We happily interrupted our picture posting for dinner with friends and now we have returned — yes, folks, it’s that dreaded obligation: looking at people’s vacation pictures!
This sign was in Almere Centre (the downtown), which, as far as we could tell is a huge open-air mall of shops; one arm of it is full of more upscale restaurants rather than the (mostly American) fast food places scattered around. They do have a very big farmer’s market.Since pics don’t come into wordpress in order, this is part of the Bistro In Vitro exhibitAnd here it is, see-through sushiJonelle comments on not being a big fan of the bistro in vitro foods. This knitted meat was kinda creepy.WARNING: they don’t look like oysters, they look like kidneys on the half shell (see below or close your eyes and skip) — I’d have to be pretty damn hungry, as in starving, to eat these I thinkSee more detail laterThis doesn’t look too badOK, also pretty gross — it was one sick puppy who thought up these! the one on the right is Einstein, I thinkAnother one I don’t believe I’d be ordering at the Bistro In Vitro!Who likes meat ice cream??!? Though I love rye bread ice cream, at least at Loki Cafe in Reykjavikpretty interesting, huh?This is a hoot!But look pretty appetizing I’d sayYeah the stainless steel cow cheese pics are definitely not in orderthis is the stainless steel cowHere’s a sad future! Coffee, bananas and avocados are cash crops and, as best I can figure, the land currently used for these cash crops will be needed to crop grains and vegetables for domestic uses.Mango leather — looked coolthought this was a great bench. Kate — we could do something like this with your black walnut log.This is the Italian garden — for some reason I don’t remember we couldn’t get into their pavilionThis and next few are the UAE pavilion. There may be application of this research for New Mexico. We certainly have a lot of saline water and lots of sun and windWe think this may be the Cyprus or Yemen exhibit. No signage, so it’s still a mystery.This is one of the backsides of the Italian gardenLaird’s tenderloin tataki appetizer at the Dutchmy Jeruselem artichoke — OMG, it was so good!Laird’s asparagus — good but not as good as Jonelle’s sea bream my ohso fantastic sea bream — the sweet potatoes were gorgeous and delicious!Note the pea garnishLaird had cheesecake and it was really goodI had parsley ice cream. Yeah, not a fan — where’s the rye bread ice cream?!?We need to look at this website. We scanned the QR codes for a lot of additional information, but we were suffering a lot of information overload.I think this is side of a bridge — interesting. It was some sort of reed woven into the structure of the bridge.They rarely labeled flowers, so I didn’t know what most of the werethis was in the Indian pavilion, which was really mostly a storeIsn’t she beautiful — boy did I want her!This was amazing — it took 2 1/2 years to make! if you can’t tell, it is embroidery.This website is VERY interesting — innovative building materials and methods — we encourage you to go lookLots of birds. I think these may be Egyptian geeseThere were two of these robots, one sorta at each end of the Floriade — we never saw the one we saw everyday coming in from the lake move; this one was moving, but part of its arm detached and so the mechanism moved without the arm. Notice the headdress.Her eyes moved, too — a little creepyWho is that old guy? Me taking a selfie.What a cool idea — planting on the sides of bridgesthe walkway and bridge was changed to curve so as to not disturb a beaver lodge somewhere here that we could not seeother people looking for the beaver lodge, too. But mostly, closer shot of the bridge planterAlliums were everywherethis is the bldg with the green roof I showed you from the cable carhave you guessed what it’s made of — this is a test: I told you about it in another blog postTa Dah!Isn’t it simply BRILLIANT?!?and this is the back sideNatural dyes in waterI want a wall like this! Actually, I want the whole pavilion, it could be like a summer kitchen in our meadowWe just loved the amount of monumental art on the grounds.The back side of the wool growers pavilion — probably our favorite individual organization pavilion, although the Chinese pavilion was so far over the top because of the grounds and plantings.Isn’t this cool?!? Imagine a combination of veggies and flowersThere were lots of bees and lots of bee houses — the bees were busy and very mellow, paid no attention to us humansChris… we should set up a factory to make these fittings…This was also really neat, a sculpture/bench/planter/summer bed(?)colored metalA tiny house; love the fencingI don’t know about the photos, but this is part of the arboretum — trees were planted in alphabetical order! Makes it easier for future horticultural research is what I think we were told — they are catalogued and there will be a horticulture library in Flores (the bldg with the great art facade near the bee-made Welcome guys)what a cute idea for a swing — obviously not for us, all we have are pinons and junipers; no tree swing for usAnother bridge — this time, bent rebar.another great bench; don’t know how comfy thoughAll the gardens were planted in what I think is called French Intensive — meaning very dense, plants close together; more water efficientJonelle and her very well-mannered new friend.Amazing what you can do when and where water is not an issue.building a copy of this chair is now # 1,234 on my personal project bucket list.This was in the Peace Garden — this part was about famous (and perhaps not-so-famous) historical figures who had been what I will call “peace pioneers”, cause I started to say “fought for peace” but that sounded oxymoronic. I walked around the circle and