Well...

First of all, let me apologize for not keeping up on this blog. I have been busy with work and enjoying life!

Jessica and I are still loving Amsterdam. It has been such a great experience. Of course we miss home and family often. We have had the pleasure of hosting both her parents at different times, however, so family has been around. That helps...

We are now back in the US for a brief visit. Well...brief for me since Jess has more vacation days then I do! We are currently in Connecticut for the wedding of Jess's friend since middle school, Rebecca. It's been so much fun so far! I got in on Friday after a very long and delayed flight from Amsterdam. I'm still jet lagged and feeling tired. It's so great to be back home! US soil I mean. I wish I was able to visit my parents in Ann Arbor on this trip, but I will be heading to Florida to see my grandparents on Tuesday. They are so excited!! As am I....

HAPPY 4th of JULY FROM ASMTERDAM.

All Things Dutch

Hey there. It's been a minute since the last update!! Things have been hectic, but good!

Obviously as the days and months pass, we are more and more getting to know our new surroundings and integrating into a new culture. Some things are familiar and others are not. I thought I would take a moment to highlight the NOT. Hopefully this will help our guests that visit and educate those that may never make it to this part of the world.

Drop

Black candy, it doesn't sound nor look attractive, but the Dutch love it! Also known as liquorice to you and I, Dutch drop comes in hundreds of flavors and shapes. Most are sweet, but the majority are salty....and I may add...nasty.

FEBO

The FEBO is a fast food chain of "automatiek" restaurants, where you can buy your snacks from a wall mounted vending machine. I actually like this place. The kroket is amazing.

Hagelslag

The Dutch eat a lot of bread. They eat it at breakfast, lunch and dinner. Hagelslag is a typical Dutch chocolate topping that is sprinkled on toast with a thick layer of butter. I haven't tried it yet, but it basically looks like cake sprinkles. There is a huge section dedicated at the grocery store.

Herring

A raw herring covered in chopped onions is held by it's tail and dangled over the open mouth with head tilted back. Yuck. I'm not brave enough....YET.

Jonkie

This Dutch gin (also known as Jenever) is a strong liquor similar to Gin. There are two types: old (oude) and young (jonge). The difference is not in age, but in distilling technics. Here I can speak from experience and say that it's pretty good.

Kroket

Also see "FEBO" above. This crispy sausage-shaped meat roll is filled with minced meat. It's the staple at said restaurant....and OH man it's tasty.

Take care friends and family. More to come when I have some time. Hope this satisfies the blog craving.

xxoo

Amsterdam Museums Pt. 2

OK! Thank you for your patience on the blog. Things have been hectic with me starting my new job last week. Things hopefully are getting back to normal and I can now get back into the work routine. Jessica's mother is also here and we have been able to enjoy her company.

So...as promised, this blog entry will explore the lesser known and bizarre museums of Amsterdam. There are quite a few that I would like to share, so I'll keep the comments short. I will include all the websites, however, so you can learn more on your own if you are so inclined.

Hash Marihuana & Hemp Museum

www.hashmuseum.com

Of course you would expect this one... The Hash Marihuana Hemp Museum offers visitors extensive documentation and historical facts about today's use of the cannabis plant. There are informative displays about hash’s medicinal, religious and cultural applications. Attention is also given to the importance of cannabis for the environment, agriculture and industry.

Museum of Bags and Purses

http://www.tassenmuseum.nl/en

Just as it sounds, the Museum of Bags and Purses tells the history of the western handbag from the late Middle Ages right up to the present. The museum owns more than 4,000 bags, pouches, purses, suitcases and other accessories.

Electric Ladyland (Fluorescent Art Museum)

http://www.electric-lady-land.com/

'Electric Ladyland - the First Museum of Fluorescent Art' houses a large room-sized fluorescent environment that the visitor enters, becomes a part of the piece of Art. The other section features a permanent exhibition of fluorescent minerals.

Sex Museum

http://www.sexmuseumamsterdam.nl/index2.html

This museum houses an extensive collection of erotic art throughout the centuries from the old masters to contemporary artists. This includes sculptures, pottery, paintings, drawings, photographs and other visual material. I would highly recommend doing a Google Image search on"Sex Museum Amsterdam" and see what you get!

