Why is the Trip Home Always Awful?

So, I did get up on time this morning...but I moved very slowly.  Trams started running around 8am and that's when I wanted to leave...I was a lil late.  I thought that was OK, as I had built late time into my plans.

I got to Central Station to find that the trains were not running today due to maintenance, so I had to take a different train to a bus to the airport.  Which put me a further 15 minutes behind.  This was Not Good.  Luckily, the line at the ticket counter moved quickly and I found my gate with a bit of time to spare.  This means I got to go hit the Duty Free shop that had chocolate.  Yes, my work friends...there will be Toblerone!

A trend I've noticed in Europe, that I really like is that you go through security at each gate.  So the entire airport of travelers isn't funnelled through a single security checkpoint.  At least that was how Vienna was last year and Amsterdam was this morning.  I was only slightly sweaty when I got to my seat.  My seatmate was a quiet guy from California.  This airplane was older than the one on the flight over and did not have nifty touchscreens on the video display.  I ended up not watching a movie.  I just read and napped a bit.  And blew my nose.  The altitude change turned my nose into a faucet.  I'm sure the other people on the plane just LOVED me.

We got to Washington Dulles 15 minutes late.  Why I booked a flight with an hour layover coming in from overseas, I'll never know.  Luckily, the customs lines were short.  Unfortunately, the trip from concourse C to concourse A was LONG.  They had to hold my plane for me.

Again, I was a sweaty mess and had to give up my window seat on the rickety rubber band prop plane for one in the very back row.  The Asian gentleman to my right kept nodding off and almost fell asleep ON me several times.  I was feeling totally awful by then and was craving a McDonald's sweet tea.  No idea why...but I WANTED one.

So, I got my suitcase at the Roanoke airport and took the route through Vinton so I could get an enormous tea.

I made it home and am currently tucked into bed with the Tylenol PM starting to kick in.  I have tons to do tomorrow and hope I'm feeling better.

Good news is...absolutely NONE of my stuff got broken.  YAY!!!

Day 6: Happy Birthday to....OUCH!

Today I turned 48.  I keep having to tell myself that because my brain thinks I'm 28.  My body, however, does not agree.  I walked all over the city today and I'm now moving around like an 88 year old.

I am working on a slight sinus infection.  I didn't sleep well last night because I kept waking up with a sore throat that is the result of icky drippage.  I mainlined some orange juice, took a boiling hot shower, and felt better.  I didn't get out until almost noon.

I took the tram to Dam Square and just wandered around.  I knew the vague direction to the Flea Market and went that way. I walked along scenic canals and the Amstel river,  snapping photos as I went along...

 I accidentally happened upon it much later.   I turned the corner, and there it was...chaos!

The flea market takes up a big section of Waterlooplein.

This is it from across the canal.  As you can see, this is a slightly more modern section of the central area of the city.  I bought a few things, mostly goofy tourist stuff (like my slippers!). I was hungry and I decided to indulge in another weakness of mine that is not as weird here as it is in the US.

Yes, those are French fries with MAYONAISE!  Nobody here thought I was a freak for asking for mayo on my "chips" like they do when I plop some Hellman's on my fries at home.  Culinary, I seem to have a lot in common with the Dutch...cheese, black licorice, mayo on my fries...yummo.  Of course, I could feel the ole arteries hardening but it was a birthday treat!

More wandering, more pictures...

Seriously, I just wandered around, stuck my nose into a few tourist shops, then turned a corner

This is South Church or Zuiderkerk.  No, I didn't go in, but I walked around taking more pictures

I ended up in Nieuwmarkt, which is another open air market near the old edge of Amsterdam's city limits.  This square has been the site of a farmer's market since the 17th century.

I got some OJ at this market because I was thirsty and my throat was sore again.  There were vendors selling a few odds and ends, but the majority of them were selling fruit, veg, and flowers.

This is St. Anthony's Gate which used to be a gate into the city of Amsterdam.  It's no longer a gate into the city and it performed a bunch of different functions over the years...including a weighing house (for cheese and butter being brought into the city).  Now, it contains a cafe.

At this point I was starting to run out of steam and time.  I decided to skip the flower market as I really didn't need to buy any bulbs to bring home.   I did want to drop off my stuff in the apartment and pick up a couple of things at the Albert Cuyptmarkt.  So, I finally made my way back to the tram and back to my neighborhood.

Dropped off crap, rested a bit and made it with a bit of time to spare before the market completely closed up for the day.  I got some cheese to bring home and a birthday brownie for after dinner tonight.

Back to the flat and decided I needed to go to the grocery store to re-supply some stuff I used in the flat as well as getting some stuff to bring home.  On the way back, I saw something very interesting.

