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