...Of Trip "Traumas" and Miscellaneous Recollections

...When I finished my last blog, I said it was my last post, and then I had one more....Good to be consistent!! In my 293 days away, there were some "traumas" which I opted not to share at the time, but decided to do so later-like now!

I only drove for five weeks while I was away. I had rented a car through Auto Europe for a week in August, and then I had the use of a vintage Mercedes in Burgundy in August for 50 euros! In France they have a (sneaky?-not really) system of catching speeders by taking a picture of the speeding vehicle . Often there are no signs, so the driver doesn't know what the speed limit is. Sometimes you do see the camera flash go off after you have passed! So in the five weeks of driving, I managed to get caught four times!! YIKES!!! My daughter Melissa who was getting my mail at the time, scanned and emailed me these annoying reminders each times. The only good thing about this bad news is that all I had to do was go to the website, plug in the ticket number and pay by credit card. Damage to my trip budget? Approximately 300 euros or $411.

One of the worst fears when traveling is the loss of either a passport or credit and/or ATM cards. When I left Ginger in the Dordogne, I stopped for gas on my way to the Pyrenees. I could not find my credit card. Later I learned that I also lost my license, some other credit cards, and an ATM card!(Please, don't ask where I lost them....If I knew, they would not have been lost!:) So I had to scramble to have them replaced! (I do always travel with two ATM cards, so I did have access to money plus I had made a recent withdrawal.) There was no apparent repercussion from this luckily. I did learn that both my bank (for the ATM card) and the credit card companies were very willing to  send me replacement cards via Fedex. I did have to ask, but once I did, they readily agreed!

Previously I did say "no apparent repercussion"....Last summer someone did open a Harley Davidson credit card at USBank in the name of Deborah Toopman with the correct address! By the time that the bills started to arrive in the mail, my sister Helen was getting my mail, so she had the very arduous task of sorting this out, as it would have taken forever for me to do from over there. It was not easy for her to do it, but she did. I never figured out if this was connected to my card loss, but I do not think so. In any case, the charges did not exceed $400. (With the huge number of mobile phone users, it is very  difficult, if not impossible to find pay phones, so it is also very hard to call credit card companies collect out of the country.)

I was leaving Portugal on Friday May 2nd, so on the Monday before, I looked for my passport. (It was usually in a pocket in the same bag, but I had taken it out and could not find it.) Since I could not locate it, I called the US Embassy to see what the process was to replace the missing passport. I DID not panic! I took public transportation to the Embassy, and went through very tight security which made me feel like a terrorist! They had me run my backpack and its contents through the radar like they have at airports. The man I spoke with made it sound like a very quick and easy process-no more than two hours, and maybe less. Strangely enough no ATMs were working in Lisbon on this day, so I had not enough cash(91 euros) to pay for my replacement passport. In addition, the Embassy's credit card connection was not working either, so I was going to have to return on Tuesday. I took the necessary forms back to Graca to fill out and return. This was all lucky, as I did find the passport, buried inside of a book, but it was reassuring to hear how easy it is to replace a missing passport!

Originally Melissa was receiving my mail, and then it went to my sister's in Durham, Maine. When I finally got back to the US, I put in a change of address to my Coldwell Banker office for a four weeks until I returned to my home. I am STILL not getting my mail. I did finally talk with the manager of the Weston post office yesterday. HOPEFULLY he will fix it! My mortgage company even called to say that a letter addressed to my home address was returned. YIKES!

And now what do I mean by "miscellaneous recollections"? Well, I was gone for ten months. What did I learn? How have I changed? Have I changed?

Well, I have changed in that I think differently about some things. I am much more aware and curious about the food we eat. We hear much about how understaffed the FDA is and how careless the food watch is. I REALLY do not want to at foods grown or processed outside of the US!!

We in the US generally have too much stuff!!! If I could wear clothes I carried over in a medium-sized suitcase or maybe five outfits...why do I need more clothes than that? (Melissa did send me some clothes to wear for the winter, but in Nice, I really did not need them.) I am trying to throw some things out now that I am home...

I LOVED using buses and trains!! While it is impractical for my current lifestyle, I would love to be able to walk everywhere and take public transportation! Maybe in my next home this will be possible?!