I don't know if you noticed in any of the photos I've posted already, but many of the houses in Amsterdam have a post hanging out over the sidewalk up at roof level with a hook embedded.  May of the buildings in Amsterdam used to be warehouses and those hooks were used to hang a pulley from so that goods could be hoisted up to the upper levels.  Now, let me show you a picture of the steps up to this flat

 
 Now, these are just the steps from the front door of the flat up to the living area...there are 4 other flights of even narrower, steeper steps before this (not to mention a few other sections of spiral steps).  There is NO way you could carry a large piece of furniture (or even a medium piece) up those stairs.  So the hooks are still there

Allowing you to haul your new couch in through your front window.  Nifty keen!

Ok, I gotta wrap this puppy up.  Need to pack and worry about how I'm going to get all my crap down those stairs tomorrow morning all by myself.   Where the heck is that pulley???

Day 5: Side Trip to Ancient Egypt

The day I got here I noticed posters with Tutankhamun's iconic mask plastered everywhere...and my interest was piqued.  A google search resulted in my discovery that there is a traveling exhibit by the National Geographic society displaying replicas of the treasures of Tut's tomb shown in situ.  Because Howard Carter meticulously recorded where everything was found (both photographically and in sketches) it was possible to recreate the original appearance of the tomb.  The opportunity was just too much for a Tut geek like myself to resist.

I woke up this morning sore and grumpy...with a slight sore throat.  So, I grumped about a bit...then it started to rain again, I puttered about some more.  It was about 1:30 or so before I headed out. Got to the Lindberg Tours office (they ran the tour I was on yesterday) where I saw a brochure for advanced tickets.  Got one with a discount and asked the lady at the counter for instructions on how to get there by public transportation.  She told me to get on the 51 Metro and get off at WTC.  I got on the right train, looked at the map and there was no WTC.  Urgh.  Closely looked at every stop and I didn't see anything called WTC.  Went almost all the way to the end of the line, then got off and took the train in the opposite direction to head back.

My intent was to go back to Central Station and ask for directions again, but I saw Tut in the distance at one of the stops almost all the way back and got off (at Zuid).  I found it on my own!!

So the exhibit...I had some problems with it.  The part that I really wanted to experience...where you get to see the recreation of what the find was like when the tomb was first opened, that bit you were rushed through like cattle. The lights came up and went dim and if you were stuck in the back...you were stuck.  Everyone up front is raising up their cameras and cell phones and just stood there.  Nobody in the back could see or take photos themselves.  It sucked.   I got ticked, snuck around to the side, and was a bad person...I took a flash photo.  I reasoned that it's not like these are actual artifacts...flash photography was prohibited so that everyone could enjoy the experience...but I wasn't enjoying the experience!  If I was a selfish bitch, so be it.  And I got a photo of the Treasury...

Anyway, that was the only flash photo I could take.  The next room was the burial chamber and I soon figured that if I went around the room the wrong way, I could avoid getting my view blocked.

These are the shrines around the outer sarcophagus all open so that you can see all the way in.

This is the outermost shrine which I thought was pretty cool looking.  There were also recreations of the wall paintings.

I don't remember them including the Annex though...although, if I remember from the photos I'd seen, that room was a jumbled mess anyway.  There were then rooms where replicas of some of the original items were displayed.  Some of them, I'd actually seen the originals of a few years ago in Philadelphia.

These are the two inner shrines that surrounded the sarcophagus

And the sarcophagus.  Which was a lot prettier than I imagined it.  I think I had only seen black and white photos of it...so this was really cool.

These are the next two mummy cases.  The one in front is the second sarcophagus and is really awesome with a ton of inlay and detail.

This is the innermost sarcophagus, made of solid gold with the mummy in it...well not really a mummy, you know the whole thing is a reproduction.  Which is cool, because the original was all messed up with unguents used in the funerary preparations.  So messed up it dissolved the eyeballs in this inner sarcophagus.

Of course, there was the reproduction of the one thing I still want to see for reals...but was pretty cool as a fake

Honestly, this thing is so pretty, I think it's impossible to take a bad picture of it.  It was so lovely and shiny...

Here's a bunch of little gold statues, some of them of various gods, some of them of Tut (well...technically, he was considered a god too).

These are the lids of the canopic chest that held Tut's innards.  They do look very much like the originals.  The only thing I saw that I thought "that doesn't look right" was the diadem that was on the mummy's head.  I remember it being very thin, but the reproduction appeared to be a lot sturdier.

Here is the shrine that held the canopic chest, that held the little canopic coffins that held Tut's innards.

This is a wooden bust of the young king.  Nobody is quite sure of its purpose, although the most plausible theory is that it is a half mannequin (there is a torso there too) used for preparing Tut's wardrobe for the day.

