Before the conference, I spent a couple of days in Amsterdam. I arrived on a cold, rainy day, but managed to get out and look around a bit without getting drenched. From my hotel, I headed along the canal down to the flower market...
The flower stalls are actually in the canal...
Yes, there were tulips...
These are wooden tulips...
Lot's of other flowers too...
And bulbs...
I came across several McDonald's, but didn't enter any (a big change from my first trips to Europe)...
There are a lot of bicycles and a lot of other vehicles as well...
I didn't realize that this is where Heineken comes from...
When it started to rain, I got on a boat for a canal tour...
Amsterdam buildings have very steep, narrow stairways, so a lot of things are moved in through the windows. Most buildings have rigging for pulley systems near the roofs...
A bit too cold for ice cream...
Welding on water seems potentially hazardous...
After getting off of the boat, it was still raining, jet lag was setting in, and I decided to visit the Anne Frank house. I was glad that I went, but the depressing nature of the Anne Frank house didn't help my mental status...
After the Anne Frank house (no pictures allowed), I went back to my hotel for a bit. When I finally decided to head out for dinner, it pretty much stopped raining. For the rest of my trip it seemed to stop raining every time I decided to go out...
The canals are pretty at night...
This swan really wanted my attention, but I had nothing to fed him...
The next day, I walked down to the Van Gogh museum.The wind was really strong, but the sun made a couple of appearances in the morning...
This little boat looked like it might sink soon...
The wind was whipping up the water outside of the museums...
One of several eye catching bikes I came across...
After the museum (no photos allowed), I headed back and parked myself on a bench for a while. Sitting still helped me to notice some of the details of the city...
An odd expression...
I'm not really sure what this was about...
Then I headed back past the flower market to take a few more pics...
So many bicycles...
It looks like there are alley parking spots along these buildings...
The hotel where I stayed in Amsterdam...
Where the conference was held in Zeist...
We visited a huge train museum...
Where the privileged waited for the train...
A place to get their hair done...
The museum is huge. We only had time to see a few sections...
We were told that at one time, lice was a big problem on the trains. I hope that's no longer the case...
An "elevator" took us to another world where trains were invented...
A train for kids too...
This was the view from my room. I very much liked being in the woods...
The hotel just before the fog really rolled in...
The view from the room where the conference was held...
Where we took breaks...
We won't talk about the horse lamp...
Fog settled in the last night. It was beautiful, but freezing cold. I ran out to get a few pictures without first going to get my coat...
Next stop: Newcastle Upon Tyne
No comments:
Post a Comment