The "Dam"

Well I was in Amsterdam for a few days and it was fantastic.  The weather was outstanding, especially for Amsterdam, and I got to see a new part of the town I hadn't yet.  I walked around, and around "the outer" circle as I like to call it, since that is where my hotel was this stay.  I saw Vondelpark, which was a great place for a run, the Van Gogh Museum and the Anne Frank House.  I also saw the tulip market and the farmers market, both cool.

Van Gogh was so amazing!  The paintings and history to go with them was so interesting.  His style of painting was like so few of his time and really made the pictures come to life and almost just jump off the canvas.  Plus it was really cool to see several paintings that are so world famous with pictures all over the world in person.

Anne Frank house was also very powerful.  The whole place has been refurbished and kept just the way it was when Anne and her family and friends were hiding out there.  The building is kept as a state protected building and can never be taken down, not that they would.  The only thing was that Otto Frank, Anne's Dad and his business partner Herman van Pells, who was helping to hide them during the Nazi occupation, wanted to have the apartment stay unfurnished.  There were some pictures with furniture but they specified that those had furniture just for the pictures.  It made things seem larger then I am sure they were or felt with 8 people living there and also the coming and going of the business associates who would come and go, as they were also in on the secret.

Well enjoy the pics.  I just got into London and enjoyed my first experience in "the Tube".  It is raining here and I am not able to do much but it does feel nice to be sitting still for a change.  Notre Dame game is Saturday and then Kay will be here in less then a week.  Excitement on the horizon.  Talk to everyone later.  Most of the pictures are just things that caught my eye since I have been here a couple of times already.

Ciao

Dam Square with people all a bustle.  

A strange thing was happening on my first day with lots of college aged men and women running all over town singing, boating and all sorts of other things.  This was a pack of guys singing in the middle of one of the main roads.

Taking bicycling to the next level in Amsterdam.

A statue in Vondelpark.

The view from the bridge going over the park near my hotel.

That is a mossy pond.

One building had several of these very old statues built into the side of it.  Each one was holding a different pet which seemed funny to me, especially since they looked really old.

One of my must have meals anytime in Amsterdam.  It is at B & B on Ronkin.  Just ask for the hamburger.  GRUB!

The main musical hall all lit up at night.

Dam Square with no people, a rarity.  Something that requires waking up early to see.

I don't know, do you think this town caters to teens and twenty somethings?

Waiting in line at Van Gogh.  Yes it rained but luckily the line was short.  Sorry no pics allowed in the museum, same as Anne Frank.

A tree growing in a funny direction at the park.  Don't know how it got that way but I liked it.

This is the clock tower, not far from Anne Frank House.  

Along the canal of the Tulip Market.  All those little stands on the left sell more tulips then you have ever seen.  Everything from seeds to flowers.

A old style oil lamp along the road.  I liked the top.

Cologne is wonderful

Well I left Frankfurt and got into Cologne this morning at around 10:30, they are only about an hour apart by train.  I had to wait on my room to be ready for a while to so I went exploring saw what seems like, after only day, like a very nice city not too different from Portland.  It seems to be of good size but not a huge metropolis and there are only a couple of tall sky scrappers but nothing too big.  I walked through town and saw the Prince Whelm Rose Garden, the park with some modern art in it and then walked along the Rhine river back to my hostel.  I saw a church that was maybe the biggest I have seen since I have been here.

This church, affectionately called the Dom, has a small museum holding several items from around the time of the Romans and of course several significant religious artifacts.  I can tell you that there was some major bling going on.  I wish I could show you but, no pictures.  It was quite amazing though.  Things from tombs that were unearthed while working on the church through the years, fine tapestry's and all sorts of chalices, staffs and even a couple of burial arc's, not JC's though.

It was a great first day and I look forward to more tomorrow.  It rained a little today and is suppose to more tomorrow, possible lightening.  Nothing new to me and with the heat a welcome addition.  Enjoy the pictures and I will talk to everyone later.

Ciao

The gateway from the original wall around Cologne.

One of the lesser famous but still nice churches

The roses in Prince Whilhelm's Garden.

Some of the modern art in the park by the Rhine.

More Art

Government building.

Some of the mural windows in "the Dom" the church in Cologne.

It is over 500 years old and has seen quite a lot.

More window.

One of the knights tombs, who supposdly protected the Grail during the holly wars, I think.

The bottom level of south tower.  Many, Many stairs to go.

The bells at the top.

Quite a view from 475 ft up.

Still smiling after 533 steps but a little more sweaty.

The Rhine and the Opera House, blue thing on the left.  That is also the famous bridge that was once bombed and put into the water during WW2.

Nice.

The other tower from inside tower 2.

From back down on the ground floor.

This fountain at the bottom seemed like a nice place for a cool dip when I was done.

The Dom at night.

German funny art.  That sign on the left side is a parking sign.

Originally the tallest building in Cologne, the Messe Tower now a news channel tower.

The Hohenzollern Bridge.

The Baysen Tower.  The farthest southern point from the old wall, from around the 12th century.  

This is Severins-gate from the 12th century was where the road to Rome went through.

Grobe St. martin, a church from around 1150-1172.

That is where I left my arc.

And this is where all the chocolate bunnies at Easter come from.  Cologne, Germany.

Inside the chocolate museum they have some working machinery to show how chocolate is made.

Don't you just want to bath in it?

Now, that is a chocolate fountain.

And that is what the bunny can bring me next year in my basket.

This is what