THE MONTH OF APRIL

April was a busy month for us It started with Chris' friend Rick visiting, along with
three of his friends, and continued with tours of the bulb fields, a bike ride to a castle in Muiden, a day trip to Gouda, and finally ended, on April 30, with Queen's Day Because we're putting this up quite late, and there's so much to cover, we've tried to keep it very concise








RICK AND FRIENDS
At the end of March, Chris' childhood friend, Rick, came to visit along with three of his friends The "excuse" for the visit: one of their favorite bands, String Cheese Incident, was touring Europe As always, it was great to have people from America here We think that they had a good time experiencing Amsterdam and surrounding areas For the concerts they took the train to Den Haag to see the band one night, all of us went to see them at a very small venue in Amsterdam the next (Melkweg), and the following night Chris drove everybody to Cologne (Koln, Germany) for a third show They were pretty amazed at the size of the venues (small) and the intimacy afforded by that We enjoyed showing off the town and getting to walk around and see everything with some dear old and new friends

Rick and Chris also went to Belgium and picked up more Westvleteren beer from the Abbey of St Sixtus This is the special beer that is only available at the monastery itself and only during certain hours and only when the monks have felt like brewing and therefore have beer available While in Belgium they also visited Antwerp




THE BULB FIELDS
In April, the bulb fields begin to bloom On Chris' birthday we took a drive (with Rick) to see the bulb fields south of Amsterdam It's truly amazing to see fields of colorful flowers We were a bit early (April 3) for the big splash of tulip color, but there were lots of daffodils, jonquils, and hyacinths blooming The hyacinth fields smelled amazing! See the pictures to get an idea We also drove to the seaside town of Noordwijk where we had Dutch pancakes for lunch It was a blustery rainy day, but the beach was still beautiful in a raw sort of way




OUR TERRACE
Our terrace was BEAUTIFUL this spring, thanks to Chris' mid-winter planting spree We had gorgeous tulips blooming everywhere - it was amazing After the long dark winters here the longer days of sun and the blooming of flowers is a welcome change We spend a lot of time on the weekends just sitting on the deck enjoying the cool weather and the flowers



GOUDA
In the middle of the month we took a day trip to Gouda with Stephen and Julie (Kantors_Abroad) Gouda is famous not only for its cheese, but also as the place where stroopwaffles were invented For those who don't know about stroopwaffles, they're two thin waffles with caramel syrup in the middle We got fresh ones "hot off the iron" that were the best we've had yet YUM!



Gouda is a very old and interesting town located between Amsterdam and Den Haag Stephan bought a booklet at the tourist information center that had a walking tour, which we (mostly) took First stop was the townhall in the center of the square This building serves as a government building, meeting hall, marriage place, as well as many other things Next we walked to a small museum called the Catharina Gasthuis (Catharina Hospital) From 1665 to 1910 it was a hospice It is now a small museum, which we toured The big attraction of Gouda though (besides the stroopwaffles) is the Sint-Janskerk (church) The church is known for its many stained-glass windows, many of which date from between 1530 and 1603 They were donated by the wealthy of the time and the wealthier the donor, the more elaborate the window There were also some newer windows, including a Liberation window which was donated in 1947 to honor the Allies that freed the Dutch The window depicts many images of the war including burning houses, gallows, and concentration camp uniforms The text of the window reads "Remembering those who when the people seemed beaten and powerless, held high the banner of freedom through all adversities and horrors" After the church, we continued the walking tour, which was VERY detailed At a certain point in the late afternoon, when we were feeling that the tour had too much detail for such a small town, we happened into a little playground We spent some time playing on the swings and a merry-go-round and called it a day

I am getting closer to that breakfastToday I woke up at 9am and then just lay there for the last hour of breakfast trying to move I do a lot of walking here Much more than I do back home and after a while it catches up to meBut I did manage to get out of the hotel room by 10:30 and did some shoppingThe weather today started out nice but as usual as I leave the hotel it starts to rainNever really hard enough that you don't want to go out, but if you a have a long way to go you will get wetI picked up some postcards of some of the things I wish I had a photo of but could never be able to shoot myself, like the aerial shot of Dam Square If I can find a scanner to use I will scan them and post them into my travelogue I walked to The BlueBird, because I was not sure what time the Smoking Bull opened at, The internet WiFi at the BlueBird was not on today Now you never really know if someone forgot to turn it on or it's not working but we were here last night and I could get connected and Sinclair could notSo I grabbed my large fresh squeezed OJ and my Cheese and salami tostti

I like girls who cover, I think it's sexy
Did I ever mention I like OJ? I do, and I think his kids killed those two people not OJ, but we can discuss that some other time Anyway the good coffee shops will served fresh squeeze OJ as it's a great pick me up when you have smoked yourself into oblivion and you sugar drops Did you know that when you get high your sugar drops and that's why some people pass out or come close when stoned on an empty stomachSo the BlueBird is in a cool part of town That picture I posted of the street sign was outside the window at the BlueBird There is a kids toy store called of all things The Wooden ShoeThey have all kinds of cool stuff I will take some photos of their entrance where they have all kinda of moving toys But since the tostti is gone and the Wifi is done and THE MUSIC SUCKSI am going to head over to the 420 They open at noon it's 12:25 I'll take some photos along the way Never made itJohn called me and said he was at The Dolphins so I headed over to The DolphinsHung there for a while and then we made our way back across town to hit the Sensi and then the 420 café and then John went and put in his laundry and we both went to La Bettola for dinner This is a great Italian place that is right across the street from the Laundry and between the 420 Café and Amnesia I like the pizza and the lasagna was also great We eat there a lot

As we were walking from dinner at La Bettola

Madame Tussaud
I see this guy with a large bottle of soda pop and I know the label anywhereIt's Colombiana, a kola flavored soda as it says on the label I fell in love with this stuff while I was in Columbia So I said, "excuse me, where can that be purchased around here?" he says right there and points to a little store behind me San Andresito - Telephone Souvenir Internet, Spuistraat 54 I send John on the way to Amnesia and I duck into the little store, just not low enoughIt was one of these take three steps down into the shop places and as I did I banged my head Obviously these place was built for ColumbiansSo I go in and not only do they have the large bottle they have small single size cold in the refridgeI grab one big and two little bottlesAhhhhhh instant gratification NO MORE FANTA!!!!