Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Amsterdam was much like Haarlem, only bigger and busier, with art museums, canals, wonderful pastries, lots of bikes (the Dutch ride bikes everywhere and are in great shape in general), rich history, and lax attitudes regarding some drugs and sex.

We walked through the famed Red Light District, where the sex workers, not unlike mannequins, appear in red-framed window displays. The womens' demeanor (men have tried unsuccessfully to get in on this gig) ranged from vacant and bored to sternly businesslike as they answered men's questions and conducted business. According to Lonely Planet, the average encounter lasts about 20 minutes and costs about $60 USD. Didn't look like much of a party to me. The Dutch aren't all that excited about it either, comprising only 2% of the business. Brits are number one, at 40%. Who keeps track of all this? Since prostitution is legal and taxes are paid, I guess someone is keeping records.

We also toured the Van Gogh museum, well done with sections of his art devoted to different phases of his lifetime. There was also an exhibit of Max Beckman's paintings done during his exile from Germany in Amsterdam during World War II.

We toured the Anne Frank House, where Anne Frank wrote her famous diary while hiding from the Nazis with her family in a secret annex above her father's shop. It was heartrending to stand in the rooms where the family had hid, and to see their possessions, pictures, and the notes and diary Anne kept. She wanted to be a journalist and for her experience and account to mean something, so she was true to her passion and wrote and wrote and wrote a book that has been published all over the world and translated into over a hundred languages. She is one of the most important journalists of our time, with a message as important today as when she wrote it.

The museum also contained an evocative interactive exhibit called Free2choose, which polls museum goers on morality conundrums such as what is right when freedom of speech conflicts with freedom to worship or rights of privacy. The audience votes on each situation and is given a breakdown on how the group and all participants voted. This was especially topical given the recent assasination of Theo Van Gogh (Vincent's grand nephew) by Islamic extremists over a movie he made about abuses of Muslim women, and the death threats against the cartoonists and paper who published the cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed.

For more info about Anne Frank and the museum, see
http://www.annefrank.org/content.asp?pid=1&lid=1&setlanguage=2

Amsterdam Scenes

Cannibas or Candy Bra, Anyone?

Okay, Then Howzabout a Friendly Game of Chess?

Haarlem and Leiden, The Netherlands

Haarlem in the Netherlands was a wonderful surprise, with everything good about Amsterdam, but it was much more laid back and even more friendly. In fact, the Dutch even have a word for people who are fun, warm, and cozy: gezellig.

Haarlem also shares the Netherland's relaxed laws and attitudes about sex and some drugs. Right off the train, you walk past adult toy and other sex shops, as well as shops selling cannabis and mushrooms in many forms. Not surprisingly, there is a high percentage of frat boyage and other aged groups of men traveling together in this country.

We visited the Dutch Masters at the Frans Hals museum, which used to be an old men's home, then an orphanage. We toured the windmill shown above, and saw from the inside out how a windmill works.

We daytripped into Leiden to see tulips, but it was the wrong season for full blooms of local fields. I did learn, though, that the Dutch went into tulipmania in the 1600s, when the tulip was introduced to Holland by a botanist who found them in Turkey. Tulips became all the rage and were sold for outrageous amounts, making fortunes for some traders. Today "tulipmania" refers to an economic bubble.

St. Bavo Church in Haarlem was one of the most interesting churches we've visited, containing a gorgeous organ that was once played by Amadeus Mozart. The reformed gothic-basilica church, dating back to the 1200's, also houses contemporary religious paintings and sculptures. The "floorboards" are actually the stone crypts of the town's former rich and famous. Story has it that there was some high odor in the church for some time, with all those folks laying head to toe and mano a mano. But they were all gezellig about it, the dust has settled, and that time has long past. Today it is an interesting mix of old and new, and a serene energy permeates the place.

St. Bavo Church

Organ Played by Mozart

Someone's Resting Place

Spanish Cannonball Still in Wall

Sculpture

Canal Life Totally Doesn't Suck

Our Nightly Quest -- Gelato

My Little Pony

Holland, Where the Appeltaart is Warm and the People are Gezellig

Current Schedule

... or, as our friend Robb (Robb Kane, a nice man) says, we make plans and God laughs...

July 24 to now: England, Lubeck Germany, the Netherlands, Copenhagen, Munich and Fussen Germany.

Fussen, Rothenburg, and Wurtzburg Germany: 8/17-28
Paris, France: 8/28-9/1
Lausanne Switzerland: 9/1-3
Interlaken Switzerland 9/3-?
Italy
Greece
Spain 10/12-11/10ish

Merrie Olde England

Leaving our family and friends in the US to move into Europe was made sweeter by meeting up with our loverly friends in England.

In London, Trina met us for coffee and din din at Bar Italia in Soho. The following day, we met to see the Monty Python musical Spamalot, which was indeed "funnier than the black death." Thinking she should dress for the event, Tough Trina wedged her arm into the door in the Tube and arrived smartly tattooed. (BTW, you can thank Trina for the technology behind the prophecy room scene at the end of the latest Harry Potter movie. How cool is that?!)

We were later joined by Emily and Mark. Emily took us to a couple of great pubs and a luscious (-ly naughty! :)) coffee house for yummy desserts. At one pub we met her friend who performed comic folk music that night, and is actually from San Francisco. He too was funnier than the black death. Fortuitously, Emily and Mark happened to sit below a love poem about "Em."

We went on to Northwich to visit our friend Richard, an old roller coaster buddy of Eric's. We went to see Richard's sister and her husband at their magical cottage in the English countryside, and his sister (after a workday of being a police sergeant over organized crime!) treated us to the most delicious ever homemade lemon shortbread and cream and fruit-filled cake. Traditionally, first-time guests are to blow the horn hanging on their ceiling. We're not sure why, but we did anyway.

Of course if Richard and Eric get together, there must be roller coasters. So we took another gorgeous drive through the countryside to Alton Towers, an amusement park built around the grounds of old castle.

Eric and Richard at Alton Towers

As we had more important people to see, we had to cancel on the Queen. But we did a drive-by on her house.

Obligatory Pics of Buckingham Palace and Implacable Guard

Tower Bridge

Rosetta Stone in British Museum

Pasties

Fish 'n Chips

Artist in Front of Northwich Cafe

Woman in Front of Parliament Building

Westminster Abbey

Olde and New London