Sisters, Sisters!

Erika's back from South Africa for a few weeks- just in time for a visit from Kirsten and Josh. Amsterdam has been struggling to break into spring weather, and the day everyone arrived was the nicest day of the year. Unfortunately, the next day, when we took Kirst and Josh out on the boat, the weather changed again, and we sat under the clouds all day. Still, any day on the boat is a good day. 

On Sunday, we headed into The Hague and toured the Madurodam, which is, in a sense, the smallest town in the Netherlands. Curiously billed as a war memorial/amusement park/exhibition, the Madurodam is a model town filled with 1/25 scale models of many of the most famous buildings in the Netherlands. 

In addition to the buildings, the model has over 60,000 'villagers' and over 4500 vehicles, including cars, trucks, boats, trains, and airplanes. 

Several of the vehicles move around on magnetized tracks, and there is a working lock system where two motorized ships move back and forth through the locks. 

The whole place really begs the question, "Why?," but it was still an interesting sight. All the trees in the village are real plants, and the canals are stocked with fish. We were hoping some of the 'giant' birds would attack the villagers, but they didn't cooperate.  

Afterwards, we walked through a little bit of The Hague and checked out a small museum which is famous for a 360º panorama painting of the Dutch coastline. When we got home, the girls made an amazing dinner of Eggplant Timbale:

That beautiful thing is stuffed with pasta, meat, cheese and other goodness. It was delicious! 

The rest of this week will be spent exploring Amsterdam and a possible trip to the Keukenhof Gardens to see the tulips in bloom. 

Stellenbosch

We celebrated the first weekend together in South Africa in high style: wine tasting in the Stellenbosch region. For Erika, it was a return to the scene of a previous trip, but this time she and her co-workers all had their significant others to escort them. Once again, we hired the awesome Dean to drive us around from vineyard to vineyard. Ushering a bunch of wine drinking tourists around all day could be torturous, but Dean's a tough ex-cop, so it's a walk in the park for him.  Dean:

The weather and the wine were fantastic and we hit five or six different places. South African wine is quite good and we especially liked a variety called Pinotage, which comes from a grape engineered from two separate grapes (sorry for all the technical terms...) and which one of our hosts complained that the French refer to as a blend, although the South African's would beg to differ. Anyway, pinotage is a full bodied red wine which often has a chocolaty flavor. Wine and chocolate? Oh, yeah.  

The vineyards and tasting rooms were all gorgeous, from the one that was underground:

to the one under a giant English oak:

There was a great anecdote about English oaks being brought to South Africa to make barrels, but the rest of that anecdote is a casualty of the wine tasting... 

When the day wound down we headed to Spier, a vineyard/resort where we had dinner and spent the night. The restaurant served African food and was a little touristy (we had our faces painted. Don't judge- there was a lot of wine involved) but the food was amazing and our friends Dave and Ed joined the band:

We left the next morning with full bellies and loaded down with several bottles of wine from the many vineyards we'd visited. This beautiful region is just over an hour outside of Cape Town and should be part of any visit to the Cape. 

Robben Island

Robben Island is a small island north of Cape Town (the geography of Cape Town was constantly screwing with Rob's head. He had always figured that it was on the southern coast of South Africa, but it's really on the western coast and, due to the shape of the bay, it actually faces north/northwest. If it weren't for the giant mountain as a reference point, he would have been hopelessly lost. We're explaining this because if you were like Rob, you would think that an island north of Cape Town was in the middle of South Africa). The island was home to the prison where Nelson Mandela was held for 18 of his 27 years of imprisonment and the prison (and island) is now a museum. 

The tour of the island is in three parts. The first part is a 25 minute video that plays on the ferry on the way to the island, which gives some of the history of the island and an informative background of the politics and discrimination of the apartheid era. But, if you're like Rob and you ride on the top of the ferry so you can take 40 pictures of sailboats, you miss the video and only find out about it after the fact... But just look at that sailboat.  So peaceful.

