all shook down: 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!