Day 10 – Airport

Day 10 – Airport:
So sad. Time to go home. At least, for Natalie & I. Christine volunteered to get bumped off the flight and stayed an extra night. I almost didn’t make it though, when I went to check in, I was bumped off the flight – but thankfully some people missed it, and I made it on. That was a stressful two hours for me though!

I had a five hour layover in Cincinnati, and Krista came and picked me up! That was the best layover I’ve ever had! She is deploying in a month, so I’m very glad I got to see her.

Day 9 – Amersfoort, Amsterdam

Day 9 – Amersfoort, Amsterdam:
Early to bed, early to rise. As we’re leaving the hotel, we decide to go to Amersfoort instead of Rotterdam. Aren’t we spontaneous! I think it was the best decision! Part of the reason we decided to skip Rotterdam is because we figured it would be too much like Amsterdam. They are rival cities, after all.

The only thing we knew of in Amersfoort was the concentration camp. When we arrived, we took a taxi (the trams don’t run there on the weekend) to Kamp Amersfoort. The museum and barracks portion were closed, but most of the historical stuff is outside of that area, so we walked around and saw all of the monuments. It was a work camp, and they had to dig dikes. It was stunning at how deep they had to dig. If you want to read more about the camp, which had a reputation for extremely harsh treatment of prisoners (one commented leaving KA to go to a different concentration camp was like leaving hell to go to heaven), you can read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amersfoort_concentration_camp
One thing that surprised us the most was that right next to the camp was a golf course. We did not like this. It really just seems wrong.






After we went back to town, we had lunch in the town square. It was a lovely day, but unfortunately the bees were very attracted to us and our food. One bee literally crawled into my sandwich. The waitresses kept trying to get us to go inside, but we were so close to being finished that we insisted on staying outside. We probably should have gone in!

We found the market and walked around. Did more shopping, ate a stroopwaffle. (Does any of this surprise you? shopping? dessert?). A stroopwaffle was 2 very very thin waffles (paper thin) with syrup in-between. It was served warm and was simply amazing! Amersfoort is a very cute town and I would definitely recommend it to anyone visiting the Netherlands. They have both history and local culture.


We went back to Amsterdam in the afternoon so Natalie could make it back in time for her presentation. I decided to walk around the canals. I was informed that there was a boat pride parade, so I wanted to check it out (they said there were really impressive boats). I got there after the decorated boats, but was still amazed to see all of the other boats going along the canals. There were so many people!


For our last supper, we went to a Chinese restaurant. It was fun because it was multiple levels and we sat next to the window, over looking dam square, from the third story of the building. We had an amazing meal! I don’t even know what most of it was, but it was really tasty!

Afterwards we went back to the Red Light District to see if it would be any different since it was the weekend. It wasn’t, except for the fact that some guy grabbed Natalie’s butt. That was funny though  At least, for me!
We went to our favorite pastry place before our return home. One last pastry before all the gluttony ceased. Tot ziens, Amsterdam!

Day 8 – Amsterdam

Day 8 – Amsterdam:
I went with Natalie to the conference and played on the internet while she went to one of the presentations. I researched all of the possibilities for the next day’s adventure (we were looking at Dusseldorf, Cologne, or Rotterdam).

We left the conference and went to the Rijksmuseum, which is one of the most famous museums there. It highlights the golden age of the Netherlands. I learned that Rembrandt was Dutch, and also that Rembrandt is his first name (van Rijn is his last name). They had a ton of his work, and it was all very impressive. I was surprised at how large the Night Watch is, and was saddened to read about a crazy man slicing it all up (but they restored it). Random factoids for you!

Today we went to an Italian deli for lunch; it definitely looked like a place that was more for locals than tourists (no English menus!). I had a delicious mozzarella and tomato sandwich, their bread is simply amazing!!

My task for the afternoon, while Natalie was at the conference, was to make train reservations for Germany. Never in a million years did I anticipate a long line (the longest line we’ve waited in at a train station was maybe 15 minutes). I had a lovely 2.5 hour wait at the Amsterdam train station. During which, I met a very nice fella from Sweden. We talked all about our journeys, and where we were trying to go. Around hour 2, he asked me which train pass I had… I sat there with a blank face and just started laughing. At that moment I realized that we bought the Benelux (Belgium-Netherlands-Luxembourg) & France pass… We did NOT buy the pass that included Germany! All I could do was laugh, otherwise I might have cried at all the wasted time. I ended up waiting anyway, just to see if maybe it was cheap enough. It wasn’t. Rotterdam, here we come. I consoled myself with more shopping. Remember, 1 Euro = 1 USD! 

