The continuing New Orleans planning debacle and (local and national) pre-election poo-flinging make me want to move some place civilized like Holland. Of course, the news came this morning that the Baltic is in a tizzy because of Hurricane Britta and that parts of the German coast are flooding.
She may not have been a Katrina exactly, but the low-pressure system Britta managed to cause plenty of havoc in northern Europe Wednesday … The storm hit northern Germany Wednesday morning causing record floods on parts of the German coast. Several ships got into difficulty because of high seas, with waves of up to 17 meters (56 feet) high reported …
The storm had reached the Polish Baltic coast by Thursday where wind speeds of 120 kilometers per hour (75 miles per hour) and flooding in coastal regions were reported. Parts of the port city of Gdansk were left under water. Firemen were in operation early on Thursday morning strengthening coastal defenses and pumping water.
The floating drill rig “Bredford Dolphin” is also adrift in the North Sea with 75 people onboard, although officials say things are under control.
That’s some fierce, fierce weather; even during Ivan and Katrina, our Gulf of Mexico rigs didn’t see anything compared to what the Troll and other North Sea rigs have experienced. I’ll take a warm tropical hurricane over one of those European squalls any day. Follow.
Queen Wilhelmina beamed in her bronze splendor as the sun set over Noordwijk that fall day in 2003. Even if they did run one of the worst colonial empires of the 20th century and continue to clutch a few “third-world” economies by their throats, the female regents of Holland are simply awe-inspiring. Ol’ Beatrix is my boss, come to think of it.
While I pondered the pros and cons of European monarchy, a dark shroud fell over the sky and gigantic black clouds rushed towards the shore from the depths of the North Sea. The previously calm waters of the North Sea began their calisthenics as if preparing for action and the air crackled with cold anticipation. A silver streak of lightning flew out of the northeast and rushed towards the setting sun. Ragnarök had begun and that was Thor sending a thunderbolt after a fleeing Loki. The sky glistened like gold, copper and every yellowish metal known to man in the distance as darkness enveloped us. I half expected Wagner’s Hagen to run by at any second singing, “Ja denn! Ich hab’ihn erschlegen!” Then the rains came in on the gale force winds and we rain back to the Oranje for shelter. The fortress of a hotel shook for 30 minutes while we enjoyed hot chocolate by a raging and most welcome fire.
If you were to have stared out at the North Sea all of your life, generation after generation, you, too, may have conjured up Norse mythology. And that was just a simple October rainstorm in northwest Holland.
Then again, the Dutch have great levees, flood protection and their officials actually arrive at the scene on time.
I was just wondering what you found particularly awe inspiring about the female regents of Holland? I followed the link and this was the kind of stuff I found:
The Queen devotes much attention to important events in the Netherlands. Following disasters such as the Enschede fireworks explosion and the tsunami in Asia, she expresses her sympathy with those affected and talks to the bereaved.
Hunh?
On the other hand, you’ve gotta love the Utgard-Loki imagery. And I just don’t think Thor gets enough attention in the blogs of today.
That these women have had power over a nation for approximately a century and use their power well. Wilhelmina presided over the removal of her nation’s colonial presence from former dominions and kept a country together during the onset of the era of world wars.
Yeah, the Dutch didn’t do too well during the Nazi era, but you have to give them credit for not discombobulating completely.