The life and times of a pop-culture junkie and music addict living in Arlington, Virginia
When my friend Charlotte was in New York, she went to an Art of The Brick exhibit. She posted about it on her old blog back in April.
Art of the Brick is an exhibition of art by Nathan Sawaya. Rather, it’s a series of exhibitions. There are currently exhibitions in New York, Miami, and Dublin. I caught the Brussels exhibit in its last weekend there. Everything in the pictures below is made of Lego brick.
What’s the biggest Lego kit you’ve ever built?
On the way back from the Netherlands, we stopped in Aachen specifically to check out the Palatine Chapel and the Aachen Cathedral. The Palatine Chapel is an early medieval chapel which was originally part of Charlemagne’s palace. Most of the palace no longer exists, but the Chapel has been incorporated into Aachen Cathedral.
This building is Aachen’s theater, and has nothing to do with the Cathedral.
This is part of the wall just outside the Chapel. When we arrived, it was about fifteen minutes before the Chapel would be open for visitors so we walked around a bit.
A statue near to the cathedral called The Circle of Money.
This is the Aachen Rathaus (town hall), across from the Aachen Starbucks.
Germans really do love their ice cream.
The Chapel opened at 12:30 and we were inside soon after. In the main entryway, there are pine cones dating from the year 1000.
This is the “She-wolf,” a Roman female bear from the 2nd century. Recent research has dated this sculpture back to ancient Greece, claiming that it is part of a hunting scene.
The Cathedral administrators charge you €1 to take pictures with your own camera. When you pay, they put a green band on your camera strap to indicate that you’re allowed to be taking photos. This seems entirely reasonable to me.
This is the main octagonal part of Charlemagne’s chapel. The main structure dates back to roughly the year 800.
The ceiling of the Chapel.
Stained glass with several items visible on the altar. I’ll come back to these.
Detail in the ceiling near the main entrance.
The gold box closest to the camera is the Shrine of St. Mary. It contains four Aachen relics, which are taken out every seven years and put on display. Behind that is the Adlerspult (Eagle stand), a brass music stand in the shape of an eagle. The furthest gold box back is the Shrine of Charlemagne, and it contains the remains of Charlemagne, who died in the year 814.
The Shrine of St. Mary and the Adlerpult.
The Shrine of Charlemagne.
In the gallery upstairs is Charlemagne’s throne. (Thanks to Robert for taking this picture. You had to join a tour to go upstairs, and he did.) Originally, the throne was white marble, but it was covered it in tar paper after the war and buried in sand- a bomb attack blew out all the windows and they were doing their best to cover the inside from the elements. The tar paper has left stains on the marble and these will not be cleaned for fear of damaging the marble.
This is the Aachen cathedral in its entirety. The rounded cupola in the center is the portion containing the Palatine Chapel.
Have you ever been to the Palatine Chapel?
In Duisburg, Germany, there is an unusual structure called Tiger & Turtle – Magic Mountain. It looks for all the world like a roller coaster, but it’s actually stairs, and it’s considered a sculpture. You can climb on all parts of it except the inverted portion of the loop, for obvious reasons.
We never did figure out why they named it Tiger & Turtle.
Have you ever been to Tiger & Turtle? Why do you think it was given that name?
When we went to Keukenhof for the tulip festival and flower parade, we stayed in Scheveningen, a district of the Hague which borders the North Sea. It contains a nice seaside resort area.
Before we went, I was convinced that the name of the place sounded a little bit like a lawnmower starting up. I was wrong, though. Click play on the sound bar below to hear what it really sounds like.
The three of us stayed at a nice hotel called the Boulevard Hotel. We wanted to stay near the ocean, and it was one of the few places in our price range that had a room with three beds. My bed actually folded up into a console when not occupied. Jenny said I looked a little bit like Harry Potter under the stairs when I was on this.
As soon as we dropped our stuff off in the hotel room, we walked back out to check out the beach and boardwalk, and to find some dinner. It was windy, but amazing.
We stopped at ‘t Pannekoekenhuisje, a pancake house, for dinner. When we were walking in, this adorable little moppet was playing in an alligator and I couldn’t resist taking pictures. Cute, eh?
