First views of Amsterdam!
A rickshaw!!
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Issue 6 - June 29th -- Amsterdam Continued 2
Our camping "bungalows".
Streets of Amsterdam filled with tourists!
Memorial for the World War.
Me standing on a bridge at one of the canals.
Cool looking buildings. The red one is separating from the black one - there is a gap there.
Issue 6 - June 29th -- Amsterdam Continued
One of the many canals in Amsterdam!
You can see some of the houses are tilted. They all have hooks on top so that they can use a pulley system to get goods from shipments up to the top floor. All the staircases are very narrow there!
A HUGE shopping mall! Looks pretty awesome from the outside!
The smallest apartment ever! It is only 2 meters wide! The person living there is taller than 2 meters so he can only sleep one way!
Me eating the world famous cheese from Amsterdam!
Issue 6 - June 29th -- Amsterdam
Hello Folks!
This past weekend I went to Amsterdam and had a lot of fun! It was only a 3 hour train ride from Aachen. We lived in a cabin on a campground about 45 minutes outside of town and the first night was pretty ridiculous in terms of getting to the camp ground. It took us about 2+ hours to get there because of re-routed buses due to construction, bad train service and infrequent buses. The next day we figured out a simple tram that took us to the central part of Amsterdam in 35 minutes. The city has a lot of history and is similar to Italy with all of its canals! The canals in Amsterdam are a LOT cleaner than Italy because of the fact that the water is flowing in Amsterdam as opposed to being still in Italy. Amsterdam is known for its crazy bikers! They are not afraid to run over tourists! Bonus points if they have a map and look confused! There are more bikes than people in Amsterdam and a bike gets stolen every 4-6 minutes in the city. There are about 15,000 bikes that are cleaned out of canals each year. When people see an unlocked bike late at night and are fooling around, they just toss it into the canal. There is a huge palace in Amsterdam but it has been under renovation for a while. It is covered in sheets so didn't get to see it. A lot of the buildings and houses are tilted and about to fall but no one has really done much about it. They think it looks cool. Had a crazy train ride back with about 6 transfers! Missed the Germany game because of this! Took a train from Amsterdam Centraal to Utrecht Centraal because apparently we were on the wrong high speed ICE train and didn't belong there. From there we took a train to Roermond. Then, another train to Weert. From there, we took a 45 minute bus ride to Sittard. From there, another train to Heerlen and then finally the last train to Aachen! All in all, an interesting and exciting weekend with lots of lessons learned!
I have this Thursday off so I am planning on going to a nearby town called Maastricht for the day. This upcoming weekend we are headed to Munich! Should be a lotta fun especially because of the Germany game!
Till next week, so long!
Cheers!
Corner protector- installed so people do not pee on the corners. It deflects the pee onto the person, wetting their pants and shoes! Innovative engineering!
Older generation corner protector!
Inside of our camping "bungalow". 6 beds, no heat, plenty of rabbits outside the cabin at night.
Bike parking lot! There is a multiple story bike garage on the left! Too many bikes!!
Anne Frank house!!
Friday, June 25, 2010
Issue 5 - June 24th -- Koln (Cologne) and Deutschland Game!! Continued 4
Some AR-glass rovings and chemicals that they were immersed in.
A huge concrete block with carbon reinforced fiber.
Till- my PhD supervisor.
Issue 5 - June 24th -- Koln (Cologne) and Deutschland Game!! Continued 3
Post victory on the streets of Aachen!
During the game at the public viewing.
The crowd for the US and England games earlier in the day. Compare with the other pictures!
Scenic view on the bike trip to the Netherlands.
Issue 5 - June 24th -- Koln (Cologne) and Deutschland Game!! Continued 2
Biking in the Netherlands. That is Tristan - the German kid who lent me his bike.
Me on a bridge in Koln.
Hohenzollern Bridge - love padlocks are all over the fence.
More locks.
View of Koln from the Dom.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Issue 5 - June 24th -- Koln (Cologne) and Deutschland Game!! Continued
A view of Koln from the top of the Cathedral.
Me at the top of the cathedral.
The Cologne fountain!!!
Chocolate factory!! Yummmmmmmy!
