The week began at 4:30 a.m. on Sunday when I landed in Amsterdam after a 12-hour flight from Seoul. My connecting flight to Alicante was leaving at 5:30 p.m., so I had plenty of time to meet up with my LUG friend Michiel and walk around the city a bit instead of hanging out in the Schiphol lounge for 12 hours.
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Sunday morning is not a particularly busy time at Schiphol, but still this is one of the world’s main international airports. I spent a few hours in the KLM lounge working, until Michiel picked me up around 9:
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The first order of business was to see a Lee Friedlander photo exhibition at FOAM:
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We then walked around the city a bit, enjoying the relatively good weather. Here is some wall art in the Bloemenmarkt, that seems to have spilled over onto the scooter:
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On the Rembrandtplein, since my last visit a few years ago, the statue of the great painter has been augmented by statues of the some of the characters he painted:
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A serious photographer in action:
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A casual photographer in action:
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Red Bull:
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Classic Amsterdam scene, classic Amsterdam weather:
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The houseboat may not be seaworthy, but it has modern amenities:
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The sign says “if there were oil here, Shell would be drilling”:
Michiel and I were both shooting with Fuji X cameras. He is one of the lucky few who has the new 1.4/23mm Fuji lens, which he was kind enough to lend me. So the remaining six pictures from Amsterdam are all made with this magnificent optic, at its maximum aperture of 1.4 to really demonstrate how good it is.
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Bushuissluis and bokeh:
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The people next to us at the restaurant where we had lunch:
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Amsterdam traffic:
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E.T. came home:
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Tram and pedestrians mingle. I am always amazed that there are so few accidents, given the number of stoned and drunk tourists in this part of town:
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On Keizersgracht, where Michiel had parked, we walked past this piece of early US history:
And then, on Sunday afternoon, I flew home to Alicante and went to work on Monday morning in a zombie-like state. The last five pictures are office-related.
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During the weeks leading up to Christmas, we have various charity sales in the lobby of our office. Here are two lovely girls selling baked goods for a good cause (the actual cause escapes me):
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Friday afternoon I took my team out for lunch to celebrate the end of the year. We went to a restaurant called “Sabor de Cine”. The food was excellent and so was the ambiance, with classic movies projected onto the wall behind the bar:
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Carolina joined my team in March, and she has made a very substantial contribution due to her deep knowledge of econometrics and economic statistics. She is half Galician (north-west Spain), half Chilean:
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Marina is a trainee in my service. She will be with us for a total of 7 months. She is Italian, but from the northern, German-speaking part of Italy:
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This is how every Spanish meal starts–a nice salad to share:
