London: Mind the Gap

 Today we bid farewell to Amsterdam and took off to London by train.  We had a bright early start to our day with a train to catch at 6:00am. I had hopes of enjoying the countryside, but spent majority of the ride feeling motion sick. 

As I closed my eyes, fought to sleep, and willed myself not to throw up, Mr. Stannix would kindly nudge me if there was something neat to see! "Look, Addie! We're in Belgium!" I'd open my eyes for a few seconds and soak in the scene and then close them again. "Oh! Look at the church! And that castle!" We grabbed a connecting train in Brussels and went through customs super speedy. Our customs officer asked us where we were staying, and then asked us how close we were. We told her we were married and she chuckled and said, "Good! The rooms at that hotel are nice and cozy!" I was so glad when the train finally pulled into London and I could get out for some fresh air. 

From there we purchased tickets for the underground and Mr. Stannix found us the best route to our hotel near St. James Park. We carried our bags up and down stairs at the station, grabbed a connecting train, and finally arrived! We were able to drop our bags, charge Mike's phone, and hang out for a few minutes on some comfy couches before heading out to explore.

We went a few blocks down the street to grab lunch at a little market we had heard about.

There was lots of vendors and street food. We finally settled on steak sandwiches with truffle mayo and ranch sauce. They were pretty yummy, and we were pretty hungry!

We used our tickets to jump on the bus and figure out our way around a little bit. There are more double decker buses than cars here it seems. We lucked into a front row seat on the top of a bus and enjoyed the view as we drove around London.

The London Eye and the River Thames.

In the evening we made our way to the theater and took in part one of "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child". Mike loves all things Harry Potter and was so excited to learn it was playing in London! We have tickets to part two tomorrow night!

The acting was incredible and the special effects were like nothing I'd ever seen before. It was like watching a magic show. The wands actually fired out sparks, chairs and people would float in mid air, and the scene changes were spot on. It was such a neat experience! It was Mike's first play and he was blown away by it all. We both look forward to tomorrow nights performance!

Farewell Amsterdam

 This afternoon Mr. Stannix finished up with his course and we spent our last bit of time here exploring a few more areas in the city. I've pretty much walked all over this place and it was fun to point things out to Mike that I had seen the previous two days. It's nice to become familiar with a place and to know where you are as we explored the different streets and many many canals. We tried the famous fries and mayo that is pretty popular here, and stayed out fairly late. As we walked back to centraal station I turned around to soak in the scene one last time. I will not miss running away from bikes everywhere we go, but I will miss the architecture and the history! Farewell Amsterdam, it's been a slice!

The Dutch Countryside

One of the things on my list for Holland was to see the windmills and explore the country outside of the vast city of Amsterdam. With some encouragement from Mr. Stannix and a few other people I went ahead and booked myself on a tour with loads of other people and I fell in love with Holland. Our tour guide spoke Dutch, English, and Spanish! And almost every other presenter we met on our tour also spoke three languages.

We started out visiting the windmills of Zaanse Schans, which is a pretty town situation on the Zaan River. The windmills are well preserved and date back all the way to the 17th century. We were able to tour one of the windmills that made peanut oil and see the process work and learn how they turn the sails throughout the day to follow the wind. The windmills help grind wheat, nuts, spices and coloring for paints. I found it super interesting!!

As the windmill turns, these millstones turn relentlessly to crush seeds or nuts under their weight (which is about 5000 kilograms). The heavy millstones are driven by a mechanism of the mill powered only by the wind. The kind miller showed us the whole process start to finish.

 

The end result of this mill is gorgeous bottles of peanut oil shipped and sold all over.

The second place we went to was a small fishing village, just a short drive away named Voldendam. We began our tour with a walk down De Dijk (the main harbour strip) which is full of little shops and lots of people biking! One thing I learned there was to walk near the side of the cobblestone streets and run when you hear a bike bell. Ha! It seems that everywhere we went, the bikers had the right-of-way and were never pleased with crowds of tourists blocking their streets. 

 On the one side of the strip was traditional buildings and homes, and on the other side were working trawlers and fishing boats. Many of the food places mainly sold fresh sea food or fish and chips.

 We had the opportunity to go into the basement of a cheese factory/shop and learn how cheese is made right from the fresh cows milk to the finish. After four weeks it's ready to eat. We were able to sample a whole bunch of different kinds of cheese and purchase our favorites.

