Amsterdam

Jack and I are in Amsterdam for a few weeks - from May 11 to June 1. We are set up in our nice hotel and from there we can get anywhere in the city in a matter of minutes. The city of Amsterdam is compact and very pretty. When you think of the age of this city - started in the 11th century, you really are amazed at how it has survived so well. Of course, they are always working on upgrading it and modernizing it. The main canals gird the city, so the neigborhoods are each about the same size and equidistant from the canals. The English language is relatively close to Dutch, so you can almost figure out a lot of the directions, the signs, etc.

The transportation here is great; walking is a must option, and the bus and tram system is easy, fast and comes often. Everyone rides bikes here, which is nice unless you get in the bike lane, thinking it is the pedestrian lane! You learn quickly to look both ways whenever you step out into the street.

We have seen the Keunkenhop - the park where the tulips are shown from all of the growers. Every year they have a different design and the park is huge, so it can accommodate the throngs of people who visit during the six weeks of show. We really enjoyed our outing last Friday.

We have yet to take a canal ride; that will be fun and will give us a different view of the city. We have seen a couple of museums; we still have the Van Gogh to visit. We are also looking forward to visiting the Anne Frank house. We walked by on Saturday, but the crowd was lined up for almost a block, so we decided to come during the week.

We are really enjoying this old yet new city. It has dozens of restaurants of all kinds. We are slowly but surely sampling of all of them! Until next time, Jole

Beginning our adventure

Today is Friday, May 7, 2010. We finally left Dallas on April 27 to New York. We had a wonderful time there, trudging around the city, trying to get our legs in shape for Paris. We rode the subway to get to the museums, the restaurants in the Village and in Chinatown and just to explore neigborhoods. We found a great restaurant in the Village - named De Santos. A small place, but really rocking and the food was great.

On Sunday night, May 2, we boarded a flight to Paris. It was packed to the rafters; very uncomfortable, and the food was just terrible. At least the flight was smooth and fairly short - about 7 hours. We got to Paris about noon and to our hotel near Eiffel Tower. We had stayed at the Tim Hotel in Montmatre a couple of times before and loved the neighborhood. We just wanted to try another neigborhood and signed up for this Tim Hotel.

As the other one, it is a two-star hotel, which means it is light on the amenities. The rooms are very small, but the shower is hot and wonderful - a sign of a good stay. It is also pretty quiet. The neigborhood is great: lots of little cafes and shops and coffee houses. We love it. It is very near a metro stop, so we have gone everywhere already.

We did go back to a couple of restaurants that we liked in Montmartre, but we are making some of own new ones our favorites.

So far we have taken a boat ride, visited the Louvre, the Momartan, the basilica at St. Denis, the Eiffel Tower (though we have not gone up in it...), and Arch of Triumph. The weather has been brisk but nice.

We are in Paris for a few more days; then we go to Amsterdam to begin our investigation of that city and the whole country.

If I can find my blog again, I will make more entries. I am also updating my Facebook page, so our friends can follow our travels.

Signing off this day, Jole