We had our first free day – with no lecture – in Amsterdam today, so folks were left to their own devices for entertainment and enlightenment. Well, mostly. Sue organized a canal tour in the morning, so people just had to come up with a way to fill their afternoons.
The canal tour was lovely. I had taken a tour of Amsterdam’s many canals a week earlier, but the two experiences were completely different. Continue reading ‘‘ware the chipkaart’
I’ve been itching to ride a bicycle around town from the moment I got here. Since today was the first clear day we’ve had, I took off toward Amsterdamse Bos, a wooded area southwest of central Amsterdam. I’m not really sure what route I took to get there; I just followed the signs posted along the bike path (fietspad – my Dutch word of the day), but eventually I got there. The woods were delightful. Bike and walking paths criss-crossed the entire area, which is roughly 2,500 acres. It was really easy to feel like I was alone among the trees. Continue reading ‘Amsterdamse Bos’
I needed a day to wander around by myself, so I went to flower market and the Albert Cuyp market. The flower market had quite a few fresh flowers, but mostly it sold tulip bulbs and wooden tulips. I enjoyed fantasizing about planting hundreds of tulips in the scraggly flower beds outside my duplex, but I didn’t end up buying anything. The Albert Cuyp market was amazing. It’s a huge street market that is open daily (except Sunday) from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and it sells just about anything you could ever need. There were stalls for bicycles, fish, stroopwafels, footwear, household items, fabric, produce and much, much more. I was tempted by several items there, but I only bought fruit. Produce here is super cheap, but it doesn’t seem to make it into very many meals in very detectable quantities. I savored my affordable apple.
After lecture this morning, Greta and I decided to go to the Anne Frank House museum. When we got there, however, the line to get in stretched around the block, and we didn’t know if we’d have time to wait and go through before our group dinner tonight. We were both feeling a bit hungry, so we asked a man working in a nearby souvenir shop where we could find some good frites (Dutch-style fries). He gave us some convoluted directions to a shop several blocks away and assured us that all of the locals got frites there. He promised they would be “the best frites you’ve had in your life.” Continue reading ‘Frites, churches and a group dinner’
A few weeks ago I went to a reception for admitted students at Syracuse University to see if I could envision myself going to grad school there. The campus was beautiful, and I really liked what the alumni, professors and current students had to say about the university’s library and information science program. The town itself, on the other hand, was kind of a dump, so it’s kind of a mixed verdict. I still may end up going there, and I need to make my decision soon, so watch this space for updates.
After spending a couple of days in Syracuse, I went to New York City to play for a few days. I actually liked the city a lot more than I thought I would. It’s definitely an urban jungle, but I loved walking around Central Park, and I’d like to scoop up Broadway and Times Square and transplant them into Seattle. I did a TON of walking – my toes were an unrecognizable mass of blisters by the end of my trip. I didn’t take very many pictures this time around, but here’s a glimpse of what my trip was like.
You must have Flash Player installed to view slideshow.
Thankfully, though, the underpants remained out of sight for the most part.
I should have blogged this a month ago, when Ally and I got back from our trip to England and France (and Belgium for a few hours), but you know how I put things off.
Anyway, the trip was really fun. I think Ally’s favorite part was when we were looking at a menu outside a restaurant in Paris and the owner came out to talk to us. When I replied “bon soir” to his greeting, he looked at me and said, “You’re not French, are you?” It’s kind of discouraging that he could tell from two words. I’ll have to work on my accent.
The weather was cold and drizzly most of the time, kind of like Seattle at this time of year. But that didn’t keep us from walking all over the place. We both had some nice blisters on our feet by the end of the second week.
We were glad Paul could meet up with us a couple of nights in London and then in Bath so we could visit with our little bro for awhile. Plus, he just makes everything more fun with his quirky comments and good humor.
I didn’t take quite as many pictures as Ally did, but here’s a sampling of what I got:
“/blog/slideshows/london2008/london2008.html”
Last month Meg and I decided to take a last-minute trip to San Francisco. We bought our plane tickets and reserved a hotel online on Friday night, and Saturday morning we were on our flight there. We didn’t have much time to plan what we wanted to do in our two days there, so we probably didn’t use our time as efficiently as we could have. But we did ride a trolley, visit Fishermen’s Wharf, watch sea lions fight for dock space, take a walk on Golden Gate bridge and visit Chinatown and Japantown. It was a pretty fun weekend.
“http://mushpots.com/blog/slideshows/sanfran2008/sanfran2008.html”
Recent Comments