Yesterday was the quarterfinal of the European championship between the Netherlands and Russia. Maastricht was very decorated for the occasion, and there were crowds of people who came in to watch at the many pubs and cafes. Sadly, the Dutch lost in overtime. Here are some pix:
Thursday night a friend and I went to a gala concert at Wigmore Hall (London) featuring Bryn Terfel - his voice is almost too big for the hall, but it was great fun. First half English songs, second half Schubert and some Celtic standards like Danny Boy and All through the Night (in Welsh, of course). I took one shaky photo:
no time to write anything now, but I did put up lots of photos here.
]]>I took a long weekend in Bergen,was very lucky with the weather because apparently it rains 280 days a year there. The trip there was the long one via train, mountain train, and a fjord boat (lots more here):
Bergen was great, very historic city, having been a major Hanseatic center since 1360, and a lot preserved due to relative lack of importance later. I took many photos. I also visited Grieg's home, which is on a lovely promontory overlooking a fjord and has a concert hall with a grass roof!
Here are some pictures of the new furniture in the living and dining rooms, finally! I just completely rearranged the furniture in the living room so was motivated to take pictures.
First, the dining table, complete with naughty kitty taking a nap on top
Here's a closeup of the buffet:
Now the living room. I moved the couch to create kind of a boundary between the dining area and living area. Now it faces the piano. This is now the view when you enter the room:
Fortuitously, the new Oslo Opera House, which is right on the fjord, opened a day before I arrived in Oslo! I went to see it today - there were lots of locals having a look too, even though there was no performance. I bought a ticket to the opening concert, which is being performed several times between now and mid-May, but is mostly sold out - I was lucky to get a return. Here is a photo, taken from the bridge that leads there from the railway station (more photos here):
Chris and I went to Kyoto for the weekend, a great trip, Here are the photos (a lot, especially because the cherry trees were beginning to bloom):
We even saw some geishas in a back street:
Chris and I went to the Red Sox - Oakland As opener to the 2008 season at the Tokyo Dome last night! As I was sitting there, I realized that it was the 50th anniversary (!) of when I became a baseball fan in 1958, when the then NY Giants moved to San Francisco. So it was an appropriate way to celebrate the anniversary, watching my other two favorite teams. Here is the Dome:
My mainline train, the JR Chuo line, goes out west towards the mountains, and one of the stops is Takao, where you can change to the Keio line and go one stop to the terminus at Takaosanguchi, the gateway to a lovely National Park area with good day hikes up Mt Takao. I could not resist that and went off there on Sunday for the day - needless to say, it was very crowded (as all the guidebooks say) with Tokyoites taking a day out, especially since it was the first warmish weekend, but it was still nice and peaceful on some of the trails.
A lot of the walk is along a ridge after you climb up (there is a rack railway, Ouchy-style, but I skipped it). Although in principle, one can see both Fuji and Tokyo from there, it was a bit hazy, as you can see, so I had to be content with hills and trees (not bad!).