Amsterdam

Greetings from Koln, Germany! Lee and I are here in Europe for two weeks. Laura has been gracious enough to house sit and watch Ray while we are gone.

I am going to try my very best to post every couple days. With internet connections and crazy schedules, I am not sure if it will always be possible. I will try though!

Mel and Shannon are two of our very closest friends. They recently moved to Koln Germany. I shot their wedding, and refused to take any money (seriously, they are some of our very best friends...) Well, they didn't like taking no for an answer - so they bought us two tickets to Germany. And now we are here.

We arrived Saturday at 8am Germany time (2 am EST). I slept (in between doing about 1,000 toe/heel taps for my stupid legs). Lee was up the entire time. We toured Koln, which has a huge beautiful cathedral. I didn't have my wide angle lens with me, so I couldn't get a picture. Thus, I am grabbing this from the internet so you can see how big it is... It is HUGE - and absolutely gorgeous.


But in front of this huge, ornate beautiful cathedral, here is what Lee and Mel found:


Now there are probably no two men in the world who like steak more than Lee and Mel. Regardless of your (or my) opinion on the subject, the fact that they found this demonstration was pretty ironic. Of all the pictures of the Dom I expected him to come back with, this did not make my list.

So, then we learn that Amsterdam is only two hours away from Koln by train. So we opt for a day trip. We find it to be both beautiful and insane. This is a typical street in Amsterdam. Notice all the hooks hanging over the tops of the houses. This is how they move in. Grab a couch, hoist it up and through the windows! Also, notice the bikes. There are bikes everywhere. Literally tens of thousands parked everywhere.

Then we get to this part of Amsterdam... pretty, huh? This would be the infamous Red Light district.
Now, I debated whether or not to post this on the blog, (I try to keep this a "family show"), but the picture shows exactly what happens in the Red Light district. These women literally hang out in the windows and ask to talk to the gentlemen walking up and down the street. There are literally hundreds of them. I could have had my camera taken away for taking this picture, but I was able to sneak one.

I am not advocating this in anyway (in fact, I was super sad when I first saw all these women.) I had to post this for the "wow" factor. Crazy, huh?

So, then we get to the other 'feature' of the red light district and Amsterdam: Coffee Shops. Well, let's just say their specialty is not coffee. When you walk by, it makes you wonder if a mini Grateful Dead concert is going on inside. Very smoky. And not the Marlboro kind of smoke.

So, Shannon, Lee, Mel and I wondered upon a graden outside of a building. The boys went nuts. "They have a marijuana plant in their garden!" They seriously went nuts - completely convinced. Until Shannon and I saw what they were looking at and almost fell down laughing. I will leave you with this picture:

(As I am sure you can tell, this is a Maple Tree of some sort.)

Okay, well we are off for now. Time to rent the car and begin our drive. We'll let you know where we wind up.

Have a great day!

Beth