April Travels: No Fooling...

Haarlem Boating

With a brief respite in the studies, April turned out to be quite a jam packed, adventurous travel month! What a way to dust off from the long, cold, oppressive winter; hrrm, best to get to the point before I slip into hyperbole...

Things started out swimingly (or, boatingly, I should say) with a day on a Dutch motor 'sloep' in Haarlem with the family. Marloes, Lucky and I went out on a boat captained by Peter with Loes, JP, Mirjam and Pieter. Spring had finally begun evidencing, and the weather was sunny and mild: the perfect climate for pleasure boating. We ended the trip with the tour of a historic working windmill, De Adriaan, where the functional gears and milling process is on display. For selected visual details of our pleasant sojourn and views of historic Haarlem, access the photo stream, available for your viewing pleasure here.

De Adriaan: a fine specimine of Dutch windmill in Harlem, The Netherlands

Standing before teh Duomo in Milan, Italy

Milano, Italy

Soon after, taking advantage our short study break, I went to Milan, Italy with friends from the RSM MFM program. Aside from being a major financial center (both now and historically), Milan has a great deal to offer in ways of cultural and sensory pleasure. Milan stands its own against larger competitors to the claim of "Fashion Capital of the World". Being a guilty connoisseur of men's fashion, I enjoyed perusing Milan's 'Golden Quadrangle', a veritable museum of fashion. I was quite amused at the theatrical snobbery of wait staff in the shops: entering the shop one would get an up-and-down assessment followed by a disgusted look. I broke down to consumerism and got a Loro Piana blazer jacket (pictured). Oh well! I do like jackets... In any case, beyond this the museums (Castle Sforzesco itself hosting upwards of 14 museums), churches, architecture, food, sights and sounds all combined into an delicious melange. The visit was short, but a good time was had by all, as witnessed in the photolog.

John & Rafael Visit

After we attended their wonderful September wedding in Bruges, John and Rafel fufiled their notion of visiting us in Leiden this April. Driving up from Oostende, Belgium, they accompanied us for a walk through Leiden, which included visits to Rembrant's birthplace and childhood home, Pieterskerk and several other points of note. Afterwards we went to Amsterdam for a tour of the canals in one of the tour boats. We capped things off by visiting a number of raucus pubs and clubs in Amsterdam. We enjoyed their visit and made plans to go to Oostende to reciprocate. Here are photos from the visit.

John and Rafael, visiting from Belgium, on boat tour of Amsterdam's canals

Olga and Nadia chillin' in the Zurich industrial district

Zurich, Switzerland

A travel filled month with my RSM MFM study pals, a number of us visited UBS Bank in Zurich based upon an invitation from one of our instructors. We visited UBS, talked with asset managment professionals, and toured around the city of Zurich. A mixture of extremes, Zurich is an international city with professionals from all over the globe. Italian and German influences are in evidence, as are a mixture between high finance (in the financial center - expensive boutiques, restaurants, and modern art galleries) and the reactive rebellion of alternative culture (in the industrial district - underground nightclubs, edgy galleries, cool bars & cafes). We went to some beer cafes, browsed the shops, had good food and visited an outdoor market and the adjoining lake district. I visited the headquarters of Freitag, my beloved recycled bag maker! Here are pictures from our visit!

"Hmmm... where is that darned 'Dogpatch' neighborhood, anyway?"

Den Bos with Susan & Willem

Last and certainly not least, our good friends Susan and Willem were visiting Holland from San Francisco, so we caught up with them in Den Bos (earlier in February of Carnival fame). While we only had a day, we were quite active, having drinks at a traditional Belgian cafe to celebrate, followed by a long walking tour around Den Bos and capped by dinner. Indeed, we got to see quite a bit of the city and to sample quite a range of vitles and libations! Here are some pictures from the visit and our fabulous walking tour of Den Bos.