesting modern art: 30 sculptures modelled after the sculptor in different poses and another 30 or so concrete thingies which have the body space of 30 different people from Malmo, Sweden inside them.

The staircase inside the Kunsthal(which was designed by the famous dutch architect Rem Koolhaas):Not a bad day for a bad day weatherwise. That makes two museum/art gallery from Rotterdam down... how many more to go?

Day 92: Den Haag

On Tuesday I decided to visit The Hague(Den Haag, 's Gravenhage) in the afternoon, and then attend the Weekly CS meeting that takes place in Den Haag. I had for my tour guide a friend I had met through CS. It was an interesting tour, I was able to see all the main sites. However, I am now able to say, I'm very glad I don't live in that city. In my opinion it's not very nice at all. At least compared to the other major Dutch cities I've been to: Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and Utrecht. I'm not quite sure what it was about the city. Maybe it was the architecture, maybe it was something else, but it just didn't have a very nice feeling to it. It doesn't help that one of the main stations, Holland Spoor (HS), and the one I arrived at, seems to be in the middle of the ghetto area of the city.
Here's a picture of the city centre. Apparently all these tall buildings are government buildings:
The Peace Palace built just before the First World War. I think it's now home to some International Court. The Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was around the corner.

In the Binnenhof where the First and Second Chamber of the Dutch parliament are located. Here's a tv news crew maybe?
The outside of the Binnenhof.

The Prime Minister's office, supposedly...

As we left the Parliament, we came across a motorcade. We didn't recognize anyone, but then neither of us are really familiar with Dutch politicians...
The heavily fortified American embassy, with it's own elevated dutch police station:
After our tour we went to a bar called The Pas for the CS meeting. It was a nice place with a nice atmosphere. Really slow service though... Hard decision too on what to have to drink, they had around 160 beers to choose from.

Macaroni and Cheese...

I found it!

Too bad it tasted horrible! Het was niet lekker. Definitely not KD...

Day 89: Club Cruise

Saturday I got invited by a girl who I met through Couchsurfing to go with her and her friends on the Rotterdam 'Club Cruise'. Basically, it was one large pub crawl through 15 clubs in Rotterdam. You pay 15 euros and you get access to all the clubs. It was a really fun night. One Canadian and three Dutch people, joined at times by a Belgian, an Icelander and other dutch people on a trip to five clubs spread all over Rotterdam from 2300 until 6:30... We made it to de Unie, Rotown, de Zimmerman, Exit and the Bootlegger. Our choices at first weren't that great we missed bands at both de Unie and Rotown by a few minutes. But the night and music got better as the night wore on. The music at both de Zimmerman and Exit was really good. A nice beat and good songs. It was a fun night, I made some new friends, tried some new things and now I know some of the good clubs in Rotterdam. I'll definitely be visiting Exit again sometime. Maybe in a few weeks on my birthday...

Day 86: Museum Boijmans van Beuningen

Tuesday night I was at the weekly Rotterdam CS meeting. It was a large meeting, even for Rotterdam standards. There must have been between 40-50 people show up for the meeting. I hardly managed to talk to all of them, but I did manage to meet the right ones to give me an activity for the next day. So, the next morning I set out with two Austrian CS'ers to see the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam. It actually happens to be the first museum I've seen in Rotterdam. I don't know how I've managed to be here almost three months and not visit any of the museums, but I guess I have. Anyways, the museum is Rotterdam's major art museum. Named after two philanthropists who helped to bring together most of the collection, it inculdes many major Dutch and European works from the middle ages to the present day. There was works by Reubens, van Gogh and Rembrandt. The museum is quite nice and probably takes about 3 hours to see properly.
This is probably one of my favourites. It's called: Juno receiving the eyes of Argus from Mercury. I'm not sure who it's by, but it is quite gruesome and lovely I think.
This next one by Ludolph de Jongh is actually a view of Rotterdam from about 1660. The church you can see in the back ground is still there today. (at least a version of it is)
This next one is a portrait of Armand Roulin by Vincent van Gogh.

Day 83: Naar Amsterdam!

On Sunday I went to Amsterdam again to see a museum exhibition at the Nieuwe Kerk. it was called 'Black is Beautiful' and was about how dutch artists have portrayed black people over the centuries. I read about the exhibition in this Financial Post article:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/23ba792e-6a59-11dd-83e8-0000779fd18c.html?nclick_check=1
It was an interesting exhibition. I learned some interesting things such as that many families in the 17th century would have a black page drawn into their family portrait, even though they probably did not even have a page. It was only a status symbol. As well there was a painting by a dutch artist that showed Moses with his Ethiopian wife. During the middle ages, this part had been edited out of the bible, that Moses had two wives, one of whom was black. But, the artist was a biblical scholar and was inspired by the passage describing Moses' black wife and decided to do a painting of them.
I also went to this interesting bar, with specialty liqeuers. Not really my thing, but I tried two flavours, strawberry and an herbal one with a secret freemason recipe. The second one was a bit tasy. The bar was very old and had a nice atmosphere.

Some more pictures from Kinderdijk

Day 82: Naar Kinderdijk!

This weekend the right conditions finally came together for me to go to Kinderdijk. The weather was good and my friend Karim had a bike. Kinderdijk is a major tourist attraction about 15km southwest of Rotterdam. Kinderdijk is a small village known for it many windmills. The system of 19 mills built around 1740 is used to drain the polder. It is the largest concentration of old mills in the Netherlands.

The three of us set off at about noon and headed east along the Maas river.

After leaving Rotterdam we went through Capelle aan den IJssel, where we crossed a bridge over the IJssel into Krimpen aan den IJssel. After Krimpen there is a nice area of farms and nature. We even found some friendly horses. Though I think they were really hoping we had some food.

After the farming area we came to Krimpen aan de Lek. To cross this river we had to take a ferry.

On the other side of the river is the village of Kinderdijk.

And immediately on the other side of the village you encounter the mills. It really is quite a sight.

After we left Kinderdijk, we took the Waterbus back. The Waterbus is a ferry for people on foot or bikers, and goes up and down the river between Dordrecht and Rotterdam with several stops in between.
The inside:
Overall, it was a very nice trip. The weather was finally beautiful after a real miserable week. it was nice to enjoy a nice weekend before autumn arrives. Which I think will be very soon. At Kinderdijk we were able to go inside a mill, which was impressive. A lot of the mills are actually inhabited by people. I don't think the old mills are actually still used for draining the polder. Instead there are more modern ones. The only problem was that it was quite busy. There were a lot of tourists there. Not to mention wasps which insisted on interrrupting our lunch.