Amsterdam Canal Ride

Amsterdam is surrounded by lots of water.  They have water canals throughout their city.  We enjoyed a two-hour water tour of the city.

Boarding the canal bus.

Waiting for the canal bus to depart.

Views from the boat.

There are many homes right on the water, but the Amsterdam government has now put an end to allowing any new homes in the canals.

Amsterdam, Netherlands

We've just returned from 5 days in the Netherlands!  What an interesting place!  I would love to tell you about it.

We were fortunate enough to stay in a Dutch apartment that was close to the museums we wanted to visit.  It was interesting to experience what a Dutch apartment is like.  Here are a few pictures for you.  Please note the incredibly steep and narrow stairs leading up to the apartment.

This is the apartment building where we stayed.
Emily and Ivan are standing at the entrance.  Our apartment was on the very top floor...where you see the 3 narrow windows directly above them.

The steep narrow steps we trapsed every day.

A nice place to relax at the end of the day.

Looking at the two main rooms.

A place to eat our meals...

and a place to cook our meals.

While Jay was at work, Emily, Ivan and I went to the Rijks Museum.  It is a massive historical building.   At this wonderful museum children are free and children are 17 and younger.  I asked why the age for children was all the way to 17.  The answer was that the curator of the museum had a goal to make sure all Dutch children had the possibility to come and see their heritage that was displayed there.  I really thought that was awesome :o)

I hope you will enjoy some of our favorite things...which...another thing I love, love, loved about the museum...you can take pictures!!! (without flash, of course).

The first painting...so beautiful!

Ivan taking pictures of Van Gogh.

Jolynn's favorite painting.

We learned the Dutch has much history with Indonesia.

Emily at the battle of Waterloo.

The swan.

Goblet of fire.

This is another "Jolynn favorite," but there were so many people surrounding it that I couldn't get too close.  Emily forged ahead and helped me get a good shot...even with her in it :o)

This picture just wouldn't be the same without all the people looking at it.  Who is looking at who?

This is a small fraction of men who had casts taken of their face.  I thought it was very interesting.

This is an amazing library.  It holds 70,000 books all on the subject of art.  You may look at a book, but you cannot check it out (much like at the Library of Congress).  This room was designed to be a library.  The architect who designed the entire museum wanted it to have a library.  In the beginning there were 3,500 books.  

You can see this Indonesian statue sitting on the 3rd level of the museum.  He is holding a diesel engine in his lap.

Emily liked this painting.

These interesting items are made from the traditional blue and white Dutch Delft pottery.

This is every little girl's dream come true.  It is an actual royal doll house that some lucky little princess used to play with!

Close up of the royal doll house.

Ivan loved the brightly painted birds.

Dr.Jekyll and Ms. Hyde

What can I say?  Our dog is in heat.  As such, she is not herself these days.  To say the least, it is unbearable for all.  When I say unbearable for all, this includes our neighbors as well. 

One night I received a phone call from our upstairs neighbor.  We were all in bed and just about to fall asleep.  The conversation went something like this:

Neighbor:  "Jolynn? Is that you?

Me: "Yes, it's me."

Neighbor: "Are you at home?"

Me: "Yes, I'm at home."
Neighbor: "You're at home???"
Me: "Yes, I'm here at home."

Neighbor: "I think Jet is at our front door."

One evening (before this phone call) we came home to find our front door was wide open and Jet was standing in the doorway.  Her tail wagging and happy to greet us.  My response?  Who forgot to shut the door on the way out!!!?  Of course, I directed this question to the children.

Mystery solved.  Our dog has learned how to open our front door.  She has systematically been letting herself out while we are soundly sleeping in our beds.  She is on the prowl for a handsome mate.  Which, by the way, our upstairs neighbor has a beautiful male dog (no matter that he is "fixed").

Now that we became wise to her antics, we began to use the deadbolt.  I know, I know, we should have used it all along.  Again, we left for the evening.  We were gone for about 2 hours.  When we get home, I get a call from our upstairs neighbor again telling us that Jet barked very loudly non-stop for 2 hours straight....the reason?  She couldn't open the front door.

No wonder when we got home she flopped over on the floor panting like she had run a marathon.  All that barking.  I'm telling you, she has gone mad.  Our dog never barks in the house.  Never.

The following day I put her in the back of our car with a blanket, a toy, and some water.  I wasn't going to let her upset the neighbors in our apartment building.  I went grocery shopping, got a haircut, and drove to the vet (but it was closed).  The vet would be open later that day.

Later that day - went back to the vet.  The vet is a very nice woman.  She gave me some "relaxants" to help Jet.  I gave Jet the prescribed dose and for the next two days she did not bark or try to open the front door, but she was really loopy and groggy.  I'm not sure this is the solution.  The solution would be to get Jet "fixed."  However, the vet says that Germans do not usually have their animals altered.  It makes them fat. Flash back to Jerusalem - they were begging us to have her "fixed."  She will get cancer they said.  I guess this will be a discussion for another time.

At any rate, I'll be glad to get our Jet back. 

This is the face of a crazed dog!

Here she is eyeing the open door...she's been caught!

Frankfurt Temple

Saturday (February 15) we went on a date to the Frankfurt Temple.  We had a wonderful time.  When we came out of the temple, the weather had turned and there was icy wind and lots of clouds.  

The temple itself is not in Frankfurt.  The temple is in a cute little "town" called Friedrichsdorf.  It is about a 30 minute drive by car.  It isn't too far (thankfully).

Here we are in front of the temple.

Looking Back....at Poland Pottery

The first weekend in January the kids and I went with two other families on a trip to Poland.  We were mainly going to see the pottery, but we also saw an artist that makes things with blown glass.

Here are some pictures from the trip:

Pottery grows on trees in Poland

Welcome to one of many pottery shops...

One of Ivan's favorites.

A gorgeous sink basin.  Wouldn't that
be nice in a bathroom?

A few remnants leftover from Christmas.

Large Bowls (sorry they're sideways in the picture)

Serving Dishes on their side (sorry - again)

Pottery, pottery, pottery

Wouldn't these make nice lasagna pans?

Pottery everywhere...even outside

Artists at work.

Glass blown sculptures

Playful Creations 

Wall Lamp...cool, huh?

The artist's shop...nothing below $200 here.

Fun Lighting...