NYPorter

Amsterday – Great Dam City

As I thought about the today’s blog on Amsterdam, I considered starting with “It was a dark and stormy night….” On reflection, it was still the afternoon. More on the weather later; let me tell you about Amsterdam first.

Amsterdam is a wonderful city that’s got a great deal to offer visitors and is very easy to get around. We arrived from Munich on and Inter-City Express (ICE) train – the trains travel at speeds up to 180 mph and have fewer stops. The trains are more comfortable than flying by a wide margin, and most stations (including Amsterdam) are located close to downtown making it easier than navigating through airports. Consider this – the Munich’s airport is a $90 taxi ride from downtown. The Munich train station was a 3-minute walk from our hotel. In Amsterdam, our hotel was a 10-minute ferry ride (free) from the train station.

Freedoms and Tolerance

A city that prides itself on freedoms and tolerance, Amsterdam gave us some interesting experiences early on. For example, directions to pick up museum tickets included ‘… and we’re just past the Sex Museum on the same side of the street…” That, my friends, was in the nice part of the city. Some of the nicest hotels are in the same neighborhood as the Hash Marijuana and Hemp Museum and only blocks from the Museum of Prostitution. These are nice, respectable neighborhoods. They’re not lying when they say that they’re tolerant.

Walking Tour

After walking around on our own for the morning, we took a three-hour walking tour of Amsterdam with Free Dam Tours (freedamtours.com). It was great! Our guide was Charlotte, whose English was excellent and her passion for the city was evident. We got great historical insight around the origin of the name (dam on the river Amstel) and how prostitution came to be tolerated there. Oh, and yes, she took us through the red-light district – the tales are true. Unless I saw it myself I wouldn’t have believed it, but the Salvation Army has offices right next to an ‘establishment’ and across a canal from the Museum of Prostitution.

Rather than dwelling on that portion of the tour, I’ll mention that we also saw other cultural and historical portions of the city. Charlotte’s explanations of the expansion of the city over time and the role of the East India Trading Company in making the Netherlands a world power were interesting. As she talked we walked past historical buildings and monuments. It was awesome. She also spoke of the hardships of WWII while we walked through the Jewish quarter.

Anne Frank

After the walking tour, Julie and I hiked past the palace and across several canal bridges to the Anne Frank house. The original house remains, but there is a much larger and more modern museum just around the corner. If you want to visit, plan ahead. At times the wait list to see the house is over a month long. The house itself looks like any of the hundreds of other homes we saw. However, looking at it I had a flashback to reading the Diary of Anne Frank in school. It’s almost spooky how close the home’s appearance matches the memory my mind’s eye created. Even without going inside, I recommend stopping and seeing the building for yourself.

Thursday – Different Weather

Having been traveling across Europe for nearly two months, I have to say that we had great weather. Today turned out to be different. We headed out after breakfast and jumped on the ferry to the train station downtown. The sky was overcast and the wind was cool. Julie and I both wore our light rain jackets because of the wind and the chill. We had our list of activities for the day, so first, we headed off to visit the NEMO Science Museum.

NEMO

NEMO is an interactive science museum that is focused on kids, but we had a great time there as well. They structure activities for kids and make it fun to learn. For example, learning about the importance of water and how water is purified for drinking. The exhibit has kids pumping water into buckets and moving it through stages of purification. And next to that you have to build dikes out of plastic blocks as water flows down the ‘river’. Being Amsterdam, there was a section dedicated to teenager development, puberty, and teen ‘relationships’. After a quick walk inside and a peek at some of the exhibits, we fled to another floor.

After lunch, we spent several hours in another fascinating hangout, the National Maritime Museum. They have a replica sailing ship to explore (and try not to bump your head) and other great exhibits. Their map collection is incredible. We got a real sense for how maps evolved and their impact during the 15th and 16th centuries. There are some fantastic original maps on display there. Put this place on your list for kids and adults.

The Weather

While we were in the Maritime Museum, the clouds had dropped, winds picked up and there was a misty rain falling. We had about a mile and a quarter walk to the Centraal Station Ferry Terminal. Not so far that we needed a taxi, and the misty rain was not so bad, so off we went. As we walked, the clouds dropped further, the wind picked up and the mist became a bit denser.

