L is for Leeuwarden, Lucozade and lots of luggage

Although a bit skiddish at first, I learned to love Lucozade, which tastes like candy and claims to boost my energy level. A big hit with Jason, and apparently with most of the U.K., Lucozade was completely unknown to me, so I turned it down several times because I wasn’t sure if it would make me loopy right before our presentations. I think back now to those yawns that didn’t have to be.

We became somewhat obsessed with finding the stuff and buying a stash before we returned to the States. And then I found out they sell it in bottles like Gator-ade!

Leeuwarden (remember, that’s LAY-oo-var-den) seemed like a really cool village-like college town. The hospitality school we visited also had a hotel the students ran as part of their studies, so we literally never had to leave the building.

The faculty was great, and they treated us to some great meals in the student restaurants. I tried buttermilk for the first and last time (bleck!!), enjoyed a variety of antipasti delicacies with marscapone and always seemed to order fish – which was delicious. One of the restaurants we visited was a very charming old place with excellent food.

After two nights in Leeuwarden, we traveled by train to Rotterdam. The trains were always a real trip. For a two-week journey, we actually did pack lightly. However, it was still a literal pain in the neck (and back) to travel with so much baggage. Kim and I always came close to surpassing our limit on the weight of our bags at the airports. With the trains, you had the luxury of not weighing them and the horror of having to carry all of them yourself. Well, unless you were traveling with a chivalrous Brit!
One of the trains we had the luck to ride had a mobile drinking cart on a guy's back!

If we weren’t laughing so hard passing luggage to each other over steep steps from the train platforms up to the cabs of the train, we would have cried like over-tired babies. Sometimes we were standing at the doors next to the business travelers, ready to exit the trains, knowing that we had three minutes to find our next train and carry all of our luggage on there before the whistle blew and left us behind.

In Rotterdam, like everywhere else in The Netherlands, the most popular form of travel seemed to be the bicycles. Here's a picture of a parking area -- how in the world do you remember where you parked your bike?

Rotterdam and s' Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch) were next on our itinerary. We were in Rotterdam for only a few hours before traveling to Den Bosch just in time to get dinner at our hotel. The town looked like a great place for wandering around with my camera. But alas, it was dark when we arrived and rainy when we left the next morning.

In Den Bosch, we went to another school with faculty who were overly gracious and lots of fun. They brought us lots of different samples of Dutch food for lunch in the student-run restaurant. I had black pudding, which looks like a sausage patty, but it's actually pig's blood. It was actually kind of sweet. They were very kind to go to the trouble to welcome us, so I figured I should indulge. It was definitely an experience.

On a lighter note, here are some fun signs I came across in Switzerland. And yes, those first two were on bathroom doors.

Next up: LONDON, witches and boxing ballerinas

I AMsterdam

I am so behind in my blogging – I’m sorry! Please be kind, I’m a busy lady. I work a lot, am caring for a sick dog, am obsessed with too many new Fall shows and have been on three trips within the last month and a half. I guess I’ll just start where my most recent adventure began: EUROPE!

First stop: Amsterdam.

Before you ask, no, I didn’t go to the coffeehouses. It was a business trip, and although legal in Holland, funny brownies were not on our menu.

Instead, Kim, (a recruiter in my company that shall remain nameless) and I indulged in public transportation and hopped on a bus from the airport to the Anne Frank museum. It was incredible. We actually walked through the same hallways and climbed the same hidden staircases Anne and her family used just to stay alive.
a statue of Anne Frank outside the bulding where she hid
It was truly moving. Kim and I walked quietly through the historic building and peered out of windows that offered scenes that weren’t all that different from the ones Anne wrote about. We saw pictures on a wall that she posted, lines on a doorframe marking her growth and pages from her original journals.

I thought about my grandma the whole time. We were in a bookstore together when I was very young, and she pointed at a book and said, that’s my mom. I turned and saw a paperback of The Diary of Anne Frank. I knew her mom was named Anna, and their last name was Frank. My jaw dropped. A million questions popped in my head, not the least of which was “How could I not know this?” Then she started laughing hysterically. My grandma rocked.

From there, Kim and I went to Van Gogh Museum. Although it had some real treasures, it was no Musee d’Orsay, and the lack of sleep was starting to get to me. I don't sleep well on planes, and I hardly got a wink as we crossed the pond. Although, I did get to watch The Lake House and the second half of A Scanner Darkly, which I saw at the Enzian this summer.

After that, there was time for a quick pedal boat down one of the famous canals. The boats were not easy to steer, and if you overcorrected, you were bumping into someone’s personal boat docked along the bank or worse, found yourself in the path of a sightseeing tour boat.

Here's a brief video of our trip on the canal. Sorry about the quality -- but you'll get the idea.



The afternoon went by way too quickly, and we had to meet Jason at the airport. Jason is from Essex, England, and he’s a charming, witty Brit who owns his own company in London. He's hysterical and kept us laughing when we were tired and our muscles were cramped from carrying luggage from train to train to cab to train to airport to train ....

That evening, Kim, Jason and I hopped in a cab for a two-hour drive to Leeuwarden, which is pronounced LAY-oo-var-den. I slept a bout half the way, but not before I saw this and thought of my Coachella friends!

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Here are a few of my favorite photos from Amsterdam.




Next in my Euroblog:
Leeuwarden, the first temptation of Lucozade and my first glass of real buttermilk (ick!)

don't you love me anymore?

That's what you're thinking, right? Life has been even more crazy busy than usual, and that has taken me away from the blogosphere. I'm not blogging, I'm not keeping up with my favorite blogs, and I have so much to say!

In September, I had a very unexpected death in the family, and I flew to Chicago for a few days. It was my mom's cousin Anthony, and he was one of those people that make life worth living. Fun, full of life, generous and thoughtful, and I don't understand how people like that are taken so young when there are horrible people still alive who make the world a scary place. It was one of those experiences that make you analyze every decision you've made and the ones you've been too scared to make.

Then, I went to New Orleans for a baby shower for my brother and his wife. It was a great time, but way too short.

I will tell you more about all of that, and I promise you that in a couple of weeks, I will have a lot more to say and share. I promise.