Europe 2008: The Adventure Begins!
Greetings from Amsterdam!
It's 8am on Sunday morning, and we're relaxing here in the living room of our large and well-appointed Amsterdam apartment, enjoying the fresh morning air and feeling rather well-rested after our first night's sleep. We're staying in the beautiful Jordaan district, living among the Dutch who, judging by the lack of activity outside of our window, are either savoring their mornng too or perhaps, sleeping off the effects of late night revelling.
The trip over was relatively uneventful and felt easy compared to last year when we had to make two connections (Portland > San Francisco > Frankfurt > Venice) and didn't leave Portland until early afternoon.
This time, we left PDX at about 7:30am on Friday, changed planes in Washington D.C., and flew direct from Washington to Amsterdam. The ease of this trip was also partially aided by some interesting conversation we had with two young and friendly Dutch men sitting across from us, who were returning from three weeks in Florida with their wives and children.
We landed here about 7am on Saturday, and by 9am had made it through Immigration, collected our suitcase, took an express train to Centraal Station, and a quick taxi ride to our apartment. When we arrived, we called our greeter, Roland, who owns the apartment (and lives with his family next door). Almost immediately after Roland left, we took showers —- always the first order of business as the funk one develops after sitting an airplane for 14 hours is not tolerable for long.
After showering and changing we headed out to the local branch of Albert Heijn, a Dutch supermarket chain which we have become well-acquainted and quite enamoured of on previous visits. We bought our favorites and a few essentials —- milk, coffee, butter, fruit, juice, greek yogurt, a couple varieties of delicious Dutch cheese, salami, sunflower bread. And, oh yes, a couple different kinds of cookies including some moist almond cookies that remind me of marzipan. Yum.
On our way to the Albert Heijn, we encountered a kitty relaxing on the back of a motor scooter, the first of a few kitties we encountered yesterday:
Awww ... I love me some tucked under kitty paws.
She purred loudly when I petted her and didn't seem to be the least bit
bothered by the camera.
We returned to our apartment with our groceries, elated to be back "home" in Amsterdam but feeling the effects of some 20+ hours with no sleep. At about 10:30, we settled down for a nap with the intent of being up by 1pm.
At 2:30pm Michael woke me up and announced that he was going out for awhile, but I was still too dead to even consider it, despite the fact that the sun was out and the city was beckoning. A few minutes later, I managed to drag myself out to the kitchen to make a cup of Senseo coffee and carried it back to the bedroom where I kept it on the nightstand, taking sips of it as I tried to will myself out of bed. At about 3:30pm, Michael returned from his walk and the caffeine had done its job and I was able, somehow, to get myself together and we took off walking with no particular destination in mind, encountering another friendly feline along the way:
Such an inviting tummy on the kitteh.
I had known from my pre-trip reading that this weekend was Amsterdam Gay Pride, but had resigned myself to the fact that because of the timing of our arrival and my need to sleep off some of the jet lag, that I would probably miss the famous Canal Parade. But as our good luck would have it, the parade lasts for hours and we were able to catch some of it!
Standing above one of the canals, we had a fantastic view of the parade of boats passing by in addition to the street parties that were occuring around us. Unfortunately, neither one of us brought the video camera but I did manage to capture some good snaps on my little Sony Cybershot:
This was the view we came up on, and the bridge where we stood for a long time,
taking it all in.
The view from the top of the bridge.
I don't know what the significance of these hats may be, but they
made for an interesting looking group.
I was so taken with the parade before me, that I almost missed the guys in big blue
mohawks and ass-less leather chaps walking behind us.
One of the endless stream of boats filled with the thin, well-dressed,
and beautiful.
Young and old, gay and straight, enjoyed the celebration of pride and unity.
Certain narrow-minded and judgmental Americans could learn a lot from these folks.
The street sweepers are going to be busy.
A view down the canal, from another bridge.
Liquor bottles from one of the many street parties.
There were loads of beautiful gay boys on this boat, but my little camera didn't have the zoom power to
capture them very well.
It was hard to tear ourselves away from the party, but we hadn't had a real meal in ages so we headed for the Overtoom and our favorite Thai restaurant, Sawadee Ka. Being that we hadn't been to Amsterdam in a couple of years we were nervous about the prospects of the restaurant even being open, but fortunately they were AND they had plenty of open tables, as we arrived quite early. We ordered Chicken Satay, Chicken with Sweet Basil, and Chicken with Garlic and Black Pepper and all were delicious and quickly devoured. Bellies full, we strolled the half hour or so back to our apartment, where we collapsed about 9:30pm, savoring the after-glow of a great first day in Amsterdam, and the knowledge that our adventure was just getting started.
Today it is supposed to rain, but I can only see blue sky outside my window. We have lots of options for rain or shine, so we'll just see what the weather moves us to do.
