April 1, 2004
Left for the airport at 8:30. Long flight, but very easy. Very little turbulence, so Tony was better than I expected, although his fear isn’t based on turbulence. I am getting sick, so I didn’t sleep more than 1.5 hours. Watched a couple of movies on the plane. Mandy Moore is a poor actor. Lost 9 hours. Awake 29 hours.
April 2, 2004
Arrived in Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam. Inez, Tony’s cousin, picked us up. She is very pregnant and brought a friend just in case she hit traffic and went into labor! Inez, Raymond, Shaznay, Zoia and Jamary live just outside Rotterdam. Very nice, large house. Savannah took a couple of 3 hour naps. I was getting more and more sick but stayed awake until about 9:00 pm Holland time. Raymond cooked for us. Amazing chef he is. Pork chops, rice, and veggies.
April 3, 2004
Cappuccinos are really good! Tony and Savannah got up at 5:00 am. Took the subway and then a train to Delft. Interesting small town with such great architecture. The Queen’s Mother had just died recently and was buried in the church there. We went into the church with the Dutch locals to check the tomb out. We had lunch at a café in the town square. Tony and Savannah had Kroketten and I had Poffijes – small pancakes like Ebelskivers. I think comfort food because sick, sick, sick. Looked at the Delft china. Some artists are more expensive than others as there are different levels of quality of the painting. The more the artist paints by hand the more expensive.
On the way back to Centraal Station we hit an internet café and sent a couple of short emails. Went back to Inez’s house. It was really COLD and WINDY. Raymond again made us an amazing dinner after Savannah and I napped. Sate, pindasause and rice and veggies. Num!
Raymond is originally from Rotterdam, so he took us out for a drive after dinner. We went all over the city. Great tour, lots of history and then ice cream. Raymond parked right up on the sidewalk! We asked if he would get a ticket and he said it depended on the police person. The ice cream wasn’t traditional ice cream, better. Tony had his childhood favorite – Malaga (rum raisin). We were out until midnight. We scoped out the shopping and the town hall. There is a marathon tomorrow in Rotterdam.
April 4, 2004
Up and out to Rotterdam to shop. We couldn’t go see Marjorie, and didn’t want to go see the tulips since it was so very, very COLD and WINDY! We ate lunch at the “American Style Buffet” restaurant by accident. There was a line outside the department store before it opened as it is apparently a very popular place to eat. We shopped till we dropped, but didn’t buy too much as we didn’t want to tote it to France and back. Loving the many, many shoe stores. The boxing and wrestling shoes are in style here. Savannah got some white and silver ones. We will do much more shopping in Utrecht and Amsterdam. We bought 40E’s of cappuccino spoons. I was so sick I couldn’t comprehend the price. We now have 12 spoons. They are cool, but in my right mind I probably wouldn’t have bought 12 at 3.95E each!
Back to Inez’s house. Very sick and have to go to bed without dinner at 8:30. Rotterdam subway and trains not that easy to navigate. Hope Paris is easier.
April 5, 2004
Heard dinner last night was great. Hope Tony has all of these new recipes memorized! I had some left-overs, but not the same. When we got up at 7:30 am Inez said her water had broken and she was packed and ready to go to the hospital! Her mom came over to watch the kids, who are just too cute and very close to our hearts. We are very attached to them. They are just too cute. Tony is speaking Dutch like a local and interprets for Savannah and me. Savannah is also picking us some words and doing well guessing and using hand language! She is really good with the kids and they love her. Some boys in the neighborhood tried to take Shaznay’s bike and Savannah chased them off! We will probably come back to visit when we get back from Paris so we can see the new baby.
We got a cab to Centraal Station. The taxi driver used to live in CA, so he was familiar with the Pacific NW. He was very nice and gave us some metro hints for Paris. We ate lunch in a small café in the train station. Hate the cigarette smoke as I am still quite sick. No mayo on sandwiches in Holland. Should get used to that for always!
The train to Paris was very nice. We went through Holland, Belgium and Northern France. Arrived in Paris at 5:30. Centraal Station was very busy, but we jumped right onto the Metro and got to our hotel. Dropped out bags and headed out to the Eiffel Tower. It was cold and windy and rainy. Once we got up on the tower it was REALLY cold. We FINALLY got to the top, but spent little time outside on the deck. Bought some souvenirs and FINALLY got back down, right during the light show. It was really spectacular. We headed back toward the hotel and stopped at a restaurant in our Mirabeau neighborhood. The San Francisco Restaurant. Italian food – so good. Smokey and still sick and that doesn’t help, but the food was great. There are no “poop and scoop” rules here for pets, so dogs poop right on the sidewalks and it just stays there – for days. Savannah has stepped in poop twice. She is somewhat obsessed with this poop thing. Back to the hotel at 11:00 pm. We had no idea it was so late because none of us have a watch. The hotel has no clock either. Nice room, though. We cranked up the heat because we have been freezing to death since arriving in Europe. Feels good.
