Saturday, April 30

Another beautiful day!

The view from across the street from our room at the Die Port van Cleve.

Today, April 30, is the Queen's birthday.

This is a national holiday.

It is basically a big street party.

This isn't really Queen Beatrix's birthday.  It is a thinnly vailed excuse to have a  big party.

As described in one of the tourist magazines in our hotel room, it is the Fourth of July, Oktoberfest and a flea market all blended together.  The city center of Amsterdam is blocked off.  No trolleys operate.  No city busses, no public transportation, no private vehicles.  The entire center of the city becomes a pedestrian zone.  The city center is probably a 4 square mile area, 2 miles x 2 miles.  The flea market is open to everyone.  It seems like people sold just about everything from used clothes to cheap sun glasses to pairs of new shoes for 2 Euros and orange wigs.

Below is a picture of an Incan street band.  There were performers all over the city.  In the big city park, Vondel Park, they had a huge concert.  We didn't know who was performing but it was definitely geared to a younger crowd.  From what we could figure out, it wasn't like Summerfest with different venues and different types of music.  Here it was whatever someone put together.  Many cafes and bars had DJs on stages in the street in front of the establishment.  

A big part of the Queen's Day was having a lot of boats, basically anything that could float, filled with party going people, just cruising up and down the canals.  This went on all day long from early morning to dark.  The boats would play music and the people would toss things back and forth between boats. 

 People would line the sides of the canals and the bridges over the canals to watch the impromptu parade of boats.

 It didn't matter which canal we were walking along, there was a continuous line of boats.

As any good street party, there was lots of street food.  The street food definitely had an international flair.  We started with a stop at a bakery.  Mary chose a chocolate croissant.

We escaped the shoulder to shoulder crowds by visiting the Rijksmuseum.

We also discovered our first patch of tulips in front of the Rijksmuseum.

We rented audio guides and toured the museum. This is the "Milk Maid" by Vermeer.

 The "Milk Maid" has become the iconic painting for the Rijksmuseum.  Probably the best known painting we saw was Rembrandt's "Night Watch."

After touring the Rijksmuseum we picked up some orange feathers that had fallen off someone's orange feather boa.  I stuck some in my hat and Mary put her's on the cuff's of her slevees.

This is a picture of the Central Station.  It is the main train station for the city center of Amsterdam.

We ate dinner at a traditional Dutch restaurant. 

Mary had chicken soup and I had beef stew with mashed potatoes.

Tomorrow, we plan to visit the Keukenhof Gardens before we board the ship.

Friday, April 29, 2011

Greg at the Central Station.

Lennika, Corne & Sen

Lennika, Corne & Sen

Canal cruise in Hertogenbosch

The boat holds 16 passengers and the pilot.
The boat had an electric motor.

A beaautiful blue sky day on on our canal cruise.

The Basilica of Saint John the Evangelist in Hertogenbosch.

Stained glasses windows all around in this 800 year old church.

Huge pipe organ in the back of the church.

This is the view across the street from our hotel in Amsterdam.

The hotel is the Die Port van Cleve.

The front of our hotel at night.

Queen's Day celebration.  Every store is selling orange shirts, hats and other things to wear.
The orange is for the House of Orange.

The carnival in the Dam Square near our hotel.

They have a very tall "swing"  It puts the one at Cinder City Days to shame.

Hello faithful followers. 

We are having technical difficulties tonight downloading our pictures.  The internet at this hotel is even slower than at our house.  If possible, we will try to download some of today's pictures later.

Needless to say, we had a wonderful day.  It started out leisurely at the hotel NH Carlton.  After breakfast at the hotel, we checked out and walked about 10 minutes to tonight's hotel.  We checked in but weren't given our room yet.  We knew the room wouldn't be ready but we wanted to leave our luggage here while we went on the train to visit Corne Ruijs and his family in another town about one hour by train south of Amsterdam.

Afte checking our bags at tonight's hotel, the Die Port van Cleve, we walked to the Central Station and bought our train tickets.  It was a lovely ride through the Dutch countryside.  Some of it was along canals and part along the Maas River.

Corne, his wife Lennika  and 14 month old boy, Sen, were waiting for us on the train platform when we arrived in Hertogenbosch.  We had lunch in the central square in Hertogenbosch with the three of them.  At the end of lunch Corne's father and mother came to take Sen with them for his afternoon nap.

Sen reminded us of Brady and made us miss our little guy, especially after learning of Wilbur's open heart surgery.

