A Brief Visit

Not much time to gallivant today, and wasn't in that kind of a mood either. Lots of things done, some more to be done after this. Spotted this golden field yesterday on the way to Breda and took advantage of today's very fair weather to try and get a decent shot of it before it changes colour. I didn't use any special cam mode for this one and yet the shot seems less colourful than the scene appears in real life, whereas normally, if I use 'Pop' mode, I would have gotten the shade of gold-orange which I really saw.

At 8.45 today, US President Obama arrived at Schiphol Airport and at about 9.00 he was at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam because he specifically wanted to see Rembrandt's famous painting, the Night Watch, or 'de Nachtwacht' in Dutch, painted between 1639 and 1642. While at the museum, he said something in Dutch: 'Dank u wel!' Now that was neat! After that, he was driven to The Hague, where 72 other world leaders are gathered for the Nuclear Security Summit to discuss, well, the security of nuclear products, if you will, to prevent them from being stolen by terrorist and/or terrorist organizations. In between all that, the G7 are meeting as well (in fact, right now, as I am typing this) to discuss the crisis in the Ukraine. In 48 hours, it will all be finished. In the meantime, a large swathe of the A4 has been totally closed to traffic and The Hague has become something like a fortress, with no one allowed in or out unless on Summit business or you live there. Many offices in The Hague are closed or have allowed their employees to either take a short holiday or work at home and many residents actually don't mind having a couple of days of absolutely no traffic or traffic-related noise. With many of the streets empty, many kids were able to play outside undisturbed. With weather like what we have right now, I doubt anyone will complain.

One other thing Pres. Obama was allowed to view in the Rijksmuseum was the Dutch Declaration of Independence from Spain after the Eighty Years War, 1568-1648, which ended with the Peace Treaty of Munster. From what I have learned, the form of this declaration was the one which the Americans used way back in 1776 as the basis of their own Declaration of Independence from England.

And now ... back to my chores!

PS. RIP to the passengers of flight MH370 ... how sad that the finality of it now needs to be faced.