Sunday Links

It's Sunday morning, and the stories are coming out:

From Politico, it's time for the French to vote.

From Gatestone Institute, candidate Emmanuel Macron is called a "useful infidel".

From Breitbart London, it's the French presidential election livewire.

From the Sunday Express, gamblers favor Le Pen.

From Fox News, 82 freed Nigerian girls will meet with their president.

From the Los Angeles Times, Iranian coal miners besiege their president.

From The New York Times, tempers flare as New Orleans prepares to remove Confederate statues.

From NBC News, it's time to say, "Lighten up, Francis!"

From AhlulBayt News Agency, the invaders refugees keep coming to Italy.

From National Review, there is no "right" to health care.

From Townhall, "a free speech tipping point".

From Turkish Minute, Turkish journalists critical of President Erdogan are harassed by his media supporters - in the United States.

From the New York Post, President Trump says that the media should investigate Democrats' dealings with Russia.

From ABC News, a Packard car plant in Detroit, sold three years ago, is still in ruins.

And from The Washington Post, bring on the kimchi, sauerkraut and yogurt.

UPDATE:  From The Guardian, Macron wins.

Delft

 Delft is a fairly small city in southwestern Netherlands, known for Delft Blue pottery, for Delft University of Technology, and for being the seat of the first William of Orange.  According to our tour guides, a large fraction of the city's population are students.  We walked from our buses to the Markt square, which includes the city hall.  Workers were taking down various things which had been set up a day earlier for King's Day, but had not yet gotten to the band shell.  (I saw a forklift lift several outhouses onto a truck, making me realize that I didn't want to use any of them.)

Like Amsterdam and Giethoorn, Delft has its share of canals.  Bicycles are parked on either side of this one.

Here's one view of the Oude Kerk (Old Church).

Not far from the Old Church is the former home of William of Orange (also called William the Silent), which is now a museum known as the Prinsenhof (Prince's Court).  This is also where he was fatally shot, becoming one of the earliest political figures to suffer this fate.  During his lifetime, after being appointed stadtholder (governor) of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht by the Spanish king, he eventually turned against the Spanish and joined the revolt that would eventually lead to the Netherlands becoming independent.  This tower is part of the Prinsenhof.

In a courtyard adjacent the Prinsenhof is a statue of William.  He would become the great-grandfather of another William of Orange, who ruled England with his wife Mary.

From another canal, here's another view of the Oude Kerk.  The lean is not the result of camera perspective.  The church tower really is leaning.

This metal plaque commemorates Delft native Antony van Leeuwenhoek, who invented the compound microscope.  (Whether his first name was Anton, Antonie or Antony seems to depend on which source you read.)

I eventually found my way back to the stadhuis (city hall).  From this angle, it's not obscured by the band shell, but by a truck and numerous bicycles.

Speaking of bicycles, one of our guides told us that the canals in Amsterdam are three meters deep - one meter of water, one meter of mud, and one meter of bicycles.

Kampen

After visiting Giethoorn, we returned to our ship, which was docked in Kampen.  We then got to walk around some of Kampen's streets, where the King's Day celebration was still going on.  This is one of the city's gates.  I took a picture of the side seen here because it was sunlit.  The other side faces the IJssel river and our ship.  (Again, for reasons of which I am ignorant, both the "I" and "J" are capitalized.)

This tower with a clock is called the New Tower (Nieuwe Toren in Dutch), but was built in the 1600's.  One thing about Europe is that something called "new" might have been built before the Americas were colonized by Europeans.

This drawbridge goes over the IJssel.  The inclined structures to the right remind me of ramps used by waterskiers, but I don't think that's their purpose.

This is the old synagogue, which is no longer in use.  Even so, the circular plaque commemorates the Jewish citizens of Kampen who were taken to the concentration camps.  Read more here.

That evening, our ship sailed from Kampen back to Amsterdam, but our trip would continue, not in Amsterdam, but farther south.

Giethoorn

After being docked in Amsterdam for several days, our ship sailed on the Ijsselmeer to the smaller city of Kampen.  We then boarded buses to travel most of the way to Giethoorn, a small town in which the main thoroughfares are canals.  The name translates to "goat horn".  When the canals were dug, goat horns were found in the soil.  To actually reach the place, we had to get on canal boats.

One reason we left Amsterdam is that this particular day was the 50th birthday of the Dutch king William Alexander, which was declared a national holiday.  We would spend the day away from the even-greater-than-usual urban hustle and bustle.  The Dutch people and visitors like ourselves were encouraged to wear orange, since Orange (Oranje in Dutch) is the name of his royal house.  In a happy coincidence, I brought my orange toboggan hat, since I had expected the Netherlands to be relatively cool.  I thus came prepared to salute His Majesty without even realizing it.  Here's one of the houses we saw in central Giethoorn.  Thatched roofs were pretty much in style.

A narrow canal extends between two houses.

Here's one of the few local restaurants.

A footpath ran along one side of the main canal, while several rentable boats were tied to the opposite side.

Several small statues, such as these, were scattered around the town.  I think that the buildings behind them were businesses.

There were many bridges spanning the main canal.  On the right, we see another statue, a bench (partially obscured by a tree) and two ducks.

This building, which resembled Darth Vader's helmet, included a boathouse.

Another house along the main canal included red shutters.

In front of another house, this old tree was painted red and decorated with several objects including a goat's head, which considering the town's name, would be quite appropriate.

To learn more about Giethoorn, go to Giethoorn Tourism, Holland(dot)com, Your Amazing Places and Country Living.

