Another Dancing Nomad

Now that I'm back to the life of working, I almost forgot about my passion for traveling. Thanks to Jeff for the clip and the reminder.

Stockholm, Sweden

This weekend I visited a friend who happenned to be in Stockholm for a conference. The city was a bit dead tho, being that it was the weekend of midsummer night. Tradition says that if an umarried girl picks seven types of flowers and puts it under her pillow at night, then she will dream of her future husband. So my friend and I went on a mission to find these seven types of flowers. Only, neither of us had a dream that night. Is that bad?!? The next day, I did have a dream, but of a guy I didn't want to marry. Good thing I threw out those flowers in the morning!

Beauty of a Woman

Today I came across this poem that I wish I'd seen last week when I celebrated(?) my bday and was feeling a bit bummed about getting older.

The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears,
The figure she carries, or the way she combs her hair.
The beauty of a woman must be seen from her eyes,
Because that is the doorway to her heart,
The place where love resides.
The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mole,
But true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul.
It is the caring that she lovingly gives,
The passion that she shows.
The beauty of a woman
With time, only grows.

I'm not sure who the author is though, sorry.

My First Nudist Beach

My weekend started early on Friday since it was Sports Day at work. We got the afternoon off to go play sports and drink and eat. For my sport, I decided to participate in the obstacle course. We had one in college that we used to have to pass for time, so I thought I'd do it for good ol' times sake. Unfortunately, I'm not as fit anymore... or as young, so the obstacles were *just a little* tough. They were things like net and rope climbing, horizontal rope traversing, and stuff like that. We didn't have to get down and dirty in the muds or anything like that. Anyways, I did each obstacle twice, once for practice and once for time, and now my body wishes I'd only done it once....

Anyways, by the weekend, summer had arrived. The sky is clear and temperature is above 80. It's almost a heatwave for this country. So we decide to go to the beach on Saturday and it didn't occur to me to actually put on a swim suit because I didn't think it could get that hot. It was just a week or so ago that I was doubling up on my light jackets to go outside. Only after I stepped outside and walked a bit did I go back and pack for a 'real' beach-going experience.

Once at the beach there are topless girls everywhere. I suppose that is a European thing but I'm thinking it must be pretty convenient not having to worry about tan lines up top. Maybe I should go for it too. Or not. A bit more suprising was the number of naked people on the beach. My friend warned me we were going near a nudist beach but I had never been to one. I sort of half expected naked people to be everywhere, but there were more clothes people. I guess the actual nudist beach is further up North, so these were the stragglers that wandered away. Thankfully so, because most of the naked people are old. When I did see guys that appeared to be in the under 40 range, I did try to look just to satisfy some unexplainable curiousity. They were usually too far though to notice any details, since I was too embarassed to look directly at any if they were in close range. More often than not though, what I saw were saggy butts and stomachs... ick. It's best not to look.

Den Haag has two beaches: Scheveningen and Kijkduin. Scheveningen is where we live and is the more touristy one. Kijkduin is where most of the locals go, just a bit South of Scheveningen. Being on the North Sea, the beaches here are awful for swimming. Not only is it cold, but the water is very nasty. Brown I tell you. Nevertheless, I had my first dip in the sea, and only because I was thrown in there. No one in their right minds would voluntarily go in that water. Still, many Dutch and Germans crowd the beach the minute it's above 75 since days like this are rare.

Saturday was also a great day for BBQ, which we had at a colleague's. John's an American and has a German wife who makes great food - and lots of it!! Lots of people showed up and we had a very nice time eating, drinking chatting. The only thing missing was a large yard like you'd find in the U.S. But bbq's a bbq, and it' was great!

On Sunday, we went to Middelburg - the capital of Zeeland. It's a recommended stop if you have two weeks according to Lonely Planet's Guide. I'm not quite sure why though.... It's a nice place, but kind of dead. Perhaps because it was Sunday and the Netherlands were playing in World Cup today. Speaking of World Cup, US lost to Czech 0-3 today :( So Middelburg is unremarkable aside from an abbey and some nice churches. More remarkable were the Delta works, but not so much that I was willing to stop and get out of the car on the drive home. It was a nice drive out of the city though through some countryside, and it's always good to see new places, no matter where.

Hoge Veluwe National Park

Today I visited the largest national park in the Netherlands - the Hoge Veluwe. They provide free bicycles for use within the park so we did a big loop around the park while taking in views of marshlands, forests, and sand dunes. We started off at the south end of the park and rode about against the wind and uphill towards the middle of the park. My legs, which were unaccustomed to cycling, were struggling a bit. At the center of the park is a pretty good museum, the Kröller-Müller. We stopped here to fuel our stomachs and checked out the works of Van Gogh, Picasso, Renoir, Manet, etc. There were also many absract art, as well as some strange pieces of work. After the museum, we rode up to the St. Hubertus Hunting Lodge. This was my favorite place in the entire park. It was situated near a lake and had nice gardens with blooming flowers. By now, the sun was high and we relaxed a bit by the lake. The ride home was much more pleasant. It was warmer, and not as much uphill. Over all, despite the lack of any splendor compared to the U.S.'s national parks, it was a very enjoyable day.