Windmills!

It's embarrassing that what I knew about the Netherlands at my current age is the same as what I knew about Holland when I was four: wooden shoes and windmills.

I didn't even try on wooden shoes when we were there, but we did go to Kinderdijk, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. I found out about it on a google search, to see if there were any actual windmills still in the Netherlands. Googlemaps said it was about 1.5 hours from Rotterdam by bike, so I thought we could easily do that. Just get a map, hop on our rental bikes, and bike out of Rotterdam, straight to the place. Totally easy.

It turned out to be even easier, because the tourist map we got at the hostel had a dashed line at the bottom, labelled "Ferry to Kinderdijk". We had to ask a few people until we found the ferry, but again, everyone spoke English, so it was easy. The ferry was a great idea, because we not only saved our butts, but we also got a kind of harbor tour on the way there and back.

 

You have to take a tiny ferry across the river from the main ferry stop.

Dutch flag.

Then you get to the site.

The windmills in Holland didn't grind grain. I mean, maybe some of them did, but the reason the Netherlands is known for windmills is that they were used to move water. The country is very low (*Nether*lands), close to sea level, so much of it was reclaimed by pumping water out to dry up the land. Hence the saying: "God created the earth, but the Dutch created the Netherlands."

As you could probably guess, there are a lot of waterfowl in the Netherlands.

There is one windmill that is open to the public and that you can get up close to, but not too close. It's hard to see the scale, but that sail is really long.

And when they get going:

From inside the windmill:

Rotterdam photos -- July 2013

It's been awhile since I've posted here, been busy with edits to my first ever published novella, but I'm going to host H.B. Pattskyn next week, so I've got to drum up readers! A-rat-a-tat-tat.....

Okay, Rotterdam. One of the largest ports in the world, if not the largest. Did you know that the "dam" in Amsterdam and Rotterdam means an actual dam? That's where each of those cities started, when dams were built.

So, massive port, hundreds of years old, center of maritime history/activity for Europe. Why did we go?

Because Jackie Chan filmed part of a movie there.

The movie has some of the best fight choreography ever. The fight scene pictured at the top of the DVD cover takes place on top of a building in Rotterdam.

 

This building, actually:

No spoilers for the movie, but see that sloping part of the building? Yeah.

Rotterdam was almost completely destroyed during WWII, so unlike central Amsterdam, most of the architecture is very new. They really seem to like the overhanging motif.

 

One of the fight scenes in Amsterdam takes place at the Cube Houses.About half of them are private residences and the other half are a hostel.

 

You don't have to be a youth to stay there, but you do have to bring your own soap. If you don't have your own towels, you can rent them for four euros, three of which you get back when you return the towel. You can also rent bikes for 6 euros/day. Tourist rental bikes tend to come in really bright colors, probably to tell the locals to watch out.

View from our room down to the street. The windows are the next-door cube's.

We were on the 2nd floor. This is the floor plan.

The hostel has an elevator that goes up the center and also staircases, which are nauseatingly curvy.

One of the scenes in the movie was shot on the Erasmus bridge, also known as "The Swan".

And the Royal Dutch Marines also participated in the film. Rotterdam has a museum dedicated to them and their history.

Did I mention that Dutch people are huge?

 I think this is where the costume designer got the idea for Snape's trousers:

Yes, please.

Rotterdam has a massive maritime museum. When we were there, they had an excellent exhibit on pirates, and used "Pirates of the Carribbean" lego people to show scale on the model ships.

If you get the chance to go to Rotterdam, do it. It's a little more advanced than Amsterdam, because you actually have to ask for menus in English; the locals won't assume you're foreigners immediately. It's not that  much of a tourist town.

It's about an hour's train ride from Amsterdam, and everything's pretty close. You could do it as a day trip from Amsterdam. Or stay at the Cube Houses. Just remember to bring your own soap.

Or if you can't get to Rotterdam, watch Jackie Chan's "Who Am I?" It's a fun movie. 

Coming up: Windmills!!!

some more vacation photos -- Amsterdam

We went from Germany to Amsterdam, this time to spend about a week in the Netherlands. Here are some photos from Amsterdam.

quintessential Amsterdam -- tall, skinny row houses, flower market, canal, bicycles

wall art

One of the flower market shops. They have a few bulbs that have been treated and cleared to take into the US (and a few other countries) but not the bright blue (see below) that I wanted. :(

Cannabis starter kit. Can I just say that Amsterdam seems a couple of centuries ahead of even the most progressive parts of the US?

Mermaid house plaque

 

The Rufskin store across the street from some gay clubs.

Dam Square. I decided to have the characters in the Amsterdam story agree to meet at that lion, rather than at Centraal Station.

Decorative details on the most famous coffee shop in Amsterdam. Hard to see, but there are four little Ganeshas surrounding the middle square.

Cat that apparently lives in the coffee shop, or maybe it was visiting. Hard to tell if a cat is stoned or not.

Detail on a houseboat.

I know some people probably think it's gross to let animals into restaurants, but we loved hanging out with this calico while we had coffee and pastries.

poppyseed pastry

The cat visiting another table when the sun through the window got too hot

Shaved-head dude in underwear just hanging out on a balcony. First really nice day after days of rain and cold.

Our walking tour guide said that sometimes when the buildings appear to be leaning, well, they are. The houses are built to lean forward slightly, so that when they use the lifting arm pulley, whatever is being lifted doesn't hit the front the the building. But Some buildings are old, and the pilings upon which they're built are just settling into the soft ground.

toilet in the lobby restroom at our hotel. So beautiful, I'm not sure how anyone can bring themselves to use it.

