Yesterday we went for a visit to the Museum of Modern Art in Amsterdam, that is close to the Rijksmuseum you can seen in the background. The wall of containers was raised for the arrival of President Obama who landed by helicopter here last monday. It was said to "protect" the Van Gogh Museum and the art inside, I don't know against what but I think it was just a security wall. Obama was not even allowed to walk the few meters from his helicopter to the museum but had to ride in his own car the "beast".
Here you can see the Van Gogh Museum just peeping above the wall, that workers were demolishing already.
This woman didn't mind the wall and enjoyed her moment of sunshine.
And fortunately Obama is still laughing, here with Wim Pijbes the director of the Rijksmuseum who grabbed his moment to have a photo with him to promote the museum in the american newspapers coming friday. Obama has left our country for Belgium now and things are back to normal, the roads are open again, people can sit on their balcony and climb in trees again. Now Brussels can have the "fun".
Sad that it has to be so disruptive having world leaders around. Someone is creative using containers as a barrier.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenI've never seen a wall of containers used like that. But we're fairly used to these kinds of measures being taken for the various VIPs coming to Washington, D.C. In fact, D.C. officials and residents were complaining just a couple of weeks ago about how security officials shut down an entire city street one morning without even notifying D.C. officials because of some visiting VIP.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenThe front page of the NYTimes yesterday had a wonderful photo of our President speaking in front of Rembrandt's great painting "The Night Watch." I have made the casual acquaintance of a woman from the Netherlands in the morning at a cafe and it was good to be able to share the newspaper with her. World terrorism and violence have gotten out of hand, requiring all of those annoying security measures. What has the human race wrought?!!
BeantwoordenVerwijderenGood you can have your park and skyline back again now. I hope they recycle those containers. I was once in Minneapolis when the Vice President's motorcade was going to the airport and we were stopped on the highway for nearly an hour. Traffic was stopped because his route passed over the highway. We had no idea what was happening, just saw lots and lots of police cars and flashing lights on the overpass. It was dark night and rather frightening. I didn't know what happened until the next day when I heard in the news that the VP had been in that city.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenFijn dat we weer in de boom mogen klimmen ;))
BeantwoordenVerwijderenSo much security for one man but I suppose he must be a target for so many terrorists.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenIt's a major operation just to move one guy around. It slows the citizens down as well.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenDearest Marianne,
BeantwoordenVerwijderenIndeed, citizens of The Hague and also Amsterdam had house arrest so Brussels now takes turns.
What a wall made out of containers... Incredible.
Hugs,
Mariette
By the look of that smile the meetings must have gone well :)
BeantwoordenVerwijderendie amerikanen zijn toch gewoon gek!!
BeantwoordenVerwijderenecht grappig om te zien, 3 rijen containers..... belachelijk.
ik zou toch liever geen president zijn...
ja, in Brussel stond ook een en ander op zijn kop !
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