We’re in the lounge at the Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, waiting for our flight. Delta and the Dutch airline, KLM, are sort of partners. We flew over on Delta and we’re returning home on KLM. We’ve had a great trip and know we’ll be back again soon!

At the little village of Workum, we came across an old shipyard at an operating lock. They had a marine railway to haul out the boats. And as we were looking around, a beautiful, traditional boat went through the locks. We wanted to sign on as crew, but, alas, we had to move on to … Continue reading →

We left Utrecht right after breakfast and drove north, our plan being to circumnavigate the inland sea, to Markermeer, north of Amsterdam, and then to find a hotel near Schiphol Airport. It turned out to be a great idea. As soon as we got off the Autobahn, we were on a road that ran along … Continue reading →

We’re back in The Netherlands, this time in Utrecht, which seems to be a college town. We’re staying in a little hotel and our room is actually smaller than our motorhome living quarters. But the people here are friendly and there’s a good seafood restaurant next door where we just finished dinner. Dale had mussels … Continue reading →

We’ll be leaving tomorrow for our drive to the Schwabian part of Germany, just south of Stuttgart, where we’ll be visiting our Ulmer relatives in Schönaich. But we thought you’d like to see the apartment we’ve been living in while we’ve been here in Amsterdam. Here’s Dale reading in the living room (which also doubles … Continue reading →

…number 5 – that was the line we look out of the City Center out to the Amsterdam suburbs, after boarding at the Dam. It was a sunny day (finally) and there were lots of people out in the square. The tram stations are like bus stops. The tram was crowded… …but Dale got a … Continue reading →

The weather was better than normal here in Amsterdam today, so we walked through a couple flea markets and around town. Dale liked these wooden shoes, but they were a little too big. We toured the Rijksmueum, which showcases paintings by Rembrandt and Vermeer, but the building was being renovated on the outside and they … Continue reading →

I told you they like to ride bikes here. This is just outside the train station:

I’m going to use the theme of this post to show you this picture: The structure above is an outdoor urinal. Really. You just go behind the screen and pee on the ground. And if that’s not bad enough, it’s right next to the Gay Monument, which they Dutch have unfortunately named the “Homomonument” as … Continue reading →

When we visited the Nieuwe Kerk, we were surprised by this scene that confronted us as soon as we went through the front door: As I mentioned before, the New Church is no longer used for religious services. Instead, it is now the venue for some very peculiar things: at present, a fashion show! They … Continue reading →

The Dam is now a large plaza and crossroads for the trams, although in the 1300s through the 1700s it was the trade and governmental center of the city. Even though it was a rainy day, there were still crowds of people milling about. The building in the background, above, is the Royal Palace where … Continue reading →

It was a rainy day again, so we decided to stay closer to home today, inside museums while the weather was bad. The nearest museum is the Amsterdam Historical Museum, so we started there. The Amsterdams Historisch Museum has exhibits that trace the medieval development of the city, which was originally a walled city and … Continue reading →

After the zoo, it started getting cloudy, so we spent the rest of the afternoon in museums. First, we visited the Verzitsmuseum which is the one that tells the story of the Dutch Resistence during WWII. Then we went to the Amsterdam branch of The Hermitage, the famous Russian museum, where we saw an interesting … Continue reading →

…Four! Take a look at how this mom gets around town. It seems that everybody has a bike here and it’s the favorite way to get around, it appears. There aren’t that many cars and most of them are delivery vehicles or taxis. Anyway, here’s a collection of bicycles we’ve seen here in Amsterdam. First, … Continue reading →

It has been rainy pretty often since we got to Amsterdam, so when the sun poked through on Wednesday, we decided we would opt for something outdoors and the zoo looked interesting. Hurricane Andrew pretty much wiped out the zoo in Miami back in 1992 and we haven’t been back since, though we enjoyed taking … Continue reading →

The apartment we’re living in is on Koestraat, which means “Cow Street.” Apparently, in the old days they walked the cows to market on this street. I bet they had a problem with defecation and it looks like they still need to give some folks a reminder that those days are gone. Next door to … Continue reading →

After breakfast, we spent the day walking the city. On one street there was amazing grafitti. There’s a tram service that runs all over the city. Public transit is so extensive here that Camiel and Layda don’t even need a car; neither do we. We had a nice Dutch lunch of pickled herring. And then … Continue reading →

Last night we walked around in the Red Light District. The red lights outside the storefronts signify that the location is a bordello, that is, prostitutes are for sale. This morning we had coffee at a sidewalk café and Dale noticed that across the street was a storefront that had green lights out front. Guess … Continue reading →

We landed at 5:30 a.m. and took the train to Amsterdam Central where Camiel met us and walked us to his apartment. We visited for a couple hours, then took a nap while Camiel left for the airport and our house. We woke around 3:00 p.m. And walked the city and got something to eat … Continue reading →