Amsterdam

Over the Easter holiday, I went to Amsterdam to meet up with Grandma, Aunt Dawn, and Aunt Debbi. Our hotel (thumbs up Aunt Dawn!) was in a great location, just a canal over from Dam Square. We started off our adventures with a hop on hop off bus tour. Finding the bus was rather trickier than we had anticipated. There were a few directional difficulties, but we managed to find our double decker tour. My favorite little Snapple fact from that tour - it's the only place in the world where you can smoke a joint in an old police station. Perhaps this is why everyone in Amsterdam is so friendly.

On to more serious topics... the first place we stopped to see was Anne Frank's house. I didn't take any pictures, but if you would like to look at some images or would like more information, here is the link to their website: http://www.annefrank.org/  Seeing where she and her family lived is an experience I will never forget. The rooms are not furnished because Otto Frank wanted to keep them empty in remembrance of how the Nazis raided their house. However, even with the rooms bare, or perhaps because of it, you got a glimpse of how tiny the space was - how narrow and steep the stairs were, how dark the rooms were, and you wondered how so many people could live in such a small area. It was truly a moving experience. 

The next day we continued our hop on hop off tour and discovered...the diamond museum! 

Inside Coster diamonds there were several replicas of crowns, royal sceptres, jewelery, and we even got to watch how they polish diamonds. We met the woman who holds the Guinness World Record for polishing the smallest diamond. 

We also saw the Van Gogh Museum. The collection of his paintings ranged from his earliest works to his later years. There were also exhibits showcasing other artists such as Monet and Renoir (my personal favorites) and an exhibit on French art, specifically focusing on Montmartre. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Montmartre, it is a section of Paris (actually the place I stayed in when I visited in February -yes Mom I will post the pictures). It is most famous the Sacre Ceour. Or perhaps you have seen some of the more famous pieces such as the chat noir. 

(These pictures were taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montmartre and http://bit.ly/hgazgT)

After the Van Gogh Museum, we wandered over to the I AMSTERDAM sign. Aunt Debbi and I took advantage of the Kodak moment.

And of course, we went on a canal cruise. Here are some of the things we saw:

Have I mentioned the bicycles? No? Well, everyone in Amsterdam rides a bike. And they rule the roads. There were literally thousands, and they do not stop for tourists, or pedestrians, or little children, or the elderly...they dont stop for nobody. Any available street space is used for parking bikes. This is a picture of a 3 level parking lot just for bikes. 

The Next day we took a trip to the Dutch countryside. We went to Edam (like the cheese!), Markendam and Volendam - a lot of dams. 

And we got to watch a man make wooden shoes!!!

First he carved the show with a German machine that copies the shape of the shoe from a model. Then he uses a French machine to make the hole for the inside. After this was completed he told us that the shoe would need to be dried out. They use a specific kind of wood which is wet and easy to carve. To illustrate his point, he blew into the shoe - and a puddle of water came out. No joke. An actual puddle, not just a few drops. It was pretty amazing.

Along the way to these dam villages, we saw a lot of tulip fields - I did a lot of climbing over people in the bus to get these so I hope everyone appreciates them

This last picture is one of my favorites, and was taken in one of the small villages we visited.

get ready for another interruption......in WHALE

Sorry to keep jumping around (but not sorry enough to stop - this is going to keep happening).

The Dickinson crew went to Wales!!!
Cardiff to be exact. This was a particularly epic journey for me for several reasons. One, Wales is thought to be the seat of King Arthur. For those of you who do not know, I am a HUGE Arthurian legend fan. I am currently writing my "mini-thesis" on Morgan le Faye, a sometimes enemy of the ka-nig-its of the Round Table.

Two, I fought a dragon and was knighted for my heroic deeds.

 See how I went in all confident.......that's how you walk into a fight, loose, limber, ready for action....

W

Yea, well he was really big....and breathed fire! But never fear, I said I defeated a dragon and I did. A really mean, vicious one too.

