Yes, I’m famous.

This was actually in July – but I’m so woefully out of date that I’m just putting it at 20th May.

This was a great day – on my cousin Liz’s advice we took a boat down to Greenwich (where not nice (Mean) Time comes from).

I will get round to putting some of the audio commentary up – but the boat drivers take it in turns to narrate – and our guy was hilarious.

Above are pictures of Big Ben and Cleopatra’s needle.

Shakespeare’s globe theatre above there – and other sights of olde London town. Maaike had never visited London before – so that was extra fun. There’s just so much to see.

This was quite cute – the OXO building. So, I’m not sure what OXO did (if anything) before they made stock cubes.. but.. advertising wasn’t allowed on the river .. but OXO made their windows in the shape of the letters they wanted to advertise. Quite a clever work around!

Finally arrived into Greenwich itself. It’s a UNESCO site and just completely worth visiting. This is where the Greenwich meridian runs through – giving us Greenwich Mean Time(GMT). There’s far too much to talk about and I’m woefully out of date on the blog anyway so I’m not going to dwell too much.. suffice to say – worth a visit.

Then we walked back to my cousin Thomas’ where we had a perfect evening with my cousin Catherine who came to dinner. I really really miss getting to see much of Thomas and Catherine.. they’re the only cousins who are really close to my age – and are such wonderful people. We’ve always made an effort to meet up when we can – and I really look forward to the next time (whenever and wherever that may be!)

Maaike and I flew into London 2 days earlier than expected – because the volcano was thinking about erupting again. Very irritating.

So the first day we were there – headed to one of my favourite museums (though I think the British Museum would have to be up there now) called the Victoria and Albert. It’s mainly the plastercast room that I think is very impressive.

Here’s a picture of Maaike outside it, and inside the plastercast court.

And then we had a quick look around the science museum. This is the real problem with London – there’s just so much to see and do.

We also took in a West End show – called ‘Avenue Q’. It was really really funny (and more than a little rude!). Well worth a look if you get the chance.

Oslo was a crazy city. As a foreigner I *highly* suggest that you don’t ever ever drive there. They have electronic tolling stations all over the place – and their roads are near impossible to navigate.

Unfortunately I’ve been very slack keeping this blog up at the moment – so I don’t have time to write the longest story. Still, I’ll try to be more regular.

All of the above pictures are from the Viegland Sculpture Park. Built in 1926->44 it’s an odd place. Nazi’s loved it though for its portrayal of the Might of Man.

Inge found some time to fish.

Oh, also there’s a period at the end of school when Norways kids so completely and totally mental. They’re called ‘red shirts’ (as they all wear.. yes.. red shirts).. Can’t find any links unfortunately.

They also have interesting toilet signs.

And finally, lots of viking and maritime exhibitions. They really did get about these people. I really enjoyed the exhibition on the Kon-Tiki expedition. Thor Heyerdahl sailed across the pacific on a raft constructed out of balsa logs and other native materials in an indigenous style as recorded in illustrations by Spanish conquistadores.

Very cool. They also (and quite apt today I suppose) found lumps of OIL in the sea. At that time tankers used to empty their holds in the middle of the ocean. Honestly – we’re so messing our little planet up. Sigh.

So yes, we had a lovely time in Oslo with Guusje and Inge.

Unfortunately – at this time the volcano in Iceland was sending ash down again – so we skipped off early (at massive expense) to London. And I’ll try and write about that within a week or so :)

Well, apologies for the lack of updates. I’ve been really quite busy lately – giving birth. Weighing in at 0lbs 0oz (but with definite potential) I gave birth to a registered legal entity (snowpool) on 16th June 2010 at roughly 12:10pm. It was an easy birth (15 minutes!! – NZ is a fast place to Incorporate), but I suppose it had a 6 year gestation period.

While I am going to finish updating the blog for the rest of the Europe trip *soonish*, I will likely be blogging on the yet-to-be-established blog.snowpool.org.nz – for the winter season.

It’s an exciting time – the hits are beginning to take off, word of mouth is spreading a bit – and while it’s still relatively low hits – the potential is there. Plan is to really push things here this season (and roll out to OZ in 2-3 weeks time) and get it all ready for Canada & the US for November.

