Month: May 2012

Onward to Edinburgh!

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Whew! It’s been busy here lately! And with a trip planned and a few more friends visiting (one is suddenly very popular when one lives in a foreign city), it doesn’t promise to let up anytime soon. But I have so many things to post about! Our trip to Belgium, our visit to a Dutch theme park, small towns in Holland, and more. Tomorrow I add even more to that list, as we’re flying off to Edinburgh, Scotland! -Edinburgh Skyline Screenprint by Kate McLelland on Etsy. -Edinburgh, Scotland, by Confettielove on Etsy -Edinburgh Towers by Cheism Shop on Etsy Jesse turns the big 3-0 (today!), and picked Edinburgh as the perfect birthday present. I’ve heard only great things, and since our wonderful time in London I’ve been excited to explore another corner of the UK. We leave tomorrow for five full days of whiskey-tasting and city-exploring. I do have a few posts scheduled while we’re gone, and then I’m going to do my best to post all my stories and pictures of the places we’ve …

The Idyllic Island of Marken

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While my parents were here we took a day trip to Marken, a small island just a short bus ride away from Amsterdam. It’s a bit of a tourist destination along with nearby Volendam and Edam (which we also visited). Marken is now connected to the mainland by a dike, so we were able to take the bus directly there. Before 1957, however, the only way for the local “Markers” to get to Holland was by boat. The island is known as a bit of folkoric history, as traditional houses, costumes, speech and habits have historically thrived here. Since the dike was built and modernity continues pressing, the traditions are slowly dying. In the Marker Museum we saw re-creations of the elaborate costumes people wore. The day we went was pretty windy, cold and a bit rainy, but it gave us the island almost to ourselves, so we wandered the empty streets happily. The houses are all wooden, and many of them by the harbor are actually on stilts to keep them off the water. …

Summer Sunlight

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Summer has arrived here, in full swing for the past two days. I’ve dug my flip flops out of hiding and remembered to slather on sunscreen, and Jesse and I have been doing our best to be outside a lot. Because really, it’s been a rotten spring. My poor parents had horrible weather for their visit, and even our friends last week had to wear jackets and carry umbrellas! But summer is here (for now), and I’m enjoying it completely. I’ve made iced tea, we’ve eaten salads for dinner, and I already cut off a pair of pants into shorts. Because that’s what you do in summer. It’s been fun watching Amsterdammers embrace the sunny weather. This city, though it be covered in rain and mist most of the year, is made for nice weather. It’s awash with cafe terraces, canal sides, benches, and green spots, all inviting you to sit…relax for awhile. As soon as the sun pops out everyone does their best to be outside. The number of boats on the canals has …

Rollende Keukens, or, The Food Cart Festival

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Something special happened last weekend. Something that made my heart swell with joy, my mind remember Portland, and my taste buds salivate. Amsterdam hosted a food cart festival! This was really exciting, because food carts are a pretty big deal in Portland, and I used to eat at them no less than three times a week. Moving to Amsterdam held a lot of new exciting things for us, but I still miss food carts and their cheap, delicious offerings. So when I saw the ad for the festival I knew I had to go there. It was lucky that our visiting friends were up for it, because we went on Friday, then again on Saturday! There were just too many choices to try them all in one go! We still didn’t try everything, but we made a heroic effort. A few impressions. First, I love the name. Rollende Keuken: rolling kitchens. Perfect! Second, these carts were swanky! All dressed up, decorated, and tricked out. The sushi cart had a moving belt, the omelet cart had …

A Sunny Saturday, With Friends

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Happy Weekend! I have some friends visiting us at the moment (it’s promising to be a busy summer!), and we’ve been doing all sorts of fun Amsterdam things. They’re here for a nice long time so we haven’t needed to stress about squeezing everything in. Lazy, relaxing days with lots of food have been the focus. Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day, the nicest we’ve seen in a long time, and we all had a blast soaking it up. Sometimes the best things to do with visitors are the things you’d do anyway! We started by visiting the Noordermarkt, a busy farmer’s market. It was warm enough for dresses at last, and I got to use my new basket tote for carrying veggies. It performed beautifully. We also got some fresh squeezed orange juice, which is the tastiest thing ever! We spent the afternoon at a food cart festival, which was amazing and deserves it’s own post, and then we ended the day at Vondelpark. I don’t get down there that often, since we live …