Here is Tut's crook and flail, which were important symbols of the power of the Egyptian Pharaoh.  Tut's are the only ones in existence (there were 3 crooks and 2 flails found in his tomb).  We see them in images of other Pharaohs, but without Tut's tomb, we'd never see an actual example of them.

Gift shop....what can I say...nothing good.  Well, there were official "Dr. Zahi Hawass" hats you could buy, but I really didn't need one.  It appears, he has approved endorsing the type of hat he wears so that the proceeds of the sales go to a children's charity.  Pretty cool, but too pricey for me.

There were no t-shirts...only baseball caps.  The book was not that great and repeated stuff I have in other books.  So, I left empty-handed.  In the end, it was a pretty cool exhibit...but that beginning bit really pissed me off.

I got back to Central Station around 5 and walked to Dam Square, stopping in several tacky tourist shops along the way.  I have a couple of friends who asked for wooden shoes...and I have one thing to say...you're getting little toy shoes because the real things cost around 30 Euro a pair!  I got myself a teeny tiny pair to turn into an ornament for the Xmas tree..that's it.

This is the Royal Palace on Dam Square.  In my opinion it needs some restoration work as the exterior is all black and dingy from years of exposure to pollution. I think that the pediment had been cleaned up recently...or was it replaced?

This is the other side of the palace, with an Atlas statue on top.  Also on Dam Square is the Nieuwe Kerk.

Both the Kerk and the Palace are closed to visitors in preparation for the combination Queen's Day/Inauguration of the new King on April 30.  I think this trip will be lacking the religious architectural photography you're used to.   I did take photos of Westerkerk, which is near the Anne Frank House, but those were lost in the Great Data Card Disaster.  Maybe I'll head back tomorrow to try to take some more.

One interesting aspect of this Church is that it has a sundial rather than an actual clock, which I found cool.

Originally stained glass windows over the main entrance of the church, they were bricked up when the church organ was installed.

I then walked around and looked at shops for a bit, including the Royal Delft shop, which was more expensive than the Delftware I saw when I visited Delft.  I also walked down the Flower Market, which was closing up for the evening.

Finally headed back to the apartment for grilled cheese.

Tomorrow is both my birthday and my last day.  I'm heading back over to the Princengracht area (by the Anne Frank House, to try to re-create some of my photos).  I may actually track down another church while I'm at it, just for funzies.   My main goal is shopping though...Flea Market, Flower Market, and funny slippers!

Day 4: I Don't Believe I Visited the Whole Thing

Good news is that today we have pictures...lots and lots of pictures.  I hope you like windmills..just sayin'.

I thought I was busy yesterday, but I was mistaken.  I was going nonstop from 9am to 8pm today and my mind is spinning. The Super Saver bus tour I took is actually a combo of two shorter tours.  I have to say I liked the morning bit better, but if I would have skipped the afternoon bit, I would have missed Delft, which would have been a bummer.

Made it to the meeting point on time and sat on the bottom half of a double decker tour bus.  This was the Dutch countryside tour.  And countryside it was.

Not very clear, but not bad for being taken out of a bus window whilst speeding down a highway.  This is a fairly typical farmhouse.  There are canals and streams everywhere.  Most of the Netherlands is below sea level and made up of drained lakes.  So, there is a lot of water...

Picturesque, isn't it?  By the time we got to Marken, the winds had whipped up into a frenzy.  Marken was an island and a little fishing village of green wooden houses that used to be on stilts.  Now that the dikes prevent flooding, the bottom of the houses have been walled in with bricks to build a new first floor.

There is now the tourist attraction of a wooden shoe factory in the town.  Not as much a factory as a workshop with a large gift shop attached.  Still, it was interesting watching Bart make clogs (wooden shoes).

Most of the work these days is done on sort of lathe machines, one for the exterior of the shoe, the other for the interior (you can see that one behind Bart - the green machine).  He's doing the only part still done by hand, which is trimming the front and back of the clog to get the bit off that it grasped by the machine when it carves.

The shoes are hung to dry and there are tons of them hanging over the workshop.  They are still worn in the Netherlands by farmers and gardeners as they are sturdy and waterproof  They're either plain or painted with a traditional pattern..

NOT like these, which are obviously decorated gaudily for the tourist trade.

These are fairly traditionally decorated (usually not white with blue paint, but red and black paint on plain wood, but with this pattern) and is another use that the Dutch have for their clogs...planters.

After we wandered about the village for a few more minutes, we took a ferry across to Volderdam, another fishing village.

Here we went to a "cheese factory" which again, was a cheese shop where they made some of the cheese there.  There was a cheese making demonstration.

This lovely young lady taught us about how cheese is made, but there was no actual cheese *making*.  We then went upstairs to the shop where there were samples and lots of helpful cheese selling ladies.  Of course I bought cheese.  I got goat cheese, one smoked and one not smoked.  I'm not opening them so I can bring them home with me.

