Monthly Archives: April 2007

So this first morning after Amsterdam, a couple things are sticking with me.

The first is, I can’t believe how often I had to go to the bathroom. Am I normally like that? I’ll really have to start paying attention. I was driven even to use the crazy outdoor urinals. I already showed you the green one by the canal. This one was right next to St. Bavo’s church in Haarlem. And I mean right next to. The wall behind it is the church. And of course I used it.

The other thing was how many people were painting their boat or house. Everybody was painting! These are just the ones I caught with my camera:

Ahhh… It’s so good to be back in America.

America, where the signs are all in English. (And Japanese?)

America, where they speak American English on TV, not that strange British English that was on the Amsteram hotel BBC channels.

America, where people are overweight.

It would be about 1:30am in Amsterdam right now. I’m so tired my head hurts. I will try to make it to 8:00pm, then I’m just going to crash.

If I were at some destination with a beach, I would have wanted to spend the whole last day sunning myself on the beach. For lack of a beach, we spent the whole day walking the streets of Amsterdam. I have really enjoyed walking so much. We must’ve criss-crossed the city three times by now. We did figure out how to use public transportation, so we were able to get from our hotel part of town to downtown where all the stores are, but downtown is a pretty big place. That means lots of walking.

In all our travels, we kept running into this tower for some reason. I don’t know what it is, but it seems to be central to all the places we went to. Could it have been moving along with us?

The streets were packed today because it was Saturday. In this picture, the crowd is looking kind of thin, but the whole day was like a big party!

While walking around, we saw more amazing things. This is a picture of a bar where everybody pedals and drinks beer. Exercise and beer? An interesting combination…

It was a beautiful day. Amsterdammers were out all over the place. The houses’ windows were all open and people were sitting in the sun and reading. It was all very European.

We stumbled upon an ice sculpture demonstration. Here is a polar bear:

There was also a block of ice that was hollowed out so you could stand in it. Check it out:

The day ended with a trip to the grocery store. Other countries always have funny names on their food wrappers, but this one really cracked us up. Especially with Denis here. He doesn’t recognize this cookie, and he says Filipinos don’t have cookies like this. So what’s up with the name?

Tomorrow is the trip back. We have to leave the hotel by 5:30am. Yikes!
Here’s hoping we don’t get delayed or diverted…

Today was the day for a trip to Haarlem. We took the tram to Central Station (that’s Centraal Station in Dutch). We took a train to Haarlem. Here I am outside the train station in Haarlem.

The point of visiting Haarlem was to see the Ten Boom house. On the walk there, I had to take a picture of this store sign. It made me laugh because last week Peggy sent me an email meant for her friend Sue. I thought she was calling me Sue at first. Hehehe…

The Ten Boom house has tours every hour on the hour. We arrived at 11:05am, so we had to wait 55 minutes before going in. It was time enough for a few pictures of the outside.

The group we went through with was HUGE, so it was very crowded. I really enjoyed this tour though. It was very hands on, and the tour guide was a Christian volunteer. She made a great witness as she gave her tour. It was AWESOME being in this house. It made me want to read the book (again?). I don’t remember if I read it a long time ago or never… stupid bad memory…
Here’s me in front of the actual hiding place. They broke a hole in the wall so you could see how small it is.

After going to the Ten Boom house, we went to their church, St. Bavo’s. It’s a HUGE old cathedral church.

The organ was actually played by Mozart AND Handel.

The floor was made entirely of tombstones. Very interesting! As I was taking pictures of it, I noticed my shadow. I took the opportunity for a self-portrait:

Walking back to the train station, we passed this notice on the sidewalk. I almost went in! Almost.

Back in Amsterdam, we went to the Van Gogh museum. It was very cool. There were many actual paintings by him. Some of them I even recognized. My favorites were “Pink Peach Tree” and “Almond Blossom”. I would have gotten posters of them at the gift shop, but they were nowhere near as colorful as the originals. I was quite disappointed. Of course I couldn’t take any pictures inside the museum, but here’s a picture of the outside:

I’m posting later than usual because after a short nap this evening, we went out again. We had Tibetan food and walked downtown a little, then came back. It’s 12:45am, so I’m off to bed. I don’t know what we’re doing tomorrow. Maybe another museum. Maybe walking the city some more. We have walked like CRAZY every day. I feel so good about my excercise. Maybe I should start walking to school every day!

Okay, get ready for a ton of pictures. On today’s itinerary: Keukenhof Gardens, and Anne Frank’s house.

After we got to Keukenof, we were STARVING, so we got a hot dog and a Coke. The Coke is made with sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup. It’s VERY tasty!

Keukenhof is beautiful! Here is proof I was there:

There were many bulb beds. Our bus narrator person said there were seven million bulbs total!

The tulips weren’t all blooming yet, but the hyacinths were. The scent was powerful. It was amazing!

There was a windmill at Keukenhof. The blades were spinning, but the “guts” have been removed so people can go inside.

Here is the view from the top of the windmill. It’s a tulip farm! Bright colors far into the distance.

After returning to Amsterdam, we went to the Anne Frank house. We thought the line looked long, but it moved fast.

It was amazing to actually be inside the house. But taking pictures was not allowed. So here is the front:

We walked back to the hotel. It was a long walk. On the way, we saw many things.

I am finding out that I make restroom stops OFTEN. I didn’t realize I was so bad. Restrooms are hard to find in Amsterdam, and when you do find them, they cost 30 to 50 cents, euro. They do have a few public facilities though. I used one yesterday, but couldn’t take a picture of it because the street was crowded and people would have frowned on me taking pictures of someone using it. Today I saw this other urinal and could take a picture from a distance. It’s the green booth on the left-hand side. There’s someone in it! When you use it, you can see all around you through the grate. It’s very strange!

Here is the Royal Palace in Amsterdam. Can you find Denis? Put the cursor over the picture for the answer.

There are many restaurants. The sign over this restaurant entrance made me laugh!

We ate at a nice Thai place. It was a little more than 8.50 euro.

We did a little souvinier shopping. I couldn’t resist… I HAD to get some wooden shoes. I plan to use them while I’m gardening. They actually recommend them for such use. They are water proof, have good arch support, allow air to circulate around your feet, and the wood absorbs perspiriation. Hehe..

I’m not as tired tonight, but it is almost 10:00pm, so I’m going to bed soon. Tomorrow is a trip to Haarlem to see the Ten Boom house.