the daily view from Thru Other Eyes

The Elephant Parade Marches On with Almond Blossom in the Lead

 Again today I came across some of the elephant statues in the city. This time in two locations, the Jodenbreestraat and the Spui. The Elephant Parade marches on! Today's featured elephant is 'Almond Blossom' and is dedicated to my dear friend Simonne who means so much to me every day of the year, year in, year out!

One of the elephants I came across today is now one of my favorites so far. Here on the right is 'Aboriginal' decorated with the colors, motifs and lizard symbol so characteristic of Australian Aboriginal art and culture.

Elephant Parade Jackpot

 September 21, 2009; Museumplein, Amsterdam @ 15.45

As I was biking from the Leidseplein to the Albert Cuyp Market this afternoon I thought I would go via the Museumplein where one can always see lots of people hanging out, skateboarding in the half pipe, playing basketball and strolling. And all of a sudden I came across the single largest collection of elephant statues in the city's Elephant Parade. Without using the Elephant Parade map once, my meanderings have now brought me across almost 50 of the 100 elephant statues in the city-wide exhibit.

Today's elephant photo safari

 September 16, 2009; Westerkerk, Amsterdam @ 14.30 Today in the asphalt jungle of the big city I came across six more of the hundred elephants that currently adorn our city. Perhaps tomorrow I will come across some more. See 'Elephant Parade' for the backstory.

 

The Elephant Parade

 September 15, 2009; Amstelveld, Amsterdam @ 16.15

Elephant Parade

As I biked through the center of town today I saw a colorful elephant statue with a tourist map as a design on the back. "Nice idea," I thought. A few streets later I saw three more elephant statues and I thought, "There must be something going on with all these elephants."

It seems that these elephant statues are part of an awareness and fund-raising project called Elephant Parade for the near extinct Asian elephant.

From the organization's website:

"From September onwards, a hundred full size art elephants will swarm the streets of Amsterdam: together, they form a remarkable open-air exhibition, the Elephant Parade, that is dedicated to the Asian elephant. After the successful editions in Rotterdam and Antwerp, the exhibition in Amsterdam will be the largest so far.

"The Elephant Parade is founded by father and son Mike and Marc Spits. With their project, they aim to raise attention for the Asian elephant, that is threatened with extinction. Their project has proven to be successful: the first two editions of the Elephant Parade, held in Rotterdam and Antwerp, raised a total amount of over 700,000 euro. The benefits of the Elephant Parade are donated to the Elephant Family, the largest elephant charity in the world and was founded in 2002 by Mark Shand. He is a globetrotter, philantropist and writer and maker of the BBC documentary Queen of the Elephants."

 Many of the elephants have been designed by well-known Dutch designers and other celebrities. They are on display at various locations throughout Amsterdam's city center until October 31. Between November 1 and November 12 they will be auctioned off and all funds raised will go to help the Elephant Family charity.

I would like to find the time in the coming weeks before my vacation to follow the route and photograph as many of the 100 elephant statues that I can.

Red sky at night, sailor's delight

 September 9, 2009; back porch, Amsterdam @ 20.45

Today we had a grand Indian summer day and beautiful bright red sunset to match.

t' Blauwe Theehuis - Me Tarzan, Who Jane?

  July 21, 2009; t' Blauwe Theehuis, Vondelpark, Amsterdam @ 13.20

Today I had a very pleasant lunch with a great mate, business associate and friend (one person, not three haha) at this popular cafe in the middle of the Vondelpark called 't Blauwe Theehuis. Some people say it looks like a flying saucer. It's a great place to hang out, they have a great and varied program from BBQs, to DJs, live music, childrens' art activities and small theater. It's one of the biggest terraces in the city able to seat 700 people on three levels and outside. In the winter they have one of the very few heated terraces in the city.

(That heated terrace thing is another story all together (don't get me going on that, oh well... too late). The city council has severely limited the ability of cafes to have heated terraces in the winter. Why? Because the extra electricity or gas used will contribute to CO2 emissions and therefore global warming. In Holland we have a term for that - it's called symbolic politics... picking some symbol to use instead of really doing the hard work and making the hard decisions to truly address some problem. We're really great at that.. but I digress.)

