Conservatives In A Liberal Land.... pt. 4

Wednesday, noon again! Dolly and John went to meet someone that a colleague of Dolly's knows, and after Radhika and I met them at The Anne Frank House. That is a pretty cool experience, and gives a better understanding of what it must've been like to hide in such small quarters for that long a period of time. This was our first visit there, and I would recommend it to visitors. Seeing as how we were in our old neighborhood, we walked to where our first apartment was in the Jordaan. It was nice to see the trees on our old street starting to "green up". We took the tram from there back to the stop at Leidseplein, and walked home from there. I made a nice dinner, typical of what our meals are here, and then we decided to hit the streets one last time. It was somewhere between sprinkling and misting outside, but a coffee shop experience was in order. We went into one at Leidseplein, sat down, received no service, we were unimpressed, so we left. We walked towards Rokin, going into another coffee shop but there was no place to sit as people were in from the rain and it wasn't too large anyway. We passed several before we ended up in one near the red light district. It was nice, small, local not touristy. A football game was on the TV, several young ladies were at a table beside us, and a couple at a table near the window. Perhaps 2 people were seated at the bar, where a man with very long dreads and a Jamaican look was stationed. He came over, and in the mellowest of voices asked us how he could be of service. We placed our order, and enjoyed our refreshments. After a spell, we walked through the area on our way back to the apartment. The "B" team was most definitely on duty tonight, what with it being Wednesday night and very few people on the street. We managed to get home in one piece without anyone diving into a canal. Not such a late night, I would have to say 10pm we were back in the apartment. I had a couple of cookies, Radhika looked into the pantry and fridge 6 or 7 times each, never wandering more then 2 feet from where most of the food is stored, and Dolly made an egg sandwich for herself and Radhika. We all went to bed at the same time, with everyone easily getting a good nights sleep, with the exception of John, who said his eyes were wide open for a while before finally drifting off.

Thursday morning came, with Dolly and John going to the Van Gogh museum around opening time, 10am. Some felt a little "fuzzy" from our coffee shop experience, but we were back to our robust selves in no time. They came back from their abbreviated visit to the museum around 11:30, as their flight for London took off at 1:50pm. We dropped Radhika off at work and then proceeded to the airport where they had plenty of time to soak in their whirlwind visit before the flight took off. Back at the apartment... it was so quiet... back to normal, cleaning after being occupied for 5 days. This place is easily the "dustiest" I have ever been in. Swiffers should be stored in every room!! Now, it's on to planning our 4 days in Berlin and 2 week trip to Scandinavia in a couple of weeks.

Conservatives In A Liberal Land.... pt. 3

Tuesday, and another day that kicks into gear around noon. I found a place about 45 minutes northeast of Amsterdam that has a high concentration of tulip farms. We had never driven in that direction, so the scenery was new to us. It was quite nice... flat, rural, with a few old-style windmills and many energy generating ones. There were also a few farms along the side of the highway, with fields of bright reds, yellows, pinks, oranges... we were in tulip country! We stopped in a city based on the info I gathered from the internet that I had entered into the TomTom. I was expecting a farm! Luckily there was a tourist information center so John and I went in and a nice girl figured out where we were trying to go, and gave me an address and map. Once plugged into the TomTom, we were on our way again for another 15 minutes. It seems there's an 18km route that one can drive to see various farms and sights during tulip time. Kind of one the scale of wine country north of San Francisco. We found the farm and parked. They had a general store for the locals, as well as a small place to buy tulips and chachki's, and a small eatery too! We paid our admission (1 euro), I grabbed a bucket, and we went out to the fields to pick out tulips! It was a lot of fun, and each tulip was only 25 cents. There was a "tower" (think lifeguard stand) that you could climb to see over the fields of color. It was nice. As Radhika and I looked for colors and picked what we wanted, Dolly and John decided to trespass onto the adjacent farm and get chastised by a woman no shorter then 10 feet tall with shoulders as wide as a battleship! This came as no surprise to us as they always find ways to get into trouble. Dolly was especially irritated, as she is usually on the "giving" end of verbal lashings in her position dealing with high school students every day. But, with their tails between their legs, they scurried back to the right side of the fence. John seemed to get much entertainment out of the experience, doing a great impression of the death threats this fascist female unleashed upon them for walking on the dirt. From that point on, Radhika and I didn't let them stray too far out of our sights.
After our flowers were picked and stored in the trunk, we decided to try our luck at the eatery they had set up. The menu had no English, so we went with the familiar word all recognized... hamburger. And what a burger it turned out to be! It had an egg on it, some cheese, and a sauce unrecognizable. I'm sure our blood took a beating, but it was a very unique, tasty, burger. John even said it was the best he ever had (perhaps that had something to do with our waitress looking like the woman who gave them the verbal beatdown in the field earlier?) We all had the burger but Dolly, who had some soup that was quite good too. We were there until they closed, which was about 5:30pm. With still having several hours of sun left, full bellies, and the whoopin' administered by the "Tulip Nazi" fading, we drove around looking at the area, stopping here and there to take pictures in the late day sun. One field along the road, John and I were able to sit on the ground, with hundreds of thousands of red tulips at eye level!!! It was gorgeous! I got some really nice images there, with the late day sun casting warm light all over the flowers. With the light about gone, I set the TomTom for home and we were back in Amsterdam in no time.

