Amsterdam, Netherlands

After picking up a rental car, we traveled to our hotel in Amsterdam. Then off to the dog show in the northern area of Netherlands called Friesland. Stayed at a wonderful bed and breakfast in the town of Hoornsterzwaag with very friendly and helpful hosts.

The garden at the bed and breakfast is beyond words. It is what I would hope to be able to create, if I had an abundance of water and great soil that is. Acres of trees and paths around a lily pond with many fish that you can feed.

We stayed here four nights while Ric worked at the dog show. Steve and I stayed inside for two days as we came down with head colds.





Two of the days that Ric judged, there was a cold wind and rain. We felt bad for him while we stayed and enjoyed the hospitality of our hosts at the B & B.


The people of the Netherlands are very friendly and almost all speak English.



One day we went to a local farmer's market with local goods in a small nearby town. And all that Steve could seem to take pictures of were the Heineken beer maids!

It seems that Friesland has an abundance of cows and corn. These crops are everywhere. We then found a cheese shop. But we found out that most of the stores and restaurants in rural Netherlands do not take credit cards, so we spent time looking for ATM's to get euro's.

There was a cook-off at the local market where the locals competed in smoked eels. We did not try them though.

Also, the public restrooms at the local town left nothing to the imagination!!!

London

Three days in London - we tried to see as much as we could. First we went to bought tube passes to get to our hotel near the Baker Street station. Very nice hotel - we would recommend it - 10 Manchester St. Hotel. Went to see the play "Billy Elliott" after dinner at the "Bag O'Nails".















Next day we went on a tour of Buckingham Palace (after I got lost on the tubes).

We also stopped by this Smart Car outside a farmers market near the hotel.






Also we went to Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and Parliament.






We walked across Westminster Bridge to then reach the London Eye.



The view from the London Eye was great. Though we did have to bribe Ric to join us. He had a good time though.

Also saw Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery on the way to try to buy tickets at Leicester Square to see another play. Then off to Picadilly Circus. Whew, we were tired!




Day three - Tower of London. Traditional English breakfast first.

Great tour by the Beefeater Guards, except there is one that likes to yell at innocent American women!








The last night in London we went to see the play "Wicked". We have all seen it before, but this was a super production!

Oslo, Norway

We enjoyed Oslo very much. I recommend to all to visit this beautiful city. First we bought tickets to the Hop on - Hop off bus line (we learned our lesson in Copenhagen and used this bus line instead). We first walked to the Vigeland Park. The sculptor Gustav Vigeland donated his statues to the city as long as they could be viewed 365 days a year without charge. The park in his honor is huge and his works of art are impressive. All of his statues are nudes except the one he sculpted of himself. You can imagine the fun that Ric had with this!!


There is a monolith that he sculpted that took him 32 years to finish. It is sculpted out of one piece of granite with over 120 figures sculpted. Impressive!











After the park, we then boarded the bus to go see the Viking Museum. Inside are three intact boats that were buried by the vikings as tombs for important people.








Then off on the bus to go to the royal palace where we saw the changing of the guard.

The National Theater of Oslo

Copenhagen

Arrived in Copenhagen where we again boarded a Jump on - Jump off bus that takes you all over the city. Don't ever take these buses....... waited 1 1/2 hours at one stop!

We stopped and walked around the royal palace. .



We also boarded a small tour boat that allowed us to view the city.










The famous Little Mermaid statue that commemorates the story by Hans Christian Anderson was currently on loan to the far east so we were unable to see it.

We also saw the church with the third largest cuppola with copper plating. It is said that all the people of Copenhagen contributed one copper pot each to cover the cuppola at the top of the church.

Lubeck and Travemunde Germany

The ship arrived in Travemunde, Germany where we took our only shore excursion to the city of Lubeck. The city was built around a castle with cobblestone streets (which are everywhere in Europe).



Ric is standing inside the courthouse that is still used to this day. It was built hundreds of years ago. There are two doors entering the courthouse, one for the not guilty and one for the guilty. The door for the not guilty was smaller as they had to bow there head and couldn't wear their hats.









We also were able to walk through Mary's church that was bombed during World War II. Rebuilt totally except for one of the church bells that dropped to the floor that remains to this day as a memorial.
There was a huge astronomical clock with the faces of the moon, constellations with characters that would revolve and bow around a figure of the pope at the top of each hour.







Outside the church was a statue of the devil that portrays a folk story as to how the church was built. The story is that the builder of the church didn't tell the devil that he was building a church but rather a bar. The devil helped by bringing the huge granite blocks. When the devil found out that he was helping to build a church he was angry and dropped this huge granite block to destroy the church but missed. So the devil is waiting.

The streets of Lubeck were very narrow as were most of the streets in Europe. Narrow houses and narrow streets. Narrow smart cars too.

As the ship pulled away, the whole town of Travemunde perched on the pier and landing to wave goodbye as well as a band playing.

Kiel Canal, Germany

The ship then left Amsterdam and spent the next day traveling through the Kiel canal. We stayed on board the ship, played cards and ate, ate and ate!

The view from the ship of the German countryside was amazing. The houses were all clean, well-maintained, and the gardens were all green and beautiful.

Amsterdam

Arrived in Amsterdam the next morning. Immediately we bought a canal boat pass that we could get on and off to see the sights. We cruised all over the city getting off to see the Rijksmuseum that had a lot of old Dutch art from the Dutch artists such as Rembrandt and Vermier. Van Gogh has his own museum.

We snacked on the local favorite of french fries with whatever you want...... mayo, mustard, barbecue sauce, chocolate, maple syrup......anything.



We then walked to the Red Light District which is just what you expect.





After a day browsing the streets of Amsterdam, we were pretty exhausted.