Signs

We felt like Amsterdam was pretty easy to navigate.  Okay, so we had a built in guide, my son.  Not only were his pronunciations and recollections spot-on, he had a feel for the city.  I have always thought that I had a decent sense of direction -- I usually know north and can find west.  In a city like this that had crescent and half-circle canals all through it, I struggled.  

Credit to www.orangesmile.com for this map.  It is a very simple overview, and it doesn't show every single street -- but you get the idea.  It also doesn't show the train, tram and bus routes, much less the streets that some cars are brave enough to drive on and the bicycles and mopeds are using, too.

Has anyone ever said to you, "He can't speak English, but he can understand it."  This is something that the rancher at my house has heard before, many times.  Keeping that in mind, let me tell you that I cannot speak Dutch, but I can understand it.  This sign generally says that there is going to be road work starting on August 18th, and at that time, there will be no bicycles, mopeds, or motorcycles allowed.  See?  Nothing to it.  

*maybe a bit of sarcasm*

They have the coolest license plates.

Here is a train schedule.  Some of the trains were pretty nice; it depended on the route.  The schedule looks like Greek, but honestly, you could easily decipher this and get to wherever you wanted to be.

Just a sign on the street...

Here is the sign outside the building most of G's classes will be in and around.  The whole program is in English, but you could never tell it from looking at this sign.

More about this tour later.  We did go see the field where the Ajax 

(pronounced "eye-ax") play their home football games.  Quite impressive.

And here was the intersection where our hotel was located on Beethovenstraat.

Here were the cute signs that changed daily in the lobby of the hotel.

Please place no emphasis on the fact that this picture is blurry.  It is because I was laughing so hard.  :)

There were these little nuggets of wisdom on random doors throughout the hotel.

I just love signs.

Signs

Church in Holland

We had a great idea.  Well, my D.I.L. had the idea.  She had scoped out churches in Amsterdam long before the move.  After finding out that there was a Hillsong United church there, we were excited and knew that we wanted to visit.  I had never even considered that there was a Hillsong church anywhere except Australia, but it turns out there are a few of them throughout the world.  If you aren't familiar with them, they have fantastic contemporary Christian music.  If you are familiar with them, you know that they might be also known for their "production" approach to the gospel.  

Yep, confirmed.  There were very production-like aspects of the service.  And yes, this was 10:00 AM.    Did I mention they don't have their own facility?

No, they don't.  So they apparently borrow this nightclub.  I have to admit, I have never walked into a church service before that had a giant bar, fully stocked -- although probably locked.  Still maintaining an open mind, I love their music...  I so wanted this to be good!

And it was.  There was a fantastic praise and worship opening that lasted almost 30 minutes.  They were unbelievably talented, but the vocalists and musicians weren't up front and showy.  Awesome!

The message on joy and the place it should have in our lives was fabulous and completely based on scripture.  The fact that it was indeed fruit of the spirit, and because of God's grace, we are all able to receive His love, was a point driven home that I will never forget.  

Throughout the service, I kept a watchful eye for something that someone might be able to criticize because this type of worship was completely out of my realm.  There was nothing negative there.  If there was, I missed it.  And I was looking.

After the service, we all left encouraged and talked about how it differed from our church experiences at home.  We also talked about how our expectations were met and ways in which we were surprised.

I learned that about 51% of the 14 million people in the Netherlands are unchurched.  Then, of the 49% that are, only about 20% go to church regularly.  The most attended churches were Catholic, with about 25% of the churched group; and Protestants only made up about 15% of that 49 number.  That was surprising to me, but then again, it wasn't.  After all, when you say Amsterdam, the first two things you think of are not exactly rated "G".

Since we don't do museums on the weekends, we skipped this.  Actually, it's another picture of the Rijksmuseum, and we had already been there.  But it was busier on this day.

So we went after this traditional snack -- well, we had it with lunch.

Okay, don't judge.  Yes, it is french fries (frites) and this kind of mayonnaise dip.  If you go, you have to try it.  I rejected it the first few times, but it is everywhere.  Very unusual, but when in Rome...

Then we took our joyful selves back to our hotel and relaxed.

Church in Holland

Not On The Weekend....

Early in my visit and the kids' move, we figured out what you do and don't do on the weekends.  Center of town and Dam Square -- not unless you want some good people watching and love crowds.  Museums and other top tourist attractions -- absolutely not.  Even if you have pre-purchased your tickets... the queues are extremely long, and in this laid-back country, they don't really understand the purpose of scheduled ticket times.  So on the weekends, we were challenged what to do with ourselves since we couldn't move their belongings into their new place, we couldn't meet with immigration or municipality personnel; there weren't many things we could accomplish on the weekends.  Sometimes we would use those days to sleep in a bit, and then we scheduled a mid-morning enormous pancake breakfast.  Sometimes, we would travel about the city and take in the sights.  We had tram passes that were pre-paid with Euros, therefore, we could get off and on as we pleased.

We scoped out the flower markets, which had bulbs for sale as well as bouquets of fresh flowers.  We observed lots of people carrying large stems and bunches of fresh flowers home with their groceries on Saturdays.  Not sure if they did that every weekend, not sure if flowers were cut and the freshest on that day, just an observation.  My folks had already warned me to not to bring any bulbs home in my luggage unless I wanted a diversion in customs, so I shipped some.  They had a very small amount with a pre-authorization and approval sticker on them, and I think it held them up when they traveled through there recently.

On a recent Saturday, we ended up in the center of the city, on purpose.  There was one shopping establishment we (I) wanted to revisit, and a huge park, Vondelpark, was located there -- which we thought prime for people watching on a weekend with a beautiful day.

