Blogs from Netherlands, Europe - page 398

In 1995 my friend was telling me that when he was on his way to safari in Africa, they had a layover in Amsterdam. Dave told me how beautiful it was flying into Amsterdam because he could see all of the tulip fields. He knew that tulips were one of my favorite flowers and had given me a couple of postcards from Amsterdam. I decided that at some point, I'd have to add Holland to my list of travels. Fast foward to late 2002, I was surfing the web and there was a travel special that was so darn good. The catch is, the choice was either Paris or Amsterdam. I wanted both, but I decided to visit Amsterdam. I knew I wanted to go during April or May to catch the tulips in full bloom. ... read more

I couldn't really experience the legal weed at my age at the time, but I'm aiming to go back there now that I'm older... read more

Like other European capitals, Amsterdam certainly has a distinct atmosphere defined by its architecture. Its sedated pace is created not by the overflowing coffee shops, but by the locution - boats inching down the canals, bike lane with long limbed Dutch riding to work, streetcars grinding along the tracks, ususally leaving only one tight lane for cars to squeeze through. The museums are quite good but I recommend walks outside of the city center, and a trip to Rotterdam for a more authentic window into Dutch life. There are more photos below.... read more

PUT YOUR CURSOR ON THE ABOVE MAP AND YOU CAN MOVE IT TO BETTER ORIENT YOURSELF. YOU CAN CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE IT, THEN GO BACK TO THE JOURNAL OR GO THROUGH THE PHOTOS (CLICK ON THE NUMBERS AT THE TOP) IN THAT ENLARGED FORMAT. Again, this is part of my attempt to chronicle our five years of living outside the USA (June 2001 - June 2006). I've already done our final year, which was South Africa (click on "Previous Entries" top left of this blog page and you can see other blog entries). Now I'm going back to the beginning, looking through old journals and photos to put our adventures, one by one, into blog form. MORE NETHERLANDS This is the second and final installment of our first year (June 2001 - August ... read more

Eindelijk na heel veel dagen aftellen, gaan we eindelijk. Na wat gestress thuis, op papa en mama wachten en daarna zijn mama d'r auto sleutels kwijt, gaan we eindelijk. 6.20u zijn we bij Wijnand en dan op naar Schiphol. Susan gooit ons uit de auto op Schiphol en gaat snel door naar haar werk. Tassen insealen, inchecken, douane. Even wat rondkijken en dan ontbijten. Het ontbijt bestaat uit twee saucijzenbroodjes en een kaasbroodje, voor Wijnand die saucijzenbroodjes en uiteraard, traditie getrouw, het eerste vakantiebier. Wijnand had gisteren bedacht dat we Karin Rood nog ons mail adres moesten doorgeven, dus gaan we even mailen, gelijk de moeders gemaild dat we het eerst vakantie bier al op hebben. Nu nog wat inkopen; twee sloffen Gauloises en in fles Chivas. Na vragen bij de winkeldame leert ons dat we ... read more