The Aalsmeer Flower Auction

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I showed you a peek of Keukenhof Gardens and some tulips fields, so now it’s time to head to the Aalsmeer Flower Auction to see what happens to those blooms when they grow up. The auction is full of impressive figures: the biggest flower auction in the world, it’s housed in the 5th largest building in the world. It starts at 7am and dies down before 10am, so we had to get up early to see the best action. It’s a fascinating system! More than 20 million flowers from all corners of the world are traded every day. When you visit, you walk on a gangway above the warehouse floor, giving you a great view of the huge numbers of flowers below. Lines of shelves filled with boxes of flowers zoom around, pulled by little carts that can turn on a dime. It was so interesting to watch them being pulled to and fro, and try to figure out where they were all going. I never really got the system down! The auction itself is …

Pretty, Shiny Things at Gassan Diamonds

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I’m back from Belgium! We said farewell to my parents yesterday as they hopped a train to Paris, and we headed back to Amsterdam for a few days of relaxation. We had a blast visiting Antwerp, Ghent, and Brugge, and I have lots of pictures to share. But first, a little tour we took while in Amsterdam. Amsterdam is known for diamonds. Well, not by me, but by others who know more about those things. Though now that I’ve learned this fact, I can say, Amsterdam is known for diamonds. I’ve learned this by taking the completely free tour of Gassan Diamonds, whose factory is nestled right between my apartment and the nearest grocery store, but whose world of expensive sparkles is still far away from mine. The tour is short and sweet, but it’s completely free (no pressure to buy a shiny stone, though you might think your ‘vintage’ costume jewelry a bit silly afterwards), and gives a fun look into the world of diamond polishing and selling. I learned that in order to …

A Visit to Keukenhof Gardens

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“Haven’t seen Keukenhof? Then you haven’t seen the Netherlands,” claims the Keukenhof Garden’s website. “You won’t find such an abundance of colors and fragrances anywhere else.” We set out on a slightly rainy day to see for ourselves, though we came a bit late in the season to really see it in full glory. This spring has been so wet and cold that we didn’t think of venturing out earlier! The gardens cover a huge area and showcase over 7 million bulbs; mostly tulips, but also hyacinth, daffodils and others. I was under the false impression that they had the famous fields of tulips, which they did not. There are fields surrounding it, but the garden itself is a carefully planned out park full of walking paths. So, if you want to see fields, you don’t necessarily need to pay for entrance to the garden. Good to know! That said, I’m glad we went in and saw it, if only to claim that we have truly “seen the Netherlands” now. We did spy some fields …

A Visit to Keukenhof Gardens

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“Haven’t seen Keukenhof? Then you haven’t seen the Netherlands,” claims the Keukenhof Garden’s website. “You won’t find such an abundance of colors and fragrances anywhere else.” We set out on a slightly rainy day to see for ourselves, though we came a bit late in the season to really see it in full glory. This spring has been so wet and cold that we didn’t think of venturing out earlier! The gardens cover a huge area and showcase over 7 million bulbs; mostly tulips, but also hyacinth, daffodils and others. I was under the false impression that they had the famous fields of tulips, which they did not. There are fields surrounding it, but the garden itself is a carefully planned out park full of walking paths. So, if you want to see fields, you don’t necessarily need to pay for entrance to the garden. Good to know! That said, I’m glad we went in and saw it, if only to claim that we have truly “seen the Netherlands” now. We did spy some fields …

Visiting Guests

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Oh, my, what a long break from blogging! Sorry for the silence, friends. My days have been chock-full of showing my parents around Amsterdam and beyond, eating a lot of treats, and walking. It’s not over (on Friday we leave for Belgium!), but before you all abandoned me for other corners of the internet, I wanted to check in. A few things we’ve done: taken the classic canal boat tour, tried copious samples of cheese, snacked on chocolate, stroopwafels, pastries, olives, bread and more cheese, visited the cute town of Edam, tried to feed intimidating swans at Keukenhof, and popped by Haarlem and Leiden. Whew, no wonder my feet are so tired. It’s always fun to show off your favorite places! We’ve been having a fall-asleep-exhausted-by-night sort of fun time. I’ll soon be posting all about the new places I’ve been (Flower Auction! Volendam! Keukenhof Gardens!), but for now you’ll have to excuse a bit more silence while I go snack on some more goodies. It’s what we do. Clearly.