Riding the Rails...

As our train today was gliding slowly through the flower-dotted fields of Holland, I had the rather unoriginal thought that sometimes cliches really are spot on.

The countryside was exactly what I would have imagined it to be...fields of all colors green, dotted with sheep and cows throughout. The cows were even the classic white and black splotchy types. :) And, since it was Holland after all, canals snaked through the fields, complete with small boats maneuvering about. Lovely.

We met two interesting folks today...I talked for a bit with a shy and softspoken African man on the train; he is from Mauritania, and our most common language was French, which was fun for me to practice; he was very patient! Luckily the World Cup was an easy common subject to discuss. (He assured me that South Africa will be ready to host in 2010, "except maybe le securité". Hmmm.)

Then, we decided to splurge and take a cab to our hotel in Bruges, and had the pleasure of being driven by Amir, the Iranian-Belgian who has also lived in Los Angeles and Chicago. I was a big hit with Amir since I knew how to say useful things in Farsi like do you want cheese, water, milk, etc, and also "naughty", his favorite. Thanks Negar! He listed various world famous Iranians, discussed the terrible racism he encounters in Europe, and when he dropped us off and I warned him about my heavy suitcase he said: "For me it is no problem, I am Iranian, not Belgian!"

Anyway, not so much about G & I today, but just some little pictures of the moments that fill our days. Europe is certainly the uncomfortable, multicultural, racist mess of the French riots and similar, but it's nice to find friendly people who help us along, and to feel like we're making some small effort to break stereotypes of Americans. But even if all that becomes a bit much to think about, it's nice to know that there are also green fields with flowers and pretty cows.

More about Bruges tomorrow, and pictures asap!
e

Amsterdam, Part 2

me in the window of our room, overlooking the canal...from whence I viewed the swans ;)

our whole neighborhood was full of views like this...

the bike parking lot at the train station...so MANY!

taken by me while riding at full speed through the park....

our delicious Indonesian rijstaffel dinner

Hallo again!

We are leaving in an hour or so for Bruges, Belgium, but I made a special trip to the internet cafe to send along this final Amsterdam update....

yesterday was another very full day. The Van Gogh museum was done chronologically according to what was happening in his life at the time. Tragic man, beautiful paintings that got more beautiful as he got more tragic. We also made a trip to the tiny Amsterdam Tulip Museum...not in Rick's guidebook but should be. I'm going to write him and let him know.

So, the Red Light District....well, to me, mostly very sad. Yes, there are women in the windows, though they're not naked, which somehow I was expecting. Several of the women looked sad or bored, or were talking on cell phones. Many looked very young. There are red lights in the windows that go off when the ladies are occupied. There are many drunken British men, but also several touristy families (!) from various backgrounds, though perhaps no American ones. Lots of coffeeshops (MJ supply), and greasy fried food. Strangely though, the main streets are right on a very beautiful canal with lots of old Dutch Elms lining the sides. It was a strange experience....not altogether positive, but wouldn't have wanted to miss it. And no, Bora, I haven't heard Puff the Magic Dragon at all the whole time, though parts of the Red Light District made Telegraph Ave. seem like Disneyland.

So anyway we finally finished all those 400+ things we had to do...quite an accomplishment! Then, for dinner we had gyros, french fries, and two candy bars each. :)

Onward we go,
Erin

Amsterdam, Part 1

Gretchen on our neighbor's bike, just for fun (we didn't steal it or anything)

so very, very many bulbs. (I'm reading a book about the tulip craze in Amsterdam in the 1600s...some bulbs went for the price of a canal-side house!)

there were beautiful hollyhocks everywhere...

G made us stop and take this picture in front of some little travel agency. I admit that now I'm glad we did.

Hallo, all!

We've been in lovely (but quite hot) Amsterdam for two days now...

Here are some random thoughts and moments from the trip so far, beginning at the beginning:

*magazines Gretchen and Erin bought for the plane: G - O! magazine and People. E - The Economist and The New Yorker. Gretchen is such a nerd.
*number of hours of traveling time, from my door to the Hotel New Amsterdam: 19
*most interesting and touching thing (to me) about the Anne Frank House: Since most if not all of you are pretty familiar with her story, i'll just say one small thing. After you go through the infamous bookcase that hid their hiding place, you climb incredibly steep stairs to get through to Anne's parent's room and then her small bedroom. On the wall are several picture postcards and magazine cutouts that she pasted there to brighten her days. I noticed a very small picture called "The Chimpanzee Tea Party" that is just what it sounds like...three chimps dressed up and having tea. I thought it was charming and also was delighted to note that Anne and I both like the primates/humans connection.
*best way to get around Amsterdam: BIKES! G & I have rented some old beater cruisers that are just like the ones the locals use to get around. This city is absolutely the most bike friendly you could imagine...even the busiest intersections have large and safe bike lanes all through them, and we've been cycling all over town today. We've got little bells to announce to poor toursits who don't know any better to hop out of our way in the bike lane, and we're not afraid to use them. :)
*biggest disappointment so far: the Dutch don't seem to care much about the World Cup. In the words of our hotel guy, "Once Holland was out, I don't care anymore who wins." Sure, there are bars and places that show the games, but it's hardly the mania I expected. I sleepily watched the Germany v. Italy game last night in our hotel room. (Thankfully I was awake for the last two minute of overtime!)
*best food experience: it's a tie. both dinners so far have been great...we just finished having a huge Indonesian feast called a rijstaffel, which was various little dishes over coconut rice, but yesterday we had these huge crepe pancackes with tomatoes, bacon, and mushrooms topped with fried cheese. No lo cal meals here.
*quietest and most beautiful moment so far: around 4 o'clock this morning, I had a combo of headache and jet lag and couldn't sleep. I got up and sat in our 3rd story window seat, overlooking the Herengracht canal....just in time to see two huge swans gliding peacefully along. Combined with the beautiful old street lights and the many other lights strung along the canal, it was a very happy travel moment.

I think i'll leave it there for now...i just had to go through and edit out several gleeful quotation marks and don't want to go on and on. Suffice it to say that we're having a great time so far; in fact, i was thinking as we walked dazedly out of Amsterdam's Centraal Station yesterday that one of my favorite things about travel is the way that feeling of complete unfamiliarity with a place changes in just a few short days....at first you can barely find your hotel, but next thing you know, you're biking around, ringing your bell, and, when you successfully navigate through a strange city back to your hotel room, announcing, "This is our street, we're home!"

More tomorrow; we're going to try to hit the Red Light District, the Van Gogh Museum, AND do some shopping....it feels like we have over 400 things left to do or more!

Cheers,
E

Packin' light...?

...or actually not so much. Those of you who read last year's blog will remember that my suitcase eventually got so heavy that she earned the name "mama", as in "come on, mama, you can make it up the stairs," or "time to get in the car, mama", and so on. In any case, we're off tomorrow, mama and I. Rick Steves would NOT approve of the amount of stuff I have stuffed in her.

before....


...and after


the good news: everything is in!
the bad news: mama already weighs 50 lbs. :(

at least she rolls!

next stop, Amsterdam...
erin

Too...many...books...

10 pounds, to be exact. Too much, I know. But I am hampered by the feeling that I will NEED them all at some point or another....I am also hampered by the silly inability to ease the situation by tearing up the guidebooks and only bringing the parts I'll use, or just deciding to leave the guidebooks behind as I go. Because if I leave them behind, then they can't live in the little "travel" section of my bookcase when I come home. :)

Loving the soccer...

Well, since I will be in Europe during the last several matches of the World Cup, and since I'm rather enjoying the whole experience right now, I thought I'd post a quote from The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup. It's rather long, I know, but if you read it breathlessly all the way straight through, it kind of adds to the effect and you can imagine you're actually watching the action. Trust me!

That's what you learn, as soon as you start to play and watch football: that football is difficult and beautiful, and that the two are related. Players kick the ball to one another , pass into empty spae which is suddenly filled by a player who wasn't there two seconds ago and who is running at full pelt and who without looking or breaking stride knocks the ball back to a thrid player who he surely can't have seen who then, also at full pelt and without breaking stride, crosses the ball at sixty miles an hour to land on the head of a fourth player who has run seventy meters to get there and who, again all in stride, jumps and heads the ball with, once you realize how hard this is, unbelievable power and accuracy towrad a corner of the goal just exactly where the goalkeeper, executing some complex phsyics entirely without conscious thought and through muscle memory, has expected it to be, so that all this grace and speed and muscle and athleticism and attention to detail and power and precision and passion comes to nothing, will never appear on a score-sheet or match report and will likely be forgotten a day later by everybody who saw it or took part in it. This is the beauty and also the strange fragility, the evanescence of football.

T-minus two weeks...

Not sure if that's how it goes, but anyway departure is July 3. Loose itinerary is as follows:
Amsterdam July 4-7
Bruges (Belgium) July 7-8
France (Dordogne/Languedoc regions) July 9-14
Spain (Barcelona-Sevilla-Granada-Madrid) July 15-25