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Amsterdam, Holland
June 20th, Sunday - Relaxation and touring, by DW
The word for the day is “marbles.” TD, AD
and I were up by 7 and had a load of laundry hand washed by
the time that Deb and family were rising. We have a signal
established where they open the side curtains to alert us that
it is time to come over for breakfast. Not that breakfast is
made, we all work together on those endeavors. This morning,
we had fried potatoes and scrambled eggs mixed with chopped
beef stick.
 After
the meal was cleaned up, Deb and I took on the boys for
another couple games of marbles. The kids went to the Parc
office and rented 4 wheel bikes. They took off on those babies
and I thought, “we might not see them until lunch time“.
However they returned about 30 minutes later, hot but not
sweaty. I had terrible cards and we lost two games before
conceding. It was time to start the day.
 Deb
and Daniel got ready for a day at the Rijks Museum in
Amsterdam while we took the kids on a hike/bike to a gas
station for supplies. We need butter and beer for dinner.
Unfortunately, in Holland gas stations do not carry butter or
beer and no stores are open on Sunday, so TD had to go to a
bar and buy beer. Priorities, priorities. We fixed lunch when
we got back. As usual it is faster to eat it than it is to
make it and clean up. Claire slept the afternoon away while
the boys played outside. I tried to take a short nap but the
ball bouncing on the house wouldn‘t allow it. We played
“Hearts” with the kids. They are really enjoying playing
games. The added people make it nice for us too. Deb and
Daniel returned about 5.
 Before
dinner the adults played a quick game of marbles. Girls won
that one. After dinner Deb and I took a walk down to a
wonderful windmill to take some pictures of the area. The
evening remains cool verging on cold and I wished for slacks
and a long sleeve shirt instead of shorts and a tee shirt.
When we returned we played a couple games of marbles at our
house so that AD could settle in for the night. Losing again
we admitted defeat and called it a night at 11.
June 21st, Monday - Road trip to Brugge, Belgium, by TD
First off, many cities and countries have
different names in different languages. For instance Germany
is Allemania in Spanish and something closer to that in French
than “Germany”. So sometimes you can guess that “Gent is
Ghent” or “Saarbrucken is Saerbruck”. It’s not always easy.
Praha is Prague. Wein is Vienna. “CH” on the back of autos is
Switzerland or the Confederation of Helvetia. Go figure! So
when you’re traveling independently is some foreign countries
use your imagination and you are usually correct. So today our
journey began for Brugge or Bruges.
Our luggage was packed and the beds stripped of linen before
we went next door to the other unit. Only Phil was out of bed
but Debbie came right out when I knocked on the door. I’d have
used the fire alarm-like door bell if I had wanted to wake the
entire house up! The locked out kids have been ringing them
the entire stay, since the front door can’t be left unlocked
by design. We started on breakfast immediately. It takes a
while to feed, shower, and pack a large group like this.
 Another
dreary, cool day awaited for our travel to Belgium. The rain
is always scattered but heavy. I’m sure the North Sea must
have something to do with that. First stop of the day was
Delft, a city only 30 minutes south of the Parc. Delft still
maintains a pottery and china industry. Tours are available
for free at the companies. We choose to see “pottery” before
seeing a sign for “porcelain”. They are well marked for
travelers to find. I chose to wait in the car and read while
the others went in to tour the plant. They were able to see
how the pieces were manufactured and decorated. AD came out
with interesting facts so the stop was worth it.
 Before
leaving Holland, we needed to stop at a grocery to buy a years
supply of “Stropewafles” for Debbie. The waffles are a
sandwich type cookie. The middle is a honey or caramel spread
thinly between to thin waffles. Everyone enjoyed eating them.
Debbie bought 21 packages as presents for friends. I wonder
what that check out clerk thought of us? Back on the highway,
we negotiated heavy traffic in Rotterdam before finding clear
sailing for Antwerp. There’s only one map between the 2 cars,
so we have to caravan travel. I’m in the lead because I can’t
stand to follow at someone else’s speed. Either they drive too
fast or slower than I’d like.
Shortly after passing through Antwerp, we stopped for a pit
stop, petrol, and lunch. The highways in Europe have stops
that are similar to the toll road rest stops in the USA. I had
packed a picnic lunch from the leftovers at the Parc. The
Jacksons hadn’t been interested in sandwiches so they went to
the restaurant. None of us were that thrilled with the lunch
but I heard our sandwiches were probably better. We arrived in
Brugge and found the hotel surprisingly easy. Brugge is a very
old city which isn’t car friendly. I picked the Hotel
Montavani off the web because there was nearby “free” parking.
Most hotels had a significant charge to park in the public
lots.