Not entirely sure where sleep is going to fit into this. I’m hoping that work will let me go to 3 days a week – just until October. If they don’t… well.. it’s a tricksy one… I am really loving this and I think it can succeed.

For those of you who don’t know what Snowpool is. It’s an idea I came up with about 6 years ago when I didn’t have a car. Conversation between my two friends Darren & Euan and I went something like:

• Me: “It’s silly all these cars driving up to the hills with only one or two people in them. Someone should just throw a website together to get people carpooling. Wouldn’t really be all that hard”
• Euan: “Well, why don’t you just do it then?”
• Me: “Oh, I dunno, I mean .. yeah.. .. no… I dunno”
• Darren: “Just do it.. we’ll help you out, put up posters etc”
• Me: “Hmmm… I dunno.. not sure.. (this part repeats for a while)”

So then I created the website – posters were put up – our friends were told – and that year had maybe 100 rides listed. Next year 200, then 400, then 800… and this year.. who knows.. hoping for lots and lots.

But more than that, it’s just so wonderful to see your own idea come into being. I couldn’t (and can’t) do it without help from *so* many friends: Making logo’s, buying t-shirts, supporting, advice (most needed!) etc. etc, but most of all just being positive and telling other people. Really, if the best marketing is direct friend-to-friend contact – then I couldn’t hope for better friends.

So yeah, the idea was (and is) that you can:

1. Save petrol (it is a fossil fuel after all)
2. Save the environment (less cars going up)
3. Meet new people (already heard about one relationship coming out of it!)
4. Save yourself cash

So. it’s a simple idea – but one that works (or seems to). If you’ve got the time – check out the website and let me know what you think. Really aim to make it as simple as possible to use.

But apologies for the lack of blog posts!

So we stayed the night at Maaike’s lovely Aunt Jessie and they took us to a nearby UNESCO site – called Pampus. Well, it’s part of a massive UNESCO Site – The defence line of Amsterdam. It’s a 135km long line of forts (built in 1880-1920) – and they could flood the area around Amsterdam (to a depth of ~30cm) so that vehicles and men couldn’t get attack the city.

Course, as soon as they built it – modern warfare basically made it obsolete, but still, it’s a pretty impressive feat of engineering.

We went to the fort of Pampus. Took us a while as the bridge was out. Hopping over was quite tricky.

The fort itself is on a man-made island. It was never actually attacked, but it was an impressive place to look around. They’re really gearing up for tourists at the moment – and unfortunately the guide was in Dutch (or German?!) – but they did have an English printed guide – so I was able to wander around quite happily.

Here’s a picture of the entrance, and the covered walkway (so grenades couldn’t hit you!)

It was quite interesting seeing how the island was designed – basically they were expecting to be attacked from certain directions – so most of the defences (and thickness of walls) was dependant on that. There was the ‘keyhole’ passage which ran around the front of the island – walls of about 15m? of concrete. Or something…

The boat ride there and back was on the IJsselmeer which is a 1100km squared lake which the Dutch created in 1932. They really do know a thing or three about all things hydro in this country. Still, they’d want to with a rising sea level, and an average height above sea level of – oh – 3m? maybe? ;)

We also went to Teylers museum which is the oldest museum in The Netherlands.. Teyler was a cloth merchant and banker – and left his fortune for the advancement of science, religion and art.

The museum has been left as it would have looked in the 18th century. This means that the fossils etc. are arranged & grouped as they were understood at the time.

The image below is of Martinus Van Marum’s large electrostatic generator (built by John Cuthbertson). The two large disks (1.65m in diameter) were rotated by a crank. These rub against friction pads which build up charge which is then transported to conductors.

It produced a spark of 61cm – which implies a voltage of 330,000 Volts!

There were also lots of paintings – and they were also arranged in the style of the time. If you look at these sets of pictures you’ll see that they’re symmetrical in layout and the large paintings in the bottom left and right corners are opposites of each other (winter and summer, and stormy and calm)

But finally it was time to leave The Netherlands and head to Oslo. It was lovely to be brought to the airport by Maaike’s Aunt and cousins. They just wanted to make sure we actually left see us off safely.

