Algernon goes to a festival

Hi All,

It's me Igor. I forgot to post this; a while ago me, Yaya, Chico and Woopy went to Flappiepop in Mickey and Jimmy's house.

Igor and Mickey @ Flappiepop

Algernon was staying with us at the time, but he disappeared for quite a while and we were wondering were he went so I did a little crowdsourcing on twitter, Facebook etc. and several online friends sent me pictures of him at Pinkpop, a Dutch festival located near Flappiepop (see here for the line-up).

Algernon with the Pinkpop logo ('pop' is dutch for doll)

Algernon on the phone?... Who is he calling? Maybe miss Wilma? Or pigs for a future destination?

Algernon dancing during the Skunk Anansie performance

What is Algernon doing with beer? Maybe they served carrot beer..

Apparantly they served an excellent cheese fondue at Pinkpop, Algernon was seen eating this on more than one occasion.

Algernon dancing to the music of the Prodigy

Algernon crowdsurfing! Teeheee.. that rat sure is full of surprises!

Seriously.. that rat never stops to amaze me.

Grtz
Igor

Algernon's city trip to The Hague (2/2)

Algernon's trip continued to the Binnenhof, where the Dutch parliament has it's seat. On his way to the Binnenhof, he had his picture taken in front of the Statue of King William the Second. This William II was the son of William the first or William of Orange who became king after the napoleontic wars. He was depicted on the monument that was at the end of our previous post.

Algernon also took a picture in front of the Gevangenpoort, which is now a museum. Suus and Dunya also had their pigture taken there!


Outside the Binnenhof (inner court), which is called Buitenhof (outer court) is the nice big Hofvijver (Court pond). Algernon liked the view, so you can see him in the picture below. In the back you can see two modern buildings which are always depicted at drawings of the current skyline of The Hague.

As you might remember Suus and Dunya also visited the Hofvijver and the Binnenhof. On the pigture below you can see Dunya sitting in the Flowers, with part of the Hofvijver and in the distance the statue of William II.

He then entered the Binnenhof, this is where the Dutch government works!

Like we said Suus and Dunya also visited the Binnenhof, here a little reminder.

And cause Algernon wanted to follow in the footsteps of Suus and Dunya he insisted on having his picture taken at one of the Binnenhof gates.

WE are not too sure that this is the same gate as where Suus and Dunya had their pigture taken.

Also this little tower is quite important. This is where our prime Minister has his office. Our current prime minister is still Mr. Balkenende, but once they get the new government ready it will very likely be someone from another party, named Mr. Rutte. He is a single man, doesn't this look like a nice place to invite and impress a lady?
We had very interesting results of our elections on 9 June 2010. Apparently all the human voters were so divided that it will be very hard to form a new government. It will probably consist out of 4 or more political parties...

Then we were surprised to find some nice sandsculptures. Many famous paintings were depicted in sand, but algernon liked this one best. It's an M.C. Escher, depicting an impossible waterfall, or an optical illusion of a waterfall. Because the picture does not show the illusion too well, have a look here.

If you want to see or read more about Escher have a look here. Check the downloads and click on the Waterfall, so see how the building would look in reality!
After this long day, Algernon took the tram home...

On his way home in the tram he passed the Zuiderpark (Southern park), which is a nice park where the biggest free popfestival of Europe is held every year: Parkpop. You might have heard of it, as this year our mayor, police and public prosecutor, denied Snoop Dogg entrance to the festival...

In the Zuiderpark, Algernon found tracks, that lead us to a small station!

There was also an actual old Locomotive on the train site.. (By the way, Algernon is in this picture!)

And on these miniature trains, you can actually take a ride...


Well this was The Hague, we hope you enjoyed our City.
We'll be back soon!

The Guinygirlz: Woopy, Lily and Daisy
and Valentine Chico

Algernon's city trip to The Hague (1/2)

Algernon thought it would be nice to do part of Suus and Dunya's City trip to The Hague.
He also wanted to show you some other parts of the Hague that Suus and Dunya did not show us in their report.
His first stop was the 'Nieuwe Kerk', new church in english. Actually this church is not that new, but was built after the 'Grote kerk' (big church), which Algernon will show you as well. In the Golden Age (17th Century) The Hague had a period of economic growth. The Government also took it's seat in the city. Business was booming, more people came to live in the city and that also meant more people going to church. There were so many people attending masses that there was a need for another church. They started with the building of this church in 1649 and in 1656 the New church was finished. In this pigture you see the church in the back and in front are the fountains that are a nice playground for kids visiting the city centre.

