After the misery

UIt is now the day after the rainstorm, and the weather is nice again. 

We started the morning in Gorcum, where we explored the small town to see what it had to show. 

Karl in front of the restaurant  where we had dinner last night. 

After exploring Gorcum we took a ferry to castle lowenstein where we took a tour around the castle. 

After the castle we took a ferry across the river and biked up to Vianen where the boat was.

There, we swam in the canal before having a delicious dinner made by the boats chef. 

Biking/ barge trip

Early departure from Amsterdam to Brugge where we are to board our boat and begin a week long trip that has us sleeping on a barge and biking through the country side during the day. 

We were going to cancel this section of the trip because we were worried about all the guests being older, making for a dull trip for the boys. We were so surprised when we found out that  there would be an 11 year old Dutch boy and his mother, the 11 & 13 year old nephew of the captain and owner and 12 year old son of the cook. No over 55 on the boat. But we're are a small group biking. Sometimes just us biking with the Dutch guide. Sometimes two or three more join us. The food is filling and delicious, the barge ( the Feniks) is comfortable and basic - but nothing fancy, the people (all Dutch) are very kind, warm and speak English, and the countryside is gorgeous!!!!

First four days brought perfect warm, sunny weather - great for biking. Wednesday has brought rain and lots of it. Not so fun to bike in and we found the boat early to shower, warm up and put on dry clothes.  

It's our Anniversary today (Aug 7) and we have celebrated Dutch style. They stood and sang us a song at breakfast. Everyone looks you in the eye and shakes your hand, we've been given a gift and a special dinner tonight. They have gone out of their way to make you feel special. So gracious. 

The little towns we have docked at so far are Brugge, Ghent, Goes, Willemstad, and Gorinchem ( all words with the letter G get an H sound that is way at the back of your throat - sort of like you are about to hack something up from the back of your throat.). Needless to say we are really getting a feel for the Netherlands and seeing sights and places that are way off the general tourist track. 

Misery

No photos today; we woke up in Willemstad to cloudy skies & motored up to Dorendrecht. We got off to hear some fascinating Dutch history & a surprise stop to celebrate bill & Suzie's wedding anniversary. So far, so good. But when we hit the road again, the rains started. We soldiered on for 30 Kms in the pouring rain before finally deciding that an afternoon of cards and video games sounded good. We found a water taxi to Gorenchem (pronounced Horcum) & enjoyed an afternoon on the Feniks & a fun evening eating in town. 

Zeeland (for reals)

After Goes, our next ride took us through the heart of "Zeeland," which bore the brunt of the flooding in 1953, which led to the engineering feat of closing several sea arms into the Dutch countryside. Bill took the long route out to the dams:

 It was wonderful weather & a great ride. The family met up outside Ziereksee & rode up to brunisie together. 

The boat continued on to Willemstad, where we had wonderful dinner of mussels on the boat & a great walk around the picturesque town at night. 

Goes

The next day took us from Belgium into holland & the town of Goes. The boys held up remarkably well for two long days in the saddle. 

The ride was interrupted several times,first for mussels in Yerseke (the oyster capital of the Netherlands), then several more times for swimming. All in all, a remarkably fun day. 

Ghent

We spent our first night in bruges; it really is a little gem, but far better early on Sunday morning with less tourists than Saturday night:

Our first day cycling brought us to Ghent, which had an amazing beautiful downtown:

Suzie & bill went for a drink, while Karl & Fritz stayed on the Feniks to watch a movie. 

The Finale - Cycle/Barge from Bruges to Amsterdam

We apologize for the lack of posting - we've been away from wi-fi & unable to keep you updated. After amsterdam, we went to bruges where we met our home on the water for a week - the barge Feniks:  

We explored bruges for a night (no one got thrown off the tower), went to Ghent & explored Zeeland and parts of the Netherlands that don't get much attention. We've had a great time & hope to post a few more updates soon as we cycle/barge around this wonderful country

Delft/Beach

Our final day at our home exchange in amsterdam wasn't even spent in Amsterdam. In an earlier post, we introduced the Strandbeest; it turned that the creator of the Strandbeest was going to show them off at the beach in Schevingen, jst north of The Hague. As it turns out, we had a friend who lives in Schevingen, so we could kill two birds with one stone. Luckily, we managed to get a third bird too by starting the day in Delft. 

Delft, although probably best known for its pottery, has some significant history, including being the home of Johannes Vermeer, Hugo Grotius & van Leeunhouk (an artist, a lawyer and a scientist). Here's the statue of Grotius in the town square

It also hand the hottest canal tour ever:

It had to be over 100 on that boat. Luckily, our next stop was the beach; unfortunately, the heat meant half the country had decamped to the beach & a severe parking shortage. Eventually, we figured out the parking, mainly through our friend Doug, who we were visiting in Schevingen.  After sorting out the parking, he returned to work while we went for a dip in the North Sea. There was no swell, so no surfing, but the water was warm enough to bounce around for awhile. It also had some type of creature that liked Fritz a lot and raised a lot of welts, but they weren't painful & had no real impact. 