Thanks Jessie, Inge, Geke, and Toon :)

Flew into Norway (Hurrah! no Volcano) and Guusje (try pronounce her name *if you dare*) met us off the bus in Oslo. Which was good – as it’s a maze of a place. Or at least, at 1am it is. Maaike and Guusje met back teaching in the languages department in TCD many moons ago.

Guusje is now living in Oslo with her partner Inge – who is an excellent chef and a great wit – and a very very keen fisherman. And really, with a 10 day walk of a forest on your back doorstep – with literally thousands of little lakes full of trout it’d be a great place to be a fisherman.

So – a 10 minute car drive from the city centre the forest starts. There are tracks throughout for cross country skiing and huts to stay in, and there was still snow in the forest.

So, this fishing lark is *actually* harder than it looks. I suspect there’s something Darwinian going on. Presumably after all the fishes who like shiny metal hooks have been caught – then the genes change. But not fast enough for this delicious brown trout that Inke caught for us.

It was a great first impression of Oslo. I can’t really think of another capital which has such amazing outdoors opportunities just 10 mins from the centre.

Don’t worry – it’s not all roses (especially for tourists) but that’s more to do with oil and the shrewdness of the Norwegians. More to come…..

So, leaving Posterholt, it was off to Amsterdam for drugs and debauchery culture and sightseeing.

It’s a funny old place really, and a lot of the houses seem to be just about to fall over… (even more so since they put in a tunnel and didn’t adequately check for subsidence!)

Two things you might notice in the above photo. The rubbish – ‘cos the cleaners are on strike – and, way harder to see (might even be impossible at that resolution) – most of the houses have hooks at the very very top. See, if you want to move house – the way to do it is to winch it up via those hooks (and a rope you can hire from the council??! I think)

Anyway – went for a wander through the streets. I was just taking a picture of some canals (not this pic)…

… when Maaike said “Perhaps you shouldn’t – we’re in the red light district. I had actually been quite oblivious (just thought it was a little seedy). However, when you actually look about and see the girls purveying their wares in the windows – well, it’s quite obvious where you are. Slightly unsettling too.

What was more unsettling was going to the World Press Photography exhibition in the old church. This picture of a young Israeli man throwing wine over an old Palestinian woman was, I thought, horrendous. Not as brutal as many of the other photo’s – but it’s incredible what humanity can do. Or – what humanity can be taken from people.

Sigh, anyway – Amsterdam was a groovy city – would be fun to spend some more time there perhaps!

For the last couple of days we had more tours through lovely little villages in the general area.

I think that’s what I enjoy most about olde Europe – the fact that everything is a hodge podge of whatever has lasted this long – I mean just check out all the funny roofs..

Also – on the canals – at least this one – Windsurfing is strictly prohibited. No sense of adventure at all!

There were lots of airplanes shot down in this area in WW2 – and there are memorials all over the place.

We also visited a bunker near a convent – that had a chapel in it – all quite eerie. Did however manage to make the best ever drop sound (for me at least)

Also – they don’t play mini-golf in this country – they play Midget golf. It was a close run game, Maaike tells me she threw it to make me happy – but I frankly don’t believe that’s true. Who would do such a thing?

.. But they do have fine, fine beer.

Then it was off to Maastricht where the treaty that formed the European Union took place. We met up with a friend of Maaike’s (and mine) from TCD – Eefje (who travelled with Maaike in NZ- many moons ago).

Maaike’s parents took us on a walk about and to a Belgian Beer garden (in Belgium – where it’s cheaper) for a beer.

This marker is part of the Grand Randoneé network of huge walks throughout continental Europe. From here you can walk 2512km down to Nice (it would be, wouldn’t it ;)

We also visited an old fort where there was an interpretive centre attached. There were some interesting stories etc… and also, it turns out, time for our first poll in quite a while. Maaike is hidden somewhere in this picture… is she on the Left, in the middle, or on the right…? Vote now.

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Then it was time for a walkabout in the city. It really had a very nice feel to it actually – with a big amusement park installed in the centre (temporarily). Also, the traffic lights have achieved gender equality here.

The only bad thing about this trip really, is that saying goodbye to friends can be a little hard – it really is the downside of living in NZ. That said, I’m sure given time that NZ will become more and more of a desirable place to live – and then we’ll be having lots more visitors!