I'm a big fan of Dutch astronaut André Kuipers. While in the US I never ran into any astronauts, the Netherlands being a small country, if you hang out long enough, you'll run into the few Astronauts that are here.

Not too long ago I attended a talk he gave in Amsterdam, all about his journey in space and his time in the international space station (ISS). The man loves what he does and is super knowledgeable, of course. He seemed to glow as he spoke about the extensive plans the European Space Agency has for the next decade.

Last week he was on a Dutch news program talking about the next time he would be in space (in a few years). He spoke about the Dutch and European contributions to the ISS. Someone had asked him if he could see the Afsluitdijk from space, as many people say you can see huge structures like the great wall of China from space. Kuipers responded that in space you couldn't see the dijk, but from the ISS which is much closer to earth, he said it was indeed very clear... the huge afsluitdijk which protects the Netherlands.

I pictured it in my head... there you are.. in space.. and you look down towards earth, and just over the tiny Netherlands, you see this clear line... the afsluitdijk. Amazing. To think I've driven over it several times, and indeed.. even from that close up.. I'm still impressed.