Friesland

I finally did it, one of the last travel things I've been afraid of. I rented a car and drove in Europe. Granted, we were only in Amsterdam for about 10 minutes, and most of where we spent our time was, as the guy at Enterprise put it, "much slower." It would have been a little faster had I  realized that a passport is required for car rentals and not left mine at home, but fast enough it was. On a raining sideways morning, we finally set off across the Afsluitdijk towards the land of our grandfather's fathers.

Amsterdam Layover

Sometimes, when I'm planning a trip, I mess things up a little. This time around, it was booking our flights to and from Stuttgart out of Amsterdam. I accidentally booked it twice, and the flights I had to keep had a ~8 hour layover in the middle on the way there. It made for a long day of travel... But then again, we got to spend part of a day in Amsterdam!

Auf Wiedersehen

I hate saying goodbye. It seems so final. So instead I say auf wiedersehen, "until next time."  It wasn't easy to leave Germany on Wednesday afternoon. As the plane taxied, a squall blew in and gave me a wonderful image to remember Stuttgart by. I didn't have to cry. The clouds were tearing up for me.

Rijksmuseum

I was going to call this "Amsterdam blitz," but have to be honest. Really I went into town to see the museum that was being renovated last time I was here. Dutch masters +history + a boats and arm collections, I was sold. 

This beautiful building was completely covered in scaffolding last time!

Our adventure in pictures

I finally uploaded our pictures to Picasa!

To view the album directly, check out the album online here.

Hola from Barca! (Venice-Netherlands)

I am currently sitting on the computer at our hostel in Barcelona- we walked from the bus station last night between 11:00 and 12:00 through a still very busy La Rambla to this funky little place in the Gothic Quarter really close to the water end of Barcelona's busiest shopping street. The internet connection is decent and nobody is in line, so I will try to upload a few pictures and let you see our who/what/where of the last few days. Hard to believe that it has already been a week!

 First stop: Venice, where I ran around the city with George, Erin, and Mr Madden for a day and a half... (click read more)




 Then on to Fulda (via Frankfurt Hann airport, which is not in Frankfurt). I hung out with Anne Stein for a few days- brought back a lot of old memories and made some new ones!

6 trains after Fulda I was finally in Amsterdam. The next morning I met Ana at Schiphol airport and we ran around the city for the day... 

... and from there, to Harlingen the next morning. Bas and Rik picked us up at the station and then turned the two of us loose to explore the city

Ana+Poffertjes

Oma and Opa- the Mast is finished!

gallivanting with sheep on the dijk

Thanks again to Bas, Rik, and Max!