Amsterdam

Well, we made it in one piece.  We took off from Ft. Myers then to Atlanta and finally arrived at the Amsterdam airport early yesterday.  The ride was very very fast but the plane was the bumpiest ride in many years.  But we arrived about 1.5 hours EARLY!!!!

We went to the hotel to meet Tom and Ann Marie Upson where they were to arrive about the same time via train from Paris.....with their son Jeff.  But their train was late and so we headed out to scope out the area and saw the Van Gogh Musuem.  So we decided to go ahead and check it out and leave them a message at the hotel where we were.  We did about 3/4 of the museum when we saw them in the main gate area.  We hugged and their train was late due to mechanics...they think.  Anway we all finished the museum and headed to the cafe in the museum for lunch.  The museum was fabulous.  I had see most of the paintings before but to see ones that are iconic in nature is really a treat........and it was packed.  There were hundreds of people roaming the rooms.  Luckily there was also a small Picasso show there in the basement and with some really good stuff especially from his hearly times.  Van Gogh only painted about 5 years of his short life but did about 500 paintings, 300 water colors (yes, he did them too) and many letters.  His work diverged several times all through his short painting time depending on where he was.  It was funny to find out that all the famous painters at that time copied from each other and even the subjects were copied.  They all lived near each other in France and Netherlands and they all painted the same subjects and in very similar ways, but over the years they all found their own technics and became famous for them.

After a nice lunch (which none of us wanted to get back up), as they finished the museum D and I went to have a rest at a local cafe with a great Dutch beer.  We met again and went to the museum where most Rembrant master paintings were shown, Night Watch for example.  There were many by him and several of his contempararies.  It was quite impressive and.....VERY CROWDED.  All the Europe kids are out of school and it seeemed that all were following us.

Once done we all wanted a short day and so we headed back to hotel to check in and go back out quickly to a nearby cafe or restaurant for a small dinner and bed.  We ended up down the street about 4 blocks at a local cafe where we had 2 pitchers of beer....oh yea and a nice small sandwich.  We all were nearly run over several times by bikes.  The bike lanes are unidentifiable from the sidewalk except for a different color of cement.....and we all heard the jingle of the bike bells all the time telling us to GET OUT OF THE WAY.

Jeff was nearly at the ed of his rope guiding his parents around England, Scotland and France and so he was happy we were there not to help.  We all had a great first day.  Back to the hotel and we all were in bed in about 10 minutes............we were pppppooooopppped.

This morning we were up and ready to go!!!  Breadkfast in the hotel, where we all made extra sandwiches for lunch and we are now about ready to hit Amsterday head on.  today we are trying to hit as many "house" museums as possible and stay in the one area to see some shops, ride a canal boat and hopefull stop at the best cheese shop in the city.............See ya later!!!!