We met Natalie’s coworker and her friend for dinner. We went to a Mexican restaurant that was recommended by one of Christine’s friends. Yes, we ate Mexican in Europe! It was delicious! Again, Natalie’s was better than mine. I just have this thing when I travel that I want to try things I’ve never seen before, or local cuisine. I had a soup that was rice, corn, squash, and maybe some other veggies. It tasted really good, but Natalie had enchiladas and they were amazing!

After dinner (which was around 10pm), we headed back to the hotel. Need to get up early for our excursion!

Day 7 – Amsterdam

Day 7 – Amsterdam:
Natalie had conference sessions in the morning, so I slept in. When I finally got up, I decided I would be good and work out (even though we've walked a billion miles, I haven't gotten a real workout in). Oh how quickly your body hurts when you haven't been to the gym in over a week! It was good though, and I wasn't in too much pain afterwards.

We met up for lunch and went to a bustling part of town. We had odd sandwiches (I went for something local and it was lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and egg on top of a thick slice of buttered bread). Natalie’s looked a lot more tasty and normal, it was mozzarella and tomato on bread. After the peculiar lunch we went to a pancake house for dessert and split a pannekoeken for dessert (a sweet pancake, famous in Amsterdam – ours had chocolate and banana on it, it was similar to an open crepe). We did a little shopping, then she had to go back to the conference, so I continued to wander the streets. I stumbled upon the flower market, so I walked through it – there were so many beautiful flowers – I wanted to buy them all!





After Natalie got off of work, we went to central Amsterdam and took a canal cruise. This is one of the “must do” things in Amsterdam. It was pretty cool, but since we had been on the other tour a few days before, it wasn’t quite as exciting as we were anticipating. It was also raining most of the time, so that probably didn’t help things. We’re still glad we did it though, and it was relaxing and fun.

The rest of the evening entailed pizza (yes, they make that better than us, too!) and walking around dam square.

Day 5 – Den Haag, Amsterdam

Day Five – Den Haag, Amsterdam:
I woke up at the lovely hour of 10:30 and said “umm, Natalie... it's 10:30!” Guess our alarm didn't work! But, after the past 4 days, it was very much needed rest. We packed our bags and left them at the hotel and walked to Madurodam, a miniature recreation of Holland. FYI, Holland is a region, not a country. It's primarily the western portion of the Netherlands. Madurodam is definitely a tourist attraction, but it was really interesting seeing (miniature) monuments and establishments around Holland. There were schools, churches, town halls, palaces, parliament, famous homes, train stations, shipping, Schiphol airport, factories, etc... It gave us tons of ideas of places to explore in Amsterdam. We ate a quick lunch, which included krokets (similar to croquettes in the US... but it was some sort of meat in a gravy. very unique...). A little more shopping may have taken place, as well. :) There was also a cute miniature clog factory, and when you put 1e into the machine, a little truck would bring you miniature porcelain clogs. Both Natalie and I now have our own set, they don't fit though.

On the train to Amsterdam, a nice lady pointed out that we were at the Airport stop – since we had so much luggage, she thought we were missing our train stop. When we finally got to our stop, some guys (very, very cute, might I add) saw our luggage and carried it up the stairs for us. I love the Netherlands.
We finally got to our hotel a little after 5:30 and were going to meet Natalie's coworkers at 6. In the 20+ minutes, I fully unpacked my suitcase and changed for dinner. I was simply that excited to be able to finally unpack, I flew through it! Dinner was long and interesting. Malaysian, but not what I'm used to at Malaysian places. I did make a very cute man out of inedible parts of my dinner. There are pictures. Afterwards we walked up and down the red light district. It was not as seedy as I expected. While there were a few shocking stores, there were no naked women. It was rather uneventful, actually. There are a billion coffee shops – those actually look a lot more seedy!

