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| Amsterdam |
| 05.28.04 (4:44 am) [edit] |
Alrighty - finally a few minutes to update this damn thing!
We've been busy traveling again as you probably already know. Amsterdam this time - so I will try to condense 5 days into this entry.
We left last wednesday afternoon for the 'Dam from Geneva Airport. Getting through the line in the airport sucked - and believe it or not, my patience for waiting in lines has not improved one bit. We finally got checked in and left for a short (1 hour) flight. Got there, found the right bus pretty quickly and headed out to find our hotel.
We walked into the hotel which had been converted from an old house. Sounds quaint, until you realize that these old houses had no elevators, and VERY steep winding staircases. There were 18 rooms in the place and naturally we had room 18 - the worst climb in the hotel. Apparently our room used to be the attic - 8 feet wide with a ceiling that sloped at 45°. It was bizzarre feeling having to tilt your head at a 45° angle to be able to use the toilet. But I digress.
After dumping our bags we immediately set out to start exploring this wonderland of sin.....
First stop - coffeeshop for a , uhm, cappucino. Yeah. Then we set out walking in search of a place for dinner. The area we were in was LOADED with restaurants with almost any type of food you could think of - this led to the hosts having to work the street trying to lure in customers - it was kind of like being at a carnival and very entertaining. We gorged ourselves on Mexican food, walked around exploring a little more, found another coffeeshop and then decided to call it a day around midnight.
Thursday started with a quick breakfast and then we set out to find Van Moppes Diamond Factory (which was where Karen's Mom had gotten her diamond years earlier). We had a great time comparing stones, picking out settings etc, and then 3 hours later we left with me carrying the rock in my backpack with the understanding that I would surprise her with the ring when and where I wanted too. I didn't realize how nervous and paranoid I would be carrying it around though so I ended up taking Karen on a carriage ride later that day and proposed on the ride. This picture was taken shortly afterward.
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We grabbed a bite to eat and headed off to meet Panos and Jen at their hotel as they had arrived a day later than us. Found the hotel about 10 minutes before they arrived and headed back out into the city again, coffeeshop, dinner, watched the street entertainers, wandered a bit more and then went to our attic.....
Friday morning we set out for the Van Gogh museum - it was interesting and impressive although I am no big fan of Van Gogh. And the fact that every painting had 28 million people all straining to see didn't help either. We bailed out of there and headed out for a few Guiness on a beautiful deck overlooking the canals. Very relaxing. That night we headed out for a nighttime stroll through the infamous Red Light District. Hookers in windows - who'da thunk it?? You are strictly forbidden from taking pictures on those streets in the Red Light - many cameras (and bodies) have found their way into the canals for trying. So naturally, Karen needed pictures. One was a tame picture of the canal at night. I think the other is just a nice girl trying to work her way through college..... The quality isn't that good, but Karen was in stealth mode trying to get the picture from the window of a bar we were in. No, not THAT type of window!
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The next few days were filled with tons of fun - canal boat ride, comedy show, tons of good food, more "coffee", miles of walking..... We had one amazing steak dinner at a restaurant whose name I can not remember. The downstairs was full, but they had 4 extra tables upstairs in the attic. What is it with us, Amsterdam and attics? This is a shot of the stairs we had to climb to get to our table. And that our waiter had to climb carrying two dinner plates in each hand.....
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Some of you might remember the picture of me and the giant plastic crawfish in New Orleans. Well Karen and I have decided that when we travel to new cities we are going to take turns "posing" the other in front of the landmark of our choosing. The challenge is to find the most embarrassing poses. Here was my first choice for Karen's pose:
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Bad move for me to go first, because here is Karen's "revenge" photo:
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Sunday after a late breakfast we decided to get cheesy and headed off to Madame Toussaud's Wax Museum. I think the pictures will speak for themselves:
We have great respect for the current regime, as you can see.
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"Little red corvette......"
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"No woman, no cry... no woman, no cry..."
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I don't know what it is about Amsterdam that compels a person to have to pose with, in or on inanimate objects.... Oh wait. Yes, I do..... The same thing that compels one to eat french fries, falafels, donner kabobs, frosted waffles and Ben and Jerry's. This city is a junk food addict's paradise!