 Just look at those beady little eyes......anyone else having Very Potter Musical flashbacks?....Well anyway, slaying a dragon was apparently not valiant enough of an effort to be knighted, so in order for me to earn my spurs, I had to prove my worth through chivalrous pursuits in true Round Table fashion. But first, I had to seek some advice from a wise hermit (they pop up in all quest legends and apparently know everything).

See, here I am standing in from of the door to Hobbitdom. Where else would you find a hermit? Seriously, it's just like going down the rabbit hole. It was here I learned that in order to be knighted I would have to fight many battles and seize ye old castle.

My first test came sooner than I thought.

I had just returned from Hobbitdom when my evil foe attacked me. So I put up my dukes and I gave her the ol' one-two.

But that was not all. I still needed to fight the castle guards in order to claim the keep. This time the villains outnumbered me two to one. I thought for sure I was finished - but wait! Look there!

Why its my trusty sidekick, Holly-lot!! Together we were able to use our knight/ninja crime fighting skills to defeat the evil guards and lay siege to the keep!. ("Do you know preying mantis?" - Robin Hood Men in Tights)

Here are some pretty pictures of the castle I won:

 Ye old battlements

 Ye old keep

the gang inside ye old keep

Because no castle should be without........its rock garden?? Anyway, now that I have concluded my chivalrous tale, I can tell you about my other reasons for loving Cardiff....

Three, trebuckets.

 You see the french have come up with this silly little word trebuchet. It's that catapult type thingy you see behind me there, used in medieval times for flinging pots and pans and other various doom-a-dingers at fire breathing dragons (much like the one I vanquished). Well anyway, I have improved upon the word. It is now a trebucket. Much more fun to say isn't it? Take that Oxford English Dictionary! I thumb my nose at you!


And finally...... FOUR, I got to speak WHALE!!!!
Sure English and Welsh might be the "official" languages of Wales, but Whale (of the Finding Nemo, Dori fame) is so much more expressive. That's right, yours truly went around Cardiff speaking like a Whale - and scared everyone within hearing distance.....Too bad I didn't think to use it on the dragon.

Last Day in Prague

January 5th
The girls and I walked back to the Old Town Square to look for Mrs. Fanta's house. Big shout out to the Greenbergs. Mrs. Fanta was Ann Greenberg's grandmother. She entertained a number of important people in this house, including Albert Einstein.
Here's the house:

And here's a closeup of the plaque:

 

After finding the Fanta residence, we decided to tour the castle! (in case you haven't realized, you can't walk two feet in Europe without tripping over a castle, palace or cathedral) In order to get to the castle, we need to cross the river. Here are some pics from Charles Bridge crossing the Vltava River. 

 

And here is ye old castle:

The castle houses a "fuge" church.

The glass work is spectacular. I took pictures of several other windows, but they all came out kinda fuzzy. Below are pictures of the view from the top of one of the church towers. And let me tell you it was mighty cold up there - but definitely worth it!

Detour in York

So this is a little detour from my entries chronicling my winter trip on the continent (which I promise I will get to Mom). Over the weekend the Dickinson crew traveled via train to York, otherwise referred to as Jorvik by the Vikings (Thor!). And like all good travelers - we took a free tour! Here's what we found along the way...

Ruins from a Roman/Medieval tower. Below is a picture of it from the outside.

You can see a little bit of the park it looks over. England does a really nice job of maintaining its parks and gardens.On the other side of the green are the ruins of a Medieval abbey - one of my personal favorites.

 The guy wearing a hat like Grandpa's was our blue badge tour guide.

Next on our tour we walked along the Roman/Medieval wall

 This is the entrance to the wall.

The tower comes complete with a portcullis, however it is no longer functional (much to my disappointment) and cars travel through the tunnel. The wall surrounds the entire center of the city, breaking at only two points. We only walked along two sides of it.

We also went to York Minster - the York Cathedral. Included in the admission ticket is the climb up to the top. Several people in our group are afraid of heights so props to them for being brave enough to do this. Halfway up you walk out on the gallery. The view from there is spectacular.

 Here are a few of my fellow Dickinsonians at the top. The entire space was fenced in except for these small holes large enough to stick your head through.

 I have come to believe that every house in England looks the same. Brick or white. No exceptions.