Germany (photos)

October 28-30

Heidelberg : Dara
Heidelberg : Jim
Bavarian Alps, view from pull off
lake near Fussen
Nebelhorn - View from the top
Nebelhorn - the path begins
Nebelhorn - hour two
Nebelhorn - half way, looking back

The Netherlands and Brussels

October 16-26

(dara) The art has been fabulous! I love it! We went to the Rijks Museum (Amsterdam), Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam), Mauritshuis (Den Hague) and Museum Boijmans van Beuningen (Rotterdam). My personal favorites include: Van Gogh's Branches of an Olive Tree Blossom, Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring and A View of Delft, Bruegel de Oude's Tower of Babel, Avercamp's winter ice skating scenes, Bosch's The Pedlar and Marriage of Cana, and the list goes on. I would definitely recommend it for those art lover out there.

Jim & I spent the weekend hanging out with Karen & Marshall in Brussels. It was a fun weekend with lots of good food, good beer and good chocolate! It was great to catch up with friends! It was even better to see how much their daughters have grown up. :) They are adorable.

We are off to Frankfurt tomorrow a.m. It is about a four hour train ride, and we are planning on renting a car for the week. After hauling our backpacks for the last week, it is going to be nice to put them in a car instead of walking with them. We are definitely looking forward to getting rid of some of our winter clothes in about three weeks. :)

Have a good week!

Brussels [day 9]

October 23

brussels
saturday. down day
lotsa sleep. marshall makes big american style breakfast (eggs, bacon, potatoes, coffee)
hung out on back patio, internet, Dara and Karen on walk.
catalogued video tapes, long nap
wake, internet, dinner, beer, bed
spent zero money. thanks guys.

Rotterdam - Kinderdijk - Brussels [day 8]

October 22

rotterdam - kinderdijk - brussels

breakfst poor. cold soft boiled egg. cheap coffee. good ham sandwich though

stored bags at use-it and to water, fast ferry to ridderdijk. off, wait, talked to dutch guy. Bush or Kerry? he asks.
slow ferry to kinderdijk. good wind.

windmills galore. very nice scene. good wind. you can see 18 windmills at one time, pretty cool. went in to one of them, climbed up. huge wooden gears, axles. very cool. got photos and video.

back to ridderdijk, rotterdam, uise-it, get bags, to centraal, tickets, train to brussels. guy across from me was wearing red pants.

brussels, wait for subway. guy tells us there is a strike. did we go to france by mistake?
long lines for taxi. taxi to karen and marshalls. hearty welcome, glasses of wine. tour of house, to dinner. seafood pasta, dutch beer. very nice.
exhausted. back, bed sleep

Delft - Rotterdam [day 7]

October 21

left delft for rotterdam
went to Use-It tourist info
cool woman working there, tried to book us a room, but it is a holiday week and there is a big football match tonight, so finally got one after 5-8 tries.
walk to hotel, thru china town like area, nice street.
made cheese sandwiches for later.
1:12pm Museum Boijmans van Beuningen
VanGogh, Cezanne
Rodin: Eve (with man hips)
Tin and Pewter room. cool mug with metal over wood veneer
wood church sculpture, videoed with bizarre Patti Smith recording playing in background
Rembrandt The Man with the Red Cap and Titus at his Desk
Who Sues for a Cow... 1629

Tower of Babel - amazing. took long video. (Bruegel de Oude)

Jheronimus Bosch : St Christopher, The Pedlar, Marriage at Cana

3pm break at cafe

modern next

Dali, Magritte, Man Ray
good stuff.

video of Dali Le Grand paranoiaque

FREAKER FREAKER
look this up: Matthew Barney : Cremaster 4 (1994)
can't even begin to explain it.
I think he's supposed to be a sperm

5pm out, walk down Nieuwe Binneweg
cafe, beers
walk to Delshaven... where the pilgrims last prayed before coming to the new world
8pm dinner : Cafe Soif in Delshaven
bummer experience... bad fondue. price was per person. screwed. pissed.
tomato soup was good though.
back, walk, quick, room, watched video of art from today, read Brussels book
bed

Netherlands (photos)

October 16-22


Delft: Market Area


Delft: New Kerk Tomb


Delft: New Kerk Vermeer Tomb

Delft: View used for Vermeer's View of Delft


Den Haag: Dara in front of Knight's Hall (near Mauritshuis)

Delft - Den Haag - Delft [day 6]

October 20

Delft - Den Haag - Delft
9am - wake, bells, change pants
10am : bagel place, coffee
11:36am - 12 minutes wait for train to Den Haag
thru Binnenhof, very cool Ridderzaal
1:15pm - Mauritshuis
Mauritshuis link
(click collection up top, then items on left of next page)

