Day 13 Utrecht to Brugges; June 28, 2008

So today zqs plqnned to be q trqvel dqy, but I zqnted to do something zith Shel before I levt: She ùs going ho,e to,orroz, but I am going on to Brugges for 2 days.

I found q flozer pqrket qcross the street behind the church qnd ze zqndered qround thqt for qzhile: The flowers were fresh and cheap. Some of them were made into arrangements, and the prices were much lower than in the states. Flowers are the only thing that's cheaper in Europe!

Then ze zent over to zhqt they cqll q clothing ,qrket? It zqs qll bolts of fqbric: Ze zere in hog heqven? It zqs rqining qnd there zere lots of Turkish lqdies zith their heqds covered qnd thousqnds of bolts of fqbric in probqbly 50 stqlls: Shel zqs looking for curtqin fqbric: Ze sqid ze zill repepber this pqrket qnd long for it zhen ze qre gone:


We hqd Kroquetten for lunch in the Winkel & Sinkel. It's famous because it held the first-ever department store in the Nethelands in the 1800's. It's right on a canal and a very nostalgic restaraunt now.






Then we zqndered over to the cqthedrql: There zqs q concert tonight; so the orchedstrq qnd the singers zere prqcticing for the Bqch Mass and the music zqs so good qnd bequtiful in thqt setting thqt I cried,

Took me 5 hours to get from Utrecht to Brugge big pqin but Brugge is FQBULOUS qnd Iùll zrite qbout it tomorrow

Day 9 Utrecht; June 24, 2008

What a glorious day! Blue sky and a breeze and an old city to explore is my idea of a great time!







Our hotel is a hundred year old building right in the center of the old town, directly across from the very oldest church. It started as a monastery over a thousand years ago.


First order of business was figure out how to get to the place where Shelley's conference is. I went with her just to see, so I can go on my own later. It's a number of bus stops away, at a huge modern university complex. The building with the conference is ultra-modern fabulous architecture with curved walls and ramps up instead of stairs.

This conference is way cool for her to be a keynote speaker. She will present in a big auditorium at 1:30 Wednesday, which is in 2 hours but is 3:30 A.M. your time!

Shel wanted to take a couple of hours just to sight-see, so we came back and wandered the town. Then she returned to the conference and locked herself into her friend's office to work on an article they will joint publish. We set up a meeting time for 6:00, which gave her 4 hours to work.
Meanwhile, I entertained myself walking around the old town. It has quaint canals and tall skinny buildings right out of the 1600's right next to modern steel and glass structure. The streets and canals are lined with chestnut and sycamore and linden trees. The fragrance of the lindens is in the air and it's lovely!

Bicycles are the main mode of transport. Everyone rides them; businessmen with briefcases, old ladies with their shopping baskets, students wearing i-pods. There are literally tousands of them everywhere! There is a two-tier sidewalk system. The outer area is for pedestrians, the next sidewalk is for bicycles, and then there's the street. Look very carefully before crossing, because you'll get mowed down by another silent bicycle!

I have a new favorite building. It's this library I'm in right now, typing away to you on the internet. On the street level there are the usual shops, but there is a door with a small sign that says "Ütrecht bibliotek" and a door that leads into the innards of the building. Upstairs, the building is huge and several stories. It's a modern library with a central atrium on the top 3 floors of a small city block. A cute little pregnant lady showed me how to buy a voucher from the machine to get a code to get on the internet. Internet is only €2 and hour here, but at the hotel it's €10. There is even a snack area up here. It's kind of like being at Barnes and Noble, but with really modern architecture in an old building!

Got to go, my time will run out in one minute!

SLC to Amsterdam & Haarlem, Day 1 & 2; June 16 & 17, 2008

Hello, Everybody!
Here I am in the Netherlands with Shelley!
My plane was over 2 hours late leaving Newark, so I just waited at Shelley's gate to find her at the airport in Amsterdam. Lots easier than expected!
We had to find a red bus #300 to take us out to the town of Haarlem where our hotel was. We had only a 50 euro note to pay the bus fare, so the driver let us ride for free! It was a lovely ride through the countryside and lots of modern metal-and glass towns and the sun was shining and it was glorious! I kept hoping the inspectors would not get on the bus, because we were actually illegal because we did not pay for a ticket and I'm sure the driver would deny ever having spoken to us!
In Haarlem, we got off the bus at the central train station, and Shelley found the street to take us to the center of the old town, where our hotel is. Dragging our suitcases over the cobbled walks, we arrived at the market square after about ten minutes. It is so quaint and cute! Most of the buildings date to before the 1600's when Haarlem used to be a big commerce center for the tulip trade and wool. It has a huge old meat market building with carvings of bulls on the facade and they made leather on the second story.
Our hotel is right on the old market square. It's on the upper stories of an old building. Like all my other hotels, it is cheap and central and nothing special except for the location. It has a view over the red tile rooftops and you can see the church tower lit up at night. The church is huge and old and Flamboyant Gothic, probably dating from the 1500's.
Last night the Netherlands played soccer for the quarter finals in the European cup. All the bars were decorated in orange and full of people watching big-screen TV and shouting and cheering and smoking and drinking. Shelley and I walked around to several and enjoyed the hype.
Today we are taking the train into Amsterdam to take a walking tour. I chose the hotel in Haarlem instead of Amsterdam because I wanted a wholesome atmosphere. This town is quiet and quaint, not like free-wheeling Amsterdam!