Day 4 – Paris, and some Den Haag (The Hague)

Day Four – Paris, and some Den Haag (The Hague):
Talk about whirlwind tour! We had to leave Paris at 3pm, and the day included visiting the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Pantheon, and shopping. I'm still in disbelief as to how we got it all done. Granted, we didn't spend a long time at any one place, but we did get to see the major highlights. Just like the day before, everything is so stunningly beautiful! We expected the Mona Lisa to be tiny, since that's what everyone says, but it was bigger than I expected! I think many other works of art were more impressive though. It rained a lot, and I got myself a snazzy Paris umbrella for the low low price of 5e. Talk about standing out in a crowd! Purple umbrella with Paris France written all over it. The gargoyles on Notre Dame were smaller than I was expecting, but the architecture was stunning. We finally made it to the Pantheon and had about 20-25 minutes to run through the crypt. We saw Dumas, Voltaire, Victor Hugo, and the Curie's tombs. Along with many other people we didn't recognize :)

From Paris we took a train (or two) to Den Haag, The Netherlands. The train from Bruxelles to Den Haag was interesting because the man behind us sporadically talked to us. When we finally gave in and got into a conversation, we learned that he is a former member of Dutch Parliament! He also went to Harvard, and his daughter is an actress and wants to go to Sarah Lawrence, which costs $50k/year, and he won't qualify for tuition assistance. I'm not sure why people feel compelled to share too much detail with us! He also gave us a list of things to do and see in Den Haag and Amsterdam, which was awesome!

We opted to take the easy way and take a taxi, because yet again our hotel gave us incomplete directions. We got in around 9pm, and headed to the beach for dinner. The sun was setting so we went down to the beach (the North Sea) – it was windy and even the sand was cold, but it was beautiful! I was brave enough to feel the water, but wasn't paying attention and the water ran up onto my tennis shoes – so then I was cold, sandy, and wet! We went to dinner at a local restaurant right along the water – it had a wonderful atmosphere, and English menus! (Upon request, of course). I had fish, since we were on the coast, and Natalie had breaded pork tenderloins – both were tasty! We were going to share mousse but they accidentally brought us each our own. We didn't complain :) It was probably the best I've ever had! It came with gingerbread-ish cookies, which were unique and tasty. It seemed like a local authentic meal. We finally got done with dinner around 11:30 and made it back to our hotel. We're still not used to the long, drawn out meals.

Day 3 – Paris

Day Three – Paris:
This is probably going to be the most exciting day of the entire trip. We arrived at our hotel around noon (we learned from past mistakes and simply took a taxi). Our hotel was right next to the Eiffel Tower, and we could see it from our room!! Our first destination was Champs-Elysees. And not for shopping! It was the final day of le Tour de France. We waited patiently (or impatiently) for 2 hours in order to have a good spot for the final leg of the race. In the process we ate a giant hot dog on a baguette and paid 3 Euro ($4.50 USD, even though I'm not converting) for a can of coke! (This was normal everywhere we went though). The racers do laps along the Champs-Elysees, so we got to see them many times! After the final lap, we waited impatiently for an hour, for all of the teams to do their victory lap. It was worth it though, as it put us within 10 feet of Lance Armstrong. Unfortunately, he didn't stop and propose to me, like I had expected. We were that close to Contador, the race winner, but that just wasn't as exciting. I <3 Lance.

After a long day of standing, we were starving. (Maybe we've been eating too much). We both had specific things we wanted to try, so we went to a French restaurant. I started my meal with escargot, and Natalie had French onion soup. We both had risotto for dinner, with wine. For dessert Natalie had crème brulee, and I had chocolate lava cake yet again (chocoholics anonymous, here I come – but the waiter recommended it!!). It was fancier though, and came with vanilla sauce. We ate inside the restaurant, along the window, and it was open – so it was a lovely temperature and fun to people watch. We also got to see a precious mouse in the ceiling above us. See, the critters are all around!

After this 2-3 hour culinary tour (seriously, they are in NO hurry), we went to the Eiffel Tower. We were going to climb it, but it turned out the wait to walk it was the same as the wait for the elevator, so we opted for the lazy way (we knew we had a lot planned for Day 4, so we didn't want to be in too much pain!). Paris at night (and day) is simply stunning. I think Bruxelles deserves the reputation that Paris has. Everyone was nice (although many of them did get paid [e.g., hotel, restaurants, shops, etc.], but even still, that didn't seem to matter in Bruxelles). We finally got to bed around 1am.