By the entrance there's this Tarzan and Jane thing where you can stick your head in and make a picture. I think it's mostly for kids but probably because most adults are too self-conscious to make a photo there. Not me, today. But after one picture as Tarzan I realized I had no Jane. I asked the first woman who walked along if she was willing to be my Jane for a picture. She seemed hesitant at first. She apparently quickly sized me up as someone who was sufficiently less threatening than a homicidal maniac so she joined in the fun. After three pictures I realized I wasn't going to succeed in getting her to move her head more forward through the opening so we just parted company as good friends.

Clouds

July 7, 2009; back porch, Amsterdam @ 12.15

I have always loved clouds. Happy clouds, fluffy clouds, high clouds, low clouds, wispy clouds, light clouds, dark clouds. Clouds that shroud a mountain top in mystery or open up to let the inspiring light of the sun or moon descend upon the Earth.

As an ocean sailor, hiker or camper I have one relationship with the clouds, letting them give warning or hints about things to come. As a brainstorm facilitator I have another relationship with them, using them as living and changing Rorschach images to find creative inspiration in our individual and shared subconsciouses. And of course, just as 'plain-old me' I often find myself enjoying their shapes, colors, textures or moods and often find myself fantasizing about what I see in the clouds.

I liked these clouds so I wanted to share them with you. About a half hour later we had a real cool rain squall.

It's a dog's life...

June 30, 2009; Vondelpark, Amsterdam @ 12.45

With the string of summery days we are having, I try and make as many appointments as possible at a nice terrace cafe. This afternoon I had a lunch appointment and we went to one of the nice cafes in the Vondelpark - Amsterdam's large central park.

From where we parked to the cafe it is a very pleasant 10 - 15 minute walk which gives us a chance to already be talking business with the inspiration of nature, happy people, trees, flowers, birds and the occasional playful dog.

This one chased a tennis ball into the water thrown by his boss. I wanted to take a picture of it as he was shaking off the water but the dog seemed more interested in posing as soon as I stood there with phone.

A Green Thumb

June 17, 2009; De Groen Gemaal (The Green Pumping Station) plant and seed exhange, Sarphati Park, Amsterdam @ 15.45

Established in 2001, De Groen Gemal plant and seed exchange was opened to encourage and help neighborhood residents to beautify their apartments. Several days a week you can get free advice about plants and flowers that grow well on balconies and window plant boxes. One can bring or take seedlings, seeds, flowers and plants. The initiative is housed next to the water pumping station (used to maintain below and above ground water levels) in a very nice neighborhood park called the Sarphati Park. The park was named after Samuel Sarphati (1813-1866) a well-known Amsterdam Jewish doctor (his mother was very proud of him!), city architect and philanthropist who was one of moving forces behind the idea for the park. It wasn't until 20 years after his death that the park was actually built.

Vondelpark

June 12, 2009; Groot Melkhuisje Cafe, Vondelpark, Amsterdam @ 11.30

Had a morning meeting at this very pleasant and sunny cafe in Amsterdam's largest and most popular park - Vondelpark.

The park is 120 acres (47 hectares) making it about 15% the land area of New York City's Central Park. But think of this: Central Park has 25 million visitors a year; Vondelpark has 10 million visitors a year; New York City has 8 million residents; Amsterdam had 740,000 residents. So if I make a nice index comparing the relative intensity of park usage then Amsterdam's Vondelpark has a 'park usage intensity' that is 459% greater than NYC's Central Park. If I factor in the difference in park area the 'park usage intensity' increases by an additional factor of 6.6 to 3,030%! And is this important or even interesting? I have no idea, but now you know how my mind sometimes works.

Vondelpark was opened in 1865 in a much smaller form and kept growing into the 20th century when it took its current form. The park has lots of water (not for swimming), playing fields, playgrounds for kids, an open air theater and several cafes.

On a nice summer day the park is indeed used very intensely. Bikers, ball players, skaters and skeelers, sunbathers, walkers, cafe sitters, musicians, dancers, yoga and tai chi practitioners, ice cream vendors, picnickers, potheads, beer drinkers and a host of other characters all combine to give the park an eclectic buzz from early morning to well into the night.

