Pictures!

Just thought I'd share that the pictures from the last few days are uploaded to the picasa site!

Enjoy!

The pictorial montage continues!

Hugs!

Week 4 retrospective!

WOW!! I can't believe we have been here two days shy of a month already! Time Flies!!

Aaron left on Wednesday afternoon to Germany again.  Since he wasn't going to be back till Friday mid day, I couldn't go with.  Matt & Karen were showing up on Friday morning.  It wasn't fun being here alone, but I survived.  :)

Wednesday I went down to the Centrum again and wandered around the stores on Kalverstraat.  Some are weird and some are normal.  I still haven't come across any shoes that I find particularly worth the Euros they ask for them, so my search will continue on!  Thursday I cleaned up the apartment, did some more laundry and some groceries.  I didn't really head out anywhere, was content to just stay sitting on the couch soaking up the sunshine through the nice big windows!

Friday morning I left here around 7:10 to catch the tram and then train down to Schiphol airport.  Turns out I took the train from Station Rai to the airport for free, because I can't read Dutch and didn't understand that my pass just doesn't work on that system.  (As we were leaving, I found out that it was the wrong ticket, and we had to buy some!)  Matt & Karen landed early, but it was about 40 to 45 minutes before they came from behind security.

Once we were back at the apartment and they had a chance to settle in a bit, we decided to go for a walk, before they took a bit of a nap.  We headed off to Sarphatipark, which is about two blocks away from our place.  I hadn't been there yet, it was on my list of places to go though!  They have some beautiful little ponds and water fountains.

 

Saturday we had reserved a car again, and headed out for parts unknown.  We drove up through Alkmaar, stopped in Schagen, and had some yummy pastries.  We then headed off towards Enkhuizen and wandered the fishing village, and enjoyed a very yummy dinner! :)  We then left as the sun was setting, and took off across the dike to Lelystad.  By the time we got the other side it was dark, so we carried on back to Amsterdam and our beds.

I'm just working on adding the rest of the pictures to the site, and will post the link as soon as they are up!

I hope everyone has (had) a great Sunday!

Hugs!

Amsterdam Artis Zoo

Tuesday dawned bright and clear, oh wait, it was supposed to be bright and clear later in the day, but it actually dawned a bit foggy.

on the tram crossing the River Amstel

waiting for the next tram

I decided since it was going to be such a nice day, forecast of 21C (68F), that I would head over to check out the oldest zoo in the Netherlands, the Artis Zoo.  It was well worth the cost of admission too, since it has your regular zoo animals, a planetarium (which I didn't go into), a butterfly conservatory (which if I had put on capris in the morning instead of jeans, I would have stayed in longer!), an aquarium, and lots and lots and lots of walking!  I took around 500 pictures at the zoo... :) thank goodness for digital cameras!!!

   

  

 

 

 

 

The rest of the pictures are located here:

Brenda's Europe Pictorial

Hugs!

Luxembourg & Belgium!

Ah the joys of living in the city.  There is ALWAYS noise around to listen to, sometimes good, sometimes bad and sometimes its just enough to lull you to sleep.  The street we are living on here in Amsterdam is relatively quiet.  You will hear the occasional car, but mostly you hear the people talking, the mopeds zooming by, or the bells on the bikes as people go flying down the street.  The only problem with hearing the people speak, is that 90% of the time I can't understand them!  I guess I really should have worked on learning my Dutch before we got here!  I don't really need it, since pretty much everywhere you go you can find someone that speaks English, in Amsterdam at least.  Not so much in Belgium or Luxembourg.  But they are such beautiful countries, that we forgave them!

Thursday I headed into Amsterdam Centrum, with the intention of doing some browsing in the stores, and maybe buying some clothes.  I didn't end up buying anything, but spent about 20 minutes standing in front of the Palace waiting for whoever the official person was that required guards at the door and gates and police all around!  Turns out it was a Chinese dignitary of some sort.  

Friday I vegged on the couch all day ... it was rainy and chilly and I just didn't feel like going out in that alone, its not so much fun then!

Saturday we slept in and got a slightly late start, but we rented a car and headed south.  We put city-center of Luxembourg as our destination and just drove!  It was a nice day, a little windy, but sunny!  

 

I didn't realize until I downloaded pictures off the camera,
but I took a picture of the hotel we ended up staying at, as we
went by it in the morning!

we're loving the bridges here 

         

we woke up to drummers on the other
side of the river Sunday morning

our room ... fourth floor attic area ...
double bed, and thats the width ... nice
dormer window, but I hit my head at
least once!

    

We got back "home" yesterday around noon and just relaxed... we then found out that they were going to stream live our church service, so we quickly ate dinner and got set up.  Aaron's computer had the service streaming, my laptop had the order of worship, so we could follow along, and we used the iPad to read the scripture as well.  So thankful for modern technology!! 

This week Aaron is going to be super busy, but that will help time pass as we are looking forward to Friday when Matt & Karen get here for just over two weeks! :)  

Here is the link to the pictures again, since more have been added.

Kulbes in Europe Picture Montage

Till next time!