Recently in Sightseeing Category

I'm at the Courtyard Marriott on W. 40th St.

Here's the view out the window this afternoon:



And again this evening, after I got back from dinner:

The reason I go to The Netherlands in the first place is to teach in Waardenburg, which is about 60km south of Amsterdam on the A2 motorway. Waardenburg isn't much, so I stay across the Waal River at the Regardz Hotel in Zaltbommel. Zaltbommel is a city of about 10,000 people. Zaltbommel started as a classic medieval river town, a place for travelers to stop and rest, then becoming a fortress town which collected tolls from those going up and down the Waal. The hotel is just off the A2 motorway exit, so it's a bit of a hike into the old village. Fountain in the park just outside the city center.


  Boschstraat, what my British colleagues call the "High Street." Lots of shops and commercial stuff here. Waalstraat. Part of the old city wall along the river. Go through the archway and you're on the riverfront. The Waal River at Zaltbommel. Further east on the Waal is the city of Nijmegen, the second of the three cities that were the focal point of Operation Market-Garden in WWII. The bridge over the Waal at Nijmegen was the primary objective of the US 82nd Airborne. The Waal merges with the Rhine just after Nijmegen (and just after Arnhem on the Rhine). The bridges over the Wall at Zaltbommel. The suspension bridge is for the A2 motorway (built in the 1990s), the other is the train bridge (built in the 1950s). The Gasthuistor, or GuestHouse Tower. The local Dutch Reformed Church. A building attached to the GuestHouse Tower. Close-up of the crest on the building. The date is MDCCLXXVI or 1776. St. Mark's Church.

(read part 1 here)

Once you walk past the main entrance and the walls memorializing those Missing In Action in Holland in WWII, walk around the memorial tower into the cemetery proper.



A tall hedgerow and gorgeous gardens of roses border the graves.

I walked around the right-hand half of the cemetery for some time, looking for Uncle Mike's grave. The office and visitor center at the front of the cemetery was closed when I walked up. I assumed that was because it was Sunday, but it turned out he was just closed for lunch. There's a big reference book of names and plot numbers that make it easier to track down a loved one, even though my walk was enjoyable.

Along the way, I came across the graves of two of the six Medal of Honor recipients buried here:



PFC Willy F. James, Jr. was one of seven African-American soldiers belatedly awarded the Medal of Honor by President Bill Clinton in 1997.



PVT George J. Peters of the 507th PIR (part of the 17th Airborne Division) was mortally wounded when he single-handedly destroyed a German machine gun emplacement that was attacking his platoon in Operation Varsity, near the end of the war.

Soon after, I found Uncle Mike:



Uncle Mike was the oldest of seven children, six boys and one girl. My dad was #6 in line. (Daddy served in the USAF during the Korean War.) Rightfully so, I grew up hearing all sorts of stories about Uncle Mike, from how he was good at roller hockey to how he broke his ankle in parachute school (excluding him from joining the Airborne), to becoming a Ranger, to his heroics in the Ardennes. I wish I could have known him.



At the back of the cemetery is a flagpole flying the US flag. I walked back that way, then headed back to the entrance. The Netherlands American Cemetery isn't as well-known as the ones in Belgium or Normandy, but it's still a proud and sacred place.

My flight from ATL arrived in Amsterdam around 10am, two hours late. Even with the delay, it was too early to check into the hotel, so I drove from Amsterdam down the A2 to see the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten.



Margraten is just to the east of Maastricht, one of the oldest and loveliest cities in the Netherlands. It's located almost right on the border with Belgium, a perfect place to put a cemetery and memorial for Americans killed in the area during WWII. It's also where my Uncle Mike, my dad's oldest brother, is buried. Uncle Mike was in the 2nd Ranger Batallion, and was killed during the Ardennes offensive in December, 1944. He posthumously received the Silver Star for his gallantry in that action.



The main entrance to the cemetery is a wide plaza, with high walls on either side, leading up to the memorial tower. There's a carrillion inside the tower, whose bells toll the time as well as play patriotic hymns.



On the left side of the plaza is a map detailing Allied operations in the Netherlands, presenting a broad outline of the actions in which many of the fallen were killed. The biggest of these operations were Market-Garden, the massive airborne offensive designed to capture the bridge over the Rhine at Arnhem, and the Ardennes defense better known as the "Battle of the Bulge."




