The Netherlands - summer 2025

 I usually try to see my old Princeton friend Ernst when I'm in Europe. He's at the University of Utrecht working on circular economy and industrial decarbonization stuff. Leo met me in Amsterdam and we convened on Ernst's house. Had a fun outing and got crazy ice cream with Ruben. 

Amersfoort is famous for their bell tower with the carillon and for their rocks. Seriously. Other cities like to send them rocks:

And we visited the Koppelport (land and water port):

Somehow there's this mini dessert in the Netherlands:

We went to Amsterdam to see the Van Gogh Museum. 

Lego found a way to profit off of Van Gogh too:

This was a  crazy bike rack:

Amsterdam has a gigantic underground bike parking facility near the main train station. These escalators allow you to safely bring your bikes up and down. 

I love going to Dutch grocery stores. Yum Filet Americain (beef tartare)! and hot dogs in a jar!:

Leo has never met my cousin Michael who is a professor of computer science at Leiden University so we took a trip to Leiden. I finally got to meet his stylish wife Hyowon:

Someday I want to open a store like this:

Leiden has this very old windmill:

Leo and I had lunch at this fabulous Paco Ciao restaurant. So much fun. The front door says "Mr. Paco Ciao"

You walk into this small sitting room and try to figure out where you went wrong. Was it really a restaurant? It is a tiny place in this guy's apartment?

https://youtube.com/shorts/SX9Qtl67R6g?feature=share  

The food is very creative:

The bathroom has this sign:

And when you press the button:

https://youtube.com/shorts/IYjXbG90AfM