Amsterdam

This past weekend I took a trip to Holland, the city of Amsterdam.  This is the first photo I took in this city, everywhere looks like a postcard.

 Cantal Amsterdam and the ring around central Amsterdam is supported by both roads and canals.  As far as I can tell, boats are a normal form of transportation here.

 Another aspect of Amsterdam's culture is coffeeshops or what we might call in the US as discrepancies.

 Dam square is a large plaza in central Amsterdam.  This was my view as I walked up on Dam Square, simply beautiful.  This city was not really damage during World War 2, what you see if how it looked back in the day.

 They even made available horse carriages, again, just like Greenfield Village.

 Mass transit is also very easy to use in Amsterdam, but if you are planning on spending most of your time in the central area you can walk everywhere.  The trams are more for getting outside of central.

 People are everywhere and the people are making a mess.  Almost non-stop I saw people cleaning, sweeping and vacuuming the streets.  Even if a street was packed with people, the city workers would just turn the corner with one of those large vacuum cars and just assume people would figure out how to get out of the way.

 Very popular book store.

 I found a couple of camera shops in Amsterdam... and for the most part the stores were okay.  But near the American Book Center was a camera shop that had a Sigma 200-500 F2.8 APO EX DG, Nikon mount, telephoto lens for sale for 14999 euros.  I have only heard about this lens, kind of like a legend of Japanese technology that cost freaking $20000, but if you were paying with cash money, you could probably talk them down to a reasonable $17000.... but having undeclared cash money like that might (is) be illegal.

 Amsterdam has lots of foreign food too, including Mexican.  I checked, the Mexican food is on par with Poland, I would recommend passing on Mexican and going for a steakhouse.

 With the canals, everywhere looked like a postca...., oh I said that.

 Most shopping areas had balls of light hung over the street.

 This guy was cutting hard candy, at first I thought it was rhubarb.  But I had to investigate and he was kind enough to give me a sample, very good.

 View looking outside from the counter of an Irish bar.  Dublin is on my short list of places to visit.

 When I saw the reflection of light on the street from this building it reminded me of the painting Nighthawks by Edward Hopper.  Not to mention the photo from the Irish bar has reflection like Automat, maybe Hopper was painting Amsterdam.

 Italy street signs are usually attached to the side of a building or simply does not exist if no building is at the corner.  Amsterdam, street signs are anywhere, you need to look.

 Bike are a very normal form of transportation.  Every road has a bike lane and a (or two) car lanes.

 Me.  Shoot, you can see the shape of my passport through my pants.

 I'm getting use to signs like this as a way to find my way around.  I was heading in the direction of Rijksmuseum.

 I kind of thought the chandelier was an overkill.

 Amsterdam Central Station, from downtown to airport is kind of no problem.

Soyuz-30

On display at the Museum of Polish Military Technology (Sunday --> free) was the Soyuz-30 reentry capsule.  Best of all, you could walk right up to the capsule and check it out, look inside.

This was launched in June of 1978, was in space for almost 8 days, docked with a Russian space station and made 125 orbits.  Things capable of traveling in space always amaze me, it's a awesome structure.

 It also looks like after it reentered earth, they picked it up and moved it to this museum, it still seems to have all the burn marks from that event.

 You can see the heat shield on the bottom of the capsule, I'm guessing it was all orange when it was launched into space.

 The bottom of the capsule has some English, it says "MAN IN SIDE! HELP!"  I'm assuming they put this here just in case this thing came down in Iowa or somewhere outside it's planned landing area.  I wonder if todays Russian capsules still say this.

I kind of think, if needed you could bolt this capsule to a rocket and use it again.  It probably just needs a fresh coat of orange paint on the bottom.  All the parts and systems seem to be here.  The museum has other planes on display too...

This is a YAK-40, this plane use to be a polish VIP transport.  It's NATO nickname is Codling.

This is a Topolev Tu-2, NATO nickname is bat.

 The Tu-2 shows one design concept that makes landing a little easier, just make the floor under the pilot see-through.

 This is the An-26, it's NATO nickname is Curl.