In the sixties (of the 20th Century) religion was declining and less and less people attended the mass. The church stopped having a religious function and was renovated. Since then the Church has been used for events, like weddings, concerts and so on. The Church is now an official monument and is one of buildings in the top 100 of Dutch UNESCO monuments. It is a bit hard to see but the white dot in the lower left hand corner is Algernon posing in front of the church.

The Hague has quite a big group of Chinese and other Asian inhabitants. They are mostly in the part of the centre called China Town. Since the start of the Chinese new year this year (13 February 2010) there are two big gates at the entrances of China Town.

As we said before the Grote kerk (Big church) or St. Jacobskerk (saint Jacobs church) became to small for all the new inhabitants in growing The Hague, and the Nieuwe Kerk was built. Slave couldn't get the whole Grote Kerk in the picture, but here you can see Algernon in front of the tower of the Grote Kerk. See this link for a picture of the whole church. This church was only a wooden chapel in the 13th century, and was completed as we know it now in the 15th century.

A bird that used to be very common in the city of The Hague was the stork. The surroundings of the Hague were ideal for birds, even called a bird paradise. It is said that there were even tame storks that would walk over the market and ate out of the hands of merchants. The stork is depicted on the crest of the city. The stork has been away for quite a while, but nowadays storks have been sighted again.

Next stop takes us to where Suus and Dunya snacked on some flowers and had a look at the Queen's palace. It is the Palace of Noordeinde.

Here you can see Suus and Dunya posing in front of the Palace..

And Algernon posing in front of the same palace...

Here is Algernon with the statue of William the Silent, posing in the flowers.

And here a similar pigture with Suus and Dunya and the yummie flowers.

Algernon also said hello to the Queen's grandmother that is placed opposite the palace

The same statue that Suus and Dunya visited in their City trip!

Then Algernon heard from MonSouris (The Mouse from the library in amsterdam, also on twitter) that the Peace palace has a great library. He thought it would be nice to visit them. On his way to the Palace he saw this bike. According to a tag it belongs to the Night Mayor (nachburgemeestah) of the Hague Mr. Bom. We were allowed to take a pigture with it, and if we broke it the pic would be proof of that! Can you see him sitting at the handlebar?

Then Algernon reached the Peace palace (Vredespaleis). It turned out the palace is a beautiful but well guarded and secured building. There was no way even a small rat like algernon was to enter the palace unseen... Well, maybe he should have send them a message on twitter and made an appointment first...

On the way to the Peace palace Algernon also saw a big monument in the distance that he decided to explore. It turned out to be a monument that remembers the independance and founding of the dutch state after the victory over Napoleon.


Well we hope you enjoyed Algernon's trip in the Hague so far...

Read the whole city trip of Suus and Dunya here

Algernon in Paris

Hi all,

This is Little Munch, our slave Mieke went away for the weekend to Paris.
Algernon and me decided to tag along and see a bit of France and the eiffel tower ourselves.

It was very early in the morning when we were dropped off by the other slave at the train station, in the picture above you can see us passing Delft.

Above you can see Mikey's train ticket to Paris. She was going there with some ladies from her sewing class to shop for fabrics and nice trimmings(!) Weird slave, huh? You can see the fog on the pastures, it was that early in the morning! We looked drowsily out of the window...

Luckily the train journey to Paris only takes a 2 and a half hours!! I took some nice pigtures of Algernon at the Paris 'Gare du nord' Station,

and outside the 'Gare de l'est' station which was opposite the hotel.

Just below the Sacre coeur there were many nice fabric stores. But we of course were much more interested in the Sacre Coeur. You can see in the pic what an impressive building this is, located on the top of the hill Montmartre. Slave and her friends were very tired after climbing the 130 meters (approximately 426,5 ft) high hill of montmartre.

The view from the Sacre Coeur was very nice...

Here you can see a close up of Algernon at the Sacre Coeur.


Later that day we had an appointment with all the ladies to go for dinner, and met near this fountain. This was of course something we had to check out! Can you see Algernon at the bottom of the statue?


Then we were finally off to see the Eiffel tower!! Our slave bought some mini eiffel tower-keychains, which Algernon will take along on his journey. If one of the next hosts of Algernon would like one, be our guest and keep one, sending the rest on with Algernon as he continues his journey.
Doesn't the Eiffel tower look huge?


The next day our slave just went shopping, so we didn't make any interesting pigtures to show you. But Algernon had to have a taste of the French everyday life....


Au revoir, mon amis! *hic*
Little Munch and Algernon Rat
p.s. Slave Mikey did NOT buy any fabrics or trimmings on this trip...*sigh*