Day 2 - Brugge (And a little Bruxelles)

Day 2 - Brugge (And a little Bruxelles):
We finally got the hang of the tram/train system and made our way to Brugge (after an unfriendly man placed his luggage on my bad foot and just stared at me when I yelled ow – no apologies!!). Oh yeah, and our first train was broken and they kept sending alert bells and making announcements in French. Didn't help us so much! It wasn't until people started disembarking that we figured out what was going on.

Alas, we made it to Brugge. It is a picturesque town in western Belgium. Our first surprise was that they spoke Flemish, not French. Flemish is close to Dutch, so I knew the basic pleasantries, and the translator was able to figure out some of the things I entered. Our first stop was lunch at Bar Choc. They spoke virtually no English here, so that was fun. I ordered a mysterious beef in chocolate sauce and Natalie ordered Chicken in a mushroom chocolate sauce. (We knew the words for beef, chicken, mushrooms, and chocolate). Surprisingly, both dishes were amazing! Who would have thought you could combine beef and chocolate?? We also had the most amazing hot chocolate in the world. Added bonus: they served the hot chocolate with 2 truffles – why doesn't every place do this???

We walked all around the town (and took a billion pictures). It was so beautiful! We also saw an alleged vial of Christ's blood. I'm not sure why this isn't more famous. We were going to go to a diamond museum, but we ran out of time. We did go to Belfort, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (in addition to 1,000 places to see before you die, I'm also keeping track of the WHSs that I've been to... Apparently I have too much time on my hands). We also tried a cola-flavored Belgium chocolate. It wasn't as tasty as it sounds...

The journey back to Bruxelles was an eventful one. We sat next to some very friendly Flems (I don't think that's what they're really called, but it amuses me), and they spoke very little English. I got the guy to read the entire coloring book that Natalie bought for her niece (it was about underwater creatures). He even made sound effects! It was a hilarious hour back to town. Then, on the tram ride back to town I accidentally hit a guy's butt. Young, cute guy (yes, it was an accident!!). I panicked, then said I was sorry and was all flustered, he turned around and laughed. It was very awkward and embarrassing and all of us kept laughing. Prior to getting to our stop, Natalie was told off in French. We still don't know why! We also saw a bachelor party where the guys hair was dyed blue and he was on a leash. They forced us to take a picture with them. It was rather amusing. We did hold on tight to our purses though, just in case – see, all those lectures paid off!

We had dinner at a traditional Belgian restaurant. I had mussels from Brussels! I followed it with Belgian chocolate lava cake. (When in Rome...). This was another marathon dinner, with the requisite kitty in the garden area where we ate. Halfway through our meal we realized there were dolls hanging in the doorway, by their necks! When the waiter brought our meal, it came with a dish of Swedish fish, and I exclaimed to Natalie – what are they doing with Swedish fish in Belgium... her reply... they aren't Swedish fish, it's Mannekin Pis! They were gummy Mannekin's, oh the laughs that ensued :)

Day 6 – Amsterdam

Day 6 – Amsterdam:
We had a slow start, and didn't make it out of our hotel until 11am. We decided to go to the University where Natalie's conference is being held, in order to get free internet (which is hard to come by in the Netherlands, apparently). We got a little lost, again, but stumbled upon an awesome little restaurant. I had a rare roast beef sandwich on a baguette with truffle mayo. Amazing. No other words to describe it! Natalie also had a really tasty chicken sandwich, also in a baguette with a cream cheese dressing. The baguettes were so flavorful! For dessert we had something called a Twix, which was basically a brownie/pastry version of the candy bar. Best lunch so far! We also think the Olympics were held here because we saw Olympic stadium and lots of Olympic pictures and an Olympic building. Deductive reasoning says this is a safe assumption. We got to the University and had just enough time to delete all the spam in my email. (Natalie googled and confirmed that the 1928 summer Olympics was held in Amsterdam)


We had booked an afternoon tour that took us to the Windmill Village, Volendam, and Marken. At Zaanse Schans (the windmill village) we saw a bunch of historic windmills (most are still operable, though they are only used to keep them working, and don't actually provide power anymore). We also got to see a clog making demonstration. If a pair should make it into my suitcase before I leave Amsterdam, I had nothing to do with it. We walked around the town, which was torture because it smelled like chocolate/brownies – there was a chocolate factory nearby, and we didn't get to go!

