20-23 April 2006 - Neander and Armenian Genocide

20-23 April 2006 - Neander and Armenian Genocide
This weekend's photo extravaganza takes us to Neander valley, just outside of Düsseldorf. This valley is named after a local inhabitant of the 17th century named Joachim Neumann, whose went by the name Neander (the Greek version of his last name). But the valley is better known for being the place where the bones of the so-called Neaderthal Man were found in 1856 during work in a limestone quarry. What is interesting about the discovery of these bones was that it was just prior to Darwin publishing his theories regarding evolution and the result of this a whole new kind of science was born that would lead to Ross on Friends having a job in the science museum.

This little river is the Düssel River, from which the city of Düsseldorf takes its name. This is despite the fact that the nearby Rhine River is by far the more prominent water feature of the local landscape. In fact, I am not even sure where this little river goes after it leaves this valley outside of Düsseldorf. Presumably it goes through at least part of the city and probably empties into the Rhine, but thanks to urban development it isn't entirely clear how that happens.

I still haven't fully got a grip on my camera yet. The one leaf right in the centre is out of focus. Missed that one, I guess.

It's amazing how nice a place this is. One gets the feeling as they drive through Germany that there are no nice places anywhere. This is due to the Autobahns, I suppose, and that all highways kind of look the same, as does the view from them. Thank you Hitler.

Imagine coming out here to play a game of chess or something.

Not that the autobahn does not intrude out here either, of course. But as you go flying across this bridge on a road with no speed limits hopefully you aren't spending much time looking beneath you to notice that there is a peaceful little valley below.

The sign at the "central" parking lot for the Neanderthal Museum said that it was a "15 minute walk". It is not. Beware this if you should ever visit. It is more like 45 minutes, a local gentleman informs us.

For my newly acquired gayness in taking so many flower pictures, I apologise.

After almost an hour's walk the Neanderthal Museum comes into view.

Some Neanderthal inspired artworks.

Just across this bridge is where the bones of the original Neanderthal Man were discovered. But as I have no money and you have to pay this is as close as we'll get today.

The remains of an old little bridge across the River Düssel. Maybe this was part of the limestone quarry works that used to destroy this entire area in the 19th century (and which led to finding Neanderthal Man, of course)?

As you might guess the Neanderthal Museum also costs money, so we won't be going there either.

And so the hike back to the conveniently located "central" parking lot begins.

I still haven't got close-up figured out. The slug's eyes are out of focus. I have to work on that and get a feel for it.

This sign is funny, although I have no idea where this giant wave is supposed to come from. This little stream they call the River Düssel hardly qualifies as a "river" by Canadian standards.

A single pink tree far off in the distance. I might be flower-gay, but not enough to go climb down to take pictures of it.

A short drive brings us back into the city again and to the Zoo Land pet store, where Sting Rays are on sale in the aquarium section.

I wonder if Sting Rays make good pets?

In the evening it's off to the most expensive shopping street in Germany, Düsseldorf's Königsallee - better known as the Kö. Not the "Ko". The "Kö".

The Kö is a good place to see expensive cars, but I am disappointed by the lack of Ferraris today.

The Kaufhof an der Kö.

This is Sevens, a shopping centre on the Kö that is my favourite destination because it has a Saturn store at the top of it. Saturn is like a MediaMarkt / Future Shop kind of store with discount stuff like DVDs and electronics and stuff. Of course, I have no money, so it's probably not the best place to go at the moment.

Driving through downtown Düsseldorf.

This is my new favourite Turkish restaurant, where you can get well fed for little money. It takes a very long time, however, during which time they feed you apple tea, which I don't drink because I don't like tea.

Fast forward a whole day and I am now back in The Hague and trying to get home from the train station. Unfortunately there is a protest of some kind blocking the tram tracks.

With tram 17 out of action I decide to take some pictures and get some practise with how to use my camera.

Oh. The protest is about remembering the Armenian Genocide in 1915. This is something I believe in remembering (too many people forget it) but from all the police and yelling and chanting and the proximity to the American embassy I was expecting something a bit more current and violent.

The protestors arrive peacefully at Plein, the traditional place for protests as it is right in the front of the government and parliament buildings, not that many people really notice that as they are rather inconspicuous.

So much for me playing at war correspondent photographer today. I don't see these old people and children turning into rock throwers any time in the near future.

Once in an open space the number of protestors seems to thin out a bit.

There are other more serious photographers on the scene. But I don't understand it.... this guy has like a huge telephoto lens. Why, then, is he getting right into everyone's face to take their picture? Isn't the point of such a long lens to be able to NOT have to do that?

I will just keep a respectful distance. I am not a news photographer anyway. Plus my yellow jacket probably makes me an obvious distraction.

I need to remember that despite the fact that I don't have the most zoom power in the world on my camera, I DO have the power of it being a 10,3 megapixel. This is a downside in terms of size of photos on my hard-drive (4 megabytes each) but is an advantage when it comes to cropping them. Even after significant cropping I still have to resize the images down for normal usage.

This was actually a really good idea. It is really good practise. Not only is it raining and I am learning how to keep raindrops off my lens (albeit not entirely successfully), but it is actually a lot darker outside than the photos reveal. It is tough to shoot long distances in low light and so I am finding this rather a useful exercise.