Recently in The Original CheeseWeb Category

My last blog of these three months in the Netherlands. How do I even begin to sum up the last week? Everyone has been asking about Barcelona and it has been so difficult for me to describe. All I can say is that it is more different in every way than any other place I have been. The architecture is unlike anything anywhere, the people have totally different attitudes about everything, the whole way of life is just ... different. For example, the typical Spanish day begins with a light breakfast, followed by a light lunch of snacks. Then there is siesta a time when most people go home and rest. The shops and businesses close down (except in the tourist centres) until about 4pm. Around 6 people start heading to the bars for cervesas and tapas (snacks). This goes on until at least 8 or 9 pm. Then they start to think about supper. If supper is over and you want to party, you'd better hope you had your siesta because the clubs don't even open until midnight or 1 am. That's just life. Try getting supper at 6 and they look at you like you're from Mars.

So my summery of events is probably a bit scattered since we did so much in such a short time, but here goes. We arrived Friday evening and checked in to our Hostel. It was nice enough for the price. Clean and nicely kept. The downsides being: no elevator and being on the fifth floor, paper thin walls and people who liked to come in late (revenge leaving early in the morning) and being beside a church bell that chimed every 15mins. The first day was spent getting our bearings on a bus tour. It was quite long and didn't leave time to actually see much afterwards but it was a great way to figure out where everything was and what we wanted to go see on our own. After tour we explored the Barri Gothic a bit. This is the oldest quarter in Barca. We went to the Cathedral. It wasn't really on our to do list but when we walked by, it looked quite intriguing. In the centre of the Cathedral is an open courtyard with a pond and geese. The architecture is VERY gothic and quite beautiful. We also visited the old market and bought the biggest strawberries I've ever seen. They were very tasty and not at all bland like the big hot-house ones we sometimes get at home.

The following day we went to Montjuic park. This is on a hill above our hostel and a funicular will take you part way up. At this point there is a lovely park with gardens, an old Greek amphitheatre, a palace and lots and lots of cats. There are cats everywhere in Barca but we saw tones of them here. Most are wild (but can be bribed with bits of croissant) but some have taken up residence in local shops and info centres. At the top of this section of the hill is the site of the Olympic games. There is also an exhibit called Poble Espanyol which we visited. It was set up to showcase different styles of Spanish architecture and house local crafts people (and still more cats). It was quite nice also. At the other side of the park stands an old fortification (which is now a museum) which we reached by cable car. After a brief stroll around we took another cable car down to the waterfront. The waterfront was completely re-done for the Olympics and has a boardwalk with many restaurants. I can only imagine how packed it is in the summer. We strolled the beach a bit and even though it was warm for March by our standards it certainly wasn't swimming weather.

On Monday we did the Route del Modernism walk. This walk was created in 2002 to celebrate the works of Gaudi who had a huge influence on the architecture in Barca. All I can say is look at the pictures because his work is literally indescribable. He was very into organic forms and there is not an angle or straight line to be found in his buildings. We toured one inside and it was incredible. He also designed a park that we visited on Tuesday. You can see the pictures of the wavy bench and lizard fountain which are icons in Barca. His crowning glory, however, is the Segrada Familla, an enormous church in the centre of the city. It was undertaken at the turn of the century and will not be finished until 2022. It must be seen to be believed. Some people this it is beautiful and some think it is horrible ... whatever you think, you have to applaud the ambition. It is enormous and the most elaborately decorated building I have ever seen. What currently exists is not even the tallest part. Even more interesting is that as you go through the church, the work is on-going around you. It is a marvel of modern building technology, but more than that, you wonder how it could have been built prior to today's technology. It is truly fantastic. The views are definitely something to be seen (many, many more stairs and a huge bout of claustrophobia mixed with vertigo... fun times).

Monday night Robert got in to town as well, which meant we got to switch to a nicer (company sponsored) hotel. What a difference... But still loud. It seems there was an all night furniture shifting conference directly above us... Anyway, we met up for supper and had a nice relaxing meal. The boys didn't have too much planned for the following day so as I mentioned earlier, Andrew and I went to the Gaudi park. While there, we also visited his home and museum which housed furniture he had designed. The park was very nice and the bench was fantastic but the bus loads of tourists didn't add to the serenity. Oh yes ... and there were more stairs. In the afternoon, the boys had a meeting so it was up to me to entertain myself and I did so with a fantastic nap (the furniture moving classes for the day weren't scheduled until after supper). Again we had a nice supper and a fairly early night.

