July 23 - 24

Post-Cruise Amsterdam

What a great morning!

This morning Kim & I walked down to "Pancakes Amsterdam" to meet a former student of mine, Jennifer and her daughter Lola, for breakfast.  Jennifer was a student of mine several years ago at Western High School and now lives in Amsterdam.....and Kim & I work with her Mom at Cypress Bay High!

 

This afternoon we booked an excursion to The Hague for a city tour

Kim outside the Parliament building

The original castle is the heart of the Parliament complex

Close-up of the tower clock

The Peace Palace where the International Court of the U.N. meets

Photo Op (nice job honey with the new camera!)

 

Madurodam

The second half of our tour was a stop at Madurodam, which is a park featuring miniatures of all of the Netherlands' landmarks....built at 1/25th scale.  Pretty impressive what they've created here.  But the most interesting, and ironic part was.....

The park was built as a memorial to WW II Dutch hero George Maduro.  Well, this morning when we met with Jennifer and she asked about our plans for the day she told us that Maduro was her grandmother's cousin! 

 

Tomorrow we are off to the airport around 5 a.m. as our great trip has come to an end.  We will be home before dinner time.  For those of you who have been following along on our website, thank you so much for all the comments and "likes" on Facebook.  I have several videos that I will publish early next week and I hope you'll enjoy them.

 

 

July 22

Amsterdam

Sunset and good-bye to the Lif and our cruise......

.....and welcome to Amsterdam!

Bikes....EVERYWHERE
Did you know - there are 800,000 people in Amsterdam, and 900,000 bikes!
60,000 bikes are stolen every year and get this....12,000 bikes are thrown into the canal every year!

Ada, our tour guide shows us the city
At one time these locks opened the canals to the rivers and oceans

Narrow houses
Your taxes are based on the WIDTH of your house!  #7 is the smallest house in Amsterdam....it is the width of the door!

Leaning houses
Because the city is built on a swamp; the foundation is sand & wooden beams.  If the beams get wet they sag and the houses lean, as this one does!

Lunch overlooking the canal

Amsterdam Canal Tour
Photos from the Canal Tour - REALLY cool (literally - it was mid-60s) experience

Cars parked OH-SO-CLOSE to the canal wall (have been known to fall/drive into canal!)

 

The Victoria Hotel - Note house in the middle of the structure!
When homes were being bought up to get the property for the hotel the owner would not sell.....so they built the hotel around him!  He still lives there to this day - though the hotel now owns the house!

Amsterdam Canal Tour

July 21

Kinderdijk

The name comes from a legend - which says the dike was being built by child labor, thus the name:  "kinder" = children in Dutch / "dijk" = dike

Good morning The Netherlands

Wooden Windmill - built in 1748

Inside the windmill

Wooden shoes - of course

Stone Windmill built in 1738

Our last cruise excursion before "landing" in Amsterdam tomorrow

Our home the last two weeks, the Lif

Kinderdjik Windmills
 

July 20

Cologne

St. Peter's Cathedral

The Spires - The Top of the Spires
The photo at right - note size of woman in front - is what is on TOP of each spire!

Photo Op In Front of Cathedral

Au de Cologne - the original was made in this building in 1709, the first "cologne factory" ever because it's the first time they ever used the same formula over & over.  You can still buy that exact fragrance AND the same family runs the business as then!

Kim beside the "Elves of Cologne" Fountain

Legend has it that each night if you fell asleep without completing your work, elves would finish your work.  Until one night a baker's wife set a trap by laying peas on the staircase.  When the elves slipped and crashed to the bottom of the stairs she came rushing out.  Just as she got there she got a glimpse of them and they disappeared.  But as the legend goes, since then the elves have never returned and now all residents of Cologne must complete their own work!

 

Cologne Highlights

 

July 19

Marksburg Castle

The Castle Seen From The Rhine

Up Close

 

Getting Ready To Head Out On The Excursion

Walking the hill / The First Gate

Kim - The Rhine River

The "facilities"

Note: The "open drop" on the outside; on the inside it was considered bad manners to use the bathroom with the door CLOSED - you were expected to continue to partake in conversation, etc.! BUT....the door was closed and locked at night for fear of invaders sneaking into the castle by using the bathroom!

Coat of Arms of all the owners of Marksburg Castle

Climbing the narrow inner stairways

Cannon overlooks the Rhine
Note: The castle was NEVER conquered!

Posing with "The View"

"The View" from the castle overlooking the Rhine

 

Mark & Kim pose for THE picture of the trip