Amsterdam

We went to Amsterdam!!!

The Montelbaanstoren.
This may have been a light house at some point. It is a tower standing at the intersection of two large canals.

Just a three hour train ride and we where in the city of bikes. No kidding there are more bikes than people in Amsterdam. The roads are more for bikes than cars. People use them for everything, we saw parents with their kids on their bike, guys with their girlfriend on the back, people with groceries and workers with tool kits and a beer! People rode bikes and talked on their cell phone or rode next to a friend and gossiped. Everywhere people on bikes and still there where thousands locked up on railings, bike racks, and light posts. Gummibaer doesn’t like to ride bikes so we opted to see the sights on foot.

The streets where full of people enjoying the sights. We strolled past beautiful buildings everywhere.
This is the Oude Kerk.
The streets are narrow so it is hard to get a good picture and you won’t get anything without lots of tourists in it so I just took the roofline and the sky.


This is a view of the back of the Rijksmuseum.
There is a beautiful park there, it has fountains and playgrounds and a huge grassy area that would be great for a picnic.

After all that walking we stopped for a rest on a bench by the water.
This is one of the bigger canals in Amsterdam, the Singelgracht. It was lined with old homes and lawns leading to private docks, beautiful!

Amsterdam is all about water so to really experience that we stayed in a small cabin on a boat! It was great! Our hosts where a friendly local man, Hans, and his sweet dog. Breakfast was provided on board in a lovely home-style dinning area. Nothing could be better than good tea, good food, sunshine and a view of the city from the water!

Next, we visited the Van Gough museum, a favorite artist of Gummibaer’s and one I also enjoy. The paintings where beautiful! I definitely recommend seeing his work in person if you ever get the chance.

We stopped at a café for some refreshment.
Local beer, and quite possibly the simplest and most delicious sandwich ever. French Brie and cucumbers!

Naturally, there was also Sock knitting!

I turned the heels of my Pomatomus Socks!

And last but not least, I like to look for ordinary things that a tourist might not normally see.

I saw this on a small side street out of the way and it seemed to me to be a picture of a local’s Amsterdam.

Sea life

We took our friend to Sea Life on Sunday.

Sea Life is a huge aquarium in Centro (the largest mall in Germany).

I took a lot of pictures and I thought I would share some of the better ones. I have to warn you, these are all taken through glass and without a flash so some of them are a bit blurry!

You enter through a room that holds people in groups to spread them out before letting them into the long pathway through the exhibit and once you get in it is a whole different world! It is mostly dark and you walk past lots on windows that look into the tanks, there are even tunnels where you go under the tanks and the fish swim over you!

I totally enjoyed this aquarium! The exhibits where very nicely done and there was lots of interactive stuff for kids in both German and English. I highly recommend checking it out if you are in the area especially if you have kids.

Austrian Friends and German Beer

This past weekend we had a friend form Austria come and stay with us! What better excuse to go out for some German beer and food?

We went to a beer garden in Duisburg to enjoy the fine weather and soak up the atmosphere.

Gummibaer is a beer aficionado so he took us to a place that has almost 200 types of beer, mostly from Germany. Of course we had to try a few!

We even found some beer I liked!

Yummm...... Raspberry Lambic.

The food was good too!

I had Gnocchi with mushrooms and cheese sauce.

The only difficulty was keeping Gummibaer from eating it all before I could!

Three hours later we finished our beers and headed home by train, bus and foot. Public transportation is very good in Germany. You don't need a DD as long as everyone can walk!

Enjoying life in Germany

One year!

It has been one year since I started this blog. It got kind of a slow start because I didn't have a camera and I am just now starting to feel comfortable with the idea of writing for others to read. I still don't know where I want to go with it but I think it is a good way for me to practice my writing and photography! I really enjoy reading blogs and I feel that having my own blog gives back to the blogging community in a small way. I hope that as I continue blogging I will get to know new friends and become a better writer. Most of all I would like to thank YOU the reader* for bearing with me through my learning experiences and to say if you are lurking, delurk! and let me know what you think of my first year and give me any ideas you might have for the future.

Note:
As a Thank You for reading and an extra incentive to delurk, I will send a surprise package to a randomly selected commenter on this post!

(If you are selected I will contact you through your blog or email and ask for your snail mail address so I can send it off.)

*Hi Mom!

Eating local

I really like to shop for food. I know it sounds weird but that's how it is. I even have dreams about it. Today I found fresh local plums. They look like the kind my Mom loves. I couldn't resist trying them, delicious! I have been exploring the grocery stores here in Germany to see what they have and learn the names of things. When I can't find something one day I get out the dictionary and write the German name next to the English and look again. So far I have found most things but not necessarily the same as I am used to. I got garlic the other day and much to my surprise it didn't have cloves, each small head is sold garlic goodness. Every day is an adventure!