Conservatives in A Liberal Land.... pt. 2

Well, what would become the standard during this visit... we were able to leave the house no earlier then 12 noon. I forgot we were dealing with retiree's in their early to mid 40's! The only thing missing is the "blue plate" dinner special at 3pm. But, we made the drive up to Brugge on a very pleasant day. First time this year that the thermometers "smashed" through the 60 degree barrier!!! Of course some in the car nodded off to sleep here and there, but their identities will remain draped in secrecy to hide their shame. Radhika sat in the back, talking with her sister, which did a fine job of keeping the "backseat" driving down to almost non-existant. We parked the car in one of the many underground garages in the city around 2:30pm, and proceeded to walk around this gem of a city in Belgium that is probably overlooked and unknown to most Americans who come to Europe. We did the touristy things... took a horse and buggy ride, bought Belgian chocolates, took a boat tour down the canals, sat at several outdoor cafes drinking and people watching, and had a nice dinner. This was our 2nd time there, going once before with Dimple back in February. Obviously the weather was much more pleasant now, therefore there were many more people. We left around 10pm, with another round of "auto-napping" for some, getting back to the apartment in Amsterdam around 12:30am. We pretty much went to sleep soon after, as Dolly and John had a full day of sightseeing ahead of them on Monday.

Of course, Monday started around noon for everyone with the exception of Radhika, who had to go to work. John and Dolly made it out of the house (you guessed it!) around noon, to go to the Rijks Museum. It's less then a 5 minute walk from the house, so it is very convenient. I was still feeling a little ill, so I decided to stay and rest to hopefully get back to 100%. Of the many things that were uttered by John while they were here, "I'm on vacation." was the early favorite when Dolly would bust his chops concerning whatever it was he was doing or saying that got a reaction from her. Those two are quite the comedy team. After the museum, they took a 2 hour boat tour on the canals of Amsterdam. The weather was absolutely perfect to be outside. It's the first time I had the windows open at the apartment. They came back around 5:30 or so, and Radhika came home from work not long after. We went to dinner at the Nepalese restaurant near our apartment around Leidseplein. R and I really like the place, this being our 3rd time there. Dolly seemed to rub our server (who recognized Radhika and me) the wrong way, and he threw a little verbal smackdown on her (only a warm-up however, to what she would experience in a few days at the tulip farm). Things settled down eventually, although Dolly is now banned from eating in any Nepalese or Tibetan restaurants throughout the world. We walked to Dam Square, again enjoying the night air and checking out different areas of the city. We got back to the apartment pretty late, watching a little TV and then calling it a night.

Conservatives In A Liberal Land.... pt. 1

.... Will either ever be the same? Dolly and John (Radhika's oldest sister and her husband) arrived from NY Saturday morning. Delta did their best to make it a bad experience (no surprise to me), but they made it and that's the important thing (silver linings are getting extreme in the air travel industry!). Dolly had a surprise fainting spell on the plane, but overcame it and got plenty of sleep, as opposed to John, who didn't probably due to severe shock when one of the other passengers hypothesized that Dolly fainted because she was pregnant!! That probably also accounted for John's zombie-like state when we met them at Schiphol airport. I think he has fully recovered now (mostly due to viewing the sweet ladies wearing special outfits in the windows of the red light district). But, let's not jump ahead. We got them settled in their room and they toured the apartment, being very complimentary (perhaps a little concerned we would put them out on the street if they didn't bring what we considered enough of Mom's great Indian dishes, frozen and carefully packed for the trip). We accepted their kind words, and quickly had them hand over the food! After full inspection and informing them they were not welcome to any of it, and being content with the amount, they relaxed a little, we chatted, and then they pretty much passed out (kinda like me after 2 beers). After waking them, John needing a cattle prod to get him close to vertical, we went walking around the Leidseplein, checking out eatery's and stores, making our way around the area of the centrum. We "accidently" found ourselves in the red light district, where Dolly found it hard to walk with both hands covering here eyes. The "talent" was in top form that night, as opposed to what we have viewed the previous 2 times we had been to the area. The streets were crowded also, it being a Saturday night. We ate at an Argentine restaurant which was pretty good, and then proceeded towards Dam Square where there is a carnival and rides now covering the square. By then, it was quite late, so we made the walk home, checking out store windows and enjoying the (FINALLY!) pleasant, evening air. We crashed somewhere between 12 and 1am I believe, with a trip to Brugge ahead of us for Sunday.

