2008: Week 44

I don't have much time to write this week, but I did manage to post some photographs from the three major excursions of the week, a bike ride to Haarlem, and train journeys to Utrecht and Antwerp. Hope you enjoy them!

Tonight we're off to Zurich - internet access is likely to be rather sporadic for the next few weeks, but my Canadian phone is still working if you need to get in touch.

Bridge in Haarlem

Canal in Utrecht

Antwerp Station

Best of the week
- A bike ride to Haarlem, a beautiful town just 20km from Amsterdam.
- Catching up with Kerry for the first time in a year.
- Canals below street level, and the view from the Domtoren (112m above the street) in Utrecht.
- Drinking multiple flavours of lambic in some great beer cafes.
- Sint-Pauluskerk in Antwerp, a magnificent church which still houses artworks made for it by van Dyck and Rubens.

Worst of the week
- A late train from Belgium, missing the last tram, and the 40 minute walk home on a rather chilly night.
- Getting ready to leave Amsterdam; selling my bike, posting things home, trying to use up all the food we bought.

2008: Week 43

Another week in Amsterdam; we had a few adventures exploring the city and surrounds. First up was a bike ride south of the city where we rode by a rather nice windmill and managed to get a little lost and ride much further than we intended. Fortunately we had brought oliebollen, a newly discovered Dutch delicacy. These fist-sized, deep fried balls of dough sound like they'd be more at home at a State Fair somewhere in the US - the reality tastes much better to me than any funnel cake or beaver tail.

Our next outing was to the Jordaan, where we met a friend who lives in Amsterdam for a walking tour of the area. After a quick stop for coffee and beer at t'Smalle we walked through the streets learning a little more about the history of this part of Amsterdam. Jordaan was once a working class area, but with it's proximity to the centre of the city it has become quite a fashionable place. We visited several lovely hofies, originally built as places for widowed or unmarried women to live, and make a little money by doing laundry. The outside entrance is sometime marked by a sculpture featuring bed sheets; in fact many buildings have sculptures depicting the type of activity found within. These signs allowed a mostly illiterate population to locate spcific house without street signs or numbers.

On Saturday we made our way to the Jaap Eden Ijshal - the skating rink - to see the local hockey team play. The atmosphere was rather different to what we've experienced in Canada. There were probably about 200 spectators, and the level of play wasn't quite up to NHL level. Nonetheless, it was a lot of fun. As we left the venue we passed a huge lineup of people who were waiting for the game to end so they could skate - perhaps we should take our skates to the next Sens game and see if they let us on the ice...

Best of the week
- a walk through the Jordaan with someone who actually knows the area.
- my first attempt to cook mussels - a complete success.
- watching the Amsterdam Tigers (ice) hockey team beat Groningen Grizzlies, 7-6 in a shoot out.

Worst of the week
- having to buy 5 stamps when I only needed one (yes, life is hard).
- rain, and being stuck in the house - rbiking in the rain does not sound like fun to me.

2008: Week 42

A much quieter week, the highlight (and only substantial outing) being a bike ride to Marken, about 20km away. Marken was an island until 1957 when it was linked to the mainland via a causeway. Now it is a bit of a tourist trap, luring busloads of people with it's quaint wooden houses and pretty harbour. We avoided the rather expensive cafes clustered around the waterfront and ate chips with sate sauce for lunch.

The route we took passed along a series of canals running through beautiful farmland. There were plenty of cows and sheep, lots of ducks, and the occasional heron patiently watching the canal in search of food. Of course we crossed many bridges, but at one canal we had to catch a "ferry" - for 25c each we made the ~10m crossing on a barge which winched itself across the water using a tow rope.

Best of the week
- Buying fresh flowers at the market and feeling like a local.
- Making it back from Marken (the longest bike ride of my life I think).
- Visiting our local pub, Dopey's Elixer. It's the kind of place you could sit for hours on a rainy afternoon.

Worst of the week
- The pain in my legs after the bike ride - fortunately some stretching and a hot bath brought relief.
- Hail. This was quite a surprise; we were about to take the bikes out when it started raining. Luckily we decided to postpone our outing as the rain was followed by hail falling very fast !