-
Donna & Mark in Amsterdam
Donna is a dear friend that we have introduced many times in our blogs. She has visited us with her husband in Paris, San Francisco and San Diego then with her brother Mark in Mexico City, Madrid and now Amsterdam. We have also had the pleasure of her solo visits in several other locations to…
-
King’s Day in Amsterdam
King’s Day “Koningsdag” is by far the biggest and best day on the Amsterdam calendar. On April 27th over one million party goers from The Netherlands and beyond head to the Dam to celebrate the King’s birthday in Dutch style. It is renowned for being one of the most colorful festivities as celebrating King’s Day…
-
Peggy and Debbie in Amsterdam
After a great first day in Rotterdam and finally a good nights sleep, these two ladies have only three full days left to explore Amsterdam. They have tickets for Anne Frank house museum, the Gardens of Keukenhof, Van Gogh and Rijksmuseum.
-
Rotterdam with Peggy and Debbie
Our next houseguests after Philip and Phyllis, arrived four days later on April 4. Peggy Scott is our longtime neighbor and travel companion from Boston. Debbie Maniace is a stand-in stalker for her brother Dick who is not coming to Amsterdam. Debbie has homes in Concord and Osterville Massachusetts. This is Debbie’s first time visiting…
-
Return to Leiden
On our first brief visit to Leiden to see the grave of Jan Steen we were thwarted by an early closure of the church as they were setting up for a huge sold out choral performance that evening. Since we had nothing scheduled for Sunday March 30 we decided to return to Leiden for further…
-
Keukenhof Gardens 1
This is titled with a 1 as this is the first of at least three and possibly four visits to these famous gardens for us. In 1857 the owners of Castle Keukenhof asked a father son team of landscape architects to restructure the park and grounds around the castle in the English style which has…
-
Day-trip to Delft and Leiden
A day trip to Delft would have been better combined with The Hague as Delft is just past The Hague and Leiden is before The Hague, but we did not do the research ahead of time. Phyllis really wanted to go to the Delft factory as she has been collecting pieces for years. We visited…
-
The Hague with Philip & Phyllis
Philip and Phyllis’s primary goal in going to The Hague was to see Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Goldfinch by Carel Fabritius. Philip loves these two works and has painted copies of them for himself. It was a cold, blustery and rainy day but we headed out anyway. In spite of the…
-
Haarlem
It seems that every tourist coming to Amsterdam wants to tour the Anne Frank house which puts quite a squeeze on tickets. They have made it somewhat fair for everyone by releasing a week’s worth of tickets six weeks in advance on Tuesday morning at 10am. Six weeks is a reasonable time frame for planning…
-
Bruges
Bruges or Brugge is the capital and largest city of West Flanders in Belgium. It is sometimes referred to as the Venice of the north along with other cities like Amsterdam. This city has been on our must see list for a long time and since Bill and Katiti were also keen to go we…
-
Philip & Phyllis in Amsterdam
Jim’s younger brother Philip and his wife Phyllis live in the backwoods of western North Carolina. They love where they live and have a very good life surrounded by their three children and seven grandchildren. Phyllis had never been to Europe prior to visiting us in Seville in 2020. She and Philip just thoroughly embraced…
-
Amsterdam
We have been to Amsterdam twice in the past. Most recently in 2019 when we took the Eurostar from London with Jennifer, Jackson, Rob and his mother Kiki. The first time was in 2008, flying out on March 13 just one day prior to Sandy’s birthday. This time we are arriving in 2024 on March…
-
Family in San Diego and Phoenix
Jim’s mother was born in Pontiac Michigan but her family drove across country to San Diego sometime in the early 1920’s as her younger sister Clela was born in San Diego in 1925. Jim remembers visiting his grandparents Fuller and their oldest son Robert at their home on Ohio Street in the North Park section…
-
San Diego with Maeve
Maeve was a neighbor of ours in Boston living in the penthouse of the brownstone next to ours in Boston. We don’t really remember exactly when we met her as she kind of snuck into our lives, first as the girlfriend of our next door neighbor John Greene and then as his wife. We have…
-
San Diego with Tom and Donna
Tom and Donna Quirk have been visiting us on our travels ever since our very first venture to Paris in 2017. They are such easy and fun houseguests as they are completely self sufficient and they research and plan new adventures for us to enjoy together. Donna is very active and will go out running or walking…