took a video of the significant peace personalities. You can see a few in the background of this still pic.These trees are part of research on trees in urban environmentsWant this living wall — actually more like living structure since it’s two sidedThis is hard to see, but VERY COOL — this is the lake we crossed every day and the structure (that is not a power line) is a water ski run — you hook onto it and it pulls you around a very large area (that includes ski jumps for those so inclined) so you can ski without having to own a boat or know someone who does — also, I assume, means more environmentally friendly and safer than lots of ski boats running aroundI think this was the Dutch Innovations bldg — what amazing thinking & innovating they are doing!This was the virtual reality hot air balloon ride we took (twice) over Flavoland — IT WAS SO COOL!there was no explanation of this, but I reckon it must be some kind of stacked garden for indoorsa kiddie play area, one of several throughout the parkthe hop on/hop off “train” seen through the windows of a restaurant bldgsculpture/exhibit about figuring out your carbon footprintkiddie play areaI don’t remember this, but it’s prettythis is walking to the next picturethis was a fountain that “showed” the cumulative heartbeat of Almere and visitors — you put your hands on a rail and it would chart your heart beats (or something like that — the ferry driver told us in a kind of garbled way and there was no English signage). Anyway, it wasn’t a permanent installation and we went on the last day — actually we were there for its LAST GASP!This is a picture of a picture of AlmereLaird becoming fast friends at the Bangladesh pavilionTurkey garden in shape of its flagI have no idea whether people with touch screens can make all these signs big enough to read, but this tells about making flavoland province from the sea in the 1970s — and shows some of the equipment they usedThis was the gorgeous Chakra garden, with the outer garden planted in the same color as its corresponding polethe center fountainthis is an energy- and materials-efficient tiny vacation homecovered in ceramic tilethink this was furniture made from plastic, but not really sure — I meant to feel it but forgot tonice bathroom, but the sink is too littleLOVE THE LIGHTSthis is the kid’s room in the more traditional vacation house that had been “future-proofed” — I have no idea why we don’t have the pics of the living-dining-kitchenI would have helped paint if it were possible for me to get down on my knees anymore!This exhibit was about Hortus, the new Almere district that will be created from the Floriade, but I don’t think all the photos downloaded — Laird was having a terrible time trying to move photos from phone to computer to hereThis is going to be a mostly wooden apartment bldgthis round bldg held the completely incomprehensible films we told you about in an earlier blog postingone of the asparagus menlast day, last visit to the greenhouse on the way to our last ferry ride back to hotelTHE END (unless we find more photos!)
So now for MORE PICTURES of Floriade — one of these days, we’ll remember how to do this on original posts, real time (well, closer than now).
Another example of urban vertical gardening. Remind you of Gardens by the Bay in Singapore, Sandy?Most of the pavilions were built to be disassembled and reused — this is France, I thinkThese pics are for you, Daniel — Japan’s exhibitlove this moss (?)Qatar pigeon 3-D printed pigeon tower; tallest 3-D printed cement bldg in world (in Guiness book)oops, I picked the one with his eyes closedThe Amsterdam-Almere exhibitIsn’t this fantastic? I don’t know why I’m looking like a criminal; maybe trying to figure out how to steal it???On the cable carAll you Santa Feans, revel in all this WATER!this is a permanent structure for the new district, which will be named Hortus (no idea if that means something)metal structure is yet another way to grow plants using less landwait until you see what that grass roofed bldg looks like from ground; you’ll have to go to other posts, but worth it!liked this; another way to entertain kiddies
This may take more than one post; we don’t know. It’s hard to be old in the Technological Age! (Are you impressed that we at least got this far???)
Since they don’t come out in order, may jump around. This is the China exhibit, best aesthetic/garden oneThe Floriade mapOur Ohso-Convenient Hotel — YAY! The Leonardo in AlmereThis is the horticultural college on the Floriade groundssweet exhibit of a possible urban meadowcouldn’t go in the “lighthouse” in background; the ladybugs had taken it over!Everything was recyclable!I just love these – planters made from North Atlantic buoys; what a great idea! Let’s fill up our bodies of water with fruit and nut treesupstairs was the AMAZING 2-Michelin-star restaurantmore pics of the bldg in background, will be apartmentsLoved this sculpture, HUGE, made up of individual metal bees! To-be apt bldg in back. Why don’t we do this to our bldgs???can be put up in a dayBamboo dragon at the Thailand exhibitTailandThailand is another country looking at “food alternatives”Now we are in Germany pavillon; generating energy, but I forgot what it used forOne of our daily ferry captainsthe side of the horticultural college building — we need to do this in US!the Flavoland (Almere’s province) bldg; roof is a rendition of the sea bottom, with trees on topThis is bldg with the In Vitro Bistro, which will show up later – you gotta see Celebrity Bites!alternative bldg material, but, alas, I forget what it is; could be hempMore China garden — all about different ways to use bamboothey even brought a mist machine — cool, huh?loved all the bamboo furniture, toowhat a garden entry!