April 6, 2004
Up and ready for fashion show at Galleries LaFayette. First to find a watch. Serious super-store and hard to deal in French. Some people are nicer than others. Fashion show nice. Shopping, shopping. Went to several super-stores and small stores. Small stores nicer in goods and people. Tony needed a better coat, so we found him a nice leather jacket at C&A. He looks really good in it.
We moved on to Montmarte and Sacre Coure. We ate lunch at a café below the hill. It was really good chicken and mashed potatoes. We bought art and got our pictures taken with the artists. All in a square with quite a few artists. Very colorful and warm and romantic. Lots of café’s flanked the square and many tourists “taking a load off”. Didn’t see the bridge with art on the sides like “An American in Paris”, but still really great. The artists were all very nice.
The Sacre Coure was only a few meters above Montmarte. It is a very big and beautiful church. Savannah lit a candle to one of the saints. City is very pretty from that vantage point (largest hill in Paris), but it was sprinkling rain, so we didn’t linger long.
The rain stopped as we walked down a million stairs to the Moulin Rouge. Not as impressive as I had imagined. Savannah thought it “odd and interesting”. I found it interestingly unobtrusive, but it was day-time. We got back on to the metro and went over to the Arc de Triomphe and Ave Champs Elysees. Our feet and backs were not happy, but we headed down the Ave to do a little shopping. I got nice dress jacket at one of the shops. It is expensive on the Ave – obviously. We walked back up the other side and stopped for a cappuccino before the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier event under the Arc de Trimphe at 6:30 pm. Every night they have a ceremony, but this night must have been an anniversary because they had a line of veterans and the President of something was there. The Queen of England was also on the Ave. today, which is why it is flanked on both sides by huge British flags.
We made it back to our hotel, but we were too tired to go to dinner. We bought apples and yogurt at the market (Ed) and got showered and ready for a very early day tomorrow – Normandy.
April 7, 2004
We got up at 5:00 am to get the metro to Gare St. Lazare train station. Then we took the train to Caen. There was almost no one out on the streets at this time of the morning. We didn’t end up having much extra time once we got to the station, and thought we would have food on the train, so we bought water and boarded our train. The coach we were supposed to be in was locked and there was no one to help us, so we sat in the next coach with a couple from CA who had tickets for a later train. They didn’t see that train listed, so they decided better to be safe than sorry and go on ours! It turned out that it didn’t really matter. It was very cold in our coach, which the conductor commented on when he stamped out tickets, but he didn’t do anything to fix the situation.
Caen was REALLY cold. Since we were already half frozen we started to wonder if we would be OK all day, and then it started to rain! We finally found our guide, and another lost American. There were four other Americans that went on the tour with us. One guy from Boston (the lost American at the station), whose wife had stayed in Paris to visit the Louis Vatton store, and a family from NY. They were all very nice. The tour started in the Museum in Caen. It was huge and we only could see part of it – the time between the first and second wars. The whole museum was full of symbolism and started at the end of WWI. The exhibit spiraled downward getting darker and rougher (wall texture) as the world descended into the chaos of WWII. The way it was all presented was incredible. Non-partisan and the circumstances in all of the countries explained. It made so much more sense and explained the why and how like it had never heard before. I was so enthralled. There were authentic documents, posters, pictures, flags, maps, etc. to help illustrate what was happening in Europe, Germany and the US at that time. The museum was very crowded. So many students. The French want the kids to know what happened that allowed the situation to get so out of hand.
Germany invaded France for the 3rd time in WWII. After WWI, the second invasion of France by the Germans, so many restrictions and reparations were levied against the Germans because of their being responsible for the war, that the Germans were very humiliated. Some say WWI and WWII were the same war with some “peace time” in between. The guide went over Communism, Nationalism, and Facism/Nazism. Who, what, why and when.
This year is the 60th anniversary of D-Day, June 6, 1944. 15 Presidents of countries will be in Caen for the events. Many soldiers from American will be arriving tomorrow in a town nearby where our tour guide lives. She says it is noisy already with planes and helicopters, etc.
After the tour of the museum we ate lunch. It was very good. A different tour guide met us and took us out to visit the beaches. The towns on the way out to the coast were incredible. All of the towns on the coast were bombed and then the towns inland were bombed, but the villages in between were not bombed. Since there were not Germans in those towns they were left alone. We saw a castle from the 11th century and many buildings from the 15th and 16th centuries. Limestone is prevalent in France and is what most of the buildings are made of.