The misty rain muted sound of the ever-present bicycles, leaving only the soft hiss of the tires on the wet pavement. Even the bells on the trams seemed softer. We made it to the ferry terminal, but the mist saturated any clothing not covered by our rain jackets. On the ferry ride, I was struck by how the weather seemed to drain all the color from the city. It was like riding through a blurred impressionistic painting of Amsterdam. Yesterday’s brightly colored buildings all merged into the muted landscape of misty colors and gray horizons. Even the brightly painted red channel markers appeared drab as they bobbed in the light chop as the ferry slipped by.

Regardless of the weather, we had a good day. Back at the hotel we changed into dry clothing and elected to have dinner in the hotel. After all, now it was “a dark and stormy night…”.

More Amsterdam photos here.

We needed a few day get-away and Mallorca was the answer! Julie had just returned from a couple of days in Barcelona where she saw Sharon off to the airport. Unfortunately, Sharon was returning to Rochester and wouldn’t be sharing our remaining adventures. We had a week to kill before moving on to Munich and our Globus tour of Eastern Europe and we were wondering what we were going to do. We’d seen so much of the Valencia area during the month and so we were looking for something different to do.

At some point, Mallorca came up; heck, it’s just across the water, so we decided to give it a shot. We always thought of Mallorca as a small island, but it’s really not. It’s actually a pretty good size, over 1400 square miles. We flew from Valencia to Palma, Mallorca – the flight took less than an hour.

Mallorca is warm and sunny in May. We decided to stay in the old city, away from the beaches. That was a great decision since we really enjoyed exploring the city and the architecture. We got in late Saturday afternoon and started exploring – Palma is a wonderful city for walking. We walked through the shopping area and down to the marina. There was a small sidewalk market to explore and then, before you knew it, I was ready for dinner. Nearby is Caballito De Mar, a fantastic restaurant with a great seafood menu. Julie had “Suquet”, a stew with monkfish and shrimps with Mallorcan potato and seaweed in tempura while I had baked codfish with a spicy honey sauce. (Whoa – I’m sounding like a food critic – gotta stop that….)

One interesting thing we ran into on Saturday night was a large crowd filling the town square. There was a huge TV set up at one end showing a soccer match. People were cheering, waving banners, chanting and dancing. It was exciting. We hung out there for a while soaking in the energy and excitement but then had to head off to dinner.

Sunday we planned a trip to Sóller. That was a good idea because the majority of the town shuts down on Sunday except for some of the more hardcore tourist shops. We caught the historic Ferrocarril de Sóller (rough translation – the train to Sóller). This is an old wooden train that runs between Palma and Sóller. Once we were outside of Palma the countryside and mountains were beautiful. There were over a dozen tunnels, one nearly 3km long, and plenty of tight turns. However, the trip was a great deal of fun and arriving in the Sóller train station was like walking into a different time.

The train station sits, literally, at the edge of the town. The tracks end there and you can either walk down the cobbled streets or take an equally interesting tram to the Port of Sóller. We walked through the town exploring and stopped for coffee at a small café in the town square. Then we took the tram to the port. The port is picturesque with a good sized marina and modest beach. The hills rising around the port give it a classic Mediterranean appeal.

We were feeling adventurous and walked up the hill heading out of town to a traffic circle with a bus stop sign. Bus 210 and 211 go to Palma. We jumped on 211, paid less than E10 and ‘enjoyed’ the ride along twisting roads through the hills back to Palma.

Monday morning saw the town alive and active. There were a couple of cruise ships in the port and the place had a lively feel. Again, we went exploring. Walking through a different part of the town, we ended up along the water and headed back towards the huge cathedral that dominates the hillside above the port. Julie toured the cathedral, which gave me time to explore the streets, alleys, and shops in the area. We spent the remainder of the day soaking in the city before heading back to Valencia on Tuesday.

Castell de Xàtiva

We headed south out of Valencia to Xàtiva (sha-tea-va) on a train this past week. Xàtiva is about 45 miles southwest of Valencia, about 45 minutes by train. This is a place that has a history. It’s mentioned in Roman poetry in the first century BC, so it’s been around for a long time.