Sure enough, people were enjoying the park everywhere.  We saw several gatherings of bachelorette parties, birthday parties, couples, and individuals just enjoying the day and reading in the sun.

We enjoyed it, too.

At the end of the day, we were back in our little neighborhood -- where we were staying, not where the kids will live.  We stayed in Zuid.  It's a neighborhood pronounced, "zoud," like 'loud.'

Beautiful city!

Not On The Weekend....

Pancakes!

Yes, we have indulged in pancakes whilst in Amsterdam.  It is our understanding that you are supposed to do exactly that.  Between that and poffertjes, we have been weak.  On second thought, I forgot for a moment how many miles on foot we are probably walking each day.  Couple that with the fact that we are generally two meters behind G,  I have found myself sprinting more than once.  Yeah, I can eat whatever I want, huh?  Plus, I have a birthday coming up, so starting tomorrow, it's birthday week, 2013.  

This pancake place came highly recommended, and it was one of the first places we had pancakes and poffertjes.  L and I had the most fun yelling "Pancakes!" back and forth at each other whenever we talked about anything remotely related to breakfast.

Here were G's manly pancakes with practically a slab of bacon on top.  More like home traditional pancakes.

Here is L's traditional Dutch pancake.  Super thin, and she said it was the perfect combination of salty and sweet.  You can't tell from the picture, but these thin pancakes were still very fluffy and soft.

Here was my order.  If you know me, yes, it was very vanilla.  Only butter and sugar.  But by the time I loaded this baby down with syrup ... oh.  my.  gosh.  I ate every bite.    It was unbelievable.

We sat inside, but this was the tight seating outside.  Inside was also tight, and there were three levels in our view.  But it was so tiny.

This was a casual picture of a traffic jam that happened while we waited for a table.  You can barely see the street.  There were lots of "evils" (dirty looks) being exchanged.  This was settled quietly, as were most traffic arguments that we witnessed.  Only hand gestures were traded, and nothing was anything worse than a shrug of shoulders.  Polite disagreements, I guess.

These were the compact inside accommodations.  A tiny floor half a flight up, the ground level, and the kitchen was in the basement.

  These are the Dutch specialty, poffertjes.  Heavenly.  Absolutely the best thing I never had.

Simple, but so delicious.

We set out again today to find a challenge for the delectable pancakes we had the other day.  We ended up here.  At the Pancake Carousel.

There was a carousel inside.  But on a beautiful day and with no small children, we opted for a table outside -- like a local.

We've been trying not to do this, but we all ordered the same thing.  Bacon lovers unite!  Take my word for it, these are unbelievably tasty.

Here is the proof of how much we enjoyed them.

No talking.  Everyone is happy.

Pancakes!

The EYE

The EYE is a newly renovated cinematography museum in Amsterdam.  Since that is exactly the reason he is here, G has been counting the days until we could get there.  We spent several hours and were able to see a movie in their theater.  Also contemporary, the bonus was that it was in English and subtitled in Dutch.

My picture isn't extremely clear, because I was taking it on the move, but you can see how modern it is.  It has a very funky design, and G looks forward to returning there multiple times during his time here studying.

Here is how we got across the river to the EYE.  These ferries leave practically every 2 minutes, and it takes less than 4 minutes to get to the other side.  You just herd on, whether you are walking, riding a bike, driving a small moped, motorcycle or a big motorcycle with a trailer attached.  Yet again, another effective mode of travel which this city seems to completely embrace.  And, totally free.

We went on a fairly cloudy day.  It was one of the few gray and rainy days we had here.  We expected more rain -- well, I did.  Even though I expected rain, I still didn't feel adequately packed and prepared.  Seems like I never do.  No matter how much planning I do, I never think I have brought the right things with me.  It is ever elusive for me...  thus, the fashionable rain poncho from the Van Gogh Museum.

This was one of the exhibits.  I waved my arms and hands around and jumped around to make random colors come to life -- then as was completely normal on this trip, I grabbed my camera and tried to photograph the experience.  You can take my word for how cool it was in person.  The colors were sprinkly and kind of like fireworks, and you can't tell that in this picture.

All the exhibits were somewhat interactive, but they were extremely complex in that they didn't deal with the obvious aspects of movies with which you might be familiar.  We sat in one sweet little pod thing and watched clips from everything from Charlie Chaplin to movies of the 2000's.  The three of us had to answer questions, and the competition was fierce.

A bit hard to photograph, but we were in a yellow pod with three seats.  We had a ball!

This museum was one of our favorites.  I would call it a "Do Not Miss" if you are in Amsterdam.

The EYE

Moving Right Along

The kids and I have been busy trying to get the right answers from the right people about who is supposed to be where and when.  We have been in several different offices, all for different reasons.  The paperwork is time consuming, but as G would say, "we haven't really hit any major hiccups."

I think we have made it our goal to find every Iamsterdam sign in the city.

 

We love the canals and have tried to see as many as possible.  The most exciting thing that we learned about the canals is that they completely freeze in the winter, and you can ice skate almost anywhere.  G & L were fired up about that.

Something new is around every corner.  I am so glad to have been here in summer to experience the city in this season.  It will be fun to see winter and hopefully spring.  Seeing some tulip fields in bloom would be super.

Even in summer, it can go from warm and humid, to chilly and flat out cold in a matter of minutes.  I have changed my opinion about our weather at home being anything different that lots of other places.  Must be the norm for some locales.

Art and great architecture are everywhere.  We have enjoyed collecting photos of phrases and quotes from different places.  Even our hotel has two cool boards in the lobby that they change daily.  L told me that she thought this was a Julia Child quotation.

Moving Right Along