Tulips!

Rideau Canal Springtime

I took, in the words of the Musgrove sisters, "a long walk," today.  The purpose of my walk was to participate in the annual Tulip Festival.  The weather has been lovely all week, but - of course - the entire weekend is forecasted to be a rainy mess. 

Whatever!  I put on the wellies and my Dutch jacket and headed out the door.

The Rideau Canal, but no longer icy.

Spring is finally here!

During World War II Princess Juliana of the Dutch Royal Family and her children were living in exile in Canada, in Ottawa actually.  After the war, in thanks for a friendly home and for liberating their nation, the Dutch Royals made a gift of 100,000 tulip bulbs!  Then the Princess Juliana made another personal gift of 10,000 tulip bulbs to Ottawa.

Lots of people were traipsing through the tulips, despite the rain.

Canada and Nederland are still great friends.  The Netherlands still makes Canada a present of 10,000 tulips every year.  And so Canada now has billions and billions of tulips!

Princess Juliana was especially delighted by Canada.  Her third daughter, Princess Margriet, was born in Canada.  In order to ensure that Princess Margriet was only a Dutch citizen and not a dual-citizen, Canada temporarily ceded a room in the maternity ward of the hospital where she was born to the Netherlands.  I find this delightful!  Canada ceded a room to the Netherlands.  I learned this fun fact on a large informational sign set up amongst some nice red tulips.

The walk down to and amongst the tulips was very far and rainy, so I took the "Tulip Shuttle" back up to a more easily walkable distance of my house.

One of the two tulip beds I visited had a large 'International Pavilion' set up.  A number of embassies had booths set up to sell trinkets and informational packets and foodstuffs!  The US did not have a booth.  What characteristic foodstuff would it have had?  Ding-dongs?  Anyway, I ate some Mexican food, some Korean food (and I missed Hye-Sung at the Korea booth), and some Thai food. 

Low-Land Leftovers

I was skimming through my Nederland photos today, writing my final report for the lovely and generous Samuel H. Kress Foundation (may it continue to forever fund poor and hopeful conservation grad students).

And I found this gem!  Liang, this is the last one I took for you!  If you didn't know they were bongs, you'd think they were just another nice piece of non-functional but beautiful glass.

Little Birds Leaving the Nest

Kicked out of my comfortable Winterthur bundle of sticks and scavenged pieces of fluff, as well as my huge and awesomely-painted apartment, and after a brief dalliance with the lowlands of Nederland, I was bound for The Homeland's Northern Neighbor.  (O) Canada!

I drove a million miles through the state of New York.  Outside of New York City, there is not a single person living in the entire state.  It is so empty.  I should have stopped to get a tea at the gas station twenty miles from home, because it was the last one I saw for the next two hundred and eighty miles.

There is nothing out there!

I did pass Johnsonburg, which smelled repulsive as usual.  Why must paper-making involve such vile smells?  'Welcome to Johnsonburg' - UGH.  

On the way north.  Funny, I had always thought Mexico lay to the south of the United States.  My bad, apparently.  

I did arrive safely in Canada, and with the help of the parents (who visited for about 24 hours) and Ikea (those stores are madness, avoid if possible), am now reasonably settled in my New Canadian Digs.

Bah!

True story: this apartment is sweet, but our landlord is a tool.

During the telephone-interactions we had with him, way back in April, he seemed cool in a general-sort-of-inoffensive way.  Meeting up with him in Amsterdam, he seemed kind of neurotic.  This was confirmed, and we quickly learned that he was quite obnoxious.  This evening confirmed that he is indeed quite a tool.

Louise and I have been joking over the summer, "Wouldn't it be crazy if he just showed up early and moved all his stuff back in?  He totally would.  That's exactly what he would do."

This very night, after we had been walking around, enjoying our last night in Amsterdam, guess who shows up.  And asks us in a very snarky manner if we've been working hard.  That's right, the Tool Landlord.

Bosch: Open for Business

After weeks of fruitlessly walking past Hieronymus' shop, the very day after I disclosed my plan of entering if and when it was ever open, I once again walked past the door.

And it was wide open!  The summertime breeze was blowing through the little shop!  The time had come.  The Brigadoon of book shops was waiting for me.

Alas, Hieronymus was not sighted.  The desk was staffed by an older women who was frantically typing on a typewriter (they sell used books Medieval and Renaissance books, of course they still use a typewriter, I'm sure they do their accounting on an abacus).  She recalled to mind this fellow, not because she was an albino (she was not, though her hair was white) but because she had the same startled expression on her face that he had.

(from The Princess Bride, one of the greatest movies of all time).

Unsurprisingly there was a large selection of books about Bosch, in all sorts of languages.  Lucky me, I acquired one in English!  

I saw it, saw the price (12 euros), saw that it was in English, and silently bemoaned that I only had 7 euros on me.  I asked the lady at the typewriter when they would close.  There was time!  I got some monies out of the ATM and made my way back (clearly they would only take cash at this shop... I mean, typewriters and abaci?).  While I was walking back, I was thinking, "What if somebody else buys the book?  I should have asked her to set it aside for me, just in case."  Of course, that was ludicrous.  Nobody else even gazed at the shop, let alone entered it.  It was like the Leaky Cauldron: only I could see it.

I also found this gem for two euros.  Suetonius' The Twelve Caesars.  If you ever take a Greek and Roman Art History course, expect to hear quite a bit from Suetonius.  I've wanted to read this for a few years, but it is a little tricky to find.  And two euros, from Bosch's shop, too good to pass up.

And to make a good day even better, I stopped at this awesome chocolate store not far from Bosch's.  Amazing.  Amazing chocolates, and amazing how large my teeth are.  You can just call me 'Granger'.