Carel Fabritius exhibit
Mercury, Argus and Io
Self Portrait ca 1645
tronies
Goldfinch '54
The Sentry (took video of it)
View in Delft perspective box piece
took video of another perspective box by Pieter Janssens Elinga

Daughenise de Sinope - looking for an honest man
Rembrandt: Old Woman Reading in Lectionary (took video)
video of Haecht (the one with all the paintings in it)
more Avercamp winter scenes
Jan Steen, Ostade are favorites
Vermeer View of Delft and Girl with Pearl Earring (video)
pretty cool

sandwich

walk to Escher exhibit, but too late..... bummed

5:50pm - passed by singing carpenters, doing plaster work and finish carpentry

6:20pm - same pub, same beer, same effect as last night

nice dinner, walk back to room, they are setting up the square for a market tomorrow

9:40pm sleep

Amsterdam - Delft [day 5]

October 19

9:20am up, to bf, room showers pack
11:10am check out, Centraal to Delft today
11:40am train to Sloterdijk, Leiden, DenHaag, Delft
train ride, Delft, hotel search.
Hotel Compagnons, right on main square.
rooom 14 overlooking Markt. to cafe on Markt, Het Wapen van Delft
had Pea Soup, called Erwtensoep. a local specialty. should look it up and make some this winter. Dutch Pea Soup.
walking about, Nieuw Kerk, Oude Kerk, Oostport (old city wall)
7pm beers at Locus Publicus:
Jim: Andrechs doppelbock 7°, .5L
Dara: Hoegaarden (better than home, as with all beers here)
weary
2 Andrechs were too much.
dinner at place with candlelight and forks attached to the wall
shared olives, tapenade and main of lamb chops. fantastic. named Volders Vier.

11pm to room. took video going up stairs. view of Markt, sleep sacks, top part over pillow, cold in room, slept in socks
bells ringing

Itinerary

Phase I
(Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Czech Republic, Austria, Slovena and Croatia)
October 15 - November 18

Phase II
(India, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam)
November 19 - December 21

Phase III
(Australia)
December 22 - January 18

Phase IV
(New Zealand)
January 18 - February 16

Phase V
(Fiji, Tahiti, Cook Islands)
February 16 - March 19

Phase VI
(Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit and Winnipeg, Manitoba)
March 20 - April 12

Amsterdam [day 4]

October 18

[jim] we have done a terrible job keeping hydrated. my water bottle was either left somewhere or stolen while I was walking. the tap water is better than DC, but we still aren't hydrating well.

9:3am breakfast with super cold apple juice. drank 7 cups. coffee, cereal

raining today. first time using raincoats. walked a bit, got drenched and ducked in to a cafe to warm up. J espresso D coco. Cafe Zwart. still working on plan for day 5. wrote in journals.

on to Van Gogh museum.
Liked/lookup:
October, Charles Daubigny
View of the Mediterranean at Maguelonne, Gustave Courbet
Woodcutters, Anton Mauve

then of van gogh...
always loved Potato Eaters
View of Paris has a foreshadowing heavy cloud.......
self-portrait as artist. check out the way he holds his paint/brushes
and my favorite, The Bedroom '88
Branches of an Olive Tree in Blossom (photorealistic)
and of course, Wheatfield with Crows '90
and Wheatfield under thunderclouds. this is a great one to see live... the heavy cloud top left is fun to look at.

my other favorite, which I used to have on my nameplate at work, is A Realist, Thomas Couture

out and back, raining, tram..... good facing seats
meal at De Waag (the weigh house) pastrami sandwiches and BACON SALAD

6pm at room. D showers and naps. I play with video cam. video of Oude Kerk and Rover, cut up guide pamphlets for scrap book, read guide book working on ideas for next few days.

8pm out. walk about, near Jordaan, cafe Il Panorama. big beers and antipasti salad. small hail storm, walk, in circle, get tram to centraal, thru wallen, near room, cafe elvis. big heineken D heuswein, Dylan live 66 on shuffle. people singing intermittently. a room full of Dylan fans in a little bar in Amsterdam. good stuff.
Fourth Time Around, It's All Over Now Baby Blue, Desolation Row
curtains close about 1am, we leave around 1:40am, use side door.

