The Netherlands... a fun week

19-25 June 2008

- - - second page - - -
Welcome! Thank you for coming to see these photos....

Sorry... this page is still under construction.... apologies for not having more done yet!

Further apologies... the page may load slowly. I will try to do something about this. In the meantime, sometimes photos near the bottom of the page are already available even though the first photos are still loading. Try scrolling down if you see no photo within 15 seconds. (You will need a fast internet connection, "dial up" won't do.)

These are in no particular order at the moment... sorry! But pride of place does go to the European Cup, which was in play while we were there.

Pub decorated for European (Soccer) Cup

This sad little lament appeared in a shop window when the Netherlands was put out of the cup. The Post-It says "Blub Holland Blub".

Windmills old and new. Near 53.31293N, 5.79066E

Who says skips (dumpsters) have to be dull? This one at the Delft porcelain factory... and locked, which I thought was rather mean. "SITA" is the name of the waste disposal company.

From Cologne Cathedral. This doesn't do it justice, but does download reasonably quickly! For a better idea of the window's glory, you can see this and the next one in their own page, which opens in a new window so you can look at the rest of this page later. © TK Boyd 6/08

Also from Cologne Cathedral. As with the previous image, this doesn't do the window justice. See both windows at a higher resolution in a separate page, which opens in a new window.

We had a great tour at Gassan diamonds. The marks tell of the weight, clarity and color of the gems in each pile... and the price, in Euros. E 195 for the little group of five small, inferior ones... E 10,130 for the rather nice penultimate one... and E 43,465 for the one on the right. Not only is it large, with great color and clarity... but is is also cut with Gassan's special new cut with 121 facets... vs the 58 of the usual "brilliant" cut. (Wikipedia didn't know about that... until a moment ago! There have been cuts in the past procuding even more facets.... 144!)

The big diamond weighs 0.45 grams, and (6/08 exchange rate!) is worth $68,000

Archimedes screw- demonstrator for children.

Educational "toys" at the waterpark at the Delta Expo. I hadn't realised Archimedes screws are used apart from moving grain, but I saw some superb, huge ones doing serious work in the Netherlands... pumping the water out of the country!

We visited the excellent Delta Works exhibit, followed by a visit to the barrier machinery itself. Engineering in the league of the pyramids or China's Great Wall. It is much, much more than a dyke! (You can see where we were with this Google Maps link. Pictures of barrier taken just north of big island in lower left of Google Maps image. The barrier closes off the Oosterschelde when the North Sea rises too much, but stays open most of the time.

text

This youth was trying again and again to spin his board while mid air, and then land on it. The attempts usually ended badly, but he kept trying. He did succeed sometimes!

This was in Cologne, in the plaza between the superb cathedral ("Dom") and the train station (Bahnhof). He had a nasty cut on his hand by the end. Some police kept an eye on things, but didn't interfere.

text

A cute little thing I saw in a shop window.

Is the boy trying to push the pigeon off his head? (A detail of the National Monument in Amsterdam.)

(Click here to visit editor's freeware, shareware page.)

Click here to contact him.