We started the beach tour in Gold Beach. We saw the old German radar stations and the artificial harbor that was built for the allies to re-supply the troops and bring in more support. Like a city really. The soldiers had to be re-supplies every 3 days or they were unable to fight. The cement blocks used to create the artificial harbor were made in England and floated to France. They were 5 stories tall – absolutely HUGE! Most are gone now as they gave them to Holland for dikes when they were having flooding problems. Most of the metal used for the guns and cannons was melted down and used since metal was scarce after the war. Along the coast we saw a lot of bunkers, gun emplacements (Atlantic Wall), and cannons.
The French gave the US land in a few places of France after the war, the largest being where the US Cemetery is now. Over 9,000 soldiers are buried there. Over 300 are unknown, or their bodies were washed away before they could be retrieved. There are 4 women buried in this cemetery, one in each sector symbolizing the important part they played in the war. The grave markers are crosses in the “final formation” all facing west, toward home.
We went down onto Omaha Beach – it is huge. We got some sand in film containers. It is hard to believe this beautiful place was the site of such chaos and total brutality. Some people built houses on the bluff inland from the beach. They didn’t go through the proper permit process, so they are allowed to live out their lives there, but then can’t sell or hand down the houses to their families. The houses will be destroyed after the owners die. There is only one house that wasn’t destroyed that will remain. It was the house of the mayor and he was a collaborator, so the Germans didn’t bomb it!
After the war the bodies of the soldiers had to be put into temporary mass graves, American and German soldiers in the same graves. After the cemetery was built the American soldiers were taken out and their relatives contacted if possible. About 69 soldiers were sent back to the states, the rest are buried here in this cemetery. The tomb crosses are pure white – either Christian crosses or Jewish Stars of David representing the two mail religions of the time in America.
Since the Germans were again responsible for the war, their soldiers were buried in an unadvertised cemetery with dark crosses that represent the families that take care of the cemetery. They do not have individual markers and multiple soldiers are in the graves. There are mass graves in the middle where there are no markers. This cemetery is somber and dark and off a small road that you would never know is there. The German’s had to raise money for the cemetery and they still take care of it, but do not own the land. 22,000 German soldiers are buried in this cemetery, but over 90,000 died in Normandy.
We saw Utah Beach. The American soldiers landed about 2 miles south of where they were supposed to land, which turned out to be fortunate because there were only about 70 German soldiers there. The Americans still had to go get the gun emplacements, but it was a different battle than at Omaha Beach.
We went to another place where there were HUGE craters in the ground from the shells and missiles form the ships aiming for the German guns and bunkers. 70% of those craters have been filled, but there are till a lot of them. One of the war representatives working with the museum is a former German soldier and he gave the museum a lot of insight as to what the German soldier was thinking as the war was happening. His unit was on leave, but when the German soldiers went on leave, they still stayed together with all of their equipment and guns, etc. They arrived at Omaha Beach just as the fighting was starting. He said that he was so scared and didn’t want to fight, but he had to keep from being killed himself. He doesn’t remember that day, June 6, 1944, as it was too traumatic.
We took the train back to Paris and sat with the family from NY. We had fun talking and laughing. The woman had run in the marathon in Paris the previous Sunday. They were all very nice. We got back to the hotel at 11:30 pm.
April 8, 2004
Got up and were picked up by our tour guide at 9:00 am. We drove around and picked up the 5 other people that were on our tour with us. One couple by the Arc from Virginia and a family from Australia staying in a hotel in Concord Square. Just around the corner in Concord Square is the famous Maxims, the famous restaurant. Now they have Mimims next door which is a faster, less expensive patisserie.
We drove around Pairs and saw so much. Sights and buildings and monuments. Then onto the Louve. The Louve was home to Napoleon. Of course there is the glass pyramid designed by IM Pei. Jury is still out on that for me. I can’t decide if I like it there or not. Tony thinks no. It doesn’t exactly “blend in”, but is pretty neat and the light that it lets into the museum is very nice.
It was nice to be on a tour because we just walked right to the front of any line everywhere we went. The museum was very crowded with students. We toured a part of the Louve, concentrating on the three most famous exhibits there. First we saw the Mona Lisa. Her eyes really do follow you around. The reason this painting is so famous: 1) The way it is painted. You can’t see the brush stokes. DiVinci had a process where he put a final clear coat over the painting which made it look more like a photograph than a painting. 2)Her smile. Is it a smile? This “smile” is a famous trait of DiVinci and leaves you wondering. Other paintings of this time have their subjects in a full on smile. 3)He never gave the painting to the subject or her husband. He kept it. He even traveled around with it! 4)Her dress. At that time most of the dress was very fancy and they had jewelry and fancy hair-do’s, but not Mona Lisa. She is very simply dressed.