Coffee and Tea Museum

www.geels.nl

The Coffee and Tea Museum hosts a small collection of old coffee trade artifacts like coffee grinders, tins, burners and traditional appliances. It's a small attraction above the Geels & Co shop, which sells freshly-roasted coffee and tea. The shop has been run for almost 150 years by Amsterdam’s Geels family.

Kattenkabinet (The Cat Cabinet)

http://www.kattenkabinet.nl/english.html

The Cat Cabinet is housed in a 17th century canal house and is a museum dedicated entirely to the role of cats in art and culture throughout history. Paintings, sculptures, posters and other cat artefacts are on display...watched over by some feline friends. Even if you’re not cat crazy, I have read that a stroll through the impressive rooms of this canal house (also used in the film Ocean’s Twelve) is worth it.

Netherlands Funeral Museum

www.totzover.nl

The Netherlands Funeral Museum focuses on funeral culture in the Netherlands over the centuries. The collection includes various funeral coaches, including a nineteenth century ceremonial carriage. Exhibits range from the hearse to the obituary, mourning attire and service to regulations concerning historical cemeteries, from royal processions to images of rural ceremonies which have remained unchanged for centuries.

Pipe Museum & Smokiana

http://www.pijpenkabinet.nl/index-eng.html

The Pipe Museum displays center on the world wide culture of pipe smoking and the use of tobacco from the earliest times (500 B.C.) to present day. The museum has over 20,000 items in its collection.

Torture Museum

http://www.torturemuseum.com/

Just as it sounds, this museum has on display various torture instruments used in the European medieval times. Good times!!!

Vodka Museum

www.vodkamuseum.com

On a visit to this museum you will learn you everything about the long and interesting history of Vodka, the production process and the different types of Vodka. On the premises of the Vodka Museum you may also visit the Museum shop, which sells 112 kinds of vodka.

Houseboat Museum

http://www.houseboatmuseum.nl/engels/index.html

This museum is right across the street (canal) from us. The Houseboat Museum (Woonbootmuseum) gives you the unique chance to personally experience what life is like on board a houseboat in an Amsterdam canal. You can see how this barge was converted to a comfortable houseboat, equipped with authentic skipper's quarters with a sleeping bunk, sizable living room, kitchen and bathroom.

Amsterdam Museums

The longer we live here, the more I have been realizing just how many museums there are in this city. I am constantly turning a corner on my explorations and finding a new one. There are over 50 museums here from the world famous to the just bizarre.

Honestly, it's the thought of sharing the bizarre with you that really prompted this entry, but we'll get to those in a few days (Ha! You'll just have to wait! Don't Google them...that's not fair).

First though, I really should highlight the world famous. You know...the must see museums if you only have a few days here...

Rijksmuseum

Website:

http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/

Built in 1876 , Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum is the largest museum in the Netherlands. It features a famous collection of works by Rembrandt, Vermeer and Frans Hals as well as delftware, sculpture, Asian art and prints.

The absolute masterpiece of the Rijksmuseum is Rembrant's 'Night Watch' (1642), which I'm sure you will recognize. Interesting fact that really makes my blood boil is that the painting was attacked with a bread knife by an unemployed school teacher, Wilhelmus de Rijk in 1975, resulting in a large zig-zag of slashes. It was successfully restored but some evidence of the damage is still observable close-up. What a jackass!!!

Another painting I'm sure most of you will recognize is Johannes Vermeer's 'The Milkmaid' (1658).

Van Gogh Museum

Website:

http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp

Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum houses the largest collection of paintings by Vincent van Gogh in the world. The museum’s permanent collection includes paintings, drawings and letters.

Everybody has heard of Vincent Van Gogh. What I didn't realize until visiting this museum was that he was largely unknown during his lifetime. It wasn't until after his death (by a self inflicted gunshot wound at 37) that he became such an important painter in history. It's also VERY interesting to me that he didn't start painting until his late twenties. He produced more than 2,000 artworks, consisting of around 900 paintings and 1,100 drawings and sketches in less than a decade before his death. Amazing!

