Blogs from Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands, Europe - page 185

We arrived in Amsterdam late yesterday afternoon. Dylan joined us in Paris safely at Gare du Nord. (Mama duck, Jeanette, took a sigh of relief that we were all in the same place at relatively the same time) As we exited the station, Jeanette, like a true backpacker, tripped and was taken down on the cobblestone with her 35 pound backpack. I haven't had a skinned knee or elbow since I was like 5. Oh well, it had to happen sometime. I just wish it wasn't in rush hour traffic and at a street crossing. The boys definitely love it here, for reasons more obvious than I am wanting to explain. I for one, was excited for the Van Gogh museum and the Anne Frank museum. The canals became a bit confusing last night, as we ... read more

Hello loyal readers! Thanks for tuning into the inaugural edition of Matt and Sung's excellent adventure. Most of our fears surrounding a 9 hour 40 minute flight were realized early on in the flight from Seattle to Amsterdam. Here's a few choice snippets from the running diary I kept. 11:01 AM Matt and Sung hit the Cascades bar in the SeaTac Airport for Embarkment elixir and plan our conquest of Europe. 1:00 PM We take off. Succesfully. 2:00 PM Sung ingests his 3rd piece of nicorete gum, he's exhuasted all his reading material and the shakes ensue. 3:35 PM Roughly 4 hours and 3 beers into the flight, Jill dishes out the ambian like brownies at a bake sale. 6:00 PM Sung is engrossed by Wimbledon, the Kristen Dunst lead steaming pile of celluloid. 7:00 PM ... read more

This is my first attempt at blogging, so be patient with me.  Our travels have been pretty uneventful so far. Our plane was a little late leaving St. Louis, but we made it to Detroit with time to spare and were packed in a completely full coach class section with a bunch of kids from KC Rockhurst on their way to Spain. They were pretty well behaved and the flight was uneventful. Kelly and I both attempted to sleep so that we could get ourselves on the right internal clock, but we really weren’t all that successful. We took a couple of ambient which had no real effect on me, but put Kelly out like a light and had her using the little bags in the airplane a time or two. We actually got into ... read more

We cross the Dutch boarder for Amsterdam. Visit a cheese farm and see how clogs are made on our afternoon sightseeing tour. Cycle through the countryside and explore the fishing village of Edam. Contiki's centrally located hotel is our home for the last 2 nights. Had a good night's sleep, but still woke up tired at 6.30. Had a quick breakfast of the usual hotel food - bread, cheese and ham. Our lunch stop was really early, at 10.45 for some reason. Drove to Edam, where Claudia took us for a ride on granny bikes. We saw a dijk and had a group photo taken in front of a windmill. The Netherlands is 'reclaimed from the sea', and used to be all underwater, the windmills are used to get rid of the water and without ... read more

Yay! After 5 some-odd weeks apart, Kat's made it across the pond for a week-long stay. After picking her up at Schipol Airport, we went up to Amsterdam to visit the Anne Frank house, Heineken Experience brewery tour, and of course walk around the 'scenic' red light district. Kat was less than impressed with the quality of the ladies who were out and about during the mid-afternoon hours, but hey, I guess if you're particularly lonely, the friendly lady with poor dental hygeine and fat rolls on her forearms might be the kind of company you're looking for. The Anne Frank house was markedly crowded, but well worth it. The museum does a good job of relating the differnt parts of the house and relevant artifacts to the war history and personal story of the house's ... read more