July 7, we are off To Haarlem, Netherlands..

So with Cathy in town, we took a day trip up to Haarlem, or Ha-Harlem as Cathy and Saviya enjoyed saying. Saviya and I had visited Haarlem on our 2006 trip and really enjoyed it. We actually considered living there before our trip. So this was our first trip to visit the city since our move.

In the main square they have a public market. Small, but more homemade and local stuff than some of Amsterdam's markets. The grand church in the background is also quite impressive.

These public buildings from the 1680s are pretty amazing.

So Saviya catches a wave on this iron sculpture.

Saviya loved the vase in this window so she asked me to take a picture... I took another...this time without her stuck inside like 'I Dream of Jeanie'

The grand tower and clock in the main square of Haarlem.

We walked around the back streets of Haarlem, randomly, coming across more Dutch treasures.

Saviya and Cathy clowning around Ha-Harlem

Finally there was this great windmil in the northeast bank of Haarlem. It isn't original, rebuilt after a fire in the last 20 yrs or so. It is now a museum, but was nice to see such a nicely built one, would be similar to what the locals might have seen erected 200 years ago...

Six Pictures from July with no apparent substory!

So not all of my posts can be witty and well thought out. In late July I was on a search for stolen bike and came across this billboard. You should understand the Lekker is the ninth most said word in the Dutch language in anything cultural.... It just means 'I like it', or Delicious' etc...

This billboard in a normal neighborhood, in your town it would probably say, Milk , It does a Body Good.

So Saviya surprised me with a birthday cake and some other US food surprises. Here is the jar of Skippy Peanut Butter I treasured as my gift...and it came with a smiley face in it.. Better than any Jesus or Mary on a tortilla chip or water stain...

And there is a wonderful show on Dutch TV that is called 'No Comment Television' where they play video of a belly dancer, earthquake damage, a 15 man beer bike, or things like this..no comment necessary...

And not everything is as 'legal' in Holland as some of you might think. But Crackito is 100% legal...and delicious...

Saviya went and got her hair cut, very cute. She also found out that her trigger finger for the camera is also her eyes closed button, very interesting.

Finally, Saviya went to the Dapper Market (also known as the Ooster market...to Saviya ;P )

She found these sexy red shoes for 5 Euro! Ok they were made by slave children in Slovakia, and smell like donkey leather...but they were cute...4 months later they are now wearable from a smell perspective.

Great American Holiday...July 5th!

So we thought it would be nice to use our roof terrace for a 4th of July BBQ. But it was pouring down cats dogs pigeons and canal rodents... So we put it off a day and had a 5th of July BBQ. We invited our neighbors in the building and Reinhoud and Ranger told us they would bring a traditional Dutch meal to go along with our Bacon Cheeseburgers, Potato Salad, corn on the cob.

So they show up with Witte Bier and herring! So the Dutch like enjoy herring on dry white bread, they like to gobble whole fish while holding onto the tail...but they truly love to cut it up into pieces with onions and pickles. In public markets they serve these on little paper plates the way Americans get a steamed hot dog in Chicago....they get in line like its a delicacy..I wont say it isn't..... I sampled it, the boys as well, but he girls voted no!

And our family photo!

Here is Ranger waving hello and goodbye. He owns the unit below us, but is now off for six months study in Spain. Reinhoud remains, and a new girl living in the apartment as well (with his girlfriends blessing!).

July 4, Cathy comes to Visit!

So Colin had his fun with a friend in town, now it was Saviya's turn for a guest. Cathy came to visit us from Seattle.

She enjoys a beer while she maps out her adventures

Plans on living off milk and honey...er...grapes...and enjoy the nightlife...

Alas, the sun is still up (11pm it was going down in early July!)....but 10 hours of fly time and the introduction of Heineken, and she is out!

And we Get to July!