The second part of the tour is a 45 minute bus tour around the island. The bus tour is led by a museum guide, who was incredibly informative and funny and the tour was really good, but you never leave the bus and the windows are closed, so you can't really take pictures. They are trying to preserve the island, so it's understandable that they don't need thousands of tourists tromping all over, and while you don't really need pictures of the guards' houses or other infrastructure, there were a couple of places that it would have been nice to see up close. 

The final part of the tour is the prison itself. The tour guides are either former prisoners or former guards. Rob's guide was a former prisoner named Glen, who had been imprisoned for six years for organizing protests against the apartheid government. Glen had mixed feelings about returning to the prison, which is understandable of course, but even more incredible when you learn that the tour guides all live on the island with their families (Glen says the ex-prisoners and the ex-guards don't really hang out). 

The prisoners on Robben Island were forced to do manual labor. There is a limestone quarry where many of them, including Mandela, dug limestone and where the dust and bright light off the stone caused many of them to lose some of their eyesight. They also built extensions of the prison and all the buildings (and tennis courts, etc) that the guards lived in. The prison was built using slate from the island and the buildings are strangely beautiful.  

Depending on the offense or sentence of the prisoner, they either lived in a community room, with 24 to a room, or alone in a tiny cell. Despite the circumstances, the political prisoners were very organized and created a network to teach each other to read, write, and other skills. Over time, the prisoners fought for and got the right to receive newspapers and a radio, so they were able to get a little access to the outside world. Though it gradually improved, for many years, the waiting list for family members to visit took almost 2 years to 'process.' Eventually, they were able to take correspondence courses and receive degrees. Mandela was moved to another prison in 1984, in part (some say) to prevent or disrupt the education and organization of the younger generation of prisoners. In fact many political prisoners were moved in the early eighties, though the prison remained in use until 1996. 

After the tour, visitors have about 15 minutes to wander around until the ferry is ready and most people go check out the island's penguin colony. The locals seem to think this is somewhat ridiculous- as our bus guide said, "The penguins are over there. People seem to like them. If you've never seen one, they are white and black." However, if you ever go, the time is better spent wandering the standing exhibit in the prison, which Glen may or may not have mentioned to his group (Glen's method of giving a tour was pretty much to not stop talking, whether or not everyone had caught up to him or not). 

Rob says a tour of Robben Island is a must if you visit Cape Town. He is (and he suspects, most Americans are) fairly ignorant of most of South Africa's history and Robben Island is a stunning introduction to apartheid, as seen through the eyes of a political prisoner. 

The view of Table Mountain from a cell on Robben Island

I Bless The Rains Down in Afffrica!

A month without posting! For shame. Not that we haven't been busy. Erika came back from Cape Town and, having spent a month in a hotel, cooked up a storm, culminating in our annual pie party. The pie party was a belated celebration of National Pie Day, delayed because of Erika's business trip and to coincide with the now annual visit of our dear friend, Jane. Everyone brings a pie, sweet or savory, baked or bought, and we all share. It's as awesome as it sounds. We ended up with something like a dozen pies and according to Rob and his PPLO stats (Percentage of Pie Left Over) Erika's savory tamale pie (with amazing polenta crust!) was the hit of the evening: 

Rob also got to visit his friend, Jon, who was in the neighborhood (well, Brussels) for a couple days with work. We are well aware that we live a crazy life when we get emails saying, 'hey, I'll be in Brussels for a couple days if you want to grab a beer.'  

And speaking of living that crazy life, Rob recently joined Erika for a couple weeks in Cape Town. Leaving cold, wet, and gray Amsterdam for sunny, 80 degree Cape Town? Yes, please. 

Cape Town is a city of 3 million sandwiched between the Atlantic Ocean and the majestic Table Mountain. (Next to Table Mountain is another mountain with two parts, the Lion's Head and hilariously, the Lion's Rump). Going to Cape Town is like just dipping your toe into Africa. The city has a very European feel, due to its English and Dutch colonial (and slave trading) heritage. In fact, one of Erika's South African coworkers claims that you have to drive at least 3 hours away from Cape Town to get into real Africa. However, for those of us just visiting, the realities of Africa are very apparent, driving past the townships (suburb-sized ghettos where the 'houses' consist of tin and aluminum shacks stacked next to each other) and into the city, where most people live in either gated communities or in houses with huge fences and barred windows. 