It's 8am on Sunday morning, and we're relaxing here in the living room of our large and well-appointed Amsterdam apartment, enjoying the fresh morning air and feeling rather well-rested after our first night's sleep. We're staying in the beautiful Jordaan district, living among the Dutch who, judging by the lack of activity outside of our window, are either savoring their mornng too or perhaps, sleeping off the effects of late night revelling.
The trip over was relatively uneventful and felt easy compared to last year when we had to make two connections (Portland > San Francisco > Frankfurt > Venice) and didn't leave Portland until early afternoon.
This time, we left PDX at about 7:30am on Friday, changed planes in Washington D.C., and flew direct from Washington to Amsterdam. The ease of this trip was also partially aided by some interesting conversation we had with two young and friendly Dutch men sitting across from us, who were returning from three weeks in Florida with their wives and children.
We landed here about 7am on Saturday, and by 9am had made it through Immigration, collected our suitcase, took an express train to Centraal Station, and a quick taxi ride to our apartment. When we arrived, we called our greeter, Roland, who owns the apartment (and lives with his family next door). Almost immediately after Roland left, we took showers —- always the first order of business as the funk one develops after sitting an airplane for 14 hours is not tolerable for long.
After showering and changing we headed out to the local branch of Albert Heijn, a Dutch supermarket chain which we have become well-acquainted and quite enamoured of on previous visits. We bought our favorites and a few essentials —- milk, coffee, butter, fruit, juice, greek yogurt, a couple varieties of delicious Dutch cheese, salami, sunflower bread. And, oh yes, a couple different kinds of cookies including some moist almond cookies that remind me of marzipan. Yum.
On our way to the Albert Heijn, we encountered a kitty relaxing on the back of a motor scooter, the first of a few kitties we encountered yesterday:
Awww ... I love me some tucked under kitty paws.
She purred loudly when I petted her and didn't seem to be the least bit
bothered by the camera.
We returned to our apartment with our groceries, elated to be back "home" in Amsterdam but feeling the effects of some 20+ hours with no sleep. At about 10:30, we settled down for a nap with the intent of being up by 1pm.
At 2:30pm Michael woke me up and announced that he was going out for awhile, but I was still too dead to even consider it, despite the fact that the sun was out and the city was beckoning. A few minutes later, I managed to drag myself out to the kitchen to make a cup of Senseo coffee and carried it back to the bedroom where I kept it on the nightstand, taking sips of it as I tried to will myself out of bed. At about 3:30pm, Michael returned from his walk and the caffeine had done its job and I was able, somehow, to get myself together and we took off walking with no particular destination in mind, encountering another friendly feline along the way:
Such an inviting tummy on the kitteh.
I had known from my pre-trip reading that this weekend was Amsterdam Gay Pride, but had resigned myself to the fact that because of the timing of our arrival and my need to sleep off some of the jet lag, that I would probably miss the famous Canal Parade. But as our good luck would have it, the parade lasts for hours and we were able to catch some of it!
Standing above one of the canals, we had a fantastic view of the parade of boats passing by in addition to the street parties that were occuring around us. Unfortunately, neither one of us brought the video camera but I did manage to capture some good snaps on my little Sony Cybershot:
This was the view we came up on, and the bridge where we stood for a long time,
taking it all in.
The view from the top of the bridge.
I don't know what the significance of these hats may be, but they
made for an interesting looking group.
I was so taken with the parade before me, that I almost missed the guys in big blue
mohawks and ass-less leather chaps walking behind us.
One of the endless stream of boats filled with the thin, well-dressed,
and beautiful.
Young and old, gay and straight, enjoyed the celebration of pride and unity.
Certain narrow-minded and judgmental Americans could learn a lot from these folks.
The street sweepers are going to be busy.
A view down the canal, from another bridge.
Liquor bottles from one of the many street parties.
There were loads of beautiful gay boys on this boat, but my little camera didn't have the zoom power to
capture them very well.
It was hard to tear ourselves away from the party, but we hadn't had a real meal in ages so we headed for the Overtoom and our favorite Thai restaurant, Sawadee Ka. Being that we hadn't been to Amsterdam in a couple of years we were nervous about the prospects of the restaurant even being open, but fortunately they were AND they had plenty of open tables, as we arrived quite early. We ordered Chicken Satay, Chicken with Sweet Basil, and Chicken with Garlic and Black Pepper and all were delicious and quickly devoured. Bellies full, we strolled the half hour or so back to our apartment, where we collapsed about 9:30pm, savoring the after-glow of a great first day in Amsterdam, and the knowledge that our adventure was just getting started.
Today it is supposed to rain, but I can only see blue sky outside my window. We have lots of options for rain or shine, so we'll just see what the weather moves us to do.
I'm very amused (and entirely unsurprised) that the first thing you photograph in a new foreign country is the local cats.
It is exactly what I would do.
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