Between Tokyo, Amsterdam, and Luxembourg

I don’t often write about my flying experience apart from being in airports but my flight between Tokyo Narita and Amsterdam Schiphol yesterday was serving wines with special labels (the wines were OK) so I had asked to take pictures of all of them (and tried all of them).

The Milkmaid by Vermeer

A Windmill on a Polder Waterway by Paul Gabriel

The Sampling Officials of the Amsterdam Draper’s Guild by Rembrandt

View of the Golden Bend in the Herengracht by Gerrit Berckheyde

Still Life with Flowers and a Watch by Mignon

A collection of great Dutch painters.

And at Schiphol.

Light drizzle in Luxembourg but not too cold.

Looking Back 2012

Wrapping up the year with some highlights…

January

Starting the dragon year with appropriately named “Gyokuryu”.

From Kyoto

A new Mac arrives just before going away.

In London for one night.

Cannes again.

February

In Nice for the first time ever!

The Baie des Anges, the Promenade des Anglais, and the Cours Saleya as seen from the Parc du Chateau.

A reunion with Arakawa-Sensei, our beloved Japanese language teacher from middle/high school.

March

A lunch visit to Tamahidé with cousin visiting from Ashiya.

Voilà!

In New Yo—rk♪ New Yo—rk♪ on business.

The view from the living room.

Out in the ‘burbs of New Jersey.

April

Cherry blossoms.

A visit to my alma mater for a reunion with Glee Club friends for the first time in a long time.

In the Netherlands for the first time.  Vacationing in Amsterdam, coinciding with the Queen’s Day.

May

A day trip to Keukenhof outside of Amsterdam.

June

A “truffle” party at my best friend’s.

Truffle slices. Mmmmm.

A first girls’ night out for the seven of us from the office at the Ivy Place in Daikanyama.

July

A visit to the Tokyo Disneyland.

Fuji Rock 2012

August

Vacationing in the Baltic countries.

Vilnius, Lithuania.

The Hill of Crosses, Lithuania.

Riga, Latvia.

The Baltic Sea in Pärnu, Estonia.

Tallinn, Estonia.

September

Tokyo Jazz, 2012

Inside @ Tokyo International Forum, Hall A

A small middle/high school class reunion to prepare for a bigger, end-of-year reunion.

This was a small reunion with three of my middle/high school classmates. This complimentary wine came from a gigantic bottle that was bigger than a magnum.

October

A day trip to Kawagoé with an old friend from work.

Visited Osaka and met up with an elementary school friend.

Osaka billboards and shop signs.

A trip to Sendai and Matsushima with my best friend to celebrate our respective October birthdays.

November

One more small class reunion before the big reunion in December.

Annual Beaujolais Nouveau night.

December

The 30th Anniversary Reunion!

Christmas.

And more Christmas.

Sad to see the dragon year 2012 go but happy 2013!

Cats in Riga

I always try to take pictures of cats when I’m travelling.  I just like them and like capturing their expressions.

Something from the past:-

Cats in Amsterdam

In Budapest

In Fes, Marrakech, and Essaouira

In different cities and villages of Bhutan

Sadly during my entire Baltic trip, while I saw a couple of cats in passing (including once from the bus near the border of Lithuania and Latvia, I think on the Latvian side), I was unable to get them on my camera.  I don’t know where they exist in the Baltics.  All domesticated and no stray cats??

Here is something else though from Riga: the famous black cat (well, two of them).

Cat House/Kaķu māja

And there is a counterpart dog that our guide told us was observing the cats…

Bicycle Heaven

This will be my final (for the time being anyway) post on my recent trip to Amsterdam and it is appropriately going to close with a collection of colorful and often playful bicycles.  I would ride one and dress it up in shades of purple and with a waterproof basket or two if I were to live in Amsterdam.

Random Amsterdam

Here are some pix that I took in Amsterdam which I have not put into any specific category in my previous posts (with maybe a few exceptions).  A few photos are from the outskirts of Amsterdam.

Here we go.

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