July 29th marked the year's anniversary of when I left....When I was in Nice, friends asked me when I would return. People here ask me where I am going next. I do not know, but in the meantime, I am watching Rick Steves' travel shows on PBS to get the vicarious travel experience! (Recently he has been in Rome!)

Once again thank you so much for coming along with me on this really fascinating and exceptional venture! It was a wonderful opportunity. I am very grateful I took it and also grateful for your companionship along the way! Thank you!

Pat and Rich Come to Amsterdam....I Return to the US!

Well, I left my very pleasant visit with Jo on her houseboat and took the tram over to Jordan where I would be staying with my friends Pat and Rich,  who were coming by train later in the afternoon. I settled into this very nice place we had found on VRBO.com. I did notice that there seemed to be no  electricity, so I emailed Moira, the owner. They were doing some work out in the street, but whatever the problem, I certainly could not fix it, so I headed over to the train station. En route I stopped at the Little Church in the Attic which Jo had told me about. I also went up to the top floor of the new library, which is very close to the train station, which had wonderful views of the city. This was another of Jo's good suggestions!
I did take lots of pictures at both places...plus on the houseboat. But, UNFORTUNATELY my camera must have fallen out of my pocket in the cab back to the flat from the train station! So the pictures on my camera were lost, and I used my iphone for the remaining time away!  I usually downloaded my pictures every day or so, but I did not do so on the houseboat.

Pat and Rich arrived from Paris, and we took a cab to our flat. There was still no electricity! The workers outside promised that we would have power in several hours and we did. Pat and I went to get some groceries nearby before we all went out for dinner at a nice little Italian restaurant around the corner. So nice to be able to walk everyplace!

Thursday we went to Keukenhof.   http://www.keukenhof.nl/en/  This is described as the most beautiful garden in the world, and being a tulip lover, I have to agree. (See my virtual pictures of the tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, etc!) They have very fancy greenhouses with wonderful or chides and other plants which are more traditional houseplants. The only thing we would need to do differently is go earlier in the season, as it closed the following Saturday, so we had missed the true splendor. However, that was unavoidable, and we enjoyed what we saw.

Friday we went to Anne Frank House early, but our wait was still perhaps a half hour. It is such a sobering place. Everyone walks quietly through this house which is quite barren of furniture, but filled with lots of descriptions and memories of such a difficult time! No pictures. http://www.annefrank.org/
Afterwards we took the same walking tour I had taken, as I really enjoyed it, as did Pat and Rich!
We also took a canal cruise, which really vary a lot. Some barges are very open; some are not. We would have preferred an open one! Some have speeches in different languages which you hear via headphones; on others a live person is giving a talk. So many choices!

Saturday we headed to the world famous Rijksmuseum, where we could have spent hours!  To see authentic paintings by Rembrandt and van Gogh was wonderful!
https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en?lang=en&gclid=CKCc_Mv0kL8CFUIQ7Aod9AkANg
We had a very tasty lunch there, before we moved on  walking around Amsterdam, which is the perfect city to do this!
Jo (of the previous houseboat post) had invited some couch surfers to her houseboat that night where her current (guitar playing) couch surfer was to give a short concert. Afterwards they passed the hat. He is from Rochester, NY and traveling about Europe playing.The only really paying gig was to  be in Latvia. Afterwards Jo served some wonderful desserts! It was fun, and I was glad that Pat and Rich could see the houseboat!

Sunday we took the train to Delft,which is lovely little town with its own canals and charm. We ate lunch outside along one of the canals.Again we walked around, did some shopping, ate some ice cream, and loved the ambiance of this old town! There was a flea market along the canals, but I did only look!

Monday we were getting ready to head back to Boston, so enjoyed our little remaining time. Pat and Rich went to the van Gogh Museum. I took another trip along the canals, which I find so intriguing!

We had some very tasty meals on the last leg in Amsterdam, not to mention the end of my ten months "living in Europe"!!

It was great having Pat and Rich come to Amsterdam so we could explore together!!


We went to the airport together, but flew home on different airlines!

Tomorrow it will be five weeks since I have been back in the US!! I am still thinking about how this terrific experience changed me....I will go back sometime, but not for ten months in all likelihood, but who knows?? It is great to be home, of course!

And again, thank you for traveling along with me!

Still colorful, but sad as they close their season!

They must force this planters for the end of the season!