You can actually enter the An-26, the flight deck is kind of busy.  But again, looking at this plane, I think it still works.

On display is a Mikoyan-Gurevich Mig-21, nickname Fishbed.... In the US you can purchase one of these planes on the civilian market, sometimes ebay.

Warsaw, Poland

I'm getting better and better at traveling around Europe, it's fairly easy to hop on a plane in Southern Italy and go to places that would be considered off the beaten path if you were traveling from the US.. Well, in most cases, if you were traveling from Chicago everywhere but Poland might be considered off the beaten path.  This past weekend I made my first trip to Warsaw, the capital of Poland and was really surprised how much fun it was to visit.  This city was mostly destroyed during World War II but shortly after the war Poland quickly started to rebuild everything.  This building was a gift from Joseph Stalin.

 Mass transit is amazing in Warsaw.  At the airport, you can get a 3-day pass that allows you to get on and off anything that is public transit (bus, tram, train, subway).   And as long as you are in the city, it seems like you are never from a bus or tram.

 All over Warsaw are memorials and records of what happen during WWII, the train car with crosses is called Pomnik Poleglych i Pomordowanych na Wschodize or monument of those killed in the east.

 Old town was also rebuilt after the war, but Poland was very careful to rebuild as close as possible to it's pre-war condition.  As a result this is one for the few reconstructed UNESCO sites in the world.

 Through out the old town is book stores, art galleries and restaurants.

 This is the central square of old town, it's amazing that these structures are about 50 years old.

 I'm standing in the spot where Eisenhower toured immediately after the war, he said he never saw destruction like he saw in Warsaw.  This area being a UNESCO site says a lot about the amount of effort made to restore this square.

 A Polish book store.  Something I noticed first in Japan, but it's amazing how many books exist that I'm not capable of reading.

 These kids were doing some sort of dance performance show in the castle square next to old town.  Bill Clinton also visited the square where these kids are dancing during a speech to welcome Poland into NATO.

 Bars and restaurants are super 'posh' in central Warsaw.  I stopped here for dinner.

 Pierogi's were good... you know, as good as in Chicago.

 Ryanair is a popular low cost carrier in Europe. They were nice enough to post maps all over Warsaw showing you places you can fly to from Warsaws smaller airport Modlin.  Right now I think Ryanair is the only airline serving daily flights from Modlin.

 This is the square outside Holy Cross church.

 Holy Cross church is special in that it is the resting place of Frederic Chopin's heart. I was going to tour the church but when I showed up here a mass was in session.  The mass was being delivered in Polish so I did not stick around very long.

 This is another church near Holy Cross.  This church is one of only  few structures that was not damage during WWII.

 Also through out the city are parks, both large and small.  This park is called Ogrod Saski.

 One thing nice about Warsaw is that they have a lot of foreign food and American chain restaurants. I was surprised to see that Pizza Hut is now serving salad and other non-pizza items.

One foreign food caution though, if you come from somewhere that has good Mexican food don't bother getting Mexican food in Warsaw.  Google reviews are mostly positive but I think people who made these reviews never been to a real Mexican town... Basically don't visit Warsaw because you are hoping to find good Mexican food.

 The machine to the left is an original, slightly modified printing press.  It was still being used to reproduce flyers that were made during WWII.  This exhibit was at the Warsaw Uprising Museum.

 My hotel seen from the Observation deck on the 30th floor of the building Stalin gifted to Poland.

 Inside that building is the Poland Science and Technology museum.  I decided to visit this museum since it was across the street from my Hotel and it was raining outside.  First exhibit inside the Technology museum was a Ford Model-T.  The sign explained everything possible about this car except for what it was doing in a Polish museum.

 The museum did have a great space exploration space with lots of reproductions of satellites and strong focus on US and Soviet partnerships.  

 This was my 3-day transit pass, I was really impressed that I did not lose it.

 Warsaw Chopin Airport had a bunch of nice looking airplanes being turned around at the terminal.

Sorry about so much discussion about WWII, but it's difficult to avoid when you visit cities like Poland.