the netherlands... days one to four

Day 1- Traveling to Amsterdam. i got up at 4 this morning to make sure that i got everything that i needed. joy and i headed to the airport. i dropped off joy for her 6:55 flight and then headed to angelina's to drop off the car and wait until it was my turn to head to the airport.

i flew from slc to atlanta. my parents flight from lax was canceled. they were bused to orange county and just made it. we met in atlanta. from there it was a LONG flight to the netherlands. i normally do fine traveling, but i got really sick on the way over for the last 2 or 3 hours of the flight. for most of the flight i played on the touch screens on the seats in front of us. i played my some of my favorite games. Cami and i used to stay up until all hours of the night playing zuma and bejeweled. so i played those for a while. i also played this spelling game with tiles and such.

in flight movies were great too. we could watch whatever movie, whenever we wanted on our screens. i opted to watch elizabeth: the golden age. it sparked an intrigue about british history. i'll get to that more later in the second half of the trip. other movies: becoming jane, dan in real life, i am legend, enchanted, etc.

we finally landed on sunday morning. i had lost an entire day of my life! weird to think about. i didn't sleep at all on the plane. the nausea was too much. and it didn't stop after i got off either. i kept thinking that i just wanted to throw up already.

we took a taxi to the hotel. it cost a hundred dollars! the euro exchange was about 1.50 us to 1 euro. so everything was "expensive" to us.

our hotel was right on the main square at the heart of the city. this is what we saw from the front of the hotel. that is the royal palace. here is the front of the hotel....
that morning we (my dad, my mom, and me) headed to Anne Frank's hiding place. It was about 3 blocks from where we were staying. sadly there are no pictures of the inside of the house or annex. here is the outside of the house along the canal. it was a very humbling experience to walk where she had walked and try to fathom the magnitude of what really happened there.

...after. nap time. much needed nap time. then it was time to put on a "business" face. we had to attend dinners for the international conference that my dad was attending for his company. we had traditional dutch food. i had to force some of it down. but it was an interesting experience. the women that were there arranged for the next day activities while the men had their meetings and negotiations the next morning. on the agenda: the keukenhof, north sea, and shopping.
Day 2-
dad sprained his ankle while running along the street. it was bad. of course he never complained about it. and for the rest of the trip you would have never known how bad it really was unless you took off his shoe. a trooper. there are pictures of the injury in the album with city pictures in it.

breakfast was served in the hotel restaurant. then off to the drive to the keukenhof.
car accident! yes it is true. while driving on the highway in the hosts car (an alpha romeo) was clipped by a what we call a mini "semi truck." we were "pushed" off the road and thank goodness that there was an exit where we were pushed off.






the gardens and park were breath taking. i'll try to post as many pictures here that i can. i'm working on an album of the pictures i have and i'm waiting to get the pictures that my parents have on their camera. the color in the photos i took are so vibrant.

we walked the park for about 2 hours. snapping pictures and just taking it all in. there were sculptures here and there and a windmill of course. i'm having a hard time choosing which pictures to post here of all the flowers. i'll make a photo bucket of them... click on these photos to get a better idea of the colors. i don't really like the way the photo have been uploaded in the photo bucket albums. they aren't as good as the originals.

later we ate lunch on the beach of the north sea. then a little shopping in the little town along the coast.

that night when we got back to the hotel we found a line of 6 limos outside. they belonged to some business people and..... drum roll.... MADONNA! yes she was there. so that was exciting. another international dinner.

day 3- nothing too exciting. we walked around the city and took pictures. that night we took a boat tour through the canals. we had to be careful while we were walking around for the "coffee shops" and the "red light district." the coffee shops were code names for pot houses. if they sell pot then they can't sell alcohol. and if they sell alcohol they can't sell pot. we walked down a street and there was a "seed" shop where you could choose the species of pot that you wanted to grow and "shrums" too. it was very interesting. the pictures from this day are in the post in the "city pictures."

day 4- we went to the rijksmuseum and did the souvenir shopping before heading to the airport to london-heathrow.

overall i enjoyed my time in amsterdam. do i want to go back... no not really. but i am grateful for the culture and experience from my visit.