Taking the train

First, we had to catch a train. You’d think this was easy, but for regional trains, you buy your ticket the same day from a machine in the station. That went pretty good, given that we’d made a practice run of buying the tickets the day before… that was an adventure in itself. But, in the end, we had it all figured out. We bought our ticket and were directed to track 7 and there was out train! We’re starting to feel like veteran international travelers.

Tourist Information

We got off the train and walked into the town to the local tourist information office. We came to Xativa to see the town and specifically to see the twin fortresses and walls that defended the city during Roman times and into the middle ages. The folks in the tourist office spoke English very well and provided lots of information on the castles and the town itself. For expediency, we took a taxi to the castle, and we were glad we did. Whoa!

That would have been one heck of a hike up to the top. I’m guessing there’s at least 400′ elevation change to the summit from the town. It’s no wonder they built up there. Once we got into the site we had a hardy hike to the top of one fortification and then to the other.

The Castle

The castle at Xativa runs east and west on a significant ridge just south of the city. The western site is higher and more significant, but both have a strategic view of the town and surrounding area. There are walls along the east side of the ridge and additional walls heading north from the two ‘castles’ or towers. I would not want to be an invader when these were in use. We headed to the west end first.

We definitely got our workout in as we hiked up and down the hills between the two ends. About 400 meters (1300′) from end to end – there’s about 150′ of elevation change that goes up and down several times. All three of us were snapping pictures along the way. Inside the walls are fountains, stairs, and trees. This is a beautiful site that’s well maintained and there’s a restaurant at the ticket office where you can get lunch or just a drink.

About a third of the way to the western tower there’s a nice fountain with a set of cannon overlooking the approaches. These were obviously added in the middle ages.

Looking back at the lower tower	Looking north from above the fountain plaza

We wound around to the western end of the ramparts facing the city. That was a pretty easy trek once we took a rest at the fountains. Then we headed up a stony path to the watchtower at the western end of the tower. That was an up and down adventure. Once we were there, we hung out a while to rest and have a snack. The view is awesome from that end as it looks out over the town of Xativa. Once we were rested we headed down and prepared to tackle the other tower.

Eastern Tower

First, we had to get there. We were already tired from the first hike we’d just finished. There was actually some debate as to heading to lunch or taking a stab at the east tower. Heck, we’re most likely not going to be back here again, so up we headed. Again it was arduous, but we made it. The view back to the distant western tower was worth the treck.

You can see more of our pictures here.

Understanding Europe

We’ve been here over a month now, and today I was struck with a new level of understanding regarding culture on this continent.

Spain

In Spain, everyone keeps Iberian Time. They get up late, go to bed late, eat dinner late and then wonder why they all need a nap in the middle of the afternoon. With all this going on, they want to be more like Germany… they desire a stronger economy and all that comes with it. At the same time, Barcelona was complaining last month that they had too much tourism! What the heck?

Germany

Speaking of the Germans, everyone knows how uptight they all are. They’ve got this Teutonic thing going and it seems like they want to be the boss of Europe. They all want to go to Spain because they want to have a chance to act all laid back in Barcelona for a few weeks so they can then go back to being…, well, German.

France

And then you have the French. I know you’ve all heard the common jokes about the French. Admit it, some of you have actually laughed at them or passed them on yourselves. Like Germany, they want to be the boss. They get grouchy because no one lets them be the boss and they make that “pweffpew” sound and turn up their nose.

Crackers

So what’s the common problem? It crackers. Nowhere can you find decent crackers. We Americans take Wheat Thins, Triscuits, Ritz Crackers and various other kinds of crackers for granted. We ‘assume’ that everyone has access to these… WRONG!

Keebler makes Club Crackers, Cheez-its, and TownHouse crackers. Nabisco has their own trove of quality – Ritz Crackers, Graham Crackers, Sociables, Vegetable Thins, etc. The crackers we can buy over here in Europe (‘somewhat limited’ in Julie’s parlance), to me, make dry toast look like a breakfast sandwich at Tavern on the Green.