Amsterdam [day 3]

October 17

[jim] Sunday, nice breakfast, yogurt with cereal. hard boiled eggs. the dutch tipico. saturday room was too expensive so decided to move toward the Centraal for something closer in and cheaper. bags are heavy and spent over an hour before decided D should park at a cafe with the bags and J goes searching. found Hotel France, front room with canal view (albeit downstream from wallen) and view of the Oude Kerk (Old Church)... espresso at the cafe and then move to room. unload. tour office. bought "The Amsterdam Pass" (48hour) which got us on the tram and into the museums and on a canal ride. headed out for a long walk. it's all just like they say... a utopia of sorts with beautiful people bicycling along canal roads and fatastic architecture. went to the Rijksmuseum. huge, incredibly detailed line drawing of a naval battle, huge mural "Treaty of...", special exhibit on dollhouses, silverware.
Liked/lookup:
The Cattle Ferry, Esais van de Velde
Winter landscape with ice skaters, Hendrick Avercamp
Riverview by moonlight, Aert van der Neer

on way back experienced an anarchist flash mob. pretty scary. leader banging on door and large crowd of younger folks convening.

walked thru carnival. ferris wheel, carnival games, haunted house ride etc.

the city garbage trucks here pull up and use a vacuum to empty the trash cans.

mediocre dinner near hotel

9pm canal cruise. brought our own beers. fantastic place here.

day3: socks1, pants1, shirt1 and underwear2

Cochem [day 2]

October 16

[jim] Saturday morning in Cochem. Jetlagged, up at 5am. dark, walk thru town. cool stone/brick arch gate. showers, breakfast (inc. w room), train station to check on afternoon options. walk, castle tour Reichsburg?, very nice, bricks built in between timber beams. nice furniture, panelling, plaster, doors. got video and photos.
back to train, train to Koblenz. off and got tickets to Amsterdam (thru Cologne (Cöln)). Got to Amsterdam. Saturday night. carnival ferris wheel, people. need to have been here to know what it's like. took two hours with heavy packs to find a room. off-season, but saturday. almost stayed at Hotel de Melodie. Don't bother looking them up on the internet... they claim that all of their traffic is being re-routed, and that is why there was no-one staying there.... maybe it was more that they were insane. documents all over the sitting room of Internic domain name searches with notes next to each one E.G. "this one owed by corrupt Greek politician"... "these people are part of the conspiracy I learned about in prison" etc. Lady there was on a mattress blocking the entrance talking about racism and video cameras in the street. cheap but no way. found something else in a hotel on a canal with nice normal reception and free water and breakfast. expensive though. they have very steep narrow stepped stairways here. we were on floor three. unloaded, dinner: pate, lambsteak salad and beers. afterdinner walked thru wallen and then back to hotel. nice room. they have excellent duvets here.

Frankfurt 8 [day 1]

October 15, 2004

[jim] Friday the 15th, landed in Frankfurt in the morning. The plane ride was nice, we scored a row of four seats in the back and took turns laying flat. Good food (Indian) too.
Immediately got a train to Koblenz and then to Cochem. Took video of the ride along the Mossel river. Very nice.... putter putter putter, village, putter, castle, putter putter, village with castle, mountainside vineyards...

Cochem and walked (bags are heavy) to find room. Pension. drop bags, out for walk, view from bridge, castle there, cafe for beers, to dinner, J Sauerbraten D weiner schnitzel. started losing vision at dinner from lack of sleep/jet lag. 7pm to room. crashed until 5am.

Finally!

October 14, 2004

[dara] We are finally ready to take off. Clean clothes (finally packed), visas, passports, tickets, money, cameras, film, etc. Flight leaves Chicago today at 6:55 p.m. We are pysched! Our first destination is Frankfurt. Then, we are headed to Belgium and the Netherlands. Looking forward to hanging out with Karen and Marshall in Brussels next weekend. Should be fun.

Everyone, this is Rover. Rover, everyone.

October 12, 2004

My niece has a school project for Social Studies. Each student sewed a bear and the idea is for the bear to travel with other people and the kids learn from where the bear goes. We are in charge of the bear. He is brown and minimalistic, but he should have a good time on the road. His name is Rover, and he has a blog: http://roverthebear.blogspot.com.

I hope we don't accidentally kill him.

The beginning of the trip

[jim]
We had a great going away party Thursday in DC. The room was crowded and I kept bumping in to people, and I knew everyone. Some good photos. People bought me bourbon.

We were supposed to leave on Friday, but it took all day to tie up all the loose ends. I stayed up until 2am and then Dara woke me up at 4:30am and we headed out at 6am on Saturday.

I slept at first, Dara said the sunrise was amazing, and we spent the next 10 hours enjoying the fall foliage of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan.

Family for the next few days. Final touches. Reading about Belgium. Food sounds good. Art sounds good. Soon soon.

Wedding Photos

Some select wedding photos:
http://www.geocities.com/jamespdann/wed01.html

Engagement Photos

http://www.geocities.com/jamespdann/engaged.html

T minus 4

Leaving DC tonight. Still packing at 3:15pm. Just took the last truck load to the dump. Jeanne "The Rock" took the day off to help us. Almost there. It's been a long process.

Jim and Dara