The boys were off to the conference all day on Wed. so I planned some retail therapy. Someone should have told me nothing opens in Spain until 10 ... anyway I did a lot of walking and looking but very little buying. I did find a great pair of pants for only 4.49 euro ... am I a bargain shopper or what? That evening we decided to do the Spanish thing and spend all night eating and drinking. The first bar was a bust (Mmmmm....wine in a box, bad in any language) but apparently the cervesas were fine. Bar # 2 wasn't that great either and didn't have a very appealing tapas selection (the wine was marginally better). Bar #3 was a hit and we ordered some food at last. There was one minor hitch though .... GREEN, WHITE, GREEN, WHITE, GREEN, WHITE! Seems there was an important football game the following night between BARCA, BARCA, BARCA and the Scottish team (Celtic) ... also seems the Scottish fans enjoyed the bar we were in. They were enjoying the cervesa a great deal ... so much so that it made them burst into song ... continuously and to the detriment of the other patrons. The waiters tried to calm them down, but who was going to argue with 20 drunken Scots who were no doubt spending more money than the rest of the patrons combined. We found the whole thing quite funny (not to mention fodder for the rest of the night's conversation) and they were deemed more fun than the previous night's fodder; a group of Asian tourists who didn't quite get what made the black rice black (squid ink) and took at least half an hour to correctly divide their bill by 6 people, using pens, paper, PDAs and global positioning systems (ok, I made that last one up ... but come on ... do you really need to work it out to the last cent?). Anyway, when we had had about all we could take of our Scottish friends we decided to head to the waterfront to find a club that had been recommended to us called Carpe Diem. Well, you'd think since we had the address it would be pretty easy... An hour of wandering and two sets of vague directions later we found it (after walking by it four times ... well over it really). It was interesting. There was a live DJ and the place was packed. We had no reservado so we weren�t sure they were even going to let us in. In the end they found us a table (not one of the funky couch/bed things along the side). We had a good meal and a few more drinks, a wicked dessert and lots of laughs over the green, white crew. We grabbed a cab home and called it a late night.

The next morning we were back on the plane and back to an empty fridge in A'dam. Drew had to work on Friday but Saturday was one of the best days yet... Keukenhof. I can't really describe Keukenhof in words. My only hope is that I managed to capture it on slide film. I have never seen so many Tulips in my life. The garden itself is huge and is in the heart of the bulb growing district. Inside there are several huge showrooms. One was full of tulips ... more varieties than I new existed. Another building had hundreds of orchids. There was another building with hyacinths, freesias and amaryllis and one that had flower arranging displays. Not to mention the huge grounds outside with many different themed gardens. Being the first weekend open, only about a third of the plants outside were in bloom. I can only imagine the riot of colour at its height. It was phenomenal. I have to return to see it again at its peek. What a fantastic place.

So here we are in our last week in A'dam. Currently I feel like an emotional, stressed-out wreck. This week will be packing (what I should be doing now...). Looking at my already full suitcases I'm just not sure how that's going to happen. But most of all it's the leaving. I've never had a problem going home after a vacation before. In fact, by the end I'm usually glad to see my own bed. This time though, it feels like we're leaving home all over again. The excitement of going home and seeing everyone again is definitely tempered by the thought of leaving the Netherlands behind. I wish somehow I could bring you all here and show you all of the wonderful things we've discovered over the past three months, or better yet, box it up and tie it with a big bow to bring home and unwrap. We will always have photos and memories and I believe that The Netherlands has affected us in ways we will only realize when we return to Canada. I also know that we will return.

I'm titling this blog "Things I've learned while living in a foreign country." I've been thinking about this a lot lately as there are just two weeks remaining to our time here. It now seems like such a short amount of time, when in reality, it's longer than most vacations we've had in the past. But I guess that's the point of this blog; coming to terms with the differences between vacationing somewhere, and living somewhere. In no particular order, here are some of the thoughts that I've been mulling over:

After being here for 3 months, we look at people wandering around Amsterdam, staring at maps while trying to find the red light district, and shake our heads and sigh ..."tourists." The biggest irony is not just that we did that when we first got here but that we were doing that last weekend while trying to find Sacre Coeur in Paris. I guess my whole point to these musings is there is a fine, yet very distinct line between tourists and visitors. Tourists hop off the bus (boat, plane, train) and start looking for the sights ... museums, churches, towers, souvenir shops. Once they tick the five or six things they needed to see off of their list, they can say that they've "done" Amsterdam (Holland, Europe, whatever). I'm certainly not looking down on this way of thinking. Until this point in my life I had only been a tourist and I will continue to be a tourist in many places and I have no problem with that. When you first visit a new place, you should see the important sights. After all, they are famous for a reason. If you went to Paris for the first time without seeing the Eiffel Tower, people would think you were crazy. But once you've seen those things, you can look beyond them to the people who see them everyday. Robert has commented several times about how we are visiting things here that he has never seen. I think about Canada and how little I have seen of my own homeland. I had an interesting conversation with Marie-ann about perspective. She commented on some of the pictures I had taken of what I considered to be ironic sights around A'dam. One in particular was of a police station next door to a coffee shop. She remarked that she had walked by there countless times and never would have thought it odd. Looking at it through my eyes, she could see how funny it was. I had commented on a similar phenomenon that I had noticed. We (or I at least) rarely photograph the sights around our home town. As a photographer, when I think about shooting Peggy's Cove or the Citadel, I think "that's been done so many times before." But yet I take a picture of the Eiffel tower ... like no one's ever done that before. I guess that's why travel is so wonderful; you get to see things through new eyes. My time here has definitely made me want to see more of my own country.