The Cracker Solution

If the Europeans had access to quality crackers, they could take this great array of cheeses they have and turn them into incredible snacks or even dinner! Rather than sleeping their afternoon away, the Spaniards would be looking forward to appetizers of crackers and cheese with their amazing red wines! The French and their pate would have something other than baguette to smear brie on. (Pate with an excus-eyou on the end, a squiggly line climbing like an eagle over the letter ‘e’, according to Sharon Lally, our local expert on the French culture).

We should appoint the Keebler CEO as the ambassador to the European Union and the CEO to of Nabisco as the ambassador to France. Can you imagine how the French would rally around Vegetable Thins with brie?!? We’d have them, literally, eating out of the palm of our hand! Vive la Craquelins Américain!!!

(Long Live American Crackers!!!)

On Thursday (May 11th) we left the downtown portion of the city and headed for the Valencia Oceanografic, the largest aquarium in Europe and one of the top four rated aquariums in the world.

The Oceanogràfic de València (Valencia Oceanografic aquarium) and Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe (science museum) are both part of the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències Valencia (Valencia City of Art and Science).

Tickets were available at the site and cost us about 30 Euro each. We purchased the two-day pass that includes both the Oceanografic and Museu de les Ciències. We figured (correctly) that we’d need two days to get through both.

This place is huge, covering nearly 30 acres and multiple levels to more than 30′ underground. What you see on the surface doesn’t prepare you for the views through the many glass walls alongside and the glass tunnels under the sea life.

We started with a dolphin show in, where else but the Dolphinarium. A beautiful outdoor facility with seating for 2000 and every seat is great. Let me tell you, the show starts off with a bang – six or eight dolphins swimming and leaping into the air in sync with the music. Awesome. The presence of hundreds of kids with various school groups added to the enjoyment as their excited cheers let you know that they were obviously thrilled with the show.

The site is laid out by region of the world, so we sought out the penguins next. This was our first venture into one of the many underground venues. The cool temperature and artificial snowfall made the penguins feel right at home and reminded us of the wonderful winter weather in Western NY.

Moving on, we next moved to the Belugas, Seal Lions and Walrus exhibits. This is a huge tank, three levels deep built around the central viewing area. The huge glass walls cover about 80% of the outside surface and provide excellent views. Moving on there were different section after section with incredible displays. There are so many I can’t describe them all, but what I thought was the best feature were the underwater caves.

Walking through the water

There’s a maze of underwater glass tunnels or caves that let you seemingly walk among the sea life. As you walk through the tunnels you see turtles, sharks, fish, aquatic plants – you name it. Best of all, you can experience this at eye level or even from below. It was like being underwater but with the advantage of remaining dry.

Valencia Ocenaografic

We had a fantastic time at the Valencia Oceanografic aquarium. You can find more pictures
here.

If you’re going to Barcelona, you want to do everything you can to see Barcelona efficiently. We spent 10 days here and have some advice and tips that can make you get the most out of your time.

Getting Around

There are two secrets to getting around. First, have a good pair of walking shoes. Julie can be fanatical about tracking her steps on her Fitbit. We easily topped 10,000 steps a day and we pushed or exceeded 20,000 several other days. Our walking shoes got a good workout.

Metro Pass

The second secret is the Barcelona Metro. We each purchased a T-10 Metro pass; these are great for seeing Barcelona efficiently. At €10.20 each the pass is a great deal since you get 10 one way trips on the Metro to anywhere in Barcelona. You can transfer to different trains and there’s no additional cost. Our American Express card has no foreign transaction fees, so we used it in the Maria Cristina Metro Stop to purchase the Metro T-10 Passes. The Metro card machine has an option for instructions in English making it easy. Once we had the card, we were on our way.

Using the Metro

Hands down, you have to have a metro map. We picked one up at the front desk of our hotel. If you’ve ever used the Washington, DC Metro, you’ll be right at home in Barcelona. You slip the pass in the front of the entry gate and it pops up from the top for you to grab. Don’t forget to take the pass. Remember, it has 10 trips on it! Unlike the DC Metro, you don’t scan the card when you finally exit the Metro.

Navigating the Metro

Google Maps shows the metro stops, so you can find the nearest Metro stop on your phone or notebook and then use the Metro map to navigate. Click on the Metro icon in Google Maps and the station info is displayed and all the Metro routes are highlighted for reference. That is a great feature.