Finally, we were ready for the main event & we took off for the Strandbeest demonstration. There wasn't enough wind for it to work perfectly, but it ws fun to see their creator & watch the latest generation in action:

Finally, we had great dinner with Doug at a beach cafe and a late night return to amsterdam. 

Today, we take the train to Bruges for the cycling adventure to begin. 

Final days

Hello! We are now on our final few days here in Amsterdam. Today, so far, we've mostly been tidying up for when it is time to leave the day after tomorrow. We went to a massive flower market, filled with an amazing amount of tulips and other plants, including Venus fly traps and pitcher plants. This market was very interesting to walk through, and we all wish we could have brought some of the plants back, but we can't :.( 

After that fritz and dad went to the museum, which is like a modern art museum. They then went by a candy store, bring back many delicious delicacies! 

Dutch Open Air Museum

Yesterday was another day trip, this time to the Dutch open air museum. Similar to Williamsburg, this is a living history museum, but rather than re-creating a particular era in history, this museum rescues old buildings that would be destroyed & transports them to its site. So, it will have a sheep fold from the southern Netherlands next to a few buildings from a fishing village on the North Sea. 

Here's Karl next to an old beekeeper get-up:

Here are fritz & bill working an old ferry boat :

And a few pictures of trying to ride the penny-farthings:

We thought the boys were too old for playgrounds, but they had a blast getting lost in a maze:

But it all went south when fritz had a few too many spins on the big swing. 

 Hello lunch!

We recovered & Karl got fascinated with the workings of a big wind-driven flour mill:

The day was topped off by a visit with our friend Jeff Littlejohn, who was in town on business:

A long fun day!

The Beautiful Game

One of Fritz' primary goals on this trip was to experience some European football. Unfortunately, the trip was timed dead wrong to catch the season. Instead, we had to content ourselves with stadium tours in England, Italy & germany. Until yesterday. 

Two of the top Dutch teams play an opening game for the "Johan Cruyff Shield," so fritz & I heads out to Amsterdam Arena yesterday evening to see some football. 

We didn't have tickets, but figured we should be able to get into the game somehow. We didn't account for the Dutch ban on scalping; luckily, after an hour of wandering around the stadium, we managed to find someone who had been stood up by his friends & was willing to sell us tickets below face value!  

We scampered into the stadium with enough time to buy a beer (and a fanta) and catch a few songs before the game started:

There were thunderstorms predicted, so the roof stayed closed & it was hot, but it was an exciting game, with Ajax winning 3-2 in extra time.  

Amsterdam

There is such a difference in living in a great city, verses just visiting a great city.  We are living in Amsterdam and loving it.  Our home is in the Jordaan neighborhood, around the corner from the Ann Franke House, a typical skinny, tall, slightly leaning forward building with fabulous large windows.

 5 levels, lots of tiny, circular stairs in the most perfect neighborhood.  

Meanwhile, our hosts are in our house, enjoying the Northwest.  

We are sleeping late, going to the markets, not rushing to sights, biking all over this crazy for bikes city.  We are living in it.  Amsterdam is a mixture of Paris, Venice, Rome and London.  It's international, intellectual, tolerant, fun, beautiful and generally has a wonderful vibrant energy. It helps that it has been sunny and warm and everyone is outside enjoying the 'terrace season.'

  The canals are filled with boats and people having cocktail parties on their little skiffs while putting through the water.  

It's just lovely.....

Our first days we got the feel of the place by biking around.  There are SOOO many bikes and bikers here.  Beautiful women in heels and shorts skirts, young mothers with their infants in the front pack, senior citizens - everyone is on a bike and not a helmet in sight. The boys ride around like old pros.  I have no confidence in any of the other riders, who dart in and out like it's nothing.  Consequently, I'm cautious, slow and I wear my bike helmet!  I'm telling you, between the bikes, the scooters (who can ride in the bike lane), the cars AND the thousands of tourists you really have to be careful.  But amazingly it works and flows on a daily basis. I'm just dying to talk to an ER doc, though, and see what the rate of accidents is.  We have seen so many close calls.   

We've been to the Van Gogh museum - amazing collection, done a city tour - good for getting oriented and history, been to The Hague (Den Hague) to visit my friend Allison and her hubby from SF and high school - lovely to see them and get the expat perspective, and boys went to NEMO - which is like OMSI.  

Yesterday, we drove to the Hoge National Park to see the Kroller-Muller Museum.  World class museum set in a giant park, 2nd largest collection of

VanGoghs and a sculpture garden that is OUT of this world.  

No tourists - just natives - so it doesn't feel crowded or cheesy. The juxtiposition of art and nature in the garden is breathtaking AND they give you bikes to ride around the park in.  