We moved on to the Winged Triumph which was found by the French in the sea long after it fell off of the cliff it stood upon greeting the sea. The arms and head are gone, but the body with flowing, wet gown blowing back in the wind, is perched a top a boat. The wings are incredibly detailed and they think her arms were raised up and out toward the sea. Since at that time it was no longer decent to have the statue naked, the artist found a way using the “wet dress in the wind” method to have her clothed, but you can see her body through it. Especially her belly button!
On to Venus de Milo, who of course was created as Aphrodite, but renamed later when Venus was the gal to worship. Again the detail is amazing. Her pose was very new at the time as most other statues were very straight and rigid.
We saw a lot of French paintings – great one of the coronation queen at Notre Dame. Same painting is at Versailles, but one of the ladies (sisters of the Queen I believe) is in a pink dress there, as the painter was in love with her, but she was married to another. That was all we could see in our very fast tour, so I hope to come back some time to see more.
Our lunch was on a boat cruise on the Seine River. We got to the boat and settled in. Lunch was incredible. We accidentally started drinking a bottle of wine that wasn’t ours, but everyone liked it better than what we were supposed to be drinking, so the Australian gentleman bought a bottle! Only 89E! We all visited and had a great time. Tony and Savannah started with a shrimp and fennel lasagna and then had lemon chicken. Tony said it was the best meal he had had so far. I had nicoise vegetables and then veal. It was my first veal. It was OK.
Our entertainment was a male singer who went through time and sang famous French songs. Toward the middle of the cruise he was joined by dancers with small outfits. The guys liked it! Haha Everyone clapped and danced and sang. We really had fun. A photographer had taken pictures, so we all bought the group picture and signed it for each other. We exchanged emails, etc. so we could keep in touch. Especially the little Australian girl, Amelia, who Savannah became good friends with. They played an electronic game at the table together to avoid having to clap and sing with the adults!
We drove around Paris and saw more of the sites and monuments. The men fell asleep in the van. The wine! We drove through the Latin Quarter and the education center with all of the students. We saw the famous “intellectual hangouts”. We saw SO much I don’t remember even now. Then on to Notre Dame. It was really beautiful outside – Gothic design. The inside was great, but we thought we had seen more spectacular churches. It was cold and raining outside, so we didn’t sit out and stare long. We will have to look at our post cards! We bought some gargoyles in a shop by the church.
We had our tour guide drop us off at the Pompidou Center (near by). Savannah rode a merry-go-round. We shopped for a minute and got Tony a light jacket. Then Savannah saw an accessories store and decided she wanted her ears pierced again. We went in and found one person that spoke English. We had to sign a form that was all in French. The other girl, who didn’t speak English came over to pierce Savannah’s ears. She screwed up the second ear – TWICE! We took it out later and will let it heal. Savannah can get it re-pierced later if she wants. Everyone thinks it is better with just one ear pierced twice, so she is satisfied.
The Pompidou Center had a special Miro exhibit happening. We also looked at some Matisse, Picasso, Modigliani, and others. Tony and Savannah thought it was all horrible! They have declared that museum the worst place they went on the trip! I didn’t see any of my favorite art pieces except the Matisse we have hanging in our kitchen.
We decided to go back to our neighborhood which is all residential and right by the Statue of Liberty and .6 miles from the Eiffel Tower. We decided to go to dinner at the Spanish restaurant that the hotel concierge had told us about. We accidentally entered through the kitchen and gave the owner quite a scare. We had to use English, Spanish and French to order dinner. The food was amazing. They had live entertainment later, one male flamenco singer and then a duo. They were really great. We had to promise to come back the next night to get our bill. Tomorrow night they have a flamenco dancer!
We got to the hotel at 11:30 again. Tony said on the way home that his “knees were on their last legs”! I certainly hope so, but we all had a good laugh.
April 9, 2004
Headache in the middle of the night like never before. If it was the small bit of wine from our lunch cruise that will be my last on this trip! Couple horse sized aspirin and good enough in the morning. Whew!
Since our tour yesterday was so great, we purchased one for Versailles today. Our guide picked us up at 8:30 am. There was an accident in our neighborhood, so traffic was especially bad. I had to keep pulling on Savannah because she was falling asleep and almost landing on the guide! We picked up two more couples, one from Australia and one from a small Island in the Pyrenees Islands off the coast of France (Is. Andorra). They spoke French, so we had to share the guide with the French language. We ended up having lots of time to ask her questions, though. Here are some of the things she told us.
All of the buildings have to be cleaned every 15 years to keep them looking nice. The pollution turns them black. The Sacre Coeur church is made of a stone that is self-cleaning, so the stone turns white as it rains. The parts of the church that don’t get rained on are very black. The limestone that all of the Paris buildings are made of comes from quarries outside of Paris. It is truly amazing how much stone there is. It seems there should be really big holes all over, or that the elevation must be lower with all of the stone they have quarried.