From the map display (the alcove in the right rear of the above photo), a long reflecting pool is flanked on either side by marble walls. The names of those men listed as Missing In Action in these operations are engraved on those walls.




A statue of a mourning woman is at the head of the reflecting pool, just in front of the Memorial Tower.













The tower dominates the 65.5-acre cemetery. Inside the tower is a small chapel.

(continued)

Wrapping up the sightseeing: Quick lunch at In-and-Out on The Embarcadero - a double-double T-shirt stand on Jones St., across the street from the end of the F-line. Passing a cable car on a hill. The outdoor laybrinth at Grace Cathedral (Episcopal). After walking the labyrinth, I headed down to Sunnyvale to crash at the hotel.

Some photos from 18-May. I played tourist for a bit after flying in to teach a class that week in Santa Clara. Cable car at the end of the line, Hyde St. and Embarcadero. This car has been turned around and is taking on passengers for the trip back up the hill. The car above having grabbed the cable under the street and departed, the next of several cars on the other side of the Embarcadero crosses the street into the terminal. Cable cars are single-ended, so MUNI workers manually rotate the car on a turntable. Trolleys on the F-Line - PCC 1056, Ex-Philadelphia, painted in Kansas City livery. #737, ex-Brussels, painted in livery of Zurich, Switzerland. Milan Tram 1811, in 1928 livery. PCC 1010, in MUNI blue/gold livery. PCC 1063, in Baltimore livery. The world-famous sign.

More from last week in SF:



Milan Tram 1818, in the green livery used from the 1930s-1970s











Fishing boats at Fisherman's Wharf.




The Balclutha, a three-masted, square-rigged ship in the collection of the San Francisco Maritime Museum. The Balclutha was build in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1866.



Ghiradelli Square, view from Beach Street.



Archway by the soda fountain's side entrance



Fountain, Ghiradelli Square courtyard



The Buena Vista Hotel on Beach Street

Clearing YYZ was simple, and it wasn't long before I was on Hwy 427, heading to Hwy 407, then to the hotel. If immigration and customs weren't enough to convince you that you're in a foreign country, all the highway signs stating distances in kilometers are a big wake-up call.

My home for this trip was a Marriott Courtyard in Markham, Ont. The "recommended" hotel for the HDS Toronto is a Delta Hotel two exits down on Hwy 401 from the office. Not being familiar with Delta and desirous of racking up the Marriott points, I found this hotel off of 404, figuring I could go the 6km on 404S then the 7km on 401E without too much difficulty.

Was i ever wrong.

Seems that the 404/401 junction in Scarborough is a serious traffic bottleneck. I was barely on time to class on Tuesday, so I had to adjust the planning and leave before 0730. The upside to leaving early was that I could stop at Tim Horton's for a donut. I'm not impressed with Tim Horton's coffee, but fortunately there's a good coffee stand in the Consilium Place office complex.

Class went well all four days; I had great students, as usual. We had a longish day on Tuesday, but did better about getting away from the office the rest of the week. That gave me a bit of flexibility about what to do in the evenings. I usually stick close to the hotel on the day I arrive in a city (with the exception of Santa Clara classes), which is what I did on Monday. Dinner Monday was from "Mama's Pizza," conveniently located on the speed-dial of the hotel room phone. Not a bad thin-crust pizza.

On Tuesday, I worked in the classroom until 6pm or so, then had dinner at "Brix Napa Valley Grille," located right next to the hotel. The Guinness was cold, and I'll review the meals for that evening and the next on YatCuisine. I did Brix again the next night, because the weather turned nasty, windy and rainy, so I wasn't motivated to do any driving.

On Thursday evening, I drove over to Port Credit, located just west of downtown Toronto, along Lake Ontario. I discovered Port Credit, located at the mouth of the Credit River, where it enters the lake, on a trip last year. I was in a hotel close to YYZ on that trip, so going south to the lake was easy. I had so much fun that evening that I decided to go back, even though that meant a 90km drive round trip. Walked around along the lake for a bit, then stopped for coffee at a Starbucks on the river for a white mocha and some Twitter-time, then off to a pub for a couple of pints. Wasn't impressed by that place for dinner, so I migrated back to The Harp, the place down the street I ate at the last trip. Had dinner there and enjoyed some Guinness while watching the Red Wings play the Stars.

Friday was wrap-up day for class. We usually work through lunchtime to finish early. If that succeeds, which it did this week, I try to immediately bail for the airport to get an earlier flight home. I'll tell that tale in part 3.