Danish Deutsche Dutch

It was a busy week!

Eight days ago I was in Gronigen, in the Netherlands, visiting fellow UW MUPs Ali and Allison and Rebecca. That Saturday I took the train there from Copenhagen, which involved a lovely ride through the southern part of the island of Sjælland, then the islands of Falsetr and Lolland. Then the train went on to a ferry in which we crossed to Germany, passing through Lubeck on the way to Hamburg. I transferred in the huge Hamburg trainstation to a train for Bremen, and from there transferred to a train to Leer. Finally in Leer I got on a bus to Gronigen, a sweet little city in the middle of the unreal flat greenness of the Netherlands.

Southern islands of Denmark

this is a train on a ferry

deluxe Hamburg station with chesse

It was gorgeous and sunny that first day, which was great for looking out the train window. I didn't have any trouble with the transfers except for with the Bremen - Leer leg, where there was no room and everyone was squeezed into the corridors, and then trying to figure out which bus to get on to get to Gronigen.

I spent three full days in Gronigen, generously hosted by Allison. As always, it is a very good idea to stay with people who have cooked professionally. It was mostly cloudy and cold, but I enjoyed seeing the town with its cute, narrow townhouses and the nearby countryside, which I was able to walk to on my first night. They have an incredibly extensive network of bike trails both in the city and in the surrounding countryside, meaning you can ride on a paved path right through a cattle pasture and work your way across the land with minimal interaction with automobiles. I even saw a couple of old windmills, which are pretty remarkable machines if you get to see them up close.

It had modern aluminum blades and an electric motor to rotate it

I was surprised to be reminded of Paraguay while in the countryside in the Netherlands. It's not so surprising really: both are flat, green, and have lots of cows. Still it's strange to have one of the wealthiest countries of the world suddenly transport you back to one of the poorest in the western hemisphere.

this is what you call a MFing rail network

Then on Wednesday morning I got the train to Amsterdam. Which is a cool place. 

I got to spend the day walking around the old, cool, prosperous, strange city. It felt so much like it's own place, not like any other place I've ever been. It reminded me of New York in that way, or maybe I was just thinking of New Amsterdam. The Dutch have such an interesting history of forging their own destiny out of being stuck on the soggy shallow edge of Europe surrounded by powerful states. I can't even really fathom when and how this city came to be what it is, but I quite liked it. It is a good place to go shopping too.

I bought a book, had a good lunch, bought a hat, read by a canal, drank a coffee, drank a beer, sketched by another canal, and then headed (by train) to the airport for my flight back to Copenhagen.
 

Then I came back, spent two and a half days working, and then got on a boat to go to Oslo and back for the weekend.

My life is very nice right now.