This brings me to my next thought. Travel always seems to inspire more travel, at least for me. When I get the itch to travel and I finally get to go somewhere new, I'll think "well, that should hold off the travel bug for a while." But in reality it just makes me want to travel more. After three months here, I'm not thinking of all the things I've seen and done, I'm thinking of all of the things I didn't have enough time to see and do, thereby planning my next trip here already. Seeing the highlights of Europe by bus did not make me feel that I had "done" Europe; it makes me think "wow, there are so many more places I would love to see and I would love to spend time in those places I've only seen briefly." In fact, I can think of very few places I've visited in my life that I would not love to return to (Pisa and New Jersey come to mind and even those I think maybe I just need to see them with someone who knows where the nice parts are). I can also think of few places I would not like to travel to (I'll skip the war zones for now as that sort of "adventure travel" is not my thing). Of course there are some places I would rather go before others, the "top ten list" you could say (but could I really narrow it down to ten?) But if anything, I've learned to take the travel opportunities when they arise. When there was a possibility of moving here back when we were buying our house, I didn't really want to do it. I didn't know much about this country (it was never in my top ten) and frankly, I was sacred. When it all fell through, I was relieved. Given that same chance today, I would jump at it, (not just the Netherlands specifically, although I do feel like I've found a second home here.) Not that there wouldn't be difficulties and things that I would miss about home; family and friends being the biggest. But I guess the thought of living the rest of my life wondering "what if I had done that," would be too difficult. If I had been too afraid to leave Saint John, I never would have met my soul mate, not to mention some wonderful friends who I can not imagine not being a part of my life. I strongly believe that everything in life happens for a reason. Specifically related to travel, I believe that every journey can make you a better person. Which leads me to another thought...

Travel and specifically living in a different country can make you more open minded, but only if you first open your mind (Ah ha, a catch 22). For example, you could easily come here and think to yourself ... The Netherlands is different from home. They allow drugs and prostitution and dog shit on the streets ... it's crime ridden and dirty. Or you could come here and look at why these things are so and try to understand them. Well, really only pot is not illegal here and we've already seen in Canada a move to decriminalize it. Wouldn't it make more sense to regulate and tax it if it's going to happen anyway? Similar situation with prostitution, we're not going to stop the world's oldest profession, so lets at least make it a bit safer for everyone involved and for those who don't want to do it, as with pot, just don't do it. The dog shit, well it would be nice if people would learn to pick up after their pooches here, but having a dog friendly society is very nice. Imagine being able to walk to the grocery store with your dog and taking him inside while you pick up a few things, instead of tying him up outside or not taking him at all. Or owning a shop where your dog or cat is free to greet the patrons (this happens at home from time to time, but not very often and certainly there are not restaurant cats). I guess my point is that being open to the way things are done in different places, makes you more open to change and new things in your own life. It makes you understand that different is not always wrong, or right for that matter ... just different. There can be more than one correct way to solve a problem.

My final thought is that despite our differences, people are fundamentally the same everywhere (clice, I know, but still very true). Everywhere you go, there are nice people and mean people; open minded people and closed minded people; people who love peace and people who would rather fight about everything; rich people and poor people. With our world the way it is lately, with the fighting and killing on the news at all times, it's easy to forget this. Generally, people just want peace, happiness and safety. It's the minority of people that want the wars and killings to continue, not the majority. If more people could open themselves up to see these similarities instead of always looking at our differences I think the world would be a more peaceful place (that, and if women ruled the world...)

I didn't mean for this to end up being so preachy, and I guess it was more to sort it all out for myself than to share, but I'd be interested to hear anybody's thoughts on anything I've said here (as long as you agree with me ... just kidding). These are also not specifically things that I've only discovered while being here. I've believed most of it for a long time, but they certainly have become more clear during our stay.

10:25:48 AM

Ok, now for what everyone was really hoping to read about, rather than my diatribe about "what I learned on my summer (winter) vacation..." Paris. For the life of me, I can't figure out why Paris has this reputation of snobbishness and rude people. On my two brief visits there I have found nothing but wonderfully warm, helpful people. Paris also has a reputation for being dirty that I would also refute. Sure, I wouldn't eat off the sidewalks but we're talking about a city with millions of people, so there's bound to be a bit of dirt. There are beautiful areas and seedy areas, just like any other city. Without trying to be too melodramatic, I would compare Paris to a handsome older woman; someone you see and think "she will be regal and beautiful until the day she dies." Sure there may be winkles and grey hair but they are hard earned and tell the story of a long and tumultuous life. On many of the streets in Paris (the side streets away from the main tourist areas anyway) I felt that if I blocked out the cars and power lines, in my mind, I could be existing in any time period. The wrought iron, pealing paint and flower draped balconies seem to be the same as they were a hundred years ago or more.

As we had been to Paris on our bus tour, and "done" the major sites (see bitter tirade above) we wanted to do some things that were a bit different. We did do some typical touristy things as well, but I'm getting ahead of myself. We go first to a seedy hotel on the outskirts of La Defense...

The disadvantage of booking hotels on-line (or any other way but in person I suppose) is that you can pretty much take a picture of any building in the right light, slap it on the net and make it look not too bad. Note to self ... if a hotel is significantly cheaper than other hotels in the area, there is probably a reason... Ok, so it was that bad, but it was no Park Plaza that's for sure. We stayed at the Comfort Inn near La Defense, a new, skyscraper filled side of Paris. Aside from the carpet containing a complete microcosm of lower life forms and the door not having a lock on the inside of any kind it was relatively clean, and cheap. It could be worse. I'll leave it at that.