So we haven't done the best job keeping up with our posts, but we now look back to July!
We finish our experience with my friend John by hopping the train back to Amsterdam from Brussels, Belgium. We had managed to keep all the Michael Jackson news put aside so we could enjoy ourselves...but we couldn't keep it on the back burner for long. We decided to have dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe in Amsterdam to send John off.
The restaurant sits in a square near the Leidseplein, but was unusually busy. It turns out the Paradiso theater next door was doing a Michael Jackson memorial concert. There were 15 foot big screens on either side of the square and a few thousand people jammed into the bars and restaurants in the square. For over 2 hours we had dinner and drinks and watched as the Amsterdamers said their sweet goodbyes to the King of Pop.
Here are John and Saviya...with the tears and celebrations of all things MJ at the Hard Rock.
Saviya went home and I took John for a 'tour of the Red Light', I am sure John's first..or so...

Here John strolls away from the famous outdoor urinals I refer to as the 'S'. The one he just visited happened to be about 30 feet from the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam..built in 1536...
That might seem a bit blasphemous, but the church 14 feet from actual Red Light District working girls, so I ask you...who can be held to such high standards?

July - Off to Brussels Belgium Part 5: The Videos

So on this trip, very little video. Its hard to convey such an interesting architecural square of Europe. The Grand Paleis and surround buildings are worth the visit, but any trip to Brussels would of course include it.
Here is one video of our visit during the day

and two of us visiting at night.

July - Off to Brussels Belgium Part 4

We started our last part of Brussels by asking a local for directions to a place for breakfast. Asking for directions is sport in most cities...but we were gonna find it! Well a few lefts or rights or some other option later we found this wonderful old church in the quieter part of town. We did in fact find our breakfast place, and some baked goods and granola yogurt got us rolling...

On the Belgian trams to the Atomium! This structure was built for the 1958 World's Fair. If you suck at science like I do, you probably didn't recognize that it in fact is a molecule of Iron.. If I had said lead or gold you wouldn't have known the difference...or cared...

Here Saviya, John and I go up the escalators inside the Atomium

Than the air conditioner and and escalators run out..and the stairs begin...did you notice its a tube of metal we are in, in July!

After a few hundred stairs and platforms, we get to the top level. Look at this view!...I love how it fits in perfectly with its horizon...the lines and curves here just all go together so well...The art on display inside one of these balls showed what people in the 50's thought the future would look like...Well the future has more air conditioning and escalators than I think the thought we would have...but less flying cars.

The grounds here are shared by the 1960 Olympic grounds. And a football stadium...the soccer type of football...

This is not a great photo, but that's all of Europe....really, like from space, but weirdly from some monster atom of metal...really its an amusement park called Mini Europe with some visually shrunken element from a country like the Eiffel, or the Atomium..wait we are still it it..We didn't take the time to see mini Europe, so I guess we have to go to the real thing...

So that was Brussels...we hopped on a train home to Amsterdam, and put John on a plane home for Seattle. Good visit, thanks for coming! I have one more post that will include some videos from Brussels...stay tuned.

July - Off to Brussels Belgium Part 3

So if you ever spend more than five minutes in Brussels, Mannakin Pis will undoubtedly be something you become quickly aware of. This little boy pissing fountain has been recreated over and over, in fact even the original has been replaced, and this current 'new' one is from the mid 1600's. We marched around looking for it, only to be quite disappointed how dinky and small it was...I mean really, the symbol of your city? You can literally find one made of chocolate in Brussels bigger than the iron statue 'original'

Here is the Royal Paleis in Brussels...with its lovely gardens.

St Michaels Cathedral in Brussels had wonderful gothic architecture...yet so clean and pretty....

At the top of the hill in brussels is a wonderful park with these great statues surrounding it. Across the street is the Notre Dame Du Sablon. Essentially this picture would have changed little over the last 400 years or so!

Oh our way back from marching around the city we ate dinner downtown at some italian joint...than walked back to the Grand Paleis at night, and it didnt dissapoint even in the dark.

Pictures just dont do it justice...its a rather small square just stuffed full of decorative treasures.
Well lit at night, the architecture stands out from the guilding for once...

We had on our list a stop at Delerium Bar. It has the most beers available at any bar in the world, 2004! It set the Guiness Book of World Records in the year....guess...wait for it...2004!Probably 100 on tap, the rest in bottles, and a 3 inch thick menu to order from. I dont remember what beer i ordered, im sure it was Ninja Deathstrike or something, but my buddy John's beer i will never forget. PINK KILLER!!!! I would describe this beer as a rose' beer that is not normally marketed towards men...you rock it John, stand proud! (more on that beer in Brugge).