Snowy Amsterdam

The harsh winter continues in Amsterdam. Well, its tough with Dutch standards but of course rather normal if you use Swedish measurements. Nevertheless trains stop running, mail doesn't show up and the country ran out of road salt making driving hazardous.
A big difference compared to Sweden is that they just don't have the machinery and staff, never mind organization, to deal with lots of snow. Which isn't strange since it so rare - they say that this is the toughest winter in the Netherlands in 30 years.
I kind of like it.

I took the photo on our street the 6th of January.

Snow in Amsterdam

The last couple of days it has been snowing here in Amsterdam. And unusually, the snow is still around!

 

My little boat, all snowed over

 

Snowy street outside our apartment

Snow in Jerusalem

This morning, I woke up to find Jerusalem dressed in white. Nig heavy flakes of snow filled the air, and a thick layer of wet, melting slush covered everything. We (Femke, Micke - our Swedish guest, and me) dressed up for the weather and ventured to the Old City. In this corner of the world, snow is something people treat with respect. Hence, the city was emptier than a Swedish town at three on Christmas Eve. The only people out were soldiers and photographers. We had a great time, enjoying the freak weather and the empty streets.

Sunday, we drove to Tel Aviv together with Micke, José and Åsa. I always found it an ugly city, and this visit didn’t change my mind. But José took us to a great Italian restaurant, Ernesto (90, Ben Yehuda Street), where I had the best pasta since my trip to Bologna last year. Delicious!
Afterwards, we walked the beach, enjoying the spring-like weather and even seeing some people go for a swim.

Monday, Micke bought me dinner on Pasha’s restaurant in East Jerusalem. They have the best meze’s (small Arabic dishes) in town. Afterwards, we had a beer at Barood in West Jerusalem and enjoyed the jazz band playing.

This might all sound like we are doing nothing but enjoying ourselves, but that is far from true. In fact, both Femke and me have been extremely busy lately. I am writing about my paragliding trip to India, and editing the next issue of the paragliding magazine (deadline on Monday). And Femke had her hands full with quarterly reports. But when you have lot’s to do it’s nice to go out for a drink or some nice food together with friends.

The Old City caught in a snow storm.

A minaret in the snow storm.

Femke and me on a rooftop in the Old City.

Femke and Micke in our alley this morning.

An ultra-ortodox jew praying at the Western wall,
despite the snow storm.