Not Your Average New Neighborhood...

We also passed this incredibly unusual new neighborhood. Instead of the usual cookie cutter construction used all over the country, each of these new attached homes in Leiden had a unique facade. I tried to capture a cross section of the wilder designs.

Keep in mind that these homes were not necessary connected to each other, but were all connected to two other houses despite no commonality between the neighboring designs whatsoever. Crazy!

Lots of the designs were cool, but many were a bit over the top. Can’t help but wonder what that does to the resale price.

Scouting Trail in Leiden...

 

That weekend we headed to Leiden so Jimmy could scout trail for the next Full Moon Hash. If only the skies were blue as the canals were perfectly still and creating lovely reflections.

Kati enjoyed our long walk around the outer reaches of our favorite city.

Along our route, we spotted a boat with a rather fatalistic name...

...and this adorable Golden resting his head out of the window.

Leiden Liberation Festival...

October 3 was a beautiful day, so I headed to Leiden to watch the annual parade in celebration of the liberation from Spain in 1574. The theme this year was Parade Royale. Not quite sure how most of the floats qualified as royal, but I still enjoyed seeing the crazy variety. These cakes and cupcakes were a creative use of balloons.

These Leiden University graduates had fun on this portable bar.

This dragon was definitely the most mechanically sophisticated float.

The Transformers were cool, the little Super Girls and Wonder Girls were adorable...

....and the Caped Crusaders on stilts were very talented.

The last official floats were these antique firetrucks. This first one was built in 1929...

...and this one was built in 1961.

Just behind the official parade were the usual sellers of gigantic mylar balloons. The world really doesn’t need any more wayward balloons polluting the landscape, but they do serve as a colorful subject for a photo.

A Fine Day for the International Kite Festival...

It was too beautiful of a day for me to pass up going to Scheveningen Beach to see the International Kite Festival even though I needed to go in the opposite direction to get to the hash on time. 

This year’s sea animal theme was super cool and my favorite by far. Depending upon where I was standing, the lines didn’t show at all...

 ...or showed a lot.

 Not sure how those unicorns snuck in...

...or that weird set of human legs.

With no lines or ground showing, love how this shot looks like these animals are actually flying off into the sky.

Iconic Paris...

Ashlynn and I also passed by Notre Dame during the day...

...where we spotted this extremely unromantic wedding shoot.

I wasn’t Ashlynn’s only visitor. Sophie arrived one week after I left and they had a great time sharing an AirBnB apartment near the Champs-Elysee. Here they are at the Sacre Couer Basilica wearing matching iconic French berets.

I’m glad they they had fun together and that Sophie took these cute photos of Ashlynn.

Parisian Arches...

 

Our hotel was near the Grande Arche, a 360-foot (110-meter) high cube built in 1989. The two sides house government offices.

I considered paying to take an elevator up the metal elevator shaft in the middle to visit the public viewing area on the roof, but instead opted to sit on the stairs for free and eat my lunch.

I can’t remember which metro stop this was, but I thought it was cool. 

I also can’t remember exactly where this was. I met Ashlynn after she had a casting in one of its businesses and then we went to a vegan pizza place with another IMG model. 

Louis Vuitton Foundation...

Ashlynn had castings for much of the following day, so I set off alone to the Louis Vuitton Foundation, an art museum designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry that opened in 2014.

The museum was between temporary installations and only had a few sculptures on permanent display, including this towering 26-foot (8-meter) stainless steel rose by German artist Isa Genzken...

...and this unusual but very cool artwork called Where the Slaves Live by Argentinian sculptor Adrian Villar Rojas. Resembling a water tank, this strange cylinder is a “living sculpture” of organic and inorganic materials that constantly changes over time. 

Although the artworks were limited, the museum offered a discounted ticket along with some interesting free tours, of which I took two about the incredible building. I learned that the facade consists of 3,600 glass panels and 19,000 concrete panels.

I also learned where you can spot the Eiffel Tower in the distance.

In fact the views from the top floor were pretty great no matter which direction you looked.

My ticket enabled me to exit out of the back with free entrance into the surrounding Jardin d'Acclimatation, a French-style English garden dating back to 1860, which gave this nice vantage point to capture this shot of the museum. I enjoyed my walk through the park and the two-mile walk back to the hotel up until the point when the skies opened up and I got drenched.