Next up: Rotterdam, then Kinderdijk (windmill museum area), then the Bike Tour Where We Thought We Were Gonna Die.

Some vacation photos -- Munich, June 23-28

 So, some vacation photos. DH has been teaching a class every other year or so just south of Munich. Can I just say that Bavaria is not a great vacation destination for vegetarians who don't like beer?

The vegetarian option at the hotel restaurant. Not that I'm complaining about it -- a baked potato swimming in sour cream and deliciously steamed vegetables heavily loaded with Parmesan cheese. What's not to like?

 

For more meat, try doner (gyros), sold at stands and storefronts all over Germany (and Amsterdam). This one offered a veggie option -- I chose roasted peppers and onions plus artichoke hearts, with dill-yogurt sauce. Yummy!

They also served the beer brewed by the local monastery. I don't know why they're called "Hell".

 The other teacher this year was one of DH's co-workers, whose wife had an interest in seeing Dachau, which is close to Munich, so we went one day. A room at the end of the museum has memorial items.

Pink triangle plaque in memory of homosexual prisoners

 Munich was incredibly cold when we were there, temps in the 50's during the day, and some rain. So you can't see the sun on the gold mosaic of the State Theater (Opera House), but it still looks pretty nice.

Yes, it really was that gray every day

Some parts of Munich are old, or look old, like the Opera House, but about 80-90% of it was bombed during WWII, so there is a lot of modern architecture and art as well.

A statue, known as "The Munich Eunuch"...

...with people in the pic to show the scale

 Karla's Kaffeehaus is a bakery/cafe I like to go to in the town where we stayed. Besides the cheesecake, chocolate cake, strudel, etc., this time they also had little pieces of puff pastry that had cheese, sesame seeds, and poppy seeds baked onto them.

Proof that Europe is so much more advanced than the US

How they do cappuccino. Also, the day I realized that if my tablet's battery is charged, I'll never be without a book ever again.

Genteel afternoon coffee in Germany and a disillusioned PI in Los Angeles (Rhys Ford's "Dirty Kiss")

 The window display for a glasses store in downtown Munich.

Who says the Germans don't have a sense of humor?

More pics to come!

LHNB story "The Idiots' Tango" now downloadable!

My free read for Love Has No Boundaries is now available for download! Or you can read it on the site.

You must be a member of the Goodreads' M/M romance group to access all the LHNB stories, including mine, and to join the group you must be at least 18.

They also have story collections from the same event in 2011 and 2012. If you've ever wanted to peruse hundreds of free M/M romances, here's your chance! This is the first year I've participated, though.

News, everyone!

I've decided to take a page from Rhys Ford's book and not wait until there's some huge occurrence to make a blog post. Although there HAVE been some huge occurrences:

1. We took another trip to Germany for DH to teach a class, but afterwards, we went to the Netherlands for a week. Photos will be upcoming.

2. The Supreme Court rejected Prop 8 and struck down part of DOMA. I'm still trying to get the details, because this is huge. So now I have a date to include in a free read, "Married Filing Jointly" which is dedicated to the day that DOMA died. I guess I need to finish it. :P

3. And today I signed a contract from Dreamspinner Press for my first stand-alone story, a Regency/shifter novella tentatively titled "A Cunning Plan", and starring a devious fox. Funnily enough, the day after I found the contract offer in my email, I saw this statue as the DH and I were on the first day of our bike tour:

I'm taking it as a good omen. :)

So stuff is happening! Everywhere!! Time to get moving and rev up this blog again. Just as soon as I finish reading every new post on facebook.

Hey, SCOTUS, make me work harder!

As you may have heard, the Supreme Court of the United States is hearing arguments this week about marriage equality. This topic is of interest to me as a writer of Male/Male romance, because romance novels generally tend to have a marriage in there somewhere.

Romance novels are also supposed to have conflict in there somewhere. When I’m writing a M/M romance, I can easily create conflict by tossing some random homophobia into the story. I can dash off a father who kicks his son out for being gay, or a mother who won’t speak to her son’s boyfriend. How about a landlord who refuses to rent an apartment to the couple, or a town that won’t allow a same-sex wedding in the park where other weddings take place? 

See? Instant conflict, pulled from today’s headlines, not even requiring me to make anything up using my imagination.

If the Supreme Court rules that the Defense of Marriage act is unconstitutional, every state in the US will have to recognize marriages from other states, even if both spouses are the same gender. It will effectively make same-sex marriage legal throughout the country. And it will remove a nice, big source of potential conflict for my characters.

Now they'll be like any other couple in any other romance novel, where their decision to marry will depend on more complicated things: family opposition based on class or culture, fear of commitment, whether or not they want kids, trust issues, or a million other things I’ll have to WORK to think of. I’ll have to come up with inner conflicts to keep them apart, instead of relying on state or Federal laws.

As people’s sexual orientation becomes less of an issue, more sources of potential conflict for my stories will slip away. I’m going to have to work harder and harder to come up with believable conflict if I can’t fall back on cardboard bigotry. If someday Congress passes an Employment Non-Discrimination Act, then my character won’t have to worry about losing his job for being gay, which means I’ll have to come up with an entirely new conflict for him. And that’s hard, thinking stuff up!

SCOTUS, if you dismantle DOMA, I’ll have to work harder to create conflict in my characters’ lives. But I’m willing to try, because that will mean that real same-sex couples will have less conflict in theirs.