We arrived late Friday night so we ventured in to Paris early Saturday morning. We had to take a bus to La Defense which in itself was rather uneventful except that it made us realize how very "white" we are. At La Defense we took a quick look at the Grand Arch. This was built as the modern sister to the Arch de Triumph on the Champs. If you go to the top of one of the arches, you can clearly see the other, directly in front of you. After a quick photo, we hopped on the metro (yes I said I wasn't going to do this after the recent events in Madrid, but you really can't get anywhere in Paris without taking the metro and frankly, you can't live your life in fear of what could happen or you'd never leave your house.) We got off the metro at the top of the Champs, surrounded by Japanese tourists all trying to take pictures of each other in front of the Arch de Triumph (what is it about Asian tourists that makes them feel compelled to stand in front of every monument ever created and have someone take a picture?) Then we did what every girl must do at some point in her life ... walked down the Champs d'Elysee. Honestly, there are much better places to shop in Paris, places where you aren�t surrounded by other tourists and eyed suspiciously by hundreds of security guards (the street has more security that fort Knox I'm sure). But we walked it (the shopping district of the street is really much smaller than you would imagine) and then had lunch at a cafe. Sure a cafe on the Champs is probably twice as expensive as a cafe one street away, but there are some things in life you just have to do).

There was one store in Paris that I had to go to...Boys, skip this paragraph... It's called Sephora, and girls, I'm getting the catalogue shipped home as we speak. Sephora is the largest make-up and perfume store in Paris and has outlets all over Europe and the States. It is huge... and the best part is you can test everything. Scratch that, that's the second best thing ... the very best thing is all of the free stuff they give you. If you go to a make-up counter at home, your lucky if they give you one of those little scratch and sniff perfume cards. At Sephora, I walked out with more free stuff than purchases. There is just about any line of make-up here you can think of, from the very expensive (Chanel, Gaultier, Dior), to the very inexpensive (Maybeline, and the cheapest which is Sephora's own label). Just about every brand has it's own consultant who will do your entire make-up (get this) for free! Oh sure, they hope you will buy the stuff if you like it, but you don't have to. And they are so nice. I had my make up done by the Make Up Forever consultant (French company with nice, professional stuff). She was very sweet and when I was done gave me free trial sizes of lip stick, concealer and cleanser. Then I went to find some nail product. The woman who worked in that department was an absolutely gorgeous African-Parisian woman named Gala. They were offering French manicures for 18 euro (can you imagine what you'd pay for that at home?) I asked if I could have one and she was VERY apologetic that she was just about to go for her lunch. I said it was no problem and that I could come back later. Well, she was so sorry she started filling my basket with more samples (hand cream, Chanel perfumes ...) I made an appointment for later and left with my purchases (and samples).

We then went to the Pompidou Centre. This is the museum of modern art. This was my idea and I take full responsibility for the disaster that ensued. To be honest, the main reason I wanted to go there was because the building itself is extremely cool and has a great view of Paris from the top. Also, I feel like I really should appreciate modern art more and was hoping to gain more understanding of it there. Well, the lines were rather insane. I can't imagine what it's like in the summer. The building was cool and the view was good ... then we went in to the gallery. Well, maybe if I had of planned it out better and we went through it chronologically from the oldest to newest works, we would have got more out of it. As it was I didn't get it and I think Andrew was bored out of his mind when he wasn't laughing out loud. Sure there were some things I liked, although I was never really sure why, but most of it we lumped into the "my kid can draw better than your artist" category. When we did get to the older stuff, that I actually knew stuff about (Picasso, kandinsky, Matisse, Dali) we were tired and our brains hurt from trying to figure out the newer stuff. We laughed at our uncultured-ness on the way out (I, with the resolve to learn more about modern art before I do this again)

Then it was time to head back to Sephora for my manicure but not before buying and eating a crepe from a street vender (a definite must). Gala was a delightful manicurist. Once she realized we understood French, there was no stopping her. She was hilarious and did a great job on my nails, although it did take a lot longer than advertised and I think there was some reluctance to go back to work on her part, which was fine by us. She had a particular affinity for Andrew because he was so patient during the whole procedure, unlike some of the other husbands she had encountered. He got his share of sample products when we were finished (and I got even more...see the picture). By this time we were starved so we had some supper and caught the metro back to La Defense. From there it was back to the hotel and early to bed to prepare for a long Sunday.

Andrew decided Sunday morning that since we had to drive in Paris that day, he wanted to drive around the Arch de Triumph. For anyone unfamiliar with this, it is a round-about with the Arch in the centre and 11 (could be wrong on that) streets that enter into it. Most notably, it is cobble stone with no lane markings whatsoever. We drove around it completely (there is video evidence) and then down the Champs. There was also an incident with a one-way street and a very frightened taxi driver that we won't get into. We managed to find our destination, Sacre Coeur, and get a great parking spot (thanks to Andrew's Zen-like parallel parking skills). The church sits atop a hill in the Montmartre district (famous as an artist hang-out throughout the ages). It is huge and the view of the city is stunning ... and the hordes of people swarming it are unbelievable. But even the hordes of tourists here don't detract from the beauty of the church. We happened to be there as a mass was starting and we sat and watched the nuns singing in awe. The acoustics inside the church are unbelievable. All I can say is it is a very powerful experience, religious or not, that must be seen to be understood. You will see no pictures of the inside of the church on my website as they were not permitted. This didn't stop most people from flashing away but I felt this was not only disrespectful for the people worshiping there, but that there was no way I could accurately capture the beauty of this building on film.

