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Netherlands - Tues. May 3, 2005 - Pictures below
This is the day that Todd had a meeting in another city, so he left on the train early in the morning and I was on my own. Having seen much of Amsterdam already, I decided it was time to venture beyond that city. Instead of renting a car and driving around by myself, I signed up for a tour of the Dutch Countryside. What a perfect morning for it, it could have been a bright sunny day like the day we went to the Keukenhof garden in Lisse, but instead it was kind of misty and foggy. To me that was perfect. The tour included a visit to a medieval town of Edam (famous for it's cheese too), and to see Windmills and Tulip fields. It was about a 4.5 hour tour. It was great. The tour was by bus and I met a few other Americans, but there were people from all over. The tour guide was amazing. She did each of her announcements, 1st in English, then Dutch, Spanish, German, French and Japanese. I think that was it. Having it in English first gave me more time to think about what she was telling us, and more time to enjoy it before it was time to move on. You could see some of the people who were of other nationalities purposefully listening to the English so they could enjoy it for longer too.

The bus driver was great, he drove us all over and slowed down for us to take pictures at numerous locations, including tulip fields. That was amazing to see. We went to a little touristy area called Zannes Schans, there we learned about clog making and cheese making. That is where I bought cheese which treated us to the experience of going through agricultural customs on the way home in Detroit, much to Todd's dismay! The clog making was fun, and there is a museum portion you can go through. It was funny to me how tempting it felt to buy clogs for myself or the three kids, since they were all over the store. But I thought they were too heavy, and I just opted for teeny little Christmas ornament sizes. I can't imagine ever wearing them. Note one picture I took where someone hung them near their front door and filled them with flowers. That is a nice way to use them, and much easier on your feet. There are still several Windmills in Holland, but not close to the number there were in the past. The area we were in there were about 8-10, I think, and there used to be 500. Quite a difference. I think some of them remain just for tourist purposes.

Todd and I met later that afternoon around 3:30pm or so. That left me some time to return to the Magna Plaza shopping center and buy some toys and books in Dutch for the kids. Then I shopped in the Jordaan area (trendy shops) and Spiegelkwartier (antiques area) and a few other shops I wanted to return to. Europeans are very into fashionable tennis shoes. I have not seen nearly the colors and designs here in the states that were available over there. I wish I would have purchased some, but I still can't think of what I would wear them with. That evening we were glad to have had a young mail concierge. We decided we wanted Italian for dinner and without hesitation he recommended "Casa di David." It was wonderful. It was a sunny and cool night and we sat upstairs with a view of the canal. Upstairs entrees are delivered to the servers via a a dumb waiter. It was a wonderful meal and again, we spent the night walking and shopping and having our ice cream.

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