After lunch Corne, Lennika, Mary & I walked around the historic center part of the town and took a canal boat ride through some of the canals in this town.  An interesting aspect of the canals here is that they go under many buildings and streets in the town.  I would say almost as much of the canals are in tunnels under buildings and streets as they were out in the open.  Even when they were in the open, most of the canals we were along the back side of homes and buildings in town.

After our canal tour we visited an 800 year old gothic church. 

Corne and Lennika then took us in their car to the small town of Lith along the dikes to where Corne has his business.  We saw their building and bus operation before they took us back to the train station in Hertogenbosch.  Mary and I then took the train back to the Central Station in Amsterdam and walked back to our hotel.

After getting our room key and freshening up, we went out to eat dinner.  We found a nice Argentine Steak House and had a tasty meal.  We are now back at the hotel and will soon turn in for the day.

PS  We didn't get to see the actual royal wedding as it was taking place although Mary made a b-line to the tv in the restaurant as William and Kate were still in the church.  Tonight Mary is getting her Royal Wedding fix on CNN World News.  Last night it was BBC.  Tonight CNN seems to have the most coverage and rehash of the wedding.  So Mary feels like she was there.  We can go to bed happy.

Love to all of you.  Greg & Mary/ Mom & Dad

We made it!

 Everything went well for us on the flight.

We arrived at the airport in Amsterdam and took the train into the Central Station.

From the Central Station we took a taxi to the hotel.

We are staying at the NH Carlton in the city center.

We did some walking around this afternoon.

We came back to the hotel for a short nap.

Then we walked a little over a mile to the Anne Frank house.

I think the tulips are a bit past their peak but it is definitely spring here.

There is a big flower conference going on this weekend.

As part of the conference, the hotel put together this heart made from fresh roses.

They were putting this together all afternoon.

This is in the lobby of the hotel.

This is a picture we took out the window of the plane.

You can see some of the tulip fields.

On Friday we are going to take a train from the Central Station to a town called Hertogenbosch.  We are meeting a man called Corne Ruijs and his wife and 14 month old young son.  We are having lunch with them and seeing their town.  Holiday Vacations uses Corne Ruijs' bus company for our transportation in Paris and in Holland.

It is Queen Beatrice's birthday this weekend and the whole country of the Netherlands celebrates.  We'll see what kind of festival this is.  However, the town is all a buzz over the expected crowds.

Friday and Saturday we stay at a hotel call the Die Port van Cleve.  It is right next to the Magna Plaza just off the Dam Square.  Sunday night we stay on our river boat.

Mary is happy we get BBC televison in our hotel room for nonstop coverage of the royal wedding.  Lots of coverage tonight about people sleeping along the streets hoping to see the happy couple tomorrow.

Still more Easter pictures

We helped Hugh celebrate his 60th birthday this Easter.  The t-shirt says, "If it's too loud, You're too old"

Hugh was with us for our Easter dinner at noon.  He had to leave at 1:30 PM to go to work.

Mary & Brady.  Notice the potato in Brady's hand.  He is wearing the outfit Grandma G made for him.

In our recently remodeled kitchen.

Coloring Easter Eggs.  Notice the intensity on Brady's face.

More coloring Easter eggs.

One of Brady's favorite things to do at our house is play the piano.

Here Uncle Tim and Brady are playing a duet.

Our little man is almost always in motion.

Tim and Grandma Goessling.

Mary, Andrea, Adam & Tim.

Happy Easter!

Even more Easter photos

Easter weekend 2011 started with a stir-fry meal on Saturday night followed by coloring of Easter Eggs.  Dan & Nancy, Adam, Andrea & Brady, Tim, Grandma Goessling, Mary & Greg

Saturday night, April 23, 2011

Coloring Easter Eggs

From left to right

Nancy, Andrea, Brady, Tim, Dan, Grandma G, Adam

 Brady coloring Easter Eggs.

Brady, age 20 months, in his going-to-church Easter outfit.  Sweater vest courtesy of Noah Sabelko.

Notice Brady is getting closer to seeing what is on the counter. 

Adam, Brady, Tim on Easter morning.

The traditional hunt for the Easter baskets.

Adam cleverly sleuthed out the false bottom on the end tables.

Brady provided moral support.

Notice the new hardwood floor in the living room.

Adam pointing out the false bottom.

Adam's Easter Basket hidden in the false bottom of an end table.

Andrea going to work on finding her Easter Basket. 

After observing Adam find his basket, Brady was able to provide technical assistance to Andrea.

Andrea's efforts are rewarded!

For his second Easter, Brady received an Elmo Easter Basket.

Brady was the first to find his Easter Basket.

Uncle Tim and Brady

What a life!  Two Grandmas and an Elmo Easter Basket.