Anyway, back to the pancake house. In the Netherlands, pancake houses aren’t much like iHop or anything that most Americans are used to. For one thing, the pancakes are served as one ENORMOUS pancake that tends to be larger than the plate it’s served on. For another thing, not all pancakes are sweet; some are savory. Mine had mushrooms, garlic, and bacon.
After dinner, there was more walking around the boardwalk- this far north, the sun doesn’t set until pretty late, so we had plenty of daylight. I was tickled by some of the touristy stuff going on here.
I also think it’s kind of brilliant that spaced along the beach at intervals were poles with cartoon animals, the better to help children remember where their family is set up. The beach wasn’t very crowded when we were there, but I can imagine that on a warmer day it would be utterly slammed with people.
There’s a seaside trampoline park here! I was tempted to go for a bounce.
Not far from our hotel is a pretty amazing sculpture garden. We missed it on our first trip down the beach because it’s up on the sidewalk and we were down on the beach. On the way back to the hotel, however, it was impossible to miss. The first two visible statues are enormously tall.
This was one of my favorites: the traditional boy with his finger in a dike.
Most of these were based in fairy tales. In fact, the entire sculpture garden is called SprookjesBeelden aan Zee (Fairytale Sculptures by the Sea) and it contains 23 sculptures by American sculptor Tom Otterness.
The sculpture garden is part of the Museum Beelden aan Zee, which is dedicated to sculpture and contains roughly one thousand different sculptures. This one is called Crying Giant.
Some of them are tiny by comparison. This one was just a few inches tall.
The fable of the Lion and the Mouse. The lion had previously allowed the mouse to go free, and the mouse returned the favor later, after the lion had been captured by hunters.
The Herring Eater, a twelve meter tall statue.
I think we all know what this one is.
I’m not sure which fairy tale this represents.
These two are looking up at the Herring Eater. I love the tiny ones hanging out with the midsized ones.
Hansel and Gretel, trapped in a cage. The one in the background that I did not capture fully is also Hansel and Gretel, after they’ve been fattened up.
I really enjoyed these whimsical statues.
This one was my favorite.
Gulliver. I didn’t even notice the Lilliputian by his feet until Jenny pointed it out to me later.
I kept walking for a while after I finished looking at the sculpture garden. I thought this was quite colorful.
Further down the beach is a traditional lighthouse and a memorial statue. I haven’t been able to learn exactly what this is for, but the text on it says November 1813.
I’ll leave you with one last look out at the North Sea before I close up this post.
Have you ever been to Scheveningen?
The day we chose for our Keukenhof visit happened to be the Saturday of the yearly Flower Parade. The parade covers a 40 kilometer route from Noordwijk to Haarlem, passing Keukenhof at around 3:30 in the afternoon. The following day, the floats are all on display in Haarlem.
It’s Captain Stubing!
Singapore Airlines sponsored a float.
“I can’t see! Can you see? I can’t see a thing!”
Floral yoga?
Nope. Aerobics.
DJing from inside a floral pod.
More nautical themed floral design.
…but this one had mock surfers.
There were four or five marching bands in the parade.
Better visibility than the other car, but man these flowers are heavy!
Dancing to the groovy sounds of the Beach Boys. I’m not really sure why.
This was the ‘please give us money’ float. I missed the giant floral piggy, alas.
The energy company’s float.
Another marching band.
This one looked a bit like it was going to destroy us all.
I think this was supposed to represent farming?
Hey hey, it’s (not quite) the Beatles!
Cooking with flowers!
Who doesn’t love a good marching band?
I think I’m going to start using this next picture whenever someone asks me what kind of plugs are used in Germany. These look just like the charging plug for my phone. Except, you know, giant and made of flowers.
Faces! Very Easter-Island-y.
This school bus was being eaten by a shark. Again, I don’t really know why.
The purple and white cow was riding a motorcycle. I couldn’t get a better shot of the whole float though.
One of the last floats in the parade was actually a stage with a live band.
Have you ever seen the Keukenhof Flower Parade?
Whimsy. Tacos. The DMV. 