Day 3 - Amsterdam - July 4, 2013

After a really nice and huge breakfast we headed out to see the sights. We had bought a Holland Pass ahead of time, picked it up from the airport after arriving. That included among other things a voucher for 48 hour tram tickets. We changed the voucher at the hotel and headed out to see the sights. We found the tram to the Rijksmuseum and after a short ride we were there. The museum is old and huge and had just recently undergone renovations. We saw pretty much all of the museum, which took several hours. The most famous paintings there are Rembrandt's and they had several of them.

Rijksmuseum

Delft plates

Library

Model of an old ship

Rembrandt's Nightwatchman

Rembrandt's self-portrait sketches

Vermeer's Milkmaid

Rembrandt's self-portrait

Van Gogh self-portrait

Folding harpsicord

Outside Rijksmuseum

After leaving the museum we took a tram again and ended at the Flower Market. It is very touristy and sells lots of trinkets and tulip bulbs. I was a bit disappointed that they didn't have too many flowering plants there, but I guess the season for that is over. We had a quick snack of their world famous french fries, but neither one of us were too hungry for lunch yet.

Jeff at the Flower Market

Another Cheese Shop

Back view of the Flower Market

French Fries

House detail

Cute Street view

One of the many houseboats

Canal bridge

Canal view on the way to the
Rembrandt House

Flea Market

Flower Market

From there we headed towards the Rembrandt House Museum . I think that was one of my highlights of this trip so far. It was really interesting to see how they had renovated the house to look like it might have looked when Rembrandt lived there. They even have things that they've found from the cess pit that dates from the time he was living there. His studio was also renovated like it might have been back then. They had canvases stretched the way they did then and paint supplies. The lady there said that they only mixed enough paints to last one day. She also explained about making some of the paints. I will not eat red M&M's anymore after she explained that they use the same things for that color as Rembrandt used for his translucent red color. That red color comes from female lice that emit a substance and once they die they use it for that color red. Rembrandt was not only a painter but also an art dealer and printer/etcher. He sold other artists paintings from his home.

Rembrandt's prop storage room

Rembrandt's prop storage room

Rembrandt's palette

Rembrandt's studio

Rembrandt's living room and his bed

Rembrandt's kitchen

Rembrandt' House

After the Rembrandt House we headed towards the train station and one of the canal cruises. We did the 100 Highlights Cruise and we covered a lot of both old and new Amsterdam.

Canal House

Seven Bridges 

Westerkerk

Anne Frank House

One of the many locks

A parking garage for bikes

Nemo Science Center

Replica of the Amsterdam

Going through a lock

Detail of a building

Insurance companies pay for iron railings to prevent
cars from falling in.

After all that walking we needed a little rest and headed back to the hotel. We decided to have our dinner in the Utrechtstraat area since it is known for dining and someone Jeff works with recommended it also. We took the tram there and walked around and ended up in this  L'Express Restaurant. It is a French restaurant and is sort of decorated like an old train car. The food was excellent and both the owner and the waitress were really nice. We highly recommend it.

Even the bikes have their own traffic lights

Rembrandts Plein

Rembrandts Plein

L'Express Restaurant

L'Express Restaurant

L'Express Restaurant

Then it was back to the hotel since we were both exhausted.

Here we go, no turning back now. - Day 1 & 2 - Amsterdam July 2 & 3, 2013

So, my plan backfired big time and here we are now, in Amsterdam. Jeff has been asking me to go on a bike trip with him, but I don't do road biking, nor hills or long distances. Which is all what he likes to do. So I said that I'll go, but in my terms, i.e. no hills, it has to be flat and what is more flat than Netherlands, nothing that I can think about. And have to have short days too. I was sure that he would not go for that because it's just not the kind of biking he likes and it is far away, could be expensive and might be boring for him. But as I said my plan backfired and now we are heading out on Saturday for a week long bike and barge trip. It is all organized and guided with an average distance of about 25 miles (about 35 km). We are staying on a barge which travels the rivers and canals while we bicycle from town to town. All the meals are included and we get a private cabin with a private bathroom. They even provide the bikes. Now if you can't/don't want to bike, you could stay on the barge, but would probably miss many of the more interesting places they go to, since the barge does not necessarily go on the same route as the bikes. I'll let you know more about that part of the trip once it starts

We started on July 2nd. First we had to get a rental car to drive to JFK. There is a story of Buzzz Aldrin in here too, but you have to read Jeff's blog to find out all about Buzzz.  As usual the Douglas vacation started out with a traffic jam. Has it ever been anything different? I think not. We made it to JFK with plenty of time to spare just to find out that we had about an hour's wait for the airline to open their check in counter. We flew from JFK to Reykjavik and from there to Amsterdam, only because it was about $600 cheaper than going direct. You can have lots of nice meals with $600. Of course the flight was delayed about 50 minutes due to a big thunderstorm in NYC. Iceland Air is nice, but they do not serve meals or any kind of food unless you pay for it, or fly 1st class. We did make our connection and the rest of the flight went well too. Once we landed we went and got our Holland Passes, prepaid tickets to museums and other sightseeing  tours and discounts for different things. We took the train to Amsterdam Centraal. Which brings me to tell how nice the people here are. We were buying our train tickets from a machine and for some reason the machine didn't accept our credit cards, probably because most American cards don't have a chip on them. A total stranger helped us with our tickets and even offered to pay for them, just like that. He did take some of the payment, we didn't have enough small Euro bills, but even that was like pulling teeth out of him. On the train there was another man who was very helpful by telling people about how to get to wherever they were going and also what to see if you have only little bit of time.

At Keflavik Airport in Reykjavik, Iceland

Looks very barren in Iceland, no trees in sight.