The routes are color-coded and for directions, just look for the last stop in the direction you’re going. Once you enter the Metro, look for the color-coded line and the end station. On the platform when you’re waiting for the next train, there are departure displays that count down the time until the next train arrives. We’ve found that the average interval between trains is 4½ minutes, so you never have to wait long.

Here is the 2018 Barcelona Metro Map or you can download a PDF version from here.

While the stops should be announced in advance, we found that happens only about 60% of the time. The maps over the doors have LED lights indicating the current progress and location, and each station is well marked so you can keep track of your progress.

We found that using the Metro made it very easy to see Barcelona efficiently and easily. Enjoy!

More Barcelona photos can be found in the Barcelona Photo Album.

Have I mentioned that I hate flying? We left Buffalo at 2:30 PM Monday afternoon and arrived in Barcelona at 10 AM Wednesday morning. I slept about 2 1/2 hours on the plane between JFK and Barcelona. Julie somehow slept about 6 hours on the same flight and I have no idea how she did it. We were about 60 minutes outside JFK when I noticed that Julie was ‘watching a movie’ with her eyes closed while slumped to one side. Holy crap, I thought, she’s had a stroke! Nope, she just fell asleep like she always does at home watching TV.

In my case, I laid back with my eyes closed for hours on end with sleep laughing at me. (Julie has denied me the opportunity to more colorfully describe my frustrations with the elusiveness of sleep) Eventually, at about 7:30 Barcelona time, 2:30 AM EDT, I finally drifted off. Less than 60 minutes later I was shaken awake by a loudspeaker blaring something about landing in Barcelone in “just over an hour”. (The following has been edited by Julie into a more PG version -)

Excuse me, but what in the name of bananas would our nice flight attendant want to tell me that for? I was really hoping to enjoy that last hour of sleep. By the time I went to the bathroom, brushed my teeth and changed my shirt, they were no longer serving coffee. What in the name of bananas was going on with this flight!?!

Once on the ground, we collected our baggage and cleared customs, then wandered the sparse halls of the Barcelona airport for what seemed like days. I was in a caffeine-starved fog as we searched for the Uber pickup point. We made it there, only to find that the Uber driver did not have an espresso machine installed in the back seat of the car. “Bananas”, I screamed! That only got me a concerned look from the driver and a cold stare from Julie. We drove off in silence.

Once we got to the hotel, the cheery receptionist asked, “Your name por favor”. Julie started to answer “Porter…P-O-R-T…” when I cut her off. “Coffee… you have coffee? No?” Startled, the receptionist asked me, “Your name is Senor Coffee?”

As my response was forming on my lips – ‘no you blithering idiot, I want CAFFEINE…’, Julie evenly continued… “…-E-R, Porter”. All the while giving me a look that would freeze the balls off a brass monkey.

The room wasn’t ready, thank goodness, because we put our bags in the holding room and headed quickly next door for… coffeeee. It was awesome. Rich and strong. Now I can start to enjoy the trip.

The rest of the day is a blur…

Last night we gave astrophotography a whirl out in the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. We had mixed results, but I learned a great deal about technique and improving my planning and preparation. In addition to Julie, my brother and sister (Shawn and Colleen) came along to watch and get a chance to see the stars against a really dark sky.

Location

In selecting the location there were two main factors. First, we looked at the darksitefinder.com map for a dark location. Second, we looked for someplace close to the Outer Banks because, what the heck, that’s where we were. What we found was a spot south of Salvo on NC 12 that had very dark skies with little light pollution, so that’s where we headed.

Equipment

You probably need a digital SLR for reasonable results with astrophotography. Capturing enough light to record a good image means a longer exposure and higher light sensitivity. For my Nikon D5100, I attached a Sigma 10-20mm f3.5 lens. That seemed like a good choice for astrophotography because it’s pretty fast (has an f3.5 aperture) and the wide-angle lets me capture more of the sky and horizon.

For astrophotography, the D5100 is very flexible. I set the focus to manual and initially pushed the ISO (light sensitivity) up to 1600. That captures the limited light faster. Then I played around with exposures ranging from 10-25 seconds. Fortunately, I’d packed a small, light tripod that gave me a stable platform for the photos. Okay, I guess we’re all set.