 The
hotel offered afternoon tea. After the tea, we went off to the
internet while Debbie took a nap. Brugge is a wonderful old
city. The streets are lined with interesting buildings and a
few huge churches. Daniel took his kids back to the hotel
while we walked around and window shopped. We came back to the
hotel to pick up the group and went out for dinner. After
dinner, we cheered England to victory in the Euro 2004
competition against Croatia. Our marbles game wasn’t nearly as
exciting as the soccer.
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Daniel's Journal |
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6-20-04
Sunday in Amsterdam. Tom and Dianne
took the day off and they graciously offered to keep the
kids while Debbie and I went to the Rijksmuseum, which
features art of the Dutch masters of the 1600s.
Rembrandt and Vermeer among others. It was way cool.
Debbie thought the Rijksmuseum was better than the Van
Gogh museum. The Rijksmuseum is certainly in a nicer
building, although it is undergoing renovation. It all
depends on what kind of art you like. If you like
impressionism then the Van Gogh museum is for you. If
you like the detailed, sometimes photo-realistic art of
the Dutch masters, then you will prefer the Rijksmuseum.
Rembrandt and the others made light and perspective a
fundamental part of the picture. Rembrandt, in his
portraits, purposefully made the background part of the
image very dark, so that the bright colors of the face
almost pop out of the picture. The still life pictures
of one of the masters, I forget his name, reminded me of
modern computer-generated pictures made with raytracing.
Some Amsterdam fun facts:
1) They drive on the right side of the road, so it’s a
little bit less terrifying than in Great Britain.
2) The highway speed limit is typically 100 kph. (62.5
mph) Everyone ignores it. J
3) People are very good about passing in the left lane
of the highway, then getting back on the right side of
the highway.
4) There are two types of flushes on the toilets where
we are staying. A weak flush for #1 and a strong flush
for #2.
5) This one’s a bit disgusting. Some of the toilets are
reversed, with the drain on the front end instead of the
back end. The back end has this little shelf which,
quite literally, accumulates crap so you can examine it.
Then you use the number 2 flusher to clean off that bad
boy. Fortunately, our room has one American-style toilet
as well as the reversed one
6) Gas is 1.28 euros a liter here. I don’t have the font
symbol for euros, it looks like a curved E. A euro is
about $1.18, and there are 3.8 liters per gallon, so
that works out to a whopping $5.73 a gallon. Holy crap!
Fortunately, our cars both take diesel fuel which sells
for a mere .78 euros a liter ($3.50). There is a third
type of fuel which sells for only .44 euros a liter. I’m
not sure, but I think it is liquefied natural gas.
7) Prostitution and some drugs are legal. There’s a
red-light district which has live sex shows and many
“specialty“ drug stores. They have marijuana, “magic
mushrooms”, and even THC-enhanced lollipops for the
kiddoes.
8) Amsterdam has some of the most expensive hotels in
Europe.
9) Some places charge extra for towels and sheets.
10) Lots of canals, tour boats on them, and windmills.
11) No washcloths, a la Great Britain.
12) Tomorrow, June 21 is the longest day of the year,
the summer solstice. Back home it gets dark at 8:30 or
so. Here, it got dark last night at 11:00 pm, and dawn
is at 4:00 am!
I’m sure everyone has heard all the jokes about the
stereotypical European, for example: How do you hide
money from a Euro? Put it under the soap! Well, I’m
sorry to say that I would stink too if I lived in
Europe. It’s so expensive to live here, the poor saps
can’t afford soap and deodorant.
We’ve finished up with Amsterdam, tomorrow it’s off to
Belgium (Bruges/Brussels)
6-21-04
We are now in Bruges, Belgium. We
departed Amsterdam yesterday morning and made the short
drive to Delft, a small town just outside Den Haag. We
took a quick drive around the city and toured the
pottery factory where their famous pottery is made. Very
interesting. We drove south to Antwerp and gassed the
cars and had lunch at a truck stop. We could tell where
Holland ended and Belgium began. The roads in the
Netherlands are outstanding, very smooth with no
potholes. Belgian roads are more normal. Instead of
taking the highways to Ghent and then to Bruges, Tom
decided to take the direct route to Bruges. This route
was on a country road and took us past some nice
villages.
Once we arrived in Bruges Debbie crashed while the rest
of us went exploring. Bruges is another pedestrian and
bicycle-oriented town, so we parked the cars and are
walking everywhere. We had a thunderstorm last night
after we were done exploring so hopefully the weather
will be kind tomorrow.
More fun facts:
13) Holland is the most densely-populated country in
Europe, Belgium the second most.
14) Stroopwaffels are yummy. They are crunchy
syrup-waffle cookies.
15) They don’t tip in Holland.
16) The typical high temperature this time of year is 15
to 20 degrees Celsius. That’s roughly 60 to 70 degrees
F.
17) It rains a lot.
18) All the toilets are pay per use, even in McDonalds
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Bruges and Brussles, Belgium...»
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