Lunchtime I sat with two ladies from Maryland in a seafood place where we all had yummy fried fish sandwiches.  Giant slab of fish that was too big to fit on the bread.

We then walked to the bus, and tried not to get blown away.  The wind was getting worse. We were on our way to Zaanse Shans, the windmill village outside of Amsterdam. There were once thousands of windmills dotting the Dutch countryside, now there are about 800.  Most are thatched, and were used for many things, not just pumping water.  Pump stations are used for pumping water today, which explains the demise of the traditional windmill.

This is a thatched windmills on the side of the road that dates from the 17th century.  I believe this one did pump water.

We soon got to our destination and I could not wait to start snapping photos

First things first...had to pester someone to take my photo so that I would actually have proof that I was there...or a way to remember where I had traveled when I am old and forgetful.

The windmills in Zaanse Shans are performing functions other than pumping water. There is one grinding grain, one making peanut oil, one grinding pigments for paints...and the green one there is a sawmill. You can go into some of the windmills and climb about.  I choose to visit the peanut oil mill.

This is one of the wheels grinding the poor lil peanuts up to make the oil.

I climbed up a rickety set of narrow steps that were so narrow I think they counted as a ladder.  On the upper level, you can see the wooden gears that drive the grinders.  I then went outside.

Where I had to fight to keep from being blown off the platform.  Sheesh, no wonder the Dutch learned quickly to harness this energy. I couldn't take this for very long...good thing it only cost me 3 Euro.

Despite the crazy wind...still loving the windmills and had a great time.

Ok last one...for now.  We clambered back on the bus and headed back to central Amsterdam to switch buses for the second half of the day.  

We were now headed to Delft and the Hague.  Being the pottery fool that I am, I was really looking forward to visiting a real Delft pottery factory. I actually ended up back on the same bus with a new guide, but same driver.  And we were off to Delft!  Guess what we saw along the road...

Ha!  I fibbed!  More windmills.   It is seriously very cool to just see these as you drive along the highways.  If you look to the left of this one, you will see the modern descendant of these 17th century workhorses...there is a modern electricity generating windmill.  I didn't see as many here as I did last year in Austria and Hungary, but they were still there.

Delft was a bit longer of a trip, but we got there and headed down a narrow brick road alongside a canal to find one of the two remaining pottery factories in Delft producing hand painted pottery, De Delftse Pauw.

The tour itself held very few surprises for me as they make pottery pretty much the same as the pottery I used to work for in Virginia.  They do use an electric kiln and do a bisque kiln (rather than a gas kiln and a single fire process), but it is still hand painted white clay.  It's a lot more expensive, but the detail is much greater as well.

Some of the painters work in the studio, but they also have others that do piecework at home.  They do both blue and multi-colored delftware. I got a little ceramic "wooden" shoe painted with a blue windmill.  They also do jewelry, so I got earrings and a necklace too (shocked, aincha?).

I couldn't quite afford this memento of the upcoming inauguration of the new King:

We then headed to the Delft town center, where there is usually a street market.  As we were there a bit late, most stalls had closed down already.  Stuff was blowing around like crazy...trash and papers were everywhere.

On one end of the square was the Delft Town Hall.

Apparently, this is a popular location for weddings and couples come from miles around to be married there.  The sun was not well placed for me to get a good photo of the front...but it's very ornate and brightly painted.  At the other end of the square is the local church.

There was some sort of tour bus traffic jam and we stood waiting in the wind for our bus for about 15 minutes.  Luckily, I had managed to find a vendor selling candy that was still at the market and was happily munching some lovely Dutch black licorice candy...people after my own heart, they love the black licorice!

Finally got on the bus and got outta Delft to head to the Hague.  We did the bus tour thing and looked a the government offices as well as drove past the Queen's working palace.  She was in as evidenced by the orange flag flying.

I didn't get any photos as the sun was shining directly at the bus windows...from behind the buildings.  I did get a half decent photo of the International Court of Justice

Little burned out...but it was such an impressive building.

Last stop of the day was not something I would have chosen to do otherwise (if it wasn't part of the tour package.  Madurodam is a miniature village the depicts the best bits of The Netherlands.

There you go...miniaturized Netherlands.  Want to know more...visit the Madurodam website.  I got bored quickly, but was happy they had a restroom.  I ended up exiting early and sitting in the ticketing area waiting for the group.  Oh, I did take this photo:

The mythological Hans Brinker about to stick his finger in the hole in the dike.  This is a the entrance to the park.

We finally got back in the bus, had the hour drive back, I hopped back on the tram and got back to the apartment.  Ate a dinner of cheese and tomatoes at around 9pm and need sleep.

Tomorrow, King Tut?