Work in Progress

What I discovered about astrophotography is that working at the seashore is a lot different than in the mountains. Julie and I made an unsophisticated attempt several years back in New Mexico. Outside of Albuquerque, the skies were awesome, but the pictures suffered from poor equipment and our clumsy approach. As the skies darkened near Cape Hatteras we realized that sea level combined with the humidity in the air conspired against us. The sky was fantastic, but not as sharp and clear as we’d seen in the West. When you think about it, at sea level you’re looking through a lot more atmosphere and the increased humidity definitely impacts clarity.

Regardless of the humidity, the sky was dark and I thought the stars looked pretty clear. After a few initial attempts, I really had to push the light sensitivity of the camera up to keep the exposure duration relatively short. The pictures were shot at f3.5 for 10-25 second exposures. To get anything close to what I was hoping for, I had to set the ISO (sensitivity) to 3200, but that resulted in a lot more noise in the photos that I wanted.

Results – First Pass

The last issue was camera related. With astrophotography, we’re dealing with points of light in the dark sky. Focusing accurately was turning out to be a problem. First I tried just setting the focus to infinity but I got some blurring. Trying to manually focus gave me some success, but the results weren’t very good either. We left the beach that first night with some decent shots, but there was still too much blurring for me. Here’s one of the photos that came out pretty good – Julie is pointing out the constellation Orion to my sister.

The second photo is more interesting. My brother Shawn saw these faint red lights moving in the sky to the west so we quickly repositioned the tripod and took a 15-second exposure. We’re 90% sure that they were military aircraft, but my brother is still pushing the UFO theory. You can see the red streaks in the lower third of the captured image. That bright spot near the bottom is Venus setting to the west. The cluster of stars left of center is the constellation Pleiades or the Seven Sisters.

Astrophotography Research

Sitting at home the following day looking at the photos I tried to figure out how I could do better. The first thing I figured out was that I’d forgotten to remove the polarizing filter from the lens. In hindsight, I wonder how I’d missed that. I’m not sure how much light gets blocked by the filter, but looking around on the internet I see estimates in the 1.5 – 2.5 f stops range for decreased light. No matter how you look at it, that’s a significant reduction in light getting to the camera sensor. That filter came off right away – first problem solved.

The next problem I looked at was focusing. Back to the internet! At first, I was hopeful about articles I was finding on focusing baffles, but that turned out to be for photography through a telescope. Then I came across references to ‘live view’ on Canon cameras. I checked on the Nikon site and found that the Nikon D5100 had a ‘live view‘ feature as well. After experimenting with this a few times in daylight I felt ready for the next nighttime opportunity.

Another Night

Rather than driving an hour south into the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, we set the camera up on the deck in Nags Head. There is plenty of light pollution here and lots of cars drive down a nearby highway, but I just wanted to test out the fixes I’d come up with. I was very happy with the results.

First, removing the polarizing filter had an obvious impact on the brightness of the photos and the clarity. Even with the less than ideal sky, I was able to get much better photos, even with the ISO set at 1600. Next, I tinkered around with the focusing issue. That turned out to be a little trickier.

Live View

Looking at the ‘live view’, I was initially presented with what I thought was a blank, black screen. It turned out that finding a star in a dark sky to focus on can be more challenging than you might think. After a bit of tinkering, I was able to find and center a bright star on the display screen of the camera. Next, I manually focused the image and then zoomed using the ‘live view’. Using that display screen I was quickly able to manually adjust the focus to get a really sharp and crisp image! Nice! Now let’s take some photos.

I only took a few photos because the sky in Nags Head was not great for astrophotography, I was more than happy with the results. The stars in the images were finally clear and crisp and the lower ISO resulted in less noise in the resulting images. When I zoomed in on the image from the 25-second exposures, I could now clearly see star trails from their rotation in the sky. That’s not an issue because my goal is for the broader effect of photographing large portions of the sky. All in all, the results were a great improvement and I’m now confident that the next time I get out for nighttime astrophotography I’ll be ready.

Raw images can be viewed here.