After our experience at the church we had lunch at a nice little cafe around the corner and then went in search of our final destination. Le Buttes de Chamont Parc. This was an interesting park built on the site of an old quarry. Most of the rock formations you will see in the pictures are man made but it is a beautiful park nonetheless. You will have to see the photos to get a sense of what it is like. We had an enjoyable walk all the way around and through the park and then we settled in for the long drive home. We decided on one last detour on the way. We went back to the memorial at Vimy, which we had visited briefly on the bus tour. This time we visited the small museum as well. Most interesting though, was the recreation of the trenches of the front line. It was amazing to see the actual craters left by the bombing and how close the Canadian front line was to the German front line. I've tried to demonstrate this in the pictures but I don't think it really does justice to the site. The Vimy memorial in general is a place where you feel very proud and lucky to be Canadian.

Our journey was topped off by a third and final trip to the Sate Hut in Breda, a town we have never actually visited except as a supper spot on the way from other destinations. The food was great and we just kept going back. Mmmm...sate.

Mmmmm...Paris.

8:36:56 PM

Quick update ... if you have the chance go see Cirque de Soleil it is fabulous. These people are the best of the best in the world. The costumes, choreography and music, in addition to the actual acts, is amazing. All I can say is see it and then see it again.

Germany turned out to be a fun weekend but it did not turn out as we had planned. We did manage to haul ourselves out of bed early on Saturday morning and get on the road, but that may have lead to our downfall.

We drove across the Netherlands and entered Germany near Arnhem with little fanfare. Since we were traveling the back roads the only thing that announced our arrival in Germany was a small sign. The country side we drove through was rural and similar to the Netherlands, although slightly lumpier. As we traveled south we did begin to notice differences in the architecture as well. We arrived in Cologne (Koln) around 1 and it took us quite some time to find our hotel. I had found a very good last minute deal on-line at the Park Plaza. Normally this would have been way out of our price range and it was quite a difference in quality to most of the hotels we have stayed in.

When we finally found it, we were hungry and tired and the weather was rainy and bleak. We decided to eat lunch at the hotel rather than wander around in the rain. Over lunch we admitted reluctantly that we were both exhausted and didn't feel like exploring Koln in the rain. We were pathetic and went up to our room and had a nap. It ended up being a rather long nap and when we awoke it was starting to get dark. The weather had still not improved but we felt much better. We decided that since we had the opportunity to stay in a posh hotel, we would enjoy the experience to the fullest. We used the very nice gym and followed our workout with a very long sauna. We then had a late supper that was rather swanky. The afternoon / evening turned out to be just what we needed.

The next morning we were well rested but the weather was still not on our side. I made a snap decision to skip sight-seeing in Koln and drive the romantic highway to see the castles on the Rhine. We had done part of this drive on our bus tour of Europe and it was breathtaking. We agreed that this would be much nicer than wandering around in the rain. We were right. The drive was spectacular and the sun even peaked through a few times. The towns along the Rhine look like fairy-tale villages. It is impossible to describe in words or pictures how incredible this area is. Without exaggeration I would say it is easily one of the most beautiful drives in the world. Along side the town and castles, there are vineyards that scale the hillsides. I've tried to show this in pictures but I don't think they do justice to how steep the vineyards are. Like all beautiful areas, there are definite signs of tourism and I'm sure that in the dead of summer, it would be a dreadful place to live. We drove as far as St. Goar, which was the town we visited on our bus tour, and then took a ferry across the Rhine and drove back up the other side. You can really only see the towns on the opposite side of the river when you are driving as everything is so steep. We had a nice lunch of sausage and German potato salad with apple strudel for dessert (how much more touristy could we be...). During our travels we decided that if the opportunity ever arose for us to come back to Europe, we would love to explore Bonn, Koblenz and of course Koln.

After completing our Rhine tour it was time to hit the highway and head home to the Praterlaan. One little over-sight on my navigational skills ... German highway = Autobahn. I have two words to describe driving the Autobahn ... "WHAAAAAAAAAAAA!" ... "WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" (a la What would Jarred do Subway commercial). Generally on the Autobahn, if there is a posted speed limit it is 130 and in many places there is NO speed limit. My knuckles remained a ghostly shade of white during this drive. When I dared look at our speedometer it was around 160 and endless BMWs and Mercedes were blowing past us like we were standing still. It was ... an experience. I was relieved to return to the Netherlands, and the reasonable 110 limits.

On Wednesday, Andrew's trip to Prague was unfortunately a disaster. He was up and gone to the airport at the crack of dawn. At 8:30 AM my phone rang. It was Drew. He had learned a valuable lesson ... Canadian's need a visa to visit the Czech Republic. He wasn't allowed on the flight and he was coming home. About 15 mins later my phone rang again ... they were trying to arrange a visa for him and maybe he could make the next flight. 15 mins after that, the third and final call ... Visas take 5 working days to arrange. A few hours later a disappointed Drew was home.

Because the boys were supposed to be away, I had arranged to go out with Marie-Anne for the evening. We kept our original plans as Drew had loads of work to catch up on anyway. We met at Centraal and she took me to a place called The Movies. It is an old, Art Nouveau theatre that has been converted into a restaurant and theatre. You eat your supper and then go next door to a movie. It is a great idea and I think it would be a wonderful way to save some of our old theatres at home. We had a delicious supper and then went to see "Lost in Translation." (No, the irony was not lost on me) It was a good film, but definitely not mainstream Hollywood fare. After the movie we had a killer dessert of 3 kinds of chocolate. It was nice to have some "girl talk" and we discovered that there are definitely universal themes. After supper, Marie-Anne kindly drove me home in her Mini (Drew was jealous).