Luckily, despite its troubled past, the city (and South Africa) feels full of promise and growth. South Africa is set to host the 2010 World Cup, so there are dozens of highway, hotel, and other construction projects in addition the building of a new stadium. The papers count down the days until the World Cup and the sense of pride and enthusiasm in showing of the country is palpable and even contagious. Everyone, both black and white (and, as they are classified in South Africa, colored, which are the South Africans that are neither black nor white but are descendent from the many Indonesian, Indian, or other Middle Eastern or Asian immigrants, former slaves, and servants that made their way or were brought to South Africa) is very excited to have visitors and very proud of the country- and for good reason. The land is simply gorgeous, the people are friendly and absolutely beautiful, and the food is fantastic, cheap, and washed down with delicious South African wines. 

We had an incredible time and we'll be putting up more posts this week about our trips, including wine tasting, visiting the Cape of Good Hope, Rob's first cricket match, our safari and more. Rob's back in Amsterdam with the 1500+ pictures we took so there should be plenty to see both on the blog and on the flickr account soon.  

There's just something about being on the West Coast

The west coast of South Africa that is, although it has a very Portland-like feel. Erika has had the good fortune to get put on a project down in Cape Town, South Africa where she's been enjoying 70+ degree weather in the middle of Amsterdam's cold, wet winter. 

The first weekend of her adventure was filled with a little sight seeing where she checked out the Eastern Cape and the well known Jackass Penguins. Not exactly the type of animal Erika was expecting to see in South Africa that's for sure! 

The weekend was topped off with a Sunday concert in the Kirstenbosch gardens which made Erika feel right at home. The grassy concert hill was filled with families, groups of friends, lots of kids, and plenty of picnic baskets filled with good food and loads of wine. The amateurs in the park (that would be Erika and her two colleagues) did not manage to pack any sort of picnic and were subjected to packaged sandwiches and water only...no wine for sale on the premises. This picture doesn't do it justice, but it truly was a great time. Just think of the Portland Zoo concerts on a beautiful summer day and you'll have the right idea. 

The second weekend of her adventure entailed a Saturday wine tour in the Stellenbosch wine region. The group hired a driver for the day (very much advised), and hit up four different wineries for tastings and another one for a luxurious lunch on the patio, with wine of course. On Sunday, a local colleague opened up his home and invited the group over to his place for a braai (South African for BBQ).


Jack & Jan may recognize the third girl in...it's Katie who was kind enough to let her Amsterdam apartment be their home away from home when they visited the Netherlands.

All in all, Cape Town has been spectacular. It's full of diversity, beauty, genuine and down to earth people that have been wonderfully warm and hospitable. Rob's coming down in March and we hope to safari with some friends and maybe hit the beach (and maybe smuggle back a penquin... our lease says no dogs, but there's nothing in there about penquins...).

Connor shakes it for the camera

Just a warning for those of you with young kids: Rob teaches them stupid tricks. 

We kept waiting for the thing to pop...

Kirchberg

Our ski trip this year started out with an ominous sign: on the first day, Rob took his skis in to get them fitted to his new boots. The Austrian ski shop guy took one look at the bottom of Rob's skis, scarred from a previous run-in with some 'misplaced' rocks (who puts rocks on a mountain?) and announced, "These skis are only for the trash!" Luckily, one quick rental later and we were on our way.  

The skiing was fantastic and the runs were long and covered several different mountains. Rob quickly realized that he was severely outclassed by Kevin, but he tried his best to keep up (Erika, of course, has no trouble keeping up, as long as the run isn't too flat).

 

Of course, the second best thing about skiing in Austria is stopping for lunch and enjoying the hearty food and a beer. Here we are, squinting, at a lunch break.

And, the third best thing about skiing in Austria is that they had the wonderful foresight to put bars on the mountain. So, on the days when your legs are on fire and you start questioning your physical fitness, safety, and sanity, there's a nice place to stop and forget about it all:

It was a wonderful trip and we'll put up some more photos on the Flickr page. We're also trying to cut together some of the video we took, so look for that soon!