The land of the 10 PM sun

June 11, 2009; backporch our apartment @ 22.05

One of the nice things about living here is how late it stays light in the summer. I used to think it was only because we are further to the north but another factor is apparently our position in a very large time zone. But regarding being further to the north, Amsterdam lies at 52 deg north and Boston for example is only 40 deg north so we are a lot further north than those who live in the NE USA (hi many family and friends!).

Obviously there are places with that 24 /7 light or dark thing going on but I have only been so far north to experience no night but rather a 4 hour sunset/sunrise period with a lot of twighlight (I just discovered I have no idea how to spell twilight - now it's correct cuz I just looked it up). Anyways, that kind of long twilight and no night is also pretty cool.

When it comes to the sky I have one thing I really want to do - something for the bucket list if I don't get to it before then: see the Northern Lights the so-called aurora borealis. Must be a mystical experience I would think.

Saw just a glimmer of it one time 15 - 20 years ago on a LA - UK flight. Because of the curvature thing of the Earth, they were flying a very northerly great circle route and somewhere over Canada were close enough to way up there (wanted to say Polar Circle but I don't know if that was so) to see just a little bit of these lights.

Amazing what you can find on the web. Was curious to know how far north we might have flown and found a route mapper with half of the LA - London great circle route plotted. It goes pretty far north.

That area in particular over and around Hudson's Bay is so stark, hostile yet beautiful to see when flying over. (Hudson by the way left on his North American sailing and exploration adventures from a dock here in town across from where Central Station is today).

Anyways, it was a nice sunset this evening.

Amsterdamse bosbaan - rowing track

May 7, 2009; Bosbaan 4, Amstelveen @ 11.15

I had a breakfast meeting this morning at the Bosbaan Cafe in the Amsterdamse Bos overlooking Amsterdam's Olympic size rowing track. The Amsterdamse Bos literally translated means Amsterdam forest but it is more like a park with a lot of trees. The entire park is about 2,500 acres or three times the size of Central Park in New York City.

From the municipal website:
"'Five years' work for a thousand men' the planting of the woods of the Amsterdamse Bos began in 1934, a task which provided work for 20,000 unemployed people during the crisis years. With its 137 km of footpaths, 51 km of cycle paths and 50 bridges, the Bos is one of the largest city parks in Europe, contains 150 indigenous tree species, an exotic arboretum and more than 200 bird species."

To see a recent video of the rowing track check out this Youtube film. For those with a preference for handsome guys in spandex you can watch this Youtube video of someone training on the rowing track.

The Keukenhof

April 18, 2009; Keukenhof in Lisse, the Netherlands @ 14.15

Today we rented a car and headed for our almost annual visit to Keukenhof where they hold in a huge park the most incredible flower exhibition mostly outdoors but also some indoors bits.

Keukenhof is the world's largest outdoor flower park. Each year it is planted with about 7 million bulbs and plants including tulips of course and crocuses, hyacinth, lilies and others. It receives about 800,000 visitors from all over the world each year. One of our favorite exhibits is the large indoor pavilion with orchids. I have also just made an entire photo album with some of the pictures from today for those who are interested.

This year is the 60th anniversary of the annual exhibition and for those who are into poster and graphic design you can see 60 years of Keukenhof posters here. When I look at the 1955 poster (my birth year) I can't believe that was a graphic style in my lifetime. It looks so so outdated! I guess because it is, in terms of graphic design but it of course begs the question: "Am I also so outdated?" Hahaha...

Tulips of the field

April 16, 2009; Somewhere along highway A6, near Oldeouwer, the Netherlands @ 11.50

I had a meeting today in a small village called Aldeboarn (150 km from Amsterdam) which is in the province of Friesland. About 40 km outside of Amsterdam it's all rural with some small cities and small industrial parks. But for the most part it is all farmland where for the most part potatoes, beets and grains are grown. Some farmers also grow tulips and although the outdoor growing season for tulips is almost finished, we passed one large field with mostly yellow and pink tulips still in the ground.

Moonlight Serenade

March 11, 2009; apartment back porch @ 05.10

There was a beautiful bright full moon shining in the morning sky which I noticed after one of the cats woke me up by being so kind as to give my shaved head a tongue bath.