Me in front of the Rhine River with ominous clouds and a bridge in the background.
Issue 5 - June 24th -- Koln (Cologne) and Deutschland Game!!
Hello!
So I am super late with this issue but I just have been pretty busy/occupied with stuff to update the blog. Last weekend some of us went to Koln (or Cologne) which is only an hour from Aachen. They have a lot of museums there - we went to the Chocolate museum =) Yummmmmmm! The Koln Cathedral or Dom as they call it here is also pretty famous and awesome. We climbed all the way to the top - pretty tiring. The Rhine River also goes right through Koln so it was pretty awesome chilling on the river. There are 3-4 bridges that connect 2 parts of Koln. One of them is very famous. The fence on the bridge is covered in locks - locks that couples left on the fence and now the bridge is a famous landmark. Of course, there is the Cologne fountain where there is a fountain with cologne coming out of the tap or whatever its called. This place was where cologne was invented! Had to see that! It smelled amazing!
One day after I work, I decided to go biking with a German friend Tristan and another RISE student. We biked to the Netherlands and back! 25 km!!! I was exhausted but the scenery was beautiful! I have some pictures below.
The Deutschland-Ghana game was amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!! German fans are crazy. There is a huge open square where they show a public viewing of the game and it gets packed 2 hours before the game starts. People sing, dance, wave flags, yell and go absolutely nuts!! Check out the pictures below. After the victory, everyone went nuts on the streets! People were singing, dancing, yelling and just having a good time! It was an awesome experience for me! Lets go USA and Deutschland!!
Heading to Amsterdam this weekend which should be exciting!
Until next time,
Parth
RUTGERS!! Again!
The Cathedral (Dom)
Cary, Andrew, Rahul and Me by the Rhine River
The people who were in the fraternity where we Couch Surfed! Lot of cool and relaxed people!
The travel gang on the train to Koln.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Issue 4 - June 16 - Hamburg Weekend! Continued! Continued!
Part of the group in front of a church. I look so big!
At the USA-England football viewing! Woooooo USA!
Aachen Hauptbanhof - The main train station in Aachen. This is where I met my car-pooler to go to Hamburg.
Issue 4 - June 16 - Hamburg Weekend! Continued!
Another view of town hall.
A Kontour house. People would work ridiculous hours here typing up stuff for shipping companies. They used to have elevators that went in circles and never stopped, so people would have to hop in and hop out when they thought they had arrived at their destination. Of course it was impossible to tell where you were since it never stopped and always went in a circle.
On a bridge. Nice view.
Standing on a bridge at the harbor.
Another cool view from a bridge. No roads, just water!
Issue 4 - June 16 - Hamburg Weekend!
Greetings Followers!
I am a few days late updating the blog this week because I went to Hamburg this past weekend and have been busy with work. Hamburg was a lot of fun!! I car pooled there and back and met some cool German and non-German people. On the "Autobahn" (highway) here there are no speed limits so on some portions we went 180 km/hr which was pretty cool! This makes it very easy to get from one part of the country to the other in no time. We covered about 550 km in well under 5 hours. Hamburg had a lot of history, as does most of Germany, with the World War and everything being bombed. The Great Fire of 1842 destroyed a lot of buildings in Hamburg, and the bombings after did not help. Hamburg is a harbor city with a huge port so the scenery was awesome! The city is famous for its Fish market every Sunday morning - it opens at around 6 AM and goes until 11 AM. We watched the US-England game in a huge field where they had a public viewing on a giant screen! So much fun! Lost my voice within 20 minutes! Check out the pictures!
Watched the Honduras-Chile game during my 2.5 hr lunch break today! Can't wait for the double header Friday with Deutschland and the USA game!
Planning on going to Cologne, which is less than an hour away, this upcoming weekend.
Until next week,
Tschuss
A view of the city from the top of a burnt Church.
At the public viewing of the US-England football game. 1-1 tie. Wooooo!
At the world famous fish market in Hamburg at about 5:30 AM. Everyone gathers here early Sunday morning. Back in the day, all the businesses would get fish for their business here but over time it has become a tradition for the general public to come buy their fish here.
Port city! By the harbor.
Me standing in front of the Rathaus - AKA Town Hall.
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