Today I am planning our Paris trip. We purchased a map and guide book (we have a steadily growing collection if anyone plans to come to Europe anytime soon) yesterday. We have seen many of the must-do sights already, when we were on the bus tour. We're planning to visit some of the lesser known spots and of course I will try to squeeze in a bit of shopping. Love to All!
Al

So last weekend was the last of our low-key weekends in A'dam. The rest of our stay seems to be planned to the hilt and time is going to fly by even faster than it has been. Saturday was great though. We slept in a bit and then headed in to the city to do some shopping. I won't bore you with all of the details again but as usual Vroom & Dressman was a success. I also discovered the joy of scarves ... People don't seem to wear scarves at home anymore. I'm not talking about winter scarves either, but flowy, silky, girly scarves. Anyway I found a couple of nice ones and yet another pair of shoes (the new suitcase purchase will be happening soon). I also talked Andrew into buying a really nice shirt and tie. We had lunch at the Pancake House (yummy) and then headed home for our evening.

Saturday night was the last of my birthday festivities, dinner at De Kas. I had read about this restaurant on several websites and it was something I really wanted to try. The head chef had once worked at the Moosewood and earned a Michelin star. Also, conveniently, it's right down the street from the condo. Since this was the closest I am probably ever going to get to Michelin Star greatness, I had to try it out. Andrew was game and we convinced Robert and Marie-Anne to join us.

Robert and Marie-Anne decided to bike over to the Praterlaan and join us for drinks before hand, as Marie-Anne had not yet seen the condo. They arrived with the most gorgeous bouquet of flowers I've ever received and a box of chocolates for my birthday. We were also instructed on the traditional Dutch three kiss greeting. Marie-Anne gave me some instruction on dealing with the flowers and then we settled down to the first bottle of wine. Good company and good wine lead us to be a bit late for our reservation, but Andrew called and it was fine.

We had planned to take the tram to the restaurant as it's only about 3 stops away. Marie-Anne suggested we go Dutch and ride the bikes. Well, after a bottle of wine this seemed like a good idea. Keep in mind that the last time I was on a bike was the first time I was in the Netherlands, on the bus tour, 3 years ago. Before that it was in High School. Anyway, here it's quite common for someone to sit on the back of the bike, on the little rack for packages, while another person drives. Keep in mind also, that we're dressed for a fancy diner which means pointy shoes (It's not uncommon here at all for women to bike in skirts and high heals, but not something we slobby Canadians are used to). Anyway I managed somehow to get on the back of Marie-Anne's bike. The woman must have legs of steel because she biked like I wasn't even there. We did quite well. Despite feeling like I was going to fly off at any second, I actually only had to jump down twice to regain my balance. I did however, discover stomach muscles I hadn't noticed in a long time. Andrew and Robert did not fare quite as well. Marie-Anne blamed it on Robert not biking very often. I blamed it on Drew's lack of balance. Either way, the girls won that race and looked a lot less silly...

De Kas is situated in Frankendael Park. It is a huge green-house that has been partially converted into a restaurant, however part of the building still functions as its original purpose and fresh veggies and herbs are grown there for use in the kitchen. The decor is simple. The high glass ceilings give a sense of space and the restaurant feels very open and airy. We settled in, ordered some wine and the food started to arrive. Any stereotypes about fancy restaurants and small portions of food went out the green-house window. I suppose some would say the individual servings of each dish were small but we had more than enough food. The concept of De Kas is that all of the food is fresh, organic, local, and has as little impact of the environment as possible. There is no menu. You eat what they give you, the only choices being vegetarian or not and what to drink. There were three appetizers: pumpkin and cream tart, marinated veggies with thinly shaved ham and (and this is going to sound disgusting but was wonderful) marinated giant shrimp on a bed of pasta coloured with squid ink. There was also fresh bread and butter. The main course was a beautifully grilled steak with more veggies (and a second bottle of wine [third counting the one at the condo]). Then we had a cheese plate ... and more wine. Then there was dessert, which was a cake with fruit in it, followed by coffee and cookies. We were full, loud and happy. It was an all night affair. Drew and I caught the tram home and Robert and Marie-Anne biked back to their place.

The next day Drew and I had big plans to go see Den Haag. We ended up sleeping in and when we finally crawled out of bed I was suffering a Chianti head-ache. We ended up going for a drive, neither of us feeling like getting out of the car. We explored some of the beach resort towns, which are already getting crowded on weekends. Our supper was a hard earned pizza and we hit the bed early.

Last night, we had another culinary experience (yes mom, all we ever do here is eat). We hijacked Robert and went to the cafe Bern, which we had attempted to go to several times previously to no avail. The cafe Bern is a tiny little pub (about 12 tables if that and a bar) that is famous for Swiss fondue. I've only ever had chocolate fondue, and being in the land of cheese it seemed like a good thing to try. Dipping bread in hot cheese ... what could be bad about that? Well, I can understand why we needed reservation because the Cafe became packed. It was the only time we were given the bill here without asking for it. So, having got the boot and not wanting to go home, we crossed the street and found another relatively quiet cafe to have some drinks. By the way, cafe is the general term here for what we would call a pub; Pubs here serve food; Coffeeshops are for smoking pot and Koffieshops are for drinking coffee (confused?) Anyway a few drinks (I got to be the BOB) at a nice spot, good conversation and a cozy atmosphere (Dare I say Gezellig?) and then home to bed.