Something for everyone.  It has to be one of my top 5 museum experiences anywhere - ever.  Great day!

Bill and I have enjoyed the night life  ..... boys are happy to be left at home and we go out to dinner, to a terrace, to walk around and to just hang.  

Bill enjoys an ipa. 

Museums Galore

"Museum a day keeps the historian away" -Karl Kabeiseman

Today we plan to avoid the museums and get tickets to Brujges for the bike to Amsterdam from Brujdes. We are also going to nine alleys which is like a shopping district. 

See ya!

Amsterdam

Right now we are in Amsterdam, as you might know. Today, we visited the Krüller-Müller museum, which had quite an impressive collection. Also you could use some bikes they had. There was a massive amount of bikes there, and all for free use within the grounds of the museum, and don't worry, they'd be pretty tough to steal. Anyway, there there was a quite large Van Gogh collection, which was presented in a very different way from the Van Gogh museum we visited yesterday. There they also had many other styles, and artists. Also, there was a large sculpture garden, and it was REALLY big. It had about as many sculptures as there were paintings in the actual museum. It was one of the more impressive collections of art over this trip, and also was a impressive estate. 

We're enjoying ourselves a lot, see you all soon!

PVC beasts

Yesterday we went to this really cool place. This place is were this guy has his work shop were he creates this beast made out of PVC pipes its really cool to see. He uses a heat gun to bend all of the pipes so that the will fit together. He had about 5 or6 beasts there that you could look at but only one of them you could actually pull. Most of his inventions that he makes now can go on wind but his first ones he had to pull. The upicture that is up there is my favorite thing that he maid that I know of. 

Give a guess who wrote this one. 

You guessed right me FRITZ.  

EU Trends

Trends in Europe -

There are some common things that we are seeing in all the European countries we've visited. 

Fashion wise it has to be the Birkenstock version of a flip flop.  You know the one - they have the rounded toe holder. These come in all colors, patterns and patent leather - and everyone, everywhere is wearing them. I know they are from Germany and have been around forever, but there does seem to be a popularity resurgence. Who knew that the hippie shoe would be so hip - again. 

The other commonality in the EU is IKEA.    IKEA 'stuff' is more prevalent than an iphone.  In EVERY establishment we have slept in there has been IKEA items. From London to Rome, and up to Amsterdam, in every kitchen, bathroom and bedside table the cheaply made, modern goods can be found.  

And finally - smoking!  Everyone still seems to be smoking. 

Cars and fuel

Cars in Europe are generally small and fuel efficient. We've been driving an Alpha Romeo Guiltta. It's a diesel. Gets 60mpg. Yes that's mpg. We filled it up ages ago, drove a full day and still have half tank.  Diesel is cheaper here too!  (It's still crazy expensive, but cheaper than regular gas).  

We're on the auto bahn right now - no speed limit. I'm freaking out, people are passing us in their Benzes, beemers, audis, alphas. AND fords!   I'm happy in the 'slow' lane going 140kph.  Oh now we're going 150. Eeek. 

With Uncle Chuck we are a bit squished. Lots of love in back seat. 

Road signs - 

Our favorite is ausfart (two boys 11 and 13 -  you figure it out). Ausfart means exit.  Duh.....

Our Favorite Sign in Switzerland & Germany

Here it is:

Luge in Switzerland.

This is a picture of Suzie going slower then ever on a luge like thing in Switzerland if you have ever been to luge on Mount Hood in ski bowl then you will know what it is like. The only difference is that this one was a lot more twisty. It was so fun and I wish we had our own at my local park. It would be so cool. Everyone went really fast except for Suzie who went crazy slow but on her second ride she went a little faster. 

Luge

The drive from Switzerland to Fussen was long & tiring. We then had to run to make it to our reserved tour at some Bavarian castles, meaning not so much free time on Wednesday  To make amends for the long car ride, we planned a little fun for Thursday morning - summer luge at Tegelberg:

Here are Karl & Fritz riding up the slope:

Then we came down a little faster:

Some not so fast:

All in all, a fun time was had by all before the quick drive to Munich. 

The Fatherland

Blogging has been a little light as we've moved from Switzerland to Germany.  It's been a combination of a long day in the car & being very busy, but we'll try to catch up in the next day or two. In the meantime, here's a photo from our first day in Munich:

Castles and Munich

LWe have now left Gimmelwald, and are now in Munich! Yesterday we had a long drive from the Gimmelwald, but before we got in the car Chuck decided to come down from the cliffs a different way than with the cable cars. Yep, Chuck went paragliding! 

After that we got in the car and drove up to Liechtenstein, which is a VERY small country, buried in central Europe. After that, we continued on our way to Fussen.

In Fussen we saw two castles: Hohenshwangau and Nueshwanstein. 

Both were very impressive, and quite pretty. After the castles we went to our hotel and spent the night.

The next morning, we moved on to Munich, or Münchin as it is in German. That is where we are now.