 

While everybody else ate sea food for dinner, I went and bought myself a Stroop Waffle. I have been craving one ever since I learned about them! We had a chance to hang out on the docks before jumping on a ferry across the lake to Marken.

 The ferry ride was about twenty minutes, and I had to pee so bad! Thankfully the bathrooms on the ferry were free! Most bathrooms here cost up to 1 Euro per person to use, so I got good at timing pit stops to restaurants where we ate or our hotel. 

We arrived in Marken at the golden hour which made for perfect lighting to capture the harbor. The little village was quiet and most of the shops were closed for the day. Marken is a former island in the Markermeer. The peninsula is a popular seaside getaway that's reachable by a long causeway or frequent ferries.

It was so quaint, and lovely, and quiet. 

We walked from one side of the village to the other where we were able to go inside a small shoe making factory and learn how clogs were made. Another process that's so intriguing. While they used to be hand made, they have now developed special machines which are fast and effective. 

They were all so beautiful! There were bundles of them hanging across the ceiling in every direction and a nice display for purchase in the main store. 

Visiting Marken was such a lovely end to the day! It was so peaceful and wonderful.

As we walked to the bus we listened to the birds, the sheep, and bike bells in the distance. It was just a short jaunt across the causeway and back to Amsterdam. We arrived back late in the evening just as the sun dipped behind the tall rows of houses. I caught the train back to our hotel and met up with a very sleepy Mr. Stannix who listened as I told him all about my adventures. This place will always have a piece of my heart!

Amsterdam: Flower Market

 Today was my first day exploring the city solo. Mr. Stannix is in his course for the next couple of days which means he leaves the hotel early in the morning and doesn't get back until late in the evening. It was overcast and foggy this morning, so I ate breakfast at the hotel (drank icky carbonated water for the first time) and then snuck in a morning nap. By the time I woke up the skies were blue and the fog had cleared. I bought another two day train pass and hopped the tram into the city to go exploring. 

 I checked our trusty map and grabbed a connecting tram that brought me to the famous flower market. Apparently this is where everybody in Amsterdam buys their flowers from. It smelled incredible as I walked through the market. 

 They had flowers of every kind, bulbs, seeds, plants, and souvenirs. I stumbled upon a Christmas store filled with Dutch hand painted ornaments and spent some time wandering around inside. 

 When I had seen all that I came to see I turned and walked down another street past bakeries, and bikes, and bridges.

 The architecture here is so unique and wonderful! I could stare at the buildings all day. Many of them have date stamps back to the 1600's. It's remarkable!

 Before I knew it, I had found myself back in the museum quarter. This time it was filled with locals wading in the water and jumping in and out of the fountains. Tourists climbed all over the sign and the place was filled with photographers. I didn't realize how far I had actually walked until I ended up here. My feet were hot and achy, so I slipped off my shoes and soaked my feet in the cold water for quite a while. It was so nice not having anywhere to be.

 Once my feet had recovered I put my shoes back on and wandered up another street towards centraal station. I made sure to stick to well peopled areas and kept a close eye out for crazies. At one point, in a busy courtyard full of eateries and tourists, I was approached by a tall pepper-haired man. I stopped abruptly and took a step back as he reached his hand out to touch my shoulder. "Don't worry, you are not my next victim," he said with a thick accent. "We are just a couple of Scandinavian guys looking for someone to share a drink and a meal with us," he added as he pointed to his buddy at the table. I, in no uncertain terms, told him no, and walked away as fast as I could.

 I kept to the streets with trams and bikes for the rest of my walk back. Walking almost seems dangerous here and I have had a few close encounters with bikes. Sometimes I have to close my eyes at busy corners as bikers are turning, cars are honking and trains are dinging. One biker rain his bell and then shouted at the elderly couple in front of me, "Are you DEAF!" It's crazy here. I am surprised there aren't more accidents honestly, but somehow the chaos works for them. 

 I found myself wondering how big the families are here, and then saw a mom bike by me with three kids in the bucket on the front of her bike and her daughter sitting behind with her arms wrapped around her. They use bikes to get everywhere here! It's no neat!

 I also admired these delicacies from the street. 

 I made it back to my hotel by early evening, and my feet were tingling. With no sign of Mike, I decided to have a late nap. 

I was able to chat with the littles back home who had just finished lunch and slept pretty well after all the fresh air and exercise!