Amsterdam, Holland, The Netherlands

The different airlines' web sites had really high fares and I was having trouble finding a hotel on my own so I bought a package deal through www.gotoday.com, a discount travel company located in Bothell, WA. They had a fantastic price and they had no problem sending my travel documents to Salt Lake City via Federal Express. I had to fly to Chicago, though, and although Delta's hub is in Salt Lake City, the fares to O'Hare were outrageous. So Ronna got on the phone and redeemed some of her Delta Skymiles and gave me a ticket. What a sister! Could you ask for anything else?!?! And so I was off on another Big Adventure. My first trip to Europe!

Although GoToday.com advertises discounted travel packages, don't be fooled. The hotel I stayed at, the Golden Tulip Inntel Hotel, was a perfect place to stay. It's right in the Neuwe Sjid, near the Red Light District, Centraal Station and only a short walk to the fabulous art museums like Rjiksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum. My little room was perfect, with its own shower, electric tea kettle, tv and what a view! I spent the next several days walking around Amsterdam, thoroughly enjoying myself!

I visited the museum at Anne Frank's house on my first day. It was a very educational experience, although it was also extremely emotional for me, too. Afterwards, to cheer myself up, I went to the Torture Museum, by the Blumenmarkt (Flower Market). It was lovely (the flower market, I mean!) The next day I went back and climbed the tower at the Westerkerk church, which was built in 1638. The stone tower has a walkway about six floors up and you can walk all the way around the tower. Here are some panarama-like photos that I took looking east from the tower. It was a great tour, with carillon bells and everything. One of my favorite things about Amsterdam was all the church bells tolling the hours. Hours which, by the way, meant nothing to me since I was on vacation and had no place to be!
Put	them	together	in your	mind...

My Dutch accent must have been pretty good because I was constantly being mistaken for a local by other tourists and even by some locals! It was kind of funny to hear the tourists trying to ask me directions. Dutch is not an easy language to speak but I became quite fond of it while I was there. I listened to the flight attendant on the plane to get the accent just right for 'please' and 'thank you' (the way you say 'no, thank you', for example, is totally different than the way you say 'thank you') and practised along with the television the first night. Here are some street scenes, to get you in the mood!	Street scene	Another street scene

Most people ride bicycles to get around in Amsterdam as the streets are narrow and parking is impossible. There are actually separate lanes and traffic signals for bicycles (scooters and motorcycles are allowed in the bicycle lane, too). It was not uncommon to see someone riding a bike with a toddler on the front but what surprised me was the lack of protective gear on the cyclists. No one wore a bicycle helmet! I also was amazed at the courtesy that people in traffic showed each other. Honking the horn was unheard of; instead people rang the bells on their bikes or whistled. None of this "hey, buddy, watch what you're doing!" stuff. Even when tourists wandered off the sidewalk, no one lost their cool.
There are trams (trains) that take you everywhere, but when you just absolutely have to drive, this appears to be a popular car in Amsterdam.	Cute car!
The weather was great while I was there. It was a lot like Seattle, with passing clouds and cool weather at night. Ronna had taken me to the 'attic' area at her local REI and I bought a coat on sale to wear in case I got caught in some rain. As it turns out, it did rain on me quite a bit on Sunday, but I stayed nice and dry in my coat! I also saw many rainbows.	Rainbow from my hotel room
Amsterdam is a pearl of a city. The Euro is the currency there (appr. 1.10 US Dollar to 1 Euro) and I had no trouble working in that currency. I'm not entirely sure how the citizens of the Netherlands feel about it but I suspect that it has allowed tourists to spend more money more easily so I suspect they support the Euro in the end.	Who's hungry?