..."Surfing" on THE Houseboat

Well, I am WAYYYY behind on this blog!! I have been back in the US since May 20th, and the re-entry tasks have overcome the priority of finishing this blog....But there are still some "chapters" about my ten months in Europe I want to share....

Lovely floral displays all over Amsterdam!

At the end of January I had emailed some couch-surfers about my May visit to Amsterdam. One of them was Jo, who lives on a houseboat. At the time she told me I was on her Maybe list.  She gets 15-20 requests a day to couch surf with her. I was SO hopeful, as it sounded like GREAT fun!! Luckily about two weeks before I was due in Amsterdam, she emailed me to say it looked like I was going to be able to stay there!

May 12th I was due at the houseboat, and Jo would be returning from Athens. On May, when I was going to stay at Jo's and time-plenty of it-to spare, so I opted to drag my still filling bags what my phone said was 1.5 miles. Jo originally was due to be at the boat by 6, but then she emailed me saying she would not arrive until 8, so I could walk very slowly!

I got to the boat, took some pictures, and went around the corner to Torino's, a neighborhood Italian restaurant. She emailed to say her flight was further delayed. So I dallied over a nothing special, but filling spaghetti Bolognese. I went and sat on a chair in front of the houseboat and waited for her. She and her partner Hans arrived about 9:15.

The spacious boat, owned by a young Dutch couple who've bought a farm in Hungary, was totally renovated. It had a bedroom in the bow (front of the boat), and all the amenities(dishwasher included!) of a flat.
From Jo's I visited the Resistance Museum, the Rembrandt house (huis), the Portuguese Synagogue.

I left Jo and the delightful houseboat to go to my final stop in Amsterdam in Jordan. 

Thanks again for coming along!! ...I am optimistic that the next post will be done within the next few days!!

Continued Amsterdam Excursions...

Sign advertising a new building next to EYE

Settled into Chantal's cosy home overlooking the Amstelkanaal in Amsterdam, I started to plan additional trips around the city. One of the best things about a long-ish stay anyplace is that I do not feel obligated to run around CONSTANTLY to see everything!(Besides I KNOW I never can see everything, so I return!)

The next day I had to go to the Tourist Information to buy tickets to Keukenhof for next week. My friends Pat and Rich arrive next Wednesday, and we'll go to Keukenhof on Thursday. http://www.keukenhof.nl/en/
This is the SPECTACULAR flower display of the country...wonderful tulips and daffodils as well as orchid displays. It is due to close on the May 20th, so we are "cutting it close"!




Since I had greatly enjoyed the film museum when I was in Torino several years ago, I wanted also to see EYE, which is more than a film museum. You take a two minute ferry ride at the rear of the main train (Central) station, and you have another two minute walk to the EYE.
http://www.eyefilm.nl/en
There are four screening rooms and different exhibitions blending film and art. One of the exhibitions was called Cinema Remake, and it showed different movies which have been reproduced. I also saw an entertaining new Dutch film called Hartenstraat, "Heart Street". There is also a nice restaurant overlooking the harbor, where I stopped for lunch at the end of the film.

EYE is very different from the Torino museum, as it really would appeal more to the real film student for the technical look at a wide variety of films. I am glad I saw it, even though I am not a student of film-just a person who enjoys seeing movies!

Free 2 minute ferry to Noord

EYE

 Saturday Chantal had hoped-as did I-that we could go sailing. However, the rain was heavy, and the wind was windier! But we did go to the boatyard so she could meet with the men repairing her 24' sailboat named "Chelsea" and learn of the details.
Before we met, she had told me about Kroller Muller Museum, which is about an hour from Amsterdam. Friends had also encouraged me to go, so I was very delighted when we were able to go-in spite of the weather! The museum is in the middle of the wonderful Hoge Veluwe National Park, and there are free bicycles which you can use to ride through the park. (We did have a short bike ride, until the rain won!)
The museum was the brainstorm of Helene Kroller-Muller who wanted a place to share her passion of modern art. There is a very large display of Van Gogh's works, as well as Seurat, Rodin, etc. plus temporary exhibitions. We had lunch there, as well as a cup of tea

M. Jacques welcomed us

Collioure by Seurat

and tasty sweet before we headed home. It was a wonderful place, and I have would loved to have had more time to ride around the park!
That evening we went to a concert in the small hall of Het Concertgebow, where we heard Richard Strauss (Pianokwartet op.13) and Brahms (Eerst planokwartet #25). The ticket price included round trip on the tram and a glass of wine. It was a perfect end to a VERY fun day in Holland!!

