Julie and I have made it safe and sound to Amsterdam. The flight was fine but VERY long - it went on and on. Julie, of course, world traveller that she is, fell asleep right away; I flicked the channels (like my husband) between a Bill Murrary movie and National Treasure and didn't fall asleep until much later.
Heathrow and the Amsterdam airport are so much better than O'hare. The shopping in them is unbelievable - mini malls! The Escada purses were quite beautiful to look at although I didn't buy one - lol. The toilets in the bathroom are very small, circular, and cute. A sign states "please use only 1 paper towel."
The tour bus picked us up at the airport, brought us to town. It's true; there are bicycles everywhere and not many cars. We walked around with Bob and Nick and checked out the buildings and people. Beware - trams and bikes! People drive their bikes here like people drive their cars on Grand Avenue! I used 2 rolls of film on the walk alone; Julie is our photo goddess - she's really getting some wonderful pictures.
I stopped some teenage girls to take their picture for Ary; however, they didn't understand what I wanted and said no.
Fashion highlights: lots of cowboy boots and knee-high boots; many women are wearing cotton scarves wrapped different ways around their neck; Maria, on our trip calls it "hip grunge."
Today we went to the Rajks........ museum and saw Vermeer and many Rembrandts along with many other artists. The paintings are so beautiful! In many of them, you can scarcely see any brushstrokes.
The food is also incredibly good, even on the plane. At one stage of our trip, we had chicken sandwiches with slices of cucumber - very good. Breakfast was also good this morning - granola, yogurt, fruit, cheese, ham, eggs (I think they were powdered but Julie said no), sausage (I didn't eat any of that i.e. Ireland), and chocolate sprinkles to put on your toast (I didn't do that.) The very best part was that it was free!
I couldn't locate diet coke last night so I had to make due with a cafe latte and add sugar. It was surprisingly good and I was too tired to get a caffeine high. I did find diet coke this afternoon and some chocolate but it wasn't bitter enough. Will wait for Belgium to search for chocolate again.
The weather was wonderful yesterday probably 71 or 72F; today, however, it is cold! About 55F.
We took a canal boat ride today for an hour; Amazing to watch the canal driver do a U-turn in the small space allotted; he only scraped the side of the canal once.
The buildings are beautiful, many gables, painted doors. Many of them are leaning but are supported by the neighboring buildings.
The city isn't as clean as I thought it would be; the people seem somewhat indifferent to our existence unless they're a shopkeeper.
By the way, this Internet Cafe doesn't allow Julie to download so we'll have to try again to send pictures from another place.
We love and miss you all! Julie and Michelle
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