My favorite Van Gogh is 'Starry Night'. I have always been fascinated by it. It's not on display at the museum in Amsterdam unfortunately (it's at the MOMA in NYC), but I'm going to feature it anyway just because it's my blog.

Anne Frank Huis

Website:

http://www.annefrank.org/

The Anne Frank Huis (House) is literally a couple blocks from our apartment. We are practically neighbors! There is a decent coffee and bagel shop nearby. If I'm in a good mood, I like to go down there and offer to take English speaking tourist's pictures in front of the sign. They love that...

But on a serious note, the Anne Frank Huis is where a young Jewish girl, Anne Frank lived in hiding with her family for more than 2 years during World War II. The museum houses an exhibition about the persecution of the Jews as well as discrimination in general. Anne’s original diary and other notebooks are on display in the museum.

That's it for now. Stay tuned for some of the lesser known museums.

xxoo

So...let's see what has been going on since our move...

Those that follow me on Facebook probably already know that Penelope the pug had a very scary fall down the stairs. Very typical of this city, our place has several flights of extremely steep stairs. In fact, the stairs up to the second floor basically come up into the middle of the room and create a pit to the next floor on one side.

We knew that Penelope is losing her sight and depth perception with those stairs may be an issue. We didn't realize how bad her sight is, however, until getting into the city where there are many more objects to run into and stairs to fall down.

So, of course the first evening we are here she "went off the deep end" of the stairs. I saw her life flash before my eyes! She basically jumped up and walked it off. I couldn't believe it! The next day she had another spill down a different set of stairs that tore off a nail completely. I found a vet about a 10 minute walk from our place that I took her to yesterday. She got a clean bill of health and was prescribed puppy pain killers.

So, lesson learned!! She is now relegated to our bedroom with the door closed. She spends most of her time relaxing in her crate anyway. I also have to carry her down the 3 flights of winding stairs it takes to get to the street when it's time for a bathroom break. I'm just glad she is alright. She's 85 in human years!!!

Oh, one other thing I wanted to mention is that we are on a major tourist canal, so these really long boats full of tourists are constantly crusing by taking photos and gawking. Whenever I see one if I'm near the window, I have been waiving to them. In the coming weeks I am going to be featured in numerous photo slide shows in Asia. Ha ha...

This is outside of a restaurant down the street from us. I don't have much to say about it except that it's weird...

Our new home!!!

Here are some more pictures of our new apartment. We moved in yesterday!

Love it...

It's Spring in Holland and I'm sure you know what that means. Tulips! I mean, it was pretty much stated in the fine print of our residence applications that we are required to visit tulip country this time of year. It was in Dutch so I can't exactly verify that statement, however.

So, to make sure we were in compliance, we took a bus on Sunday about 25-30 miles southwest of Amsterdam to a lovely park they call Keukenhof. I forgot to charge my phone (ie. camera), so unfortunately I will have to just use some images off the web for you. They will be better anyway.

Here are your interesting facts about the place that I did not make up.

Keukenhof (or "Kitchen garden"), also known as the Garden of Europe, is situated near Lisse, Netherlands, and is the world's largest flower garden. Approximately seven million flower bulbs (4.5 million tulips in 100 varieties) total are planted annually in the park, which covers an area of 32 hectares.

Once you look past the 14.50 euro ($20.76) per person entry fee, how insanely crowded it was and the overall Disney theme park vibe of the place...it was really quite nice!

We came rather late in the season, however, and you could tell many of the flowers were on their last legs or had been harvested all together. In other words, the pictures you are seeing here that I borrowed from the web are WAY cooler than anything I would have taken. Especially since they don't feature a bunch of tourists wearing fanny packs and socks with their sandals!

All in all, I'm glad we were able to fulfill our residence obligation. Next!

Happy Queens Day!!

So, this post is a little late as Queen's Day was last Saturday...what are you gonna do?

WOW...what can I say about Queen's Day in Amsterdam? It was crazy. The biggest party day of the year here in Holland. Bigger that NYE apparently. It was complete chaos...and we liked it.