Sunday was a bit of lazy sleep-in day. Well, it was Mother's Day as well!! Chantal prepared a tasty breakfast, and we went back by the boatyard before we stopped at a quintessential Dutch pancake restaurant-the Pannenkoeken Restaurant "Noord Brabant"-in the most lovely little town of Vreeland.

Cheese and ham pancake syrup optional

...or here?

Picture us having a glass of wine right here!

Sign of the business-this was the Druggist

Town of Monnickendam

Special Dutch boat with this wooden "wing" on each side

We ended our busy weekend visiting Chantal's brother in this harbor here for an hour. It was such a delightful ride through the countryside and stopping to "smell the roses" or rather to enjoy the pancake restaurant or the little towns with hundreds of years of history. Chantal also told me how every winter, everyone just is so anxious to get out skating out on the canals!

Once AGAIN-Couch surfing  is such a plus and has been throughout my trip, MANY thanks, Chantal, hope to see you soon in Boston or?

THIS was my first choice of where to have that glass of wine!!:)

Thanks for traveling along with me on this fun experience I have been having! The end is in sight, as I will return to Boston on May 20th.

New Digs and the Hermitage Amsterdam and ....

Wednesday morning (May 7th) I took the tram and then changed (can you feel how heavy my bags are?) to go to Chantal's, my next wonderful Couch Surfing stop. We had coffee, and she suggested I go visit the Hermitage, which I had seen on the Heineken boat trip.
It was a very pleasant walk along the canal and then along the Amstel River. Expedition Silk Road, a 7,000 km and 1700 year old trade route, was the featured exhibit, and it was fascinating! Starting in 1910 the Russians found a myriad of lost treasures-paintings, silks, Buddhist sculptures, etc.

Spotted this nesting mother duck...father (above) was near by, as I walked to the Hermitage.
Unfortunately no photos were allowed.

http://www.hermitage.nl/en/

LOVING Amsterdam!!

May 5th I arrived at the Pax Hotel, a back-packer budget hotel, for two nights. I loved this too...old Amsterdam with plenty of steps to make skipping the stairmaster okay! AND Philip was kind enough to hoist my bags up (and down when I checked out) to the 3rd floor (2nd in Europe) with more than 50 steps (+3 US flights, but who was counting!?) You have to know that many Amsterdam  hotels-even higher priced ones-all have these steps!

Note the scooter-the better to get around Amsterdam!

Walls lined with different mirrors looking up from the front door!

Canal near the hotel, but canals are everywhere!

Owner of this flower show-like everyone I have talked with-was SO helpful and polite!!

I usually do not buy a city pass, but I decided to buy the Holland Pass, since I am here for two-plus weeks. It offers some free entrances as well as discounts on most of what Amsterdam ( and other places in Holland) has/have to offer. To date I have taken the "Hop on, Hop Off" bus, and visited the Heineken Brewery.
They also have several free walking tours; the one I took was very informative!

Central Train Station

Palace in Dam Square

"New Church" (Nieuwe Kerk) part goes back to 1400

Yellow building part of their Occupy Movement

We walked through a hallway of the Amsterdam Museum during the tour. This pictures the orphanage matrons where these two young boys are about to enter.

We also walked through the peaceful grounds of Begijnhof, a lay Catholic sisterhood, founded in 1346. The last "non-nun" died in 1971, but people still live there. There is a small chapel (below) and a hidden chapel still there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begijnhof_Chapel,_Amsterdam

"Coffeeshops" like these sell pot, and people go there to smoke.

The Heineken tour was really very hokey! It was clever in places with a wide variety of audio-visual presentations, but for the most part...not worth seeing. The 18 euro entry fee did include three glasses of beer. (One women I spoke with while drinking my beer spotted a couple over in the corner taking the abandoned glasses and drinking the remaining beer....) IF you wanted the free gift from their other store (there was one at the museum), you had to take their canal barge trip. I loved the excuse to take this twenty minute trip to see more of the city.And back!

Some of these copper stills had short videos inside explaining the process.

Fun to see the city from the Heineken boat!

Many of the homes still have these hooks like this, as they were used to hoist things.

Hope you will come back as I continue to explore this interesting city!