The architecture in Amsterdam was unlike anything I've ever seen. Way back in the day, the residents of the city were taxed based on the footprint of their house and the width of their front doors. Seriously. That is why most of the houses there are tall and skinny with tiny front doors. It also explains the stairwells, as the rooms were already small enough without wasting space on silly things like wide stairwells. The houses were also built at extremely odd angles so that the houses lean. Can anyone tell me why? Bueller? Bueller? Okay then - I'll tell you. It was because the damn doors and stairways were too narrow to move furniture in so everything had to be hoisted up the outside and in through the windows. The next picture isn't an optical illusion - check out the tilt on THIS house! Also, notice the huge "hooks" at the peak of the houses to attach the hoist to. All the houses have them to this day.
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So anyway. Last weekend was a 4 day weekend in Switzerland. This weekend is a 3 day weekend. DAMN I love all the Catholic holidays in this region!
I'm tired of typing. You are undoubtedly tired of reading this mindless drivel so I will leave you with this picture. Ciao'.
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| Blogalicious |
| 05.19.04 (1:25 am) [edit] |
Okay - I've snubbed all our beloved followers. I have no excuse other than work has been too busy and our internet connection at home is slower than smoke signals....
So follow me, my little lemmings, into today's blog entry.
First of all to recap last weekend - we spent last Saturday roaming around Thun which is quickly becoming my favorite village in Switzerland. Tons of stores, restaurants, canals - very fun to just waste the day away. On top of which the weather was absolutely perfect all day long. Saturday night I went to see a great funk band on Saturday night with Panos and his wife (Karen stayed home with a migraine). GREAT band - horrible name - "Dr. Best Goes Funky". It was a lot of fun just to see live music again. There just isn't much of a bar band scene in our area at all. Although we are at the beginning of the festival season where there are endless outdoor music festivals ever month of the summer, so we will be hitting our fair share of them, I'm sure.
Sunday was spent on our first real mountain hike as Karen described earlier. I don't have much to add except that you don't understand true humility until you've been passed on the trail 3 times by the same 80 year old couple. We would race to get ahead of them (to try and save face) but without fail they would pass us by again as we stopped for one of our many breaks! These people over here are in SHAPE at any age - we are such sorry, fat Americans!
Work this week has been, well, work. It sucks. 'Nuff said.
Which brings me to today. Thursday and Friday are holidays here (God I love the holiday system here!). In 1 hour we will be on a train headed for the airport and by dinner we will be in Amsterdam! Panos and his wife decided today to join us on our excursion and are wrapping up their travel details as we speak. Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Red Light District, China Town, Canal Tour, Cafe's - these are just a few of the things we plan to cram into the next 5 days. It should be a blast and I can't wait to get the HELL out of this office and start the vacation!
And by the way - I forgot my phone when I packed this morning so if you call me at all between now and next Monday, I will not get your message. Karen has her cell phone though, if anyone needs to reach us.
And I guess that is all for today, so I will leave you with this - http://www.ebaumsworld.com/be...
Ciao'
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| Duped..... |
| 05.17.04 (4:01 am) [edit] |
Yes, folks, even I was duped by Blue. I figured I would just read and not need to write!!
So.....Kill Bill 2 was awesome. Strangely enough, even though we made the standard reservations for seats at the Kino (cinema...your german lesson for today) there were only 10 out of 200 seats occupied. Hmmmmm. Do you think they don't like the Kino, or just don't understand Tarantino.....hmmmm...i'll have to think about that for a while. Even with the small amount of German I know, the german subtitles just did NOT do justice to the dialogue. Hast du Angst, Timmah?
We went to Thun on Saturday. Really great day of walking around the town, ate THAI food!! Woohoooo. Brian actually saw a real live band Saturday night. I had a migraine...no,...I really did.
