Amsterdam

We wander around...have some lunch...go into a photography exhibit...get lost...fail to find the Jewish Cultural Center...talk to a native who tells us where to find the place where the Jews were "transported"...go back to the boat.

Too Bad Drinking Wine Isn't a Paying Job

Sarasota,  Florida

Mrs. Phred and I have been traveling for about five years now since we sold our home and went full time out on the road.



Writing a blog and posting pictures helps to convince me that I actually exist ( I blog, therefore I am) and fills most of the void left by the absence of any productive work.



I've decided not to write more blogs until I place "labels" on the 700 blogs that I've already written. I started with November, 2005 and you can see the results over to the right. It took about an hour to write labels for about 15 blogs, so the whole project will take a week or two of intense effort.



I'm going to label Alaska blogs next since I have a couple of friends here asking for advice. I have some other projects going:

• I'm doing tax returns for a relative and for a friend who lost her husband (he might have done the same for Mrs. Phred if the tables were turned).
• It's time to Spring clean and reorganize the RV.
• Hopefully we can clean out whats left in the storage unit.

Amsterdam and Tulips

Goodbye, Koninginnedag... Hello. Raleigh

On our last day of the river cruise, they offer a tour of tulip gardens.

I need to score some euros for the taxi ride the next day, so I send Mrs. Phred on the tulip tour with the camera while I walk the Amsterdam waterfront searching for an ATM.

Looks like we slept right though the Koninginnedag celebration (above image from Wiki).

It's really hard to imagine how bicycle friendly the Netherlands can be. There are bicycle paths everywhere and you I really got paranoid about walking across the red brick bike paths. They don't slow down for pedestrians or red lights and if there is a collision between a bike and a pedestrian it is always the pedestrian at fault. There must be a million bikes chained to bridges in Amsterdam. A $15,000 Toyota costs $45,000 here and gas is $10 a gallon.

Mrs. Phred comes back with a nice collection of posies pix.

Yesterday was Koninginnedag or "Queen's Day". It involves a lot of drinking and the color orange. The cleaning crews are out early dealing with broken glass and mounds of litter on the bridges and in the canals.

My eyes seem to be old and tired. I don't get so excited about exotic locales these days....maybe I should do more push ups?

The taxi ride to the airport is 50 euros. The taxi is a BMW and the driver has a suit, leather driving gloves and a shaved head with black stubble like the guy in the movie, "Transporter".

I found an interesting book for the flight back and finished it just as we touched down in North Carolina. The protagonist is ignoring his wife and having Internet sex chats with men pretending they are women. The antagonist is an evil doctor who is killing and kidnapping women he finds online so he can transplant their pineal glands....they don't make heroes or villains like they used to....but it beat staring out the window for twelve hours.

Looks like a big front and lots of rain moving though today.

On the long flight over, I gave up my bulkhead seat to some young parents who were dealing with a one-year old on their laps. Hopefully, somewhere there is a ledger of good and evil deeds being kept....For apathy you get more purgatory days...

What's Blue Got to Do With It?

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Drugs aren't really legal here. However, they may have wisely decided that the battle is not worth the effort and do not enforce what laws there are.


Therefore the smell of weed is pervasive. There are 1600 "coffeehouses" in Amsterdam that sell a little something extra with the coffee...

Mrs. Phred makes me laugh sometimes. I'm focused on the last page of a mystery novel and she asks, "Do I look good in blue?" I burst out laughing at the question.

My internet connection on the boat is very weak.

Maybe I'm sharing the bandwidth with too many others.

I am frustrated failing to load pictures. More later. After midnight?



Ok...Back in the US...here are a few Amsterdam Pix....The food and company on the Riverboat were great...definitely and old folks game....the halt and the lame were pervasive...

The Volcanic Clouds Have Parted

RDU Airport....High Noon



Our Flight to Detroit and then on to Amsterdam is good to go. Happy we didn't waste money on trip insurance. They aren't paying anyway, claiming natural disaster....read the fine print, SUCKA! Breakfast at the airport was oysters Rockefeller and a goat cheese, onion and strawberry salad. It feels funny to be on vacation again and watch the suits with their laptops and blackberries....

I got new books in the airport by Tim Dorsey, Lee Child and Michael Connelly for the long flight. Maybe we'll get a hotel room in the red-light district over a hashish den before the river cruise starts on Friday.