Holland Whirlwind

What a unique city this is with it's canals + coffee shops. People are friendly and the vibe is laid back. EVERYONE cycles, in cities + in the countryside and bikes can be rented for only 7.50E at any train station. The weather's similiar to Seattle and provides the perfect climate for Hollands' most famous export - Tulips (See Post "Tiptoe Through the Tulips"). We had a WONDERFUL hostess in our friend Karolina who gave us run of the house and let us spoil her (and indulge ourselves) with home cooked meals every night. Our good friend Captain Ken arrived from SF to join us for our entire 2 weeks here. Two other friends, Rich from NYC and Johan from Sweden joined us for briefer periods. Every day we set off exploring the city and were constantly delighted by the uniqueness of it all. Amsterdam is much quainter and fairytale-like than I had imagined. It's masonry buildings line curving canals, dotted with houseboats and crossed by numerous small bridges (some of them old drawbridges). Many buildings tilt at odd, and sometimes precarious angles due to settling. There is a saying - God created the Earth, but Man created Amsterdam. It is a feat of human engineering to have birthed this city from the sea.

Many cities host a big, annual party - Queen's Day. It officially begins on Friday night, but Saturday is the BIG day. EVERYONE is decked out in orange and the streets are packed with people drinking + dancing. There are many DJ's set up all around town - In plazas + parks, on bridges. The canals are JAM-packed with a constant stream of boats, some of which are larger party boats with their own DJ's holding 30-40 people, and some with just a family with kids. At it's peak, one of the main canal intersections got so jammed that people could walk from boat to boat and cross the canal to buy beers. The music was pumping and people were boogying down all the while - Fantastic! (Check out the photo link) Our party of five cruised around with the masses, doing our fair share to add to the merriment. We found ourselves at dusk dancing in an open church courtyard with with 100's of others as the day passed into night, as it passed into our memories of great travel moments. What TRULY made it special though was spending that time with close friends. We hope for more moments to come...

Photo: Complements of Captain Ken