Sunday we went on our first Swiss Alps hike. This was designated as an easy trail. Although Brian tried to phone three times for a medivac, a nice old 90 year old couple offered to carry Brian to the next town. Yeah, for real. There were white haired folks all over the trail passing us like we were standing still!!! We were huffing and puffing and sweating. It was beautiful though. We took one wrong turn and ended up going over the top of a mountain instead of on the trail around the outside of it. Not wholly my fault though.... We'll have some pictures soon. I even took a picture of the 90 year old couple that was on my butt while I was dying trying to get up a hill. Sad, very sad.
Two days until Amsterdam!!! Yes, we need a vacation.
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| I love our friends! |
| 05.12.04 (5:51 am) [edit] |
Can I just say, thank god for you guys. I love that you guys make me laugh all the time with your comments. Yes, people here think I am very weird because I laugh at my computer all the time, but that's okay.
The weather finally got better, back to the 60s low 70s. I worked from home yesterday and enjoyed sitting European style on the balcony with my laptop. Quite a new experience. I am getting very used to this type of sunbathing. I can see a big problem, however, with these new found habits in the back yard in Dover.
I CAN'T WAIT TO GO TO AMSTERDAM!!!! 7 days baby.
Can I also say how much I am enjoying the Craving SASS CD? Believe it or not, it is a good workout CD. It is funny though to hear screams and singing and howling in the background and know exactly who it is. Yes, I started working out again. Both of us did. We are realizing that a day hike on a 10,000 foot mountain is not like a walk along the beach and we just may be out of shape enough for it to kill us.
We are going to the MOVIES tonight!!!! I feel like a 9 year old getting to go out like a grown up. You wouldn't think it would be that damn exciting to go see a movie. We are seeing Kill Bill 2 (I know, that's old). BUt it is in english!! I am so happy. We'll let you know how it goes.
Until tomorrow......
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| Alright, fine |
| 05.06.04 (6:28 am) [edit] |
I am the worst blogger in the world. I promise you daily servings of blogalicious goodness and then deliver nothing. All I can say is thank you for falling into my evil trap of blogginess.
I figured once I had you all hooked on needing your daily blog "fix" that I would be able to use your addiction to my own advantage, so as of tomorrow this blog will become a pay site and your credit cards will all be charged $21.99 per month for unlimited access. I think it's worth it. If you pay for the yearly discounted membership rate of $199 you will also receive the password to my soon to be released website - "www.holycrapkarenburnedherboo bsagain.com".
Anyhow, as previously mentioned, not a whole lot going on here at the moment. Work, homelife, etc. Oh. The weather just couldn't SUCK enough lately. Seems like all it has done is rain for a week. Til last night when it started SNOWING. WTF is up with that - it IS the 6th of May after all! Oh, I'm sorry. Did I say "snow"? What I meant to say was BLIZZARD. As in "complete white-out". You couldn't see 10 feet beyond our deck. Hell, you could barely see the deck. I meant to take pictures of the storm to post here, but I was too lazy to find the camera. Instead I drew you these "before and after" pictures. The first one was taken (in my head) in the early afternoon. The second was taken (in my head) at about 10pm last night.
BEFORE:
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AFTER:
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There. Consider yourself "blogged". Now get over it and get the hell back to work.
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| Layin' Low |
| 05.05.04 (6:40 am) [edit] |
Hallo Zusammen (a typical swiss greeting....this is your first lesson)
I know, you have been blogless. We apologize. We are being 100% complete slugs. Actually, it is mostly because there has been NOTHING going on, which we greatly appreciate.
Mom and Nick left on Monday morning. It was so great having them. WE had an amazing Swiss dinner on sunday night and had to roll each other home. Other than that, it has been laundry and cleaning the house.
I finished Angels and Demons by Dan Brown (same author as Da Vinci Code) and it was an awesome book. I highly recommend it!
Brian is now a Visp employee!!! OMIGOD, it only took 8 months. So that chapter is finally history. Many of you know the long horrible saga.
We are soooo looking forward to our trip to Amsterdam on the 19th. Two weeks away!!! We are also looking forward to Elisa coming on June2 and Brittany and jOhnny, Lisa and Caitlin on July 1!!!!
No big plans right now for this weekend. Sorry our lives are not more exciting right now....but we are okay with that for a short while.......
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