So...here's some history from the web:

Queen's day, or Koninginnedag, is a national holiday in the Netherlands. On this day we celebrate the birthday of the Queen of the Netherlands. Although it's originally the birthday of Queen Juliana (the mother of Queen Beatrix...the current Queen), not of Queen Beatrix, we celebrate her birthday on 30 April. Our Queen Beatrix birthday is really on the 31th January, but the winter isn't the time to party outside! Because of this Queen Beatrix officially celebrates her birthday on 30 April, so we can party with (hopefully) better weather! Isn't our Queen lovely?

Queen's Day is also a typical occasion for the world-famous Orange Craze. On this day most of the people wear orange clothing and creative orange accessories. The colour orange is a ubiquitous sight, referring to the name of our royal family, the House of Orange. Everywhere in the city you'll see orange banners, orange coloered foods and drinks. So don't forget your orange t-shirt when you join us in the Orange Craze!!!

..And HO BOY. I was out of place without an orange shirt. Lucky for her, Jessica is Syracuse ("The Orange") alumni so she had a shirt already. We both picked up some cheap orange sunglasses as you will see, so I fit in a bit. I needed some orange shoes and I would have been good to go.

We met a few fellow Ex-Pats from the States a week or so ago and ended up at a house party hosted by one of them. It was fun! We basically hung out the window and watched crazy orange people walk by on the street and cruise by on the canal. This girl had plastic red Solo cups shipped in from the States specifically for "flip cup"...an interesting college drinking game that I somehow missed during my years at University. I must have been too busy studying....yeah that's it! Of course, after setting aside my germ issues....I was pretty darn good at it.

What we witnessed all day out the window was tremendously packed boats with tremendously drunk people dancing and partying. Every time I looked out the window it looked like a maritime disaster waiting to happen. Many of them looked like they were on the verge of sinking. It was amazing!! I have some video, but it's not uploading very well...so...sorry!

We found a place!

View Larger Map

Move in date is May 13th. It is right on the outer canal of the city with an amazing view. It's fully furnished, so we won't have to worry about furniture, beds, dishes or anything.

Here is the front of the house. We have the top 2 sets of windows. There is a 3rd floor that only has windows in the back. You actually have to enter from the door on the far left in the picture that is 3-4 steps below the sidewalk.

Here is a shot from the 1st set of windows you see above, which is home to the master bedroom. All of the windows open wide for a great view of the canal and the happenings below.

Here is a shot from the top floor, which has the living room, kitchen and an office/bedroom.

There is then a 3rd floor with another bedroom. To access this floor this is a crazy steep spiral staircase in the living room with no handrails. I have a tendency to hurt myself on stairs, so I'm not sure how often I'll frequent that area. I know the pugs won't be attempting them. Especially blind Penelope.

More pictures to come when we move in!

On Monday Jess, Mike (Jess's co-worker) and I rented a small boat to cruise the canals of Amsterdam. I have to say it was one of the coolest things I have ever done.

Our reservation for the boat was at 1pm, so prior to that we stopped at Albert Hein (the big grocery store chain here) and loaded up on beer (for Mike and I), champagne (for Jess), cheese, bread and various other snacks.

We arrived at the rental place and I went in to deal with the deposit for the boat and signing on the dotted line. The gentleman behind the counter in semi-broken English asked if I had a credit card for the deposit. Before I had the chance to answer yes, he broke in and said: "of course you do! You're American". Hilarious! I love the American stereo types we have been running into. Not to get too political on the blog, but I'm glad we weren't here when George Bush was in office. I get the feeling that we may have been run out of town.

The boat was a small aluminum fishing boat (fits up to 6 people) with a small electric outboard motor. It didn't go very fast, but we weren't in a hurry. The weather was perfect and we cruisedup and down the canals for almost 5 hours. There are some big (very long) tourist boats that don't give a flying hoot about you and your small boat, but for the most part the canals were just full of folks like us soaking in the sun, having drinks and a good time.

It was such an amazing way to see the city. Your perspective is so much different when you are looking up at the beautiful architecture from the middle of the canal as opposed to right next to the buildings. It really is the best way to see it.

The only downside was the bathroom situation. I have a small bladder that seems to shrink even more when beer is involved, so we had to dock on several occasions.