I loved the mix of architecture in Amsterdam. You just don't get that kind of building in the U.S. There were completely modern steel-and-glass buildings right next to 200+ year-old canal houses and 400+ years-old churches. I was careful to hide my wallet under my coat each day before heading out as I tended to spend a lot of time looking up!
Medieval building built in 1560	Gently falling into the canal	Leaning church tower, built late 1600's	Cool portico on a church	Atlas	Glowing in the sun

And of course I saw some of the most incredible works of art that I have ever seen. I went to the Rjiksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum, and Rembrandt's studio (and his house). I saw "Night Watch" (Rembrandt), "Milkmaid" (Vermeer), "Cornfield" and "Self Portrait" (Van Gogh), and many of Van Gogh's writings were on display, too.		Banquet painting at Rijksmuseum	Another painting I liked a lot

I was completely stunned by the beauty of some of these paintings and felt like my spirit had been well fed afterwards. I sat on a bench in the park outside the Rijksmuseum and watched jugglers, mimes (eek!) and Chinese monk throat singers for several hours. I watched people come and go, some of them tense because they were lost tourists and some of the hurrying because they were late students. Some, though, were strolling lazily along, because they weren't worried about anything on such a pretty day.

It's amazing how you can often seem to tell what people are saying even if you can't understand them: the group of teenage girls is probably gossiping and flirting (you can tell by the excited giggling, posing, and pointing), the group of 20-something guys are probably talking about soccer (you can tell by their body language and fake-fighting), and that little 3-year-old is in trouble with his mother, not for the first time today, either! You can tell that by how frustrated she is with him.

I watched the world go by that afternoon, and in many ways it looked just like home. I walked and walked and walked, all day in some cases. I don't know how many miles I covered but I completely fell in love with Amsterdam. Maybe it's because it reminded me so strongly of Black Rock City. Maybe it's because the people in the coffee houses don't take their freedoms for granted. I don't know, but as I sipped jenever (Dutch gin, made from juniper berries) in my hotel room that night, trying to decipher the news stories, I knew that this was only the first of many trips to Amsterdam.

Eventually, though, Father Time caught up with me and tapped me on the shoulder. It was time to head back to the States and, ultimately, home to Seattle. So I pried myself away from the coffee house in which I was settled and started the wheels moving: wheels on trains, planes, shuttle buses, and cars that would get me back home.

The return flight from Amsterdam was nine hours and dragged a bit but I wrote in my journal and napped and watched movies. After more than 17 hours of travelling (Customs in O'Hare was a nightmare and I very nearly missed my connection to the Delta flight to Salt Lake) I was back at Ronna's house, showering her with cheap souvenirs and stories of my adventure in Amsterdam.

And then the fateful day came. I packed up the night before and set out early Wednesday morning to make the 600-mile drive to Walla Walla, WA to visit my Aunt Helen. The 9-hour drive just flew by. Idaho and Oregon were flat, sunny, and cop-free. When I arrived at Aunt Helen's, she had some questions to ask about the postcards she had been receiving over the past four weeks! So I showed her all my pictures, video, and Euro coins from my trips and gave her the presents I bought in Hawaii and Amsterdam. She was eager to hear all about everything and we talked for hours and hours. She has been to Hawaii and told me stories about when she was there.

Then the time came for me to drive home. Surprisingly, I was not at all sad to be going home to Seattle. I missed Al and I missed the kitties and had such stories to tell. As I drove across Snoqualmie Pass, the layers of my life settled back around me and they felt good, each and every one of them: family, friends, work, goals missed, goals achieved, all of it was good and I got a sense for how lucky I really am. This had been a spiritually refreshing journey, one in which I indulged myself completely and treasured every hour of every day, even the annoying and tense hours. I think the benefits will be with me for the rest of my life. And I have a TON of United Frequent Flier miles now! :)

You're never really alone, though, and my journey was made possible by lots of people: Thanks to my sister for her seemingly endless patience while I tried to decide what to do and where to go, for her willingness to ferry me back and forth to the airport FOUR TIMES and, most of all, for listening to my feeble attempts to speak Dutch. Thanks to Al for getting me off to such a good start and with such momentum that I was able to keep going. Al also went "above and beyond" while I was away, dealing stoically with the loss of his car at the hands of a fool in traffic. He didn't even tell me about the accident (yes, he's fine, thanks to seatbelts and airbags) until I called him and specifically asked about Bicho. He said he didn't want to worry me. Thanks to Mom for not chastising me for leaving the continent without telling her :) Thanks to the travel agencies, airlines, bus drivers, and train conductors who kept me moving along (and who stopped me from getting on that train to Berlin! Yikes!) Thanks to the people of Black Rock City, Kauai, and Amsterdam for making me feel at home all over the world. They have more in common than they know!

do it again!