There are no old cars in Paris. The cars are checked periodically and they must pass emissions tests. There are random tests in the streets. We saw one car pulled over by the police. They also check to see that you paid your taxes and insurance. If you have an old car you have to pay more, I think. Parisians use some English words just as we use some French words, like gourmet. They say “weekend” and “salu” is a familiar way of saying good-bye. The Parisians shop where the tourists shop, there isn’t better shopping somewhere else that is a local secret. Easter week is historically cold!!! It has to do with the moon this time of year, they call it the “cold moon”. Figures. In Paris there are some Mercedes taxis, as in Holland, but they are still expensive here and only the rich own them. We went through the tunnel where Princess Diana died. It is a very short tunnel.
Versailles was built up by Louis the 14th because he was afraid that he would be killed in Paris. It is HUGE! It is flanked by forest and there are hidden outdoor theatres in the forests surrounding the gardens (jardins). The gate and stones paving up to the buildings are all original. You can see it would be a very rough carriage ride. The opulence inside makes it very apparent as to why the Parisians finally revolted and be-headed the king, Louis the 16th, and the queen, Marie Antoinette. Gold, marble, chandeliers, mirrors, tapestries, embroidered furniture, etc. was breath-taking. Lots of sculptures and painted portraits. There were some walls and molding that were painted with a faux marble finish to look like the marble in other rooms. The guide said that was the original state, so faux finishing was popular even then!
We saw the same painting of the coronation at Notre Dame that is in the Louve. It is true that the one sister is in a pink dress. The queen mother, who is in both paintings presiding over the ceremony, was actually not ever there. The king really wanted her there, so he had her painted in! She didn’t approve of the grandiose ceremony.
The gardens are amazing. Really just so many and so much. The statues are covered for the winter, but were recently uncovered for this year. Fortunate. The fountains are only on during the weekends. There were some horse-drawn carriages there which made the scene even more authentic.
We had the tour guide drop us off at Hotel Les Invalid’s to see Napoleon’s tomb. There is a huge army museum there, as well as a veteran’s hospital. We just went to the dome to check out the tombs. Very huge and opulent. Napoleon is entombed in six layers of casket. There are very tall statues of angels all around the tomb. Gold everywhere! WOW!
We then went to the Rodin museum. Tony and Savannah weren’t sure why, but they were patient and let me ooh and ahh. I took lots of pictures that probably won’t work out, but that’s what postcards are for. We found the “Thinker” and I bought Mat a souvenir notebook and pen with that on the cover.
We went to eat before catching the metro to the hotel. I had a nicoise salad. It had rice instead of potatoes, and no green beans. I guess everyone has their own version. We went back to the hotel and took a nap. Tony and Savannah are now feeling sick. Tony is having the sneezing and watering eye situation. Savannah can’t breath and has a stomach ache. I just can’t seem to get better. We slept for 3 hours and then got up and packed since we leave in the morning.
We did go to the Spanish restaurant for dinner at about 9:30 pm. Quite a language barrier with our waiter, but what can you do? We had paella with seafood – clams, mussels, lobster, all kinds of fish and crawdads. The two singers from the night before were there and a flamenco dancer. It is a family restaurant and we are the only non-locals there both nights. Nice to be in the culture and real French environment, even though the restaurant is Spanish. They don’t really speak much Spanish! Some of the women danced along with the flamenco dancer. She was really good and it was a lot of fun. Back to the hotel at midnight! No wonder we are sick.
April 10, 2004
Up again at 7:30 am to go to Holland. We fit everything into our bags, but just barely. We took the metro to Gard Nort and boarded our train. In the metro there were musicians playing the traditional music on the accordion. It was as if the city was saying farewell to us! We had a really great time and would all love to come back some day. Tony is relieved to speak Dutch again, but I felt more comfortable with French. We would like to learn French and Spanish. I should also learn Dutch, but it is pretty complicated.
We arrived in Rotterdam and got on the train to Utrecht. When we arrived in Utrecht we started walking toward the bus stations. Unbelievable, but we saw Tony’s Mom and Gerry standing at a flower stand! Utrecht is the largest Centraal Station in Holland, so it was a very big coincidence! (Inez had a girl!) They walked down to the bus stations and they took the bus with us since Oma’s house is on the same route. There was a lady on the bus that lives in Harmelen, so she helped us know where to go. We thought we were going to nowhere, but it turned out to be a really cute town.
We got off the bus in front of the town square, which is a circle, only as big as the church in the middle of it. Shops surround the church and then it is residential. Our hotel was just on the far side of the church and is very cute, too. It is family owned for 100 years (1904-2004). The girl at the front desk was really sweet. We think we are the only ones here in the hotel part. Turns out that tomorrow and Monday everything is closed because of Easter. What to do? We went out to the little shops and bought an orchid for Oma and a small rose bush to plant at Opa’s grave. We bought a few groceries since everything will be closed for 2 days. Especially water. I think I picked up another sickness, because I am still not OK and it is more in my throat now. Savannah and Tony not tip-top either. The smoke is a killer. Thank God for nose spray!