We got to our hotel,  the Grand Hotel Amrath ,and wow is it ever nice. It is an old Shipping House built around 1912-1916. We even have a mini bar which is free and they stock it up daily. The hotel itself is a bit confusing. There are elevators, but not every elevator goes to the floor you need to go. We are on the 4th floor and you could get lost just trying to find our elevator. But it is a very lovely hotel with all kinds of neat features.

Grand Amrath Hotel, Amsterdam

Main Staircase at Grand Amrath

Jeff waiting at the Reception. Strangest looking Reception desk ever.

Free mini bar

Detail from the hotel

View from our room.

After resting some, we went and walked around the area a little bit. We went to the Dam Square, had a light meal at the Neuwmarkt area, and walked close to the red light district. Of course we found a very nice cheese and pastry shops and got some to take to the room and eat later. I do have to say that there are a lot of bicycles in this town. It's the only place where you have to watch not only cars and buses and trams, but bicycles also. I've almost been run over by them several times. Those people go really fast. I would be afraid to bicycle here.

Looks like this house is leaning, but is
probably done on purpose.

One of the many bridges

Neuwmarkt

Funky looking park bench near the Neuwmarkt

Hash Museum . . . and no we didn't go in.

One of the many cheese shops

The cheese shop

Dam Square with the Royal Palace on left

Dam Square

One of the many canals

Jeff at an outdoor restaurant next to the Neuwmarkt area and
ready for dinner

Dinner was tapas, we were not too hungry,
bitterballen, spiced lamb sausages and meatballs

So now we are back at the hotel and absolutely exhausted. Neither of us slept hardly any during either one of our flights. Time to close those electric curtains and go to sleep. Good night.

56th Annual Douglas Family Reunion

One week to go for our trip, but we still had time to go to the Annual Douglas Family Reunion Picnic. No practicing this weekend. They have had these reunions for 56 years now, but this might be the 2nd last one. Jeff's grandparents and their siblings started it and it used to be held in some park in Woodstock, Ontario. Somewhere along the way it was moved to Oxford Center to an old church that was converted to a library and now is just a hall that can be rented out. It is a very lovely setting in the middle of farm fields and you can hear cows mooing in the distance. When I joined the family it was a potluck, but couple years later they changed it to catered affair, which is a lot better, no need to think what to bring.

The Oxford Center

Oxford Center

View from the front steps

They used to get 30-40 people all the time and I guess the 50th reunion was really big, but now there were only 20 of us. The younger generations didn't come, our kids were the only ones from that generation. I don't know if it is because they don't know any of their relatives much or if they are not interested. Maybe it should be changed so that each grandparents off-springs have their own reunions, but that might not work either.

Group portrait (take by Jeff Higgins)
front row: Gary and Catherine Farrow, Bill Douglas, Glenna Douglas, Doug and Lila Vincent and Cindy Douglas
middle row: Rob Ryan, Michael Douglas, me, Jane Douglas, Betty Ryan
back row: Mary Douglas, Betty Stevenson, Mary Jane and Bruce Macdonald, Jeff, Matt and Laura Douglas

Anyway it was really nice to see the ones who did show up. It has been 17 years since I've been there, but it has been hard to go since the kids were in school at that time. Canadian schools are on summer break already then, but not all US ones. Jeff and Laura did go couple of time, 6-7 years ago. 

Gary Farrow, Michael Douglas and Jeff having a chat

Catherine Farrow and Bruce Macdonald, with Matt in the back

Betty Stevenson, Mary Jane Macdonald, Lila Vincent and Jeff

Glenna Douglas, Betty Ryan and Betty Stevenson

Rob Ryan getting the food ready

Looks like the last supper!
Mary Douglas, Rob and Jane Ryan, Catherine and Gary Farrow,
Jeff Douglas, Betty Ryan, Mary Jane Macdonald and Betty Stevenson

Jeff Douglas, Catherine Farrow (standing), Betty Ryan,
Mary Jane Macdonald, Betty Stevenson, Glenna Douglas,
Cindy and Michael Douglas

Bruce Macdonald, Doug and Lila Vincent, Bill and Mary Douglas,
Rob and Jane Ryan

It was also a good thing that Laura and her boyfriend Jeff brought the corn holer game, otherwise they would not have had much to do there.

Laura and Jane Ryan play against Jeff (Higgins) and Matt
You are supposed to get the bags in the hole and collect points. You can also cancel
opposing team points if you get yours in on the same turn as they do.

Laura and me

Matt and Jeff

We stayed the night at Laura and Jeff's place in Orchard Park, NY before heading home the next morning. At least the weather held, even though they said possible thunderstorms. It did rain and thunder while driving home, between Syracuse and Albany. I took some pictures of the storm clouds and we didn't even notice that a giant snapping turtle had crossed the highway, until I looked at the pictures at home. It is in the right bottom corner of the picture below. I think you can make the picture bigger when you click (double click) on it.

Storm clouds and a big snapping turtle crossing the road between Albany
and Syracuse on I-90.

Two weeks to go . . . 

Two weeks from now we will be in Amsterdam and I should be ready for my first bicycling trip. I've been practicing all winter, mostly on the trainer in the basement. Once the weather got warmer Jeff and I have been doing rail trail rides once a week if the weather has been good. I even got a new bike that fits me better since my old has been giving me neck and hand pains. 

I just passed 100 miles riding outside, (but it should be closer to 110 since the battery was dead the first time we went out). Jeff also says that I must have logged about 300 - 400 miles in the basement, but who knows since there is no way to measure that. I know it's not much compared to what Jeff does, but it's a lot for me. . . Let's just hope it's all been enough and I'll do ok riding. But then again, I guess I could just stay on the barge if I'm not ;).

My new bike

See . . . I've done 100 miles this summer . . .