Before getting to Volendam we stopped at a cheese shop and the cheese lady told us the process for making cheese. Then we got to sample 10 different kinds. I can confirm that a small block of cheese is already in my suitcase (it doesn't have to be refrigerated, so don't be grossed out).

Volendam and Marken are adorable fishing villages. They make me want to move to the Netherlands! In Volendam we just walked around, did a little shopping and eating (imagine that – more souvenirs and we shared profitijes or something like that – think baby donut holes with powdered sugar). We took a 30 minute boat ride to Marken, and it was beautiful weather out. The homes in Marken are all traditional Dutch style and are quaint and precious, and they all seemed to have lovely, colorful gardens. I even saw several pairs of clogs lined up, so I know people actually use them! Marken only has 2,000 residents. I would like to live there :)









After our tour we had dinner (yes, more food!) - we were craving burgers and finally found a place that had them – boy, do they put American food to shame! These burgers had amazing cheese (not surprising, since they're famous for their cheese here!), roasted red peppers, a spicy mayo, and really delicious bread (not a bun, more like a bun baguette). This was also the fastest meal we've had here! Although I didn't wait for him to bring us the bill, since that would have been another hour, instead I went and got our bill, and just told him we were in a hurry. We wanted to go to the Anne Frank House to buy tickets for later in the week.

We made it to the house/museum around 8:40 and there was no line, so we just decided to take the tour. It was inspiring and saddening, all at the same time. She was so young, yet so profound. Nothing I said at 15, or probably since, was so resounding. Natalie and I both purchased copies of her diary from the gift shop. My intentions were to reread it before I came here, but I ran out of time. I think is will be more special now though. They even had her diary on display. Not since my visit to the Holocaust Museum in D.C. have I had such a moving experience at a museum.

Day 1 - Bruxelles (Brussels)

Day 1 - Bruxelles (Brussels):
Arrived in Amsterdam at 7am. Had a pleasant train transfer to Bruxelles. This is where the pleasant journey ended and the “adventure” began. Natalie had called the hotel prior to our arrival to get directions from the train station. They told us to take Tram 81 from the Centraal Station. Guess what – there are no trams at that station! A very unpleasant guy at the information desk (seriously, this is their job), told us to take 2 different trams to get to Louise. We didn't trust him since he didn't know where our hotel was, and after asking a nice local lady we decided to go to the station that Tram 81 departed from. Tram 81 driver had no clue where we were going, so we went back to the other station. After asking approximately 4 more people, we ended up walking down Louise with our luggage (and we're girls, we over pack). I finally remembered that we had a GPS, but it didn't like all the one-way streets so that was fun. It kept telling us to make u-turns. Then it died. We asked a few passersby, but they had never heard of our hotel or street (or tried to send us back to Centraal). After an eternity of walking up and back Louise, we finally found our hotel. A 30ish minute journey took nearly 2.5 hours. When we told the hotel guy, he said “yeah, that's not right”and was smug. Needless to say, people didn't get much better in Bruxelles. It was also along that adventure that I sprained my foot. I would like to put a curse on that hotel.

On to the real reason we went to Bruxelles...the food! After we got settled, we went to the Grand Place and had traditional Frites. Twice-fried french fries (but don't call them that!). Fun fact: They were the inventors of fries, but because they spoke French, there was confusion during WWII, and thus they became French Fries instead of Belgian Fries (or frites). This was a little bit of heaven! Next came the chocolate! I couldn't tell you how many chocolate shops we went into. Some even gave free samples! Those were my favorite places ;) We followed our lunch of frites with a delicious Belgian waffle. They are unlike anything in the US! They are definitely sweeter, and so so tasty! The food would be the only reason to ever go back. (Can you tell that the people left a bad taste in my mouth? Good thing the food left a good taste!). The waffle place we went to was located next to Mannekin Pis, a local icon. It's a statue of a naked little boy peeing. On special occasions they dress him up in little outfits. He was naked when we saw him, which was a disappointment.

We had dinner at an Asian restaurant, which we thought was a risk because we couldn't read the menu, but they gave us English menus. The waitress was nice and we ate outdoors in a garden. A cat was on the ledge and Natalie got to watch him pee above my head. Thankfully, away from me. This was only the first of our animal adventures.