We called Oma and told her that we would be there tomorrow morning. Willie called later and said he would pick us up. Tony is doing really well with his Dutch. Savannah called her mom. All is well and her aunt is going to have a baby. I called Lisa and Yann. They are well and found a new apartment that they are going to move into in May. Rachel still hasn’t had India! May mom is in Oregon waiting for the big day.
We took a little nap until dinner time and went down to the restaurant. It was hoppin’! Dinner was incredible! Savannah and I had filet mignon with mushrooms. It came with potatoes and salad. Tony had Weiner schnitzel and creamy artichoke stuff. WOW! We called Inez after dinner and they really want us to come back. We want to see the baby, so we will go on Monday. We said we were worried about being sick around the baby, but Inez said, “oh, she’s strong!” Last week when she went into the hospital nothing happened. Tuesday morning they induced here, but she thought she had lots of time, so Raymond left the hospital to go get Shaznay and Zoia. Turned out that her contractions started and it only took 1.5 hours! Luckily Raymond showed up 15 minutes before she was born!
April 11, 2004
Woke up slowly. Had a really, really sore throat. We didn’t know that while we were in France there was a daylight savings switch in Holland, so when Willie showed up we weren’t ready! We pulled on our clothes and grabbed our laundry and went to Oma’s house. Oma looks great. Tony’s mom and Gerry were there. We ate since we had missed breakfast at the hotel. It was a traditional Dutch breakfast of bread, meat, cheese and coffee. We chatted with Tony’s mom, Gerry and Oma. Oma says the same things over and over. She loves Indonesia and Holland. Holland is good for her. Indonesia is rich with gold, oil, etc., but they don’t k now how to manage it. Holland is good. Indonesia is good for Holland. She likes Indonesia, the people are good. She is just too cute. We took lots of pictures.
Last night we bought and orchid for Oma and she was happy to get it. We went over to Opa’s grave and cleaned it and planted the rose bush we bought at the foot of the grave. Oma was very appreciative. She told Tony’s mom that she gets very upset when no one remembers or pays attention to Opa’s grave. It was nice to go again.
We went back to the house and Tonny (Tony’s cousin) came. He dresses like a county Englishman. He works for the government and lives in Den Haag. He is quite a character. We went to dinner after Ben (Inez’s dad, Tony’s uncle) arrived. Inez said Ben is taking language classes, martial arts and acting in commercials. Dinner was really, really good. Tapas, prime rib and tiramisu. Expensive at 55E per person. Luckily we only had to pay half. Tony wasn’t feeling well and I was really having throat issues, but we went back to Oma’s for a while. Dinner lasted 4 hours, so it was already late. By the time we left I had almost no voice. We said good-bye to Oma and it was pretty sad. She is really so sweet. Willie drove us back and Tony’s mom went along for the ride. She did all of our laundry which was so very nice. We were all out of clean pants! We hung everything all over the hotel room so it could dry (Oma has no dryer). We went to bed – it was midnight – again.
April 12, 2004
I lost my voice! Not good. Tony and Savannah went down for breakfast and brought mine up to me. I couldn’t face the stale smoke smell. It was good traditional Dutch breakfast, toast, meat, cheese, hard-boiled egg and yogurt. Tony brought me pindakaas (peanut butter) just in case, but I will save it for later. Coffee was really good. At first Tony and Savannah were going to go to Rotterdam without me, so that I could rest. They left and I was sad. Then they came back and I decided that I really wanted to go, so they waited for me. I couldn’t do the whole make-up thing.
We made our way by bus to Worden’s train station and then took the train toward Rotterdam. We didn’t realize that the train we were on was going to split with one part going to Den Haag and one part going to Rotterdam, so we got on the wrong part of the train. The conductor came by and let us know that we would be in Den Haag in a minute! He wrote a note on the back of our ticket so that we could go back to Rotterdam on the train. We got to Rotterdam, switched trains and got to the right station, Rotterdam Alexander. Tony called Raymond and he picked us up.
They were glad that I decided to come after all. Tanta Reit and Marjorie (Tony’s cousin, Inez’s sister) were at the house, too. Tony got to finally see Marjorie. At first she was a little over-whelmed, but she got used to the crowd and got excited about telling us things she does. She is a member of an art group and they do all sort of stuff. She is also a member of a band – she plays keyboard. She had a boyfriend that she is still in love with. She loved seeing Tony who gave her a Mariners bear keychain. She told her mom that she would never forget seeing Tony. She said she would email and put some of her art on a website for him to see. Tony gave her his email and website address, too.