A Bit More Of Amsterdam

After returning to Amsterdam, but before our ship sailed to its next port, I took a few pictures of the area where it was docked.  The Mövenpick Hotel and Muziekgebouw aan't IJ were just down the street.  Our ship wasn't too different in structure from the Scenic Jasper docked nearby.  The large ship in the distance was a Viking Cruise ship, but I don't know her specific name.

Amsterdam's main railroad station was also not too far away, but in the opposite direction from the buildings and ships shown in the first picture.

These buildings were across the IJ.  (For some reason, both letters of "IJ" are capitalized.)

This is the view across the street from the docks.  The railing in the foreground is on the top of a ship docked between us and the street.

I would like to add one thing to what I said a few posts ago regarding Schiphol Airport, my experience with which was not very good.  Planes that go on long international flights, such as those crossing the Atlantic, are often equipped with small video screens for the entertainment of the passengers.  One thing these screens can show is a map indicating the plane's location, along with information such as altitude.  After landing at Schiphol, which is below sea level, the altitude reading included a minus sign.  I had never seen that sort of thing before.

Links For Star Wars Day

Now that I've been back for a few days, let's see if I can find a few stories to pass along.  Today has been called "Star Wars Day", as in "May the Fourth be with you".  With that, here are a few things in today's news:

The House narrowly passes the AHCA, which still faces the Senate.

One high school student took "May the Fourth" a bit too seriously.

I've heard of the dead voting, but now apparently they can also get a college degree.

On the other hand, one student gets her college degree before graduating high school.

"It's not my fault!", she cried.

How wrong were last year's election polls?

Visa overstays are rarely caught.

ISIS is making its own answer to Facebook.

Be careful about what you put on YouTube.

Feeling down?  Try this.

A former Virginia Tech football player gets an award as a coach.

And finally, I hope Mick and Keef let this show use their song with the same name.

Keukenhof, Part 2

As promised in Part 1, I have some more pictures from Keukenhof.  After visiting the park's windmill, I found this water course, with flowers and walkways on either side.

An archway led to another section of the park.

Here are some more walkways and more tulips.

These rows of tulips on a hill produce a reflection in the adjacent pond.

On another part of the pond near a fountain, you can walk on water, sort of.

And finally, more tulips of different colors grow on another hill.

So ends my visit to Keukenhof.  We went by bus back to the ship, which that evening would sail away from Amsterdam.

Keukenhof, Part 1

Keukenhof is a privately owned park which includes numerous flower gardens, consisting mostly of tulips, located near the town of Lisse.  Just after entering, we came upon this area, in which various types of tulips grow to different heights, resulting in a multilayered formation called a "lasagna" planting.  You can see the overcast gray sky in the background.

This row of daffodils ran alongside a walkway, with hedges, trees, a wall, and more daffodils behind them.

Here are some reddish orange (or maybe orange-ish red) tulips, 

Other tulips were in this multicolored arrangement.

In this area, tulips of different colors and heights were arranged in parallel rows.

Of course, Keukenhof has its own windmill.  Visitors may walk up to the mid-level platform.  By this time, the clouds had partially dissipated.

Here's the view looking from the windmill platform back into the park.  The large wooden shoe could be rocked slightly from side to side, to the delight of younger visitors.

Looking the other way, we see the tulip fields outside the park.  The cable in the foreground is uppermost part of the perimeter of the windmill platform.

I took enough pictures in this place to spread them out between two posts.  Flowers, after all, can be very photogenic.  To learn more about Keukenhof, go to their website, or to Tulips In Holland.

Zaanse Schans And A Bit Of Amsterdam

After arriving in the Netherlands, I was put on a bus, along with my fellow travelers, which took us to the Zaanse Schans area of Zaanstad, a city on the Zaan River.  ("City on the Zaan" is what the name means.)  Even with the delays at Schiphol Airport, we had arrived before our accommodations were ready.  In Zaanse Schans, we were treated to a demonstration of wooden shoe-making, and then given time to walk around some nearby windmills, such as these.

The area also included footpaths, canals, and pedestrian bridges.

Here's another windmill.

This one has its own dock.  Other windmills are in the background.

After I passed the windmill with a dock, I got closer to the two others behind it.

This is the view across the Zaan.

We were later taken to Amstelpark, where sheep and birds of various species coexist peacefully.

Across the street from the birds and sheep was, you guessed it, another windmill.

We were later given a boat ride on some of Amsterdam's canals.  This bridge is the first of seven which allegedly go over the section of canal beginning here.

Our accommodations were themselves on a ship, of a type which is permitted to sail on inland waterways (canals, rivers and lakes), but not legally allowed on the ocean.  This provides the convenience of having to unpack only once during the trip, and allows coordination with local buses that bring us to our specific destinations.  But as we shall see, some places require even more logistic coordination.

I'm Back

Yesterday I got back from my trip to the Netherlands and Belgium, arriving at chez Grand-Pied just before 7:00 p.m.  After listening to a show on BlogTalkRadio, I hit a jet-lag-induced wall around 9:00 and decided to put off any blogging until this morning.  The upside, of course, is that waking up early in my home time zone becomes rather easy.  So I'll mention a few preliminary items:

The Netherlands is known for windmills, wooden shoes and tulips.  But as pointed out by our guides, none of these actually comes from there.  Windmills originated in southern Europe around the Mediterranean Sea (although the Dutch claim to have improved them by giving them the ability to change direction, in order to point into the wind).  Wooden shoes came from France, in the vicinity of Bordeaux.  Tulips are from western and central Asia, finding their way westward via the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires.  According to one guide's story, if I remember it correctly, the Austro-Hungarian royals had a gardener who just happened to come from the Netherlands.