Tomorrow morning we are off to Cologne or Koln, Germany in search of more stairs to climb.

Alright, so I have two weeks of blog to catch up on. I'm not making any promises here because my memory is terrible. I'll do my best at remembering but feel free to e-mail me any questions you may have too. So we left off on Valentines Day...

My Valentine's Day gift was Andrew making me supper. This was his first cooking attempt in Holland and without a BBQ. He settled on a stir-fry so we decided to do the Dutch thing and go to the Albert Cuyp market for supplies. The AC is a HUGE street market that runs every day except Sunday. It is about a km long and you can get virtually everything there; Veggies and fruit, meat, fish, cheese, baked goods, spices, clothes, fabric, toiletries, plants, furniture ... you name it, chances are you can find it there. We strolled through, invigorated by some fresh, hot spring rolls and found everything we needed...and then some. My two favorite stalls were the spice stall (literally any spice, herb or tea was available here) and the Tapas stall ... we went a little nuts here and got hummus, babaganoush and cheese stuffed hot peppers (delish). We also bought veggies, fruit, fish, tea and breads. You can see the pic of our purchases in the photo section. After the market there was one more stop I wanted to make. We went to Nieuwmarkt, the Asian section of town. I wanted to go back to the Asian grocery and pick up some more Miso... I ended up with more than miso but it was fun.

The rest of the day was a relaxation day for me and a cooking extravaganza for Drew. He did a fabulous job, by the way. The stir-fry had tons of veggies and shrimp from the market. Very yummy indeed.

Sunday was a bit of a patchwork of things we wanted to see and do. Our first stop was Rotterdam ... ok so some of you are well aware that I had a bad first impression of Rotterdam (Andrew Roode). We won't go there except to say that Rotterdam was bombed heavily in the war and therefore is very modern looking. Many parts of it could be any generic North American city. There was one area I hadn't seen and wanted to explore. The old quarter where the artists colony is.... I wanted to see the Cubes.

The Cubes are rather hard to describe so I suggest you take a look at the pics if you haven't already ... basically they are Cubes with one point cut off, tipped sideways and stuck on a column, then they are mashed together with a bunch of other cubes and pushed so that they tip forward...and people live in them...Between the Cubes is a sort of courtyard area that you can wander through. It is surprisingly peaceful. Surprising because the Cubes are also situated over a major street. Just as I was marveling as to how people could live in these things, we discovered the museum Cube. Basically one gentleman who lives in the Cubes, opens his house up when he's home and charges a euro for you to take a look through. Great idea since anyone would be curious what these things look like inside ... Well, they are small... claustrophobics need not apply. Also if you are afraid of heights, don't wash dishes here because you are looking straight down at the street below. The stairs are narrow and the bathroom is tiny. By far the coolest room is the little pyramid on top. This was a sitting room with windows all around. The view is basically the other cubes, but also the street and depending on which cube you live in, I suppose the water as well. All in all, quite fascinating but definitely not for me.

Our next stop was Delft, another place I had been already but Drew had not and I thought he might like it. It's a fairly small city, with a nice downtown and main square. It is of course famous for the hand painted pottery, mainly in blues but also available in other colours. True hand-painted Delft is wickedly expensive but also one of a kind and very beautiful. Unfortunately, this time of year, the factory is not open to the public. We did drive over to check it out and it is quite huge. We had a mediocre lunch on the main square, explored the Royal Delft shop and then headed out of town.

Our next event of note was our Wednesday night football game. Football here, for those of you who don't know, is what we call soccer. There is also a football team here that plays what we know as football. The Dutch call it American football ... they have cheerleaders which I'll get to. The game we went to see was the Dutch (oranje) vs the Americans. This is like the All-star team for Holland. The stadium we were in was the Ajax stadium. Ajax (pronounced I-ax) is the Amsterdam team and you can't actually go to their games at the stadium unless you are a member of the club. Back to the Oranje ... why orange? I dunno. It is, accept it and move on. Because the team is called oranje, of course all of the fans wear orange. And we are talking day glow orange here. So basically it looks like a stadium full of hunters and death-row inmates (could be actually). And they are nuts! Frankly I think all hard-core sports fans are nuts but it is definitely infectious. Anyway of course my camera died before the game even started but there are a couple pics of the field. The game was pretty good. The first half, no one scored. Then we had the American Football cheerleaders ... definitely wouldn't make it in the states ... these were no Laker Girls. They looked like they were having fun and I guess that's what counts, but frankly, they sucked. Jenn, you would have laughed your butt off. Anyway, second half, Oranje scored, USA didn't. We won, the world was happy (well, the Dutch anyway) and we went home. Only it wasn't quite that easy. A tram had derailed on our route and caused a huge traffic jam. It was cold, we were tired. We had no idea what was going on. After 2 trams getting us part way and a lot of waiting, we finally gave up and got a cab. Not a great ending to a pretty fun night.

