hey there folks....well, i am trying to catch back up and many folks have said they wanted to see iceland stuff as soon as possible....and although that was my most recent trip, i still need to get amsterdam in here....so i have combined my january trip to the dam and the end of my feb break stop in london for this update and iceland will be the next one sent....and what a trip that was....more on that soon....
my trip in january to amsterdam was for work....a middle school teacher conference....always a great place to see old friends and learn new strategies to handle the hormonal years of middle school....and this year i was lucky enough to get to go to amsterdam....if you haven't been here, you have missed a rare gem....i LOVE this town....from the amazing food, to the beautiful train station, to the lights and the incredible canals....of course the red light district is interesting to walk through and vapors in the air let you know you are in a place with interesting rules that differ from most places.....and the bicycles....watch out!!!!!! they will run you down and have the right of way....well, at least they seem to....what a place....
in the shot the below you see what one of the main squares was looking like all dressed up with holiday lights still....i took this shot as we were forever searching for a really good indian restaurant we had been told about....never found the place and settled with mediocre instead....but it was fun to jump the trams, walk around the small streets and see the leaning buildings (more on that later)....
i figured i would include a picture of the bicycles and how prevalent they in amsterdam....they have places for bike parking only....this is one of the biggest ones i saw, while dodging bikes of course....its right outside of the train station....so well organized and green is this town....love it....
the shot below is one that was taken across a canal....as you can see the buildings here are very tall and narrow....matter of fact at the top of most of these buildings you will find a pulley system so people who live int he buildings can haul their purchases up outside of the stairwells, which are usually super narrow!!!! the buildings on the edges of canals are running into problems these days, with sinking foundations....you can see the brick building is sagging pretty hard on the right hand side....incredible....and these leaning/sinking/sagging buildings can be found all over...i love the way the buildings look squished and that they are so narrow....makes for cool architectural views.....
of course most people know about the red light district in amsterdam....and yes, i did walk down the main canal and caught some window dressing in other parts of the city....but in most spots the women in the windows do not want you to take pictures....which was fine with me....but as i came across the window below, i had to laugh....who knew there were so many different kinds of crazy condoms....yes, these are all condoms....i actually shared this picture with my 8th graders as we were studying contraception in wellness/health....they were just as amazed....who knew???? oh, and some of these are female condoms....not male....if you need to know more....just ask....heck, if i can teach this stuff to 8th graders, i can teach it to anybody :)
one of the other cool stores i came across was this one....it was a dutch souvenir shop....and yes, the cows are on the ceiling....as i am sure you are aware, this area of the world has some of the best cheese ever....and of course i sampled some and brought some back to be shared....yummy....but this shop was definitely the winner for most creative ceiling in my book....
i have to say, one of my favorite things about amsterdam is all of the water....and the houseboats along the canals are amazing....people really take care of them.....maybe some day that will be where i will need to live for a little bit....obviously not in the near future....but you never know....
this is the train station....an amazing building and i have to say, very efficient, but always under construction....well, at least every time i have been here...i still have never seen the main museum of the city without scaffolding....beautiful, but crazy construction....
this last shot was taken at the heineken factory, as that is housed in amsterdam....and the conference where i was had our last party in this particular factory....the coolest thing is that they card you and if you are not of age in your home country, you may not partake in this adult disney world....imagine our surprise when we got to the end of the tour and were directed to the bar on the top floor....where we had an open bar with seven different types of beer to choose from and a DJ.....i sampled each beer....and was on the dance floor for a turn or two ;)
from amsterdam to london....where i spent two days at the end of my feb break.....we actually had sunny skies the first day and did the hop-on hop-off bus....it was an amazing way to see the sunshine and sunset in london....the place we stayed was right around the corner from the sherlock holmes pub....so of course we had a few drinks in there and thought about solving a crime or two.....
on the open air bus we saw all the highlights of london....including the gruesome tower of london....so much death happened here in the past....even if it is a beautiful building....
and of course i was blown away again by the stunningness of big ben and the parliament building....these are two of my favorite structures in this incredible town.....
our second day in town we actually went outside of town to greenwich, someplace neither cat nor i had been to....so close and free boat trip convinced us to go....and what a great stop for a pair of science geeks....this is one of the official time keepers in greenwich, where the prime meridian is located....so this is where longitude starts and official worldwide time is kept....
the red ball is also a time keeper....it rises to the top of the pole everyday and falls at precisely 1pm in the afternoon....why 1pm???? i have no idea....but its the same time every day and its how time was announced visually.....pretty cool.....
here you see the electronic version of the time keeper and the the line that separates east from west....
and of course, just like i did at the equator (north and south line), i had to stand over the line with one foot in the west and one in the east....very cool if you ask me....plus, we got to see all the clock inventions that had been part of the longitude race....i actually got to see the H1, H2, and H4....i know, geeky stuff....but way cool if you are into it....
on our way back into town i had to take a picture of another one of my favorite buildings....this is city hall...many londoners hate this building....i really like it....it adds a flash of modern in a rather architecturally older styled city....i know many will disagree with me...but i think this gives the thames its own flair.....nicknamed the pineapple....
the last shot i got before heading to see the show wicked - which is incredible and if you have not seen it, you really should.....was of this colorful building next to the london eye....we were amazed at how many tourists were hanging in london....so it made for crowded times, but also fun times to see all of the diversity....simply amazing....
my last shot for better or for worse, is in a british pub....this place had some tasty treats, including cider on tap.....yea strongbow!!!! yummy!!!! and how could you not stop in a pub for some chips and a beer.....perfect end to a perfect day!
so there's my update for amsterdam and london....both very cool towns, with lots to do and lots to see, every time i go back :) my next update will be out soon....i promise....it's going to cover my recent trip to iceland....wowowowowowowow.....things here in croatia are fine.....you may see something on the news about protests, and yes, they have started here against the government....seems to be the thing going on worldwide....they have been peaceful and on the smallish side....but it's true....we are having them too....school is fine....people are stopping by from the ice in the coming months and i am excited and i have started organizing visa stuff for china....so life is rollin' on....
i hope you and your families are well and have a fun mardi gras/fat tuesday/fasnik.....and be sure to have a doughnut....that's what they eat here to celebrate (i found out poland does too)....drop a line if you wish and hopefully i will get back to you sooner rather than later....peace out.....
