Posted by Arthur in Disney, Life in Holland
After our visit to Space Expo today we also stopped by the European Sand Sculptures Festival on the boulevard in Noordwijk to see the sand sculptures. This year’s theme is In Celebration of Disney and there were eight sand sculptures based on Disney animated feature films. Some were better than others. WALL-E, Sleeping Beauty and Narnia were by far the nicest, and they were also awarded with 1st, 2nd and 3rd place respectively. Here are some pictures:
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August 2nd 2008 | 11:46 pm CET |
Posted by Arthur in Life in Holland, Museums, Science & technology, Space
Today we went to Noordwijk and visited the Space Expo exhibition and visitor center of the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC). The European Space Agency has sites in several European countries. ESTEC is the largest site and the technical heart of ESA. More than 2,000 rocket scientists work here on dozens of space projects. Here’s a view of ESTEC in Noordwijk, with the dunes and North Sea in the background. You can see that the scientists have their own golf course and soccer field. The building at the bottom, to the right of the soccer field, is Space Expo:
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August 2nd 2008 | 11:19 pm CET |
Posted by Arthur in Leiden, Museums
Today we visited the new Corpus Museum in Oegstgeest, which opened on 14 March 2008. The museum is housed in an impressive 7-storey building with a statue of a large man sitting on it. Corpus features a 1-hour multimedia tour through a giant body, traveling from the stomach, through the intestines, into the heart, lungs, mouth, eyes and eventually the brain.
Photo by Rob Van Hilten
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July 19th 2008 | 11:56 pm CET |
Posted by Arthur in Life in Holland, Travel
Today we saw the magnificent Cunard cruise ship the Queen Elisabeth 2 in Rotterdam. We spotted the large red word “Cunard” by chance between a few buildings as we drove home from our dentist appointment, so we had to go check it out. We crossed the Erasmusbrug and drove passed the Cruise Terminal where all the fancy people with their pipes and hats were getting ashore and onto busses. Unfortunately we didn’t have our camera with us, but here are some great pictures from today as found on Flickr by aureliozen and vanda2006:
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July 18th 2008 | 7:52 pm CET |
Posted by Amy in The Big Move
What’s wrong with Kingsport? Well, it’s not Ocala. It’s also not Durango. It’s not Lakeland, Cincinnati, Nederland, or Rockford. It’s not even Asheville or Greenville. It’s not any of the dozens of places we thought we might like to live, but it was the number one pick when we went through the survey on FindMySpot.com a few months ago. We’ve done the survey a few more times since then, and Kingsport comes up in our top 10 every time.
On FindYourSpot.com you can pick your lifestyle preferences in categories like weather (we like seasons, but keep it mild, please); culture (museums & music – yes, zoos and operas – no); recreation; region (we have no particular preference); and housing cost. Affordable housing is a priority for us as we would like to buy a house.
Some other towns that come up under our preferences are Sheboygan, Wisconsin (too cold in the winter); Salem, Oregon (too far from home); and Tulsa, Oklahoma (too tornadoey).
So what’s wrong with Kingsport?
July 18th 2008 | 6:34 pm CET |
Posted by Arthur in Birds, Life in Holland, Nature
Last Wednesday we went to Texel for the second time (last time was in April last year). We took the train from Leiden to Den Helder and then the 9:30 Teso ferry to Het Horntje on Texel. It was a beautiful day for bicycling around Texel: 30oC and sunny.
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July 4th 2008 | 1:29 pm CET |
Posted by Amy in Personal, Websites & Tools
Yesterday we took the cats out for some fresh air. We bought harnesses and leashes for them. They will have to wear the harness during our upcoming flight so we thought to try and get them used to wearing them.
Alex was off and running!
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June 28th 2008 | 11:28 am CET |
Posted by Arthur in Leiden, Personal
Today we have finally set a date for our big move to America. We bought our plane tickets today and will fly from Amsterdam to Chicago with our two cats Arby and Alex on Sunday 21 September. This means we have only 85 days left from today to arrange a lot of stuff, get rid of a lot of stuff, and move all the stuff that’s left. We’re going to have a busy three months!
MySpace Countdown Clocks
June 27th 2008 | 11:03 pm CET |
Posted by Arthur in Travel
One year ago, on 23 June 2007, we were in Paris and visited the beautiful Musée d’Orsay. The museum holds French art dating from 1948 to 1915, including paintings, sculptures, furniture and photography. Here’s a view of the museum from a bridge over the Seine:
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June 23rd 2008 | 9:08 pm CET |
Posted by Arthur in Travel
Three years ago today, on 19 June 2005, we had a great day in Italy on our city trip to Napels. In the morning we took a bus from Napels to the foot of Vesuvius and in the afternoon we visited the ruined and partially buried Roman city of Pompeii nearby. Here are few photos of our visit to Europe’s most famous volcano.
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June 19th 2008 | 8:36 pm CET |