In Holland, with the insurance that Inez and Raymond pay for, you get a nurse for up to 9 days after a baby is born. The nurse comes each day to the home for 8 hours and cooks, cleans, does laundry and helps with the other children. Their nurse was there and she was very nice. The doctor also paid a house call visit and took some blood for tests that we dropped off at the hospital on the way to the train station later.
We had brunch out on the patio as it was our first sunny day! It was beautiful. Fish soup, brie and honey sandwiches and traditional Dutch bread. We chatted and saw the new baby. They gave us our baby announcement card. It is really cute. The little baby is dark and Asian looking. Raymond’s brother and wife came over to see the baby while we were there. Raymond’s family is also Indo/Dutch. His brother looks straight from Indonesia. They are very nice. I took a lot of pictures of the baby. It was nice to chat, but I couldn’t talk very well. Raymond made us many cappuccinos. Nummy! They wanted us to stay longer, but I really needed to get rest. We left at 7:00 pm and Raymond drove us to the train station. Since we ate at 3:30 we bypassed dinner and had apples and Savannah’s chocolate Easter bunny! Tony got hives last night and we don’t know from what, but it happened again tonight. He took allergy medicine and that helped. I bought aloe vera lotion that Savannah put on Tony which almost immediately made the hives go down. Another late night, fun day.
April 13, 2004
Got up to go to Utrecht. I had a little bit of a voice. Tired, we are all tired, but still having a great time. Utrecht is so beautiful. We shopped until we dropped! Savannah got a few clothes, Tony got a coat and some boots and I got some boots. We finally found a sports store and bought tons of sports t-shrits and the goalie shirts for Justine. We ate lunch down by the canal. Thai food, really good. We made it over to the Dom Church and showed Savannah inside. It has a very beautiful organ. We bought a bag with wheels for our stuff and souvenirs we will buy in Amsterdam for everyone.
We made it back to the hotel in Harmelen just before Tanta Fein came to pick us up at 7:00 pm. She was a little disappointed that we went to Utrecht earlier, but with the Easter holiday our schedule got all messed up. We saw Om Jackie. He is so nice. He took us out to the “barn” and showed us his Shetland ponies that he got for his grand-kids, who could actually not care less, so he lets the neighbor girls ride them. They also have one chicken - the rest of them got taken by dogs!
Dinner was great! We had chicory with ham and cheese. It was really good. We hadn’t ever had it before. We also had salad, potatoes, chicken, green beans and peas. Tony’s cousin Frank and his son Kevin showed up while we were eating. Frank was asking Tony if he remembered all of the stuff they did when Tony was in Holland as a kid. He didn’t – or at least he didn’t admit it! We had so much fun with them. Kevin is 12 and Savannah’s second cousin. We all exchanged emails and website addresses. We joked that we were going to exchange Savannah for Kevin for a few months in a couple of years. Savannah wants to, but Kevin doesn’t! Kevin finally got comfortable though, and started speaking English and laughing with us. We looked at old photo albums. Tony has Opa Bakker’s eyes. Tony saw a picture of his great-grandpa for the first time. Om Jackie owns a paint business and Frank works there and will take over the business when Om Jackie retires pretty soon. Om Jackie said that my family is always welcome to stay with them if they ever visit Holland. Frank is out-spoken, funny and really nice. He smokes and rolls his own cigarettes (many do in Holland and France). Everyone is pressuring him to quit. Tony smoked one cigarette. When in Rome?
Apparently Om Jackie likes to have a drink, so he found a drinking buddy in Tony. They had a good time. Not too much, but enough! Om Jackie took us home in his Citroen. He has GPS navigator that talks to you. Now Tony wants one. Another night up until midnight.
April 14, 2004
Up and ready to go to Amsterdam. We were so tired last night that we had to pack this morning. We thought we had more room than we do! We had to leave Tony’s old black “tent” coat behind. Oh well. Caught the bus to Utrecht and the train to Amsterdam CS. Then we caught a cab to our hotel. We were the cab driver’s second fare ever in Amsterdam. He had a great car with, guess what, a navigation system. Now Tony really wants one. We found our hotel - Best Western Lancaster. It is about 1 mile from Centraal Station and right across the street from the zoo.
We dropped our bags and headed out to shop. Tram 9 to Dam Square. Then up and over to the smallest house #7. Then back down to Dam Square. Then down and back up through the Red Light District, on accident, since we were going to go there tonight. Since we saw it, and more than we saw last time we were here, we decided that’s enough. Savannah thought it was “odd” and interesting. Good for her to see and know what she does NOT want to do! Lots of “coffee shops” and Savannah thought that was pretty interesting, too. We unsuspectingly caught a few whiffs, so she won’t be dumb! The coffee shops are mainly in the same area as the sex shops and “window shopping”, so it lent itself to kind of a “seedy” atmosphere. I personally liked the shopping side better.