Depending on where you dock, the canal walls can be rather high. On one fateful occasion (that is probably forever burned into Jessica's memory) we tied up and I attempted to pull myself up the wall and get up to the street. As I was doing this the boat decided to leave the comfort of being parallel to the wall with my feet still on it. So, just imagine me hanging onto thewall as my legs and feet begin to float away.

Streeeeeetch.

So, the choice was to let go of the wall with my hands and take a dip head first or let go of the boat with my feet. As a germaphobe, I obviously chose the latter. So there I am hanging from the wall with my right leg completely immersed in the water flailing with no leverage to pull myself up. Luckily a total stranger came by just in the nick of time and helped me up. Thank you complete Dutch stranger!!! You rock. Sorry folks. Luckily there are no existing pictures of that fiasco to share.

Except for that minor incident, it was a great day!!! We definitely plan on doing it again. Especially with visiting family and friends.

Late night cocktails at the Van Gogh Museum was just ok. So, no pictures or stories to tell. It would have been better if we could wander around the museum with our drinks and "get our art on", but we were quarantined to the lobby with your drink. We didn't want to see the whole thing anyway because we'll be back when visitors come. See how thoughtful we are!

On Sunday Jess and I took our bikes to the Amsterdam Bos (Forest). It's a huge park just outside the city. We just toured around it trying to get lost and taking every path we came across. It was so much fun!

From the English website for the Bos:

"With its 137 km of footpaths, 51 km of cycle paths and 50 bridges, the Amsterdamse Bos is one of the largest city parks of Europe. It contains 150 indigenous species of trees and over 200 species of birds."

We didn't see all 200 species of bird, but we did see quite a few. At one point we stopped to watch some sort of large male geese get in a fight (over a girl I'm sure). As we were watching a random pheasant decided to pass right by just a couple yards behind the goose malay. It was hysterical. I imagined him saying something like "Just passin' thru...don't mind me. Don't know and don't care what this about." They were too far away for a decent picture, so you'll just have to take my word for it that it was humorous.

After the ride around the Bos, we stopped for a much needed ice cream break. It has been HOT here! It's been between 70-75 for the past week. It's perfect weather! We have been told not to get used to it, however, so we are making the most out of it.

Stay tuned for the next installment. It involves a rental boat, the Amsterdam canals and the lower half of my body taking a dip.

In the meantime, here is a random shot of me wearing huge novelty wooden clogs. Enjoy!

We totally failed getting cell phones today. You have to have a bank account and debit card before you can get a phone here. So, we had to wait for the mail to come today to get our new Dutch debit cards, then we had to ride our bikes (oh yeah..did I mention we bought bikes?) to the bank to activate them. The bank was closed of course! So, no phones for us until at least Tuesday. The whole town is shutting down for the holiday.

So yeah...we bought bikes last weekend and have officially assimilated into the bike capitol of the world. It's truly amazing just how many bikes there are here! There are basically bike highways everywhere and they are packed. Yes, there is a bike rush hour.

Going to the Van Gogh Museum tonight for an Expat reception. Cocktails, hors d' oeuvres and art!! Hopefully I'll get some pictures to share.

In the meantime, here is a nice canal shot I took the other day.

First Post!

Jess and I have been in Amsterdam for almost 2 weeks now. I'm finally getting around to creating the blog. Sorry for the delay!

So...what's been going on...

We are currently in an apartment/hotel that the company provided until we find our own place. It's cramped with the dogs, but is free...so we can't complain.

Both of us are waiting on our work visas and "technically" cannot work until they are processed. We also both officially registered with the government and got our Dutch Social Security numbers yesterday. Next is the dogs. There is a yearly dog tax! They need to get a job...

We have been apartment hunting and found a couple places we really like. One in particular is amazing and we are currently holding our breath if we can get it or not. Of course, wherever we end up will have an extra bedroom for visiting friends and family!

The first picture is an example of the type of places we are looking at. Here you are facing the building. The apartment is on the top floors.

The second picture below is with your back to the building. The canals are so cool...

Well...that is all for now. I will keep up with this on a regular basis as we have more adventures!