So we’re back, have downloaded the hundreds (thousands?) of pictures we took of the Floriade, so here is a smattering — be prepared: we will find you and make you look at all the others! First up, greenhouse pictures; another post(s) will show other parts of the 60 hectares of delicious delight in all things green! These are not in any order; don’t know why. Also not as many as we selected; maybe there is a wordpress limit?
The very high part in the back is a food production area — big enough to grow enough hydroponic food for a city of 1 millionflower beds outside greenhouseI WANT this olive tree!we seem to have forgotten who did these or how, but beautiful birds on glassTook lots of airplant pics for you, Sandy!Lupine — Manhattan LightsToo bad we don’t get all these colors in the grocery store!This the Floriade greenhouse — it was HUGE!
We flew from Amsterdam yesterday on KLM — when you are flying overseas, think of them, it is so nice flying with them, the flight attendants are so very nice — why, they even appear to like us customers! — and it’s like international travel used to be, where they feed you like every two hours. This was a different plane than the one I took from Amsterdam the last time I was there, after the Rhine cruise I took with Noekie — that time, don’t know what kind of plane it was but economy plus looked like our domestic business class — that was a cushy trip! But, while not as plush, it still was a lovely flight and we got in earlier than we would have on Icelandair. Not that it counted for anything because we got a late start, didn’t make up the time apparently and when we got to JFK, there was no gate for us — we had to ride around the airport for about a half hour until one was available.
Oh, but we got to the TWA Hotel, got to our room, rested a bit then went to dinner. Chris had encouraged a cocktail, so I had my usual. I had perhaps the worst G&T in my memory (well, no, I just remembered that Spanish gin and the Japanese gin we had at our gin tasting party — gin made from sake: so very wrong!) — it was called Dorothy Parker gin and I don’t know whether it was the gin or the tonic they used (need to ask what that is), but it tasted like drinking the watered out dregs of an old, perhaps from the 50s, perfume bottle, maybe from the suitcase of a TWA stewardess who was hoping to get lucky, meet a rich man and live in a mansion, be able to afford better perfume, but, alas, that never happened and she worked until the mandatory retirement age for stewardesses. Whatever happened to her, I wonder — I heard that she had inherited her girlhood house when her mother died, but no one knew if she sold it and bought a pre-war apartment in NYC or went back home and played canasta every week with the girls. Maybe she got a job at the TWA Hotel, Paris cafe hostess or front desk, she did have talents after all if you don’t count her taste in perfume. Oh, god, do you think she got married after all and when her son decided to start a gin distillery. . . .
Definitely not the gin for me! Nor do I get the name Dorothy Parker coupled with excessively floral gin or anything else in that vein. Unless they make an acerbic cologne????
The power just came back on — I was writing this when the (very loud!) fire alarm sounded and a voice said there had been an alarm and they were looking into it. So, about 2 1/2 hours later, it is back on and I am rewriting. In the meantime, we went down and got salads at the food hall and, ohsobad, desserts (bad in re calories, but tasty as …..). We missed Sia’s graduation ceremony because there was no internet — very sorry about that! Did anyone video it or is it saved on utube? Two schools down, Sia, one more to go before the big U starts — do you have any idea what you want to major in? In public school, I think you have to declare what your college major will be when you’re in 8th grade — it puzzles me that the system expects a kid to know what she/he wants to do with her/his whole life before she/he is even old enough to drive! If I had not been lucky enough to just fall into my career, I’d STILL be pondering that question! (This is somewhat reminiscent of Russia, where you take an entrance exam for each institution and each possible major at 16 or 17 and are pretty much stuck with that choice for the rest of your life. If you want to change majors, you have to go all the way back to the competitive entrance exams and start afresh — no transfer of credits).
We have a couple more hours to while away here, then we go through the tunnel connecting the hotel with the Jet Blue terminal and start preparation for the next-to-the-last leg of journey home. Everyone start practicing, building up your stamina — we have LOTS of repetitive pictures of the Floriade! We are quite charmed with the TWA hotel, which converted the massive, Saarinen designed central airport facility at the then named Idlewild Airport — In 1962, with the advent of the jet powered Boeing 707, the TWA fleet was obsolete. TWA sold to American in 2001? But if you’re in JFK and have the time, go to Terminal 5 (Jet Blue) and follow the signs from the skyTrain to the TWA hotel.
Sandy — hope you got over your cold and will have your knee replacement surgery soon — is it tomorrow? GOOD LUCK! We’ll be sending out love and good vibes to the Universe for you!
lairdandjonelle 