More to come.... [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hello Everyone, If you haven't guessed, I'm in Amsterdam. It has got to be the most liberal city on earth. In 2000 the city made prostitution legal. The red light district had been there for a long time, but it was just ignored. The origins go back to Amsterdam's days as a shipping port. The district evolved near the docks for the convenience of the sailors. Houses had to be identified, and blue or green lights could cause the girls to have an unhealthy pallor. The sailors are gone, but not the district. The prostitutes are self employed. They rent their [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hello everyone, They have museums here to fit every taste. From Rembrandt to some really weird stuff --remember the 2 billion a year from the sex trade? I took a train to an open air museum in Enkuizen. They staffed the various cottages and businesses with people in period costumes. The major difference from other open air museums was that these people gave the impression of actually living there. Around 11 in the morning, they were cooking. In the early afternoon, I would walk into a kitchen with people eating their lunch. They have a beautiful location on water. One section [View Full Entry]

---

---

Fabulous meal with Monique and great company as always. Big night in Amsters with Oose, Speed, Higgsy, Bartly, Yarpie and the mysterious Homes..... Always great to see me Uncle Alain and Patrice! Cutest kids. [View Full Entry]

---

---

Estou chegando ao final de mais uma aventura!!! Fui ate Holanda para visitar um casal de amigos CAROL e GEERT....a Carol foi minha companheirona da facul e conheceu o Geert, seu marido, e no momento esta morando na Holanda em uma pequena, mas linda cidade chamada BREDA!!! Peguei um trem no sabado e fui ate Rotterdam....eles foram me pegar na estacao e fomos fazer um tour por Rotterdam.....eh uma cidade linda, muito diferente de Amsterdam.....eu tbem fui visitar la....mas eh um lugar muito sujo, nao deixando de ser interessante.....bem voltando....fomos conhecer o porto onde hje funciona um [View Full Entry]

---

---

Jeroen has been up to his usual antics, being the best host possible. Tours of the canal on his boat, dinners at trendy restaurants. Lee-Anne and I spent yesterday lazing round, hired a bike and di9d the Anne Frank Museum which is a walk thru their hidden annex. Today the plan is to see the Rijksmuseum, dinner with Monique then hit the town with some Kiwi lads who're over from London. [View Full Entry]

---

---

There are cats everywhere in Amsterdam. They are SO CUTE! They all have collars and are all very well cared for. So many moggy's around, and ivy's, and white cats, black cats, all the colours! They are all very friendly too. This is what I have learned about them.... There is a big rat/mouse problem in Amsterdam, there has been for centuries (the plague hit this place really hard). So this is the only place that cats are allowed to enter restaurants and be in the streets as a form of rodent control. I have not seen a mouse yet, so [View Full Entry]

---

---

The Keukenhof is a huge park devoted to nothing but flowers. Vickie - this is your heaven to be sure. We took a shuttle from the hostel about 30 minutes, sat next to a British lady that although polite, had some serious mental problems. She wouldn't sit in a "dirty seat", couldn't believe she had to pay for a map, etc.... Long 30 minutes. Back to the tulips - seriously as big as softballs and in every color you can imagine, and meticulously manicured and arranged in the landscape. And they had an entire pavilion full of orchids, huge blooms of [View Full Entry]

---

---

Just a quick note to describe our accommodations here in Amsterdam. Much different from the B&Bs in Ireland, which were very comfy, quiet, and clean. The STayokay hostel here in Vondelpark is actually a very large and nice hostel by normal standards, but its basically a giant college dorm. Most of the people are young (16-19), don't speak any language I can easily recognize and seem to love making lots of noise, especially between 12 and 3am. For a couple of nights we roomed with some older ladies ( sixties maybe ) and one of them snored soooo loud it was [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hey everyone! We went biking through the city on Tuesday - awesome! dedicated bike lanes all throughout, over canals, through intersections and parks, tons of people riding around, clinging bells, wooshing trains! This place is like DisneyWorld for adults! Max - the beach cruiser would feel right at home here! We went for a walk in the Leidsplein last night (lots of ethnic restaurants and nobody speaking english) - hit up an Italian place for some pizza and then shared a bike and rode through the Vondelpark (like a hippy central park). Wandered around until we found The Easy Times Coffeeshop, [View Full Entry]

---

---