Tulips have arrived!

Today after work, Katie and I decided to continue the expedition for the ever-elusive red tulip field.

The first stop was at Voorhout which yielded a less impressive red field, but a few really nice yellow ones:

Eventually, near the outskirts of Noordwijk, we found a red field, but couldn't quite reach it. After a few detours and some trespassing, we eventually reached it. Katie didn't want to be too intrusive so she stayed back.

The best one of all was surrounded by canals so I couldn't quite get to it:

Flower Parade in Noordwijk

So Katie and I were just sitting around at 9:30 this morning, enjoying a lazy Dutch Saturday morning when I heard some marching band music comming from outside. We grabbed the camera and rushed outside without coats to an overcast, yet comfortably cool type of day. Right on our doorstep was a flower parade that rivals Pasadena's. We had marching bands, floats, antic cars, etc. Here are some snaps:

This one was Alice in Wonderland.
Here we had a jazz combo on a float
I liked the flowers made of flowers.
Everything was made from flowers, the floats were pretty amazing.
Here we have the lion king
This was a Grease float.

I liked the lion in the Wizard of Oz float above.
Here was a drum line that was hopping.
When it was over, the entertained crowd spilled onto the streets and it was interesting to see how many people really were around. More than the population of Noordwijk I am guessing.

Lyon Skyline

For your enjoyment (and other circus sayings) I present you with a stitched panoramic of Lyon. I had some fun with the camera and some other open-source software and made what I think is a good panorama. Same software as my previous ones but in this one my arm isn't missing.

Lyon

Hi All,

Katie and I just got back from a 11-day business trip to Lyon. Here are some photos.

Our hotel was at the airport and we'd then walk a half-hour from the airport. This was taken on our way home from work one day at about 7:30pm.

Here, Katie is enjoying the view from our hotel room. We could check out the runway, trainstation and the terminal from our room.
One day, we decided to take a day off so we took the train to town. This is the unnecessarily massive building encasing the train station.
Katie is enjoying the French country-side on the Train to Lyon (30 minutes away).
As always, Katie looks spectacular. We started our walk in the less-amazing parts of town near the train station and did a 2-hour walk towards old-Lyon. Lyon is located at the junction of the Rhone and Saone rivers. Here we are on some of the many bridges of Lyon.
Up ahead we have the Notre Dame Fourviere beside a mini-Eiffel tower. We decided to try and make our way up.

Katie found a staircase that looked promising. The problem was that it went up, and up, and up.

When we got to the top of the staircase, we were not even close to the church. We found a rose garden which led to a path up the hill.

We made it to the top and had a nice vista of the city. The central train station from where we came was about a kilometer past the tallest tower you see there.

Old Lyon had more Michallin stars than anywhere else apparently. After taking a walk in this area, we could see why.
After our hike, Katie decided to enjoy a French Perrier at one of these pubs. I had a beer... of course! We also found a wine store and so we had to bring a few bottles home.

We finally flew home today on a CRJ-1000. I love new planes!

On the way back from the airport we saw some tulip fields while on the train. Here are a couple of quick snaps.

Flower Hunting

Well it's spring now. The weather was 20 degrees today so Katie and I couldn't justify staying inside. Instead we biked 25 kilometers to the Keukenhof and Lisse where we searched for the famous Dutch tulip.

Katie liked the parallel lines and colours in this photo.

Here I am.

Here's Katie as she follows me on her bike.

Here's Katie!!!!
Typical Dutch scene: Canal and flowers.

The Tulips weren't ready just yet. We'll have to go again in a couple of weeks.

Above are the first tulips that we've seen this year. It's still a little early for the big fields though.

Here is a set of hyacinths that smelled fantastic.

Here is a field of daphodiles that we spotted. It just went on forever.