I got a lot of practice hearing and speaking German last weekend because Hendrik’s grossmutter does not speak much English. I think after three days, I was starting to get the hang of things. I could almost completely understand conversations and even say a few simple sentences. I also got the proper German food experience with cabbage, bratwurst, potatoes, broetchen, cheese, etc.
Now let’s hope I haven’t set my Dutch-learning back too much. I’ll find out at lessons tomorrow.
After a few days of perfect weather in Maastricht:
Nancy and I visited my grandmother in Hamburg. We’ve discovered a wonderful new train route, namely to take a bus to Aachen and then a train from there:
We had some wonderful seafood at the harbour together:
And also toured the city a bit with my cousin Martin (pictured looking even taller than his actual 6’6″):
The new concert hall looks like it will be pretty awesome:
Now it’s back to our regularly scheduled programming. We spent the Dutch king’s birthday (a national holiday) on trains across Germany, but our Dutch teacher told us that Limburg isn’t very patriotic anyway.
-Hendrik
I have named my new bicycle Vroomeer. It is a combination of the sound it makes when I go fast: “Vroom vroom,” and the Dutch painter Vermeer. Thank you to Amy for the clever idea.
After several months in our apartment we have discovered that we have a partial river view (pictured below), at least until the trees leaf out. When the lighting is just right, you can detect a glimmer of the Maas between the buildings across the street. We feel very posh now.
We’ve had a few days of shockingly warm days, like summer in April:
We took advantage of our proximity to the waterfront and had a picnic dinner with friends:
Our settling-in, including furniture building and its aftermath, is finally drawing to a close. It feels great to be set up at long last.
-Hendrik
The sun is shining, tulips are blooming, the air is fresh and warm, and now I have my very own Brompton folding bicycle for commuting to work. The train car for bicycles even stopped directly in front of me on the platform this morning. Here’s to a year of happy bicycle commuting!
Sadly, I can’t take credit for the title (Nancy’s idea). Friday evening and Saturday, we explored the Old Port of Marseille:
Which eventually brought us to some old forts guarding the entrance:
We also went up to the large church overlooking the city:
Which had a great view:
We had a good time in the city, but all you had to do was walk one block off of the posh shopping streets to be surrounded by derelict buildings and a very bad-seeming area.
Nancy and I spent Sunday hiking around the nearby Frioul islands. They were very beautiful and we had a wonderful time:
Note the stunningly clear water:
Probably our most notable meal was breakfast at a bakery:
I think Nancy will share some of her photos soon also.
-Hendrik
We are in the train home after our weekend in Marseille. We had a good time exploring the city (for example, seeing the church overlooking the city):
and hiking around some islands nearby:
We’ll post a more comprehensive set of photos once we settle in.
-Hendrik
While I sit here at the Eindhoven airport waiting for my flight, I will share with you one or the most glorious items in the Netherlands: the OV chipkaart. It is a universal public transportation card; it works on every train, bus, tram, etc within the Netherlands. You can link it to your bank account so it auto-renews when you run out of money. Then you just scan in and out whenever you travel. You never have to worry about buying another ticket again (unless you travel internationally). Today I used mine to go by train and bus to get from Maastricht to the airport in Eindhoven and the whole process was easy and seamless. The Dutch certainly have some things all figured out!
I had my job interview here one year ago this week. The weather was certainly in their favor for recruiting then. If it had been rainy like this, I may have had second thoughts about living here. On the bright side, my department is housed in a much nicer building now than during my interview; in fact, it was still under construction then. It is a beautiful three story building with big windows and an open office concept. Even the enclosed work stations and meeting rooms have glass walls, although thankfully they had the good sense to put real walls around the bathrooms (if you think this is a joke, ask me about the stall “doors” in the mixed gender bathrooms in grad school). All of the meeting rooms are painted bright colors and there is a giant fish pond on the bottom level. Sometime I even forget it is in the middle of a chemical plant site.
Thanks to all of the rain, the grass here is even greener than before and now we have graduated from crocuses to daffodils in time for Easter. I think the famed tulips are next. Tomorrow I fly to Marseilles to join Hendrik for the weekend. I hope I like France better this time than I did in Strasbourg in 2007. I think I will since the creepy French men are less likely to follow me if Hendrik is there. I hope…
EisenOrem Adventures 