Rotterdam

So, we drove to Rotterdam last Sunday for fun, minimal sightseeing, and support for Brad and Natalia who were running 10K and 5K races, respectively. Unfortunately from the spot we staked out, Brad's 10K finish line was across the street, and somehow we missed Natalia coming across her finish line. So no pained, sweaty expressions of their misery to post, but I have a few that are "postable". Rotterdam is less than an hour away, so I'm sure we will revisit in the future to get a better picture of the city and what it has to offer. The day was a tad hectic as there were many people running in the various races offered. The headquarters for us was the Westin, as Brad works for ABN AMRO and they had special access and perks, like breakfast, lunch, and dinner served at appropriate times of the day. Serving areas were scattered between a couple of locations where one could grab a plate and take it to a table, couch, or other area to eat, drink, and talk before or after a race. Their races started at 11:15, so we had a little breakfast before they went to their starting areas. We went down soon after to find a spot where I could get some unobstructed shots in anything interesting, but the way the finish area was set up made that nearly impossible. I finally crawled under a platform that abutted the 5K finish area that had no fence or barrier, but either Natalia finished before we got to that place or we didn't recognize each other when she came across. She was already at the hotel heading to a shower when Radhika made contact with her when we figured she should have crossed the line by then. So, we ate a little lunch back at the Westin after they came down from changing, watching the marathon on a big screen projection inside the hotel. There were also roughly 30 people giving 5 to 10 minute massages near where we were sitting, so the 4 of us got massages. I got a nice 10 minutes on my back and shoulders, and then maybe an hour later got the back of my legs done. Luckily, I had on hiking pants where I could zip off the legs. Don't know if I would've shimmied down to my skivvies to get my legs done as many men did. We stayed until about 5 or so after dinner was put out. It was a fun day all around. Brad and Natalia were happy with their results, and everyone was pleasantly surprised by the extra offerings that the race organizers supplied. Tomorrow, Dolly and John come in from NY for about 5 days. That will be a story that must be told, I'm sure.

Cologne, Germany

We drove to Koln on the weekend of April 5th with Brad and Natalia, a couple from Chicago. Natalia also works with GE where Radhika is located, but in a different department. Brad works for ABN-AMRO. There apartment is but a 5 minute walk from ours. They have been to Koln several times already. There is a theory that schnitzel, not blood, is in Brad's veins, as he has been found halfway to Koln on several occasions in the middle of the night, sleepwalking. That GPS planted in his skull was a great idea, Natalia. Anyway, we drove the almost 3 hour distance Saturday morning. It was a little tricky finding our hotel, as it was located on a street closed to traffic. After 15 minutes and exchanging pleasantries with an elderly local, we found our underground parking and checked in. Not as nice as the Hilton in Luxembourg, but still a good deal and close to the sights. We walked to the cathedral, where Radhika and I did some sightseeing and B&N went shopping for lamps (everything is less expensive outside of Amsterdam). It started to rain, so we took refuge in an underground metro station and then the tourist office where we received suggestions of what to see. The rain eventually stopped, and we walked around just soaking up the city. We stopped in a small bakery, where we had some refreshments and contacted B&N to see where and when we were meeting for dinner. They had their sights set on a schnitzel place, and we met them on the street nearby. No luck on the lamp search, as prices even in Koln were on the high side. Furniture and the like is very stylish in Europe, much more so then in the US, but you also pay for it (especially with the dollar so deflated). We squeezed into the restaurant, with it's eclectic decor, and placed our order. I had a "Bombay" schnitzel, that came with curry and pineapple sauce. It was very good!! And large. I couldn't finish, so I brought 40% of it back to the hotel with about 10% of Radhika's and placed them in the room fridge. The next morning, we checked out, eating brunch at a place that came recommended by B&N, and after some small excitement we found a place to park the car as we did a little more walking and exploring. It was a beautiful, clear day, so Radhika and I went up into the spires for a view. The spiral staircase reminded me of visiting the Statue Of Liberty with my family when I was a kid. People were huffin' and puffin' as they went up (keep smoking those cigarettes!) the stairs. The church is an amazing structure for it's sheer size and intricate workmanship inside and out. It is the "monument" in Cologne if not all of Germany. To see it up close and from a distance is to be in awe. We reconnected with B&N, crossing the bridge over the Rhine and hanging out in the sunshine for a spell watching several people practice rock climbing on the stone walls around the stairs from the riverbank to the bridge level. We walked back to our car after some time and headed back to Amsterdam after having another fun weekend exploring our immediate surroundings. More travels are planned as we take advantage of our weekends and location.