We headed back to the hotel at 7:30pm and then did some emails. I saw Lisa and Yann’s new apartment. It is really nice. I got to chat with Lisa online for a while. No India yet!! I sent a quick re-cap to everyone. Then we went out to diner. We were headed to a Dutch restaurant when Tony looked down another street and spotted an Indonesian Restaurant. We almost ran to it! WOW! The food was so good. We had so many different foods - I kept the menu from the restaurant. We had lots of fun eating and then chatting with them about Indonesia and Tony’s Oma and Scott. They were really nice. Back to the hotel and cleaning up. Tony still having hives. Savannah a little now, too. I think we are severely dehydrated. Lots of lotion and bed. Midnight again.
April 15, 2004
Got up at 9:00 am to head by tram to the Rijk Museum and the Van Gogh Museum. We loved the art at the Rijk Museum. This is more what Tony likes, so of course it is more what Savannah likes. Tony is still giving me a hard time about giving away his print of the “Night Watch”. I had no idea it was so important to him or I wouldn’t have. He said I could. Oh well. Anyway, the art was amazing, of course. Rembrandt and more. The exhibit was smaller than usual due to construction and renovation. There is a lot of that going on around Amsterdam. We ate breakfast at the Cobra Café. We all had pancakes with apples. I think Tony and I had about 5 cappuccinos in all just today! Very good.
We went to the Van Gogh Museum next. Tony and Savannah liked some of it. It was very crowded. It was neat to see the originals with the thick paint and brush strokes. I loved the classic paintings that everyone knows, but found some new favorites. The blue Almond Blossoms painting is really nice. The bedroom painting was Savannah’s favorite and I bought Lisa the Yellow House print. I think it will look very nice in her new place. I saw a Monet with tulips and a windmill that I have never seen before. I want it for Mom. We visited all of the museum shops, but no Monet. Then lunch and grocery store. We bought coffee and more tram tickets.
Savannah and I went to the Anne Frank House Museum. Tony stayed outside and tended all of our bags. I explained more of the story to her as we walked through the house. She was really interested in it. She said afterwards that it was her favorite museum. We bought Anne’s book after the tour.
While shopping later Savannah found some miniature houses that you buy to make up your own little village. She bought a tattoo shop, a coffee shop and a red light district house! I guess we know what was most impactful, aside from the dog poop! She also bought a museum and a café, so I guess it is OK.
We went back to the hotel and rested for an hour, then back out to eat dinner and go on the canal cruise. We had dinner just outside Centaal Station. 250 thousand people go through Centraal Station in Amsterdam every day!! On the way to the canal tour we found a shop that we must have by-passed 3 times already. It had Ajax stuff and art prints. We found lots of Ajax gear and I found the print by Monet for Mom and the windmill print that Tony loved so much! Unreal.
We got to the boat and boarded. It was a “candlelight” tour, so there was wine and cheese on the table. We got a table all to ourselves which was nice. We had a little white wine, but mostly cheese, orange juice and peanuts. The tour was a nice perspective – different than walking around. We went to the canal with the most expensive houses – the Gentleman’s Canal. Houses start at 7 million Euros! They have a main door to the house up some stairs and smaller doors underneath for the staff to enter through. All of the houses have white beams that stick out from the very top of the roofs. They use pulleys to put furniture in and out of the houses because the staircases are so narrow. They go really fast in the narrow, crowded streets. The canal walls are about 3-4 feet thick of bricks. We went through a few locks and saw a few red light district houses. They were all working.
There are about 850 thousand inhabitants of Amsterdam with 1.5 million bikes. I almost got run over about 5 times. We Americans are not used to looking out for them, so when you hear a bike bell it freaks you out and you don’t know which way to move!
After the boat cruise we just missed our tram, so we stood waiting for the next one just outside Dam Square for 15 minutes. There was a lady playing violin for tips and she only knew 2 songs. Thank heavens they didn’t get stuck in my head! We thought of paying her to stop, but she looked kind of angry and kept bending down to count her tips, which were not adding up very quickly. The tram arrived at 11:05 and we got back to the hotel soon after that. We packed and went to bed about 12:30. Early morning coming up. We are all sad and happy that we are going home.
April 16, 2004
Up at 6:15 am. We had our alarm set, a wake-up call and the TV wake up set. Didn’t want to mess up! We are all tired. The taxi came at 7:00 – he was very nice. About 50 E’s to Schiphol and we were off! By the way, I feel better today. Yesterday I sneezed all morning. Figures, Just in time to go home!
As we took off in the plane we saw the tulip fields below. Beautiful.
We arrived in Seattle one hour after we left Amsterdam. Got home and sorted gifts, did laundry, mowed the lawn and took film to Costco. Awake 27 hours.