Ok, so the next great day was Friday, my Birthday! Yup, I'm still 24! heh. Andrew took the day off so we could do fun b-day type things. Our first stop was the not so fun b-day blood clinic. It went fine and actually I didn't feel a thing. I had just commented on how easy it was, as we were walking away, when I realized I was bleeding all over my sweater. Once that was under control (did actually get the stain out later too) we walked down the street to my next errand. I wanted to develop a couple rolls of my slide film, just to make sure my camera was working properly. The photographers at home will get a kick out of this next bit ... the rest of you feel free to skip ahead. Ok, so you know how you get used to going to the one camera shop you trust and it's hard to just walk in somewhere new and hand over you film ... Well, my experience was rather interesting. I had done a bit of research on-line because I didn't want to just take it any old place. The place that I settled on was on our tram line and recommended to professionals. So I walk in and it's a big posh room ... with nothing in it but a counter ... no cameras, no film. Just a counter, a sofa and a couple of photos on the walls and the place is BIG. Kind of like going to a really posh clothing store where the models come out wearing the clothes... Anyway I go to the counter, do my thing and they say it will be ready in 2 hours ... 2 hours!!! Not weeks, not days, Hours!! for slide film! Anyway by now I'm thinking I'm going to be paying BIG bucks for this. Save you the suspense ... it was 5 euro a roll. 11.40 euro total for 2 rolls. They came out great btw and I'll be taking more there this week.

Ok, back to more interesting things ... what I wanted to do on my b-day... I wanted to go to FOAM the Foto Museum of Amsterdam. It was a nice spot and had 2 major exhibits going. One on a Dutch photojournalist that was excellent and another on Man Ray and Lee Miller that was very interesting. It contained lots of contact sheets as well as prints so that your could see his original crop marks and notes. Quite neat. Then we went to the English bookstore to get a book on Barcelona (yes we are going at the end of March). We found that and Andrew got a computer book and he got me the latest Jamie Oliver cookbook. Then we picked up the film, dropped stuff off at home and went for my b-day supper. It's been tradition the past few years that we go for Indian food on my b-day so we found a great Indian restaurant and ate so much we literally hurt when we left. The food was delish.

The next morning we got up bright and early and headed to Belgium for the Third and final time. This time we had reservations at a cheap hotel for the night so we could actually see some things without having to rush home. Our first stop was the Atomium. This was built for a worlds fair and is now kind of a symbol of the city. It's basically a huge blow-up of a molecule. Inside you take an elevator to the top and have views of the city. Then you take a series of escalators down through the various spheres where there are art exhibits. It's rather odd but an interesting, one time sort of thing. We avoided all of the other tourist traps at the fair ground, except to have an over priced lunch. Then we headed to another part of the park where the Japanese and Chinese pavilions were left as museums after the worlds fair. These were both beautiful inside and out and the pictures show them better than I could describe so take a look.

Afterwards, it was high time to find our hotel. We drove around a bit and I remembered something about it being near a church. Well we found it, and what a church to be near. After checking in to the hotel, we had to check out the Basilica. It is an ENORMOUS art deco style church and is absolutely breath taking inside. The simple lines and domes to me are much more beautiful than the over the top gothic style of many of the grand churches here. There was some fantastic stained glass and the view from the top of the church rivaled the view from the atomium.

We decided to head down to the grote market again for supper and be herded in to one of the many restaurants there. I had a very tricky to eat stuffed crab and Drew opted for mussels. We then went back to our chocolate shop to stock up and back to the hotel. We had picked up some little cakes at the bakery across the street and I had my b-day dessert a day late.

The next morning we went back to the bakery for breakfast and then got on the road to Waterloo. We went to see the Butte de Lion a huge grass pyramid with a lion statue on top, commemorating the Napoleonic war. After climbing a gazillion stairs we had a nice view of the surrounding farm land. Vowing never to climb things again (a vow I seem to keep making and breaking on this trip) we headed to Ghent. This city came highly recommended by Drew's colleagues and we weren't disappointed. The city boasts four magnificent churches, some fantastic old architecture and a castle. We had to see the castle for ourselves. So after a very nice lunch at a little coffee house we went trekking through the castle. Well, that blew my stair vow again but there was a beautiful view of the churches from the castle walls. There was also an exhibit inside showing various medieval torture devices (lovely). After the castle we went on a short but interesting boat tour of Ghent. It was interesting to see the buildings from the water level. .

After Ghent we had one last mission... and it was a difficult one. We wanted to find where my great-uncle was buried in Antwerp. My Grandfather Fair's brother had been a signalman in the war and was buried in a graveyard in Antwerp. We had vague directions from the Canadian Government web site. Frankly it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. I think the directions had been written when the graveyard was instated, as none of the streets seemed to exist any more. It took an hour or more of searching until we found the graveyard... and it was closed. Well, never being one to let little things like locked gates stand in the way of a mission... we parked the car (illegally). To actually get to the grave we had to: 1). Rescue a very grateful dog 2). Scale the fence and 3) avoid the police. All of that is true, but not really that dramatic. A woman and her dog had gotten stuck inside the graveyard when they closed the gate. She was waiting for a friend to come and help her lift the dog out. We helped and the puppy was very happy to be free again. Then we hopped the fence (I figure if they really didn't want us in there, they would have made it taller). Finding the actual grave was much harder. We had a number V.D.63 which didn't seem to correlate with anything. I finally figured out that V actually meant 5 and Drew discovered that the graves were more or less in chronological order. Finally we found it. I have to say, as far as eternal resting places go, this one was beautiful. It was right by a canal and the graves were very well tended with herbs planted around them. Very peaceful and lovely. As we hiked back out of the driveway we noticed the police driving by and were worried they would stop and check out our car so we jumped behind some trees. They didn't stop and we made a clean getaway with pictures for evidence.

Then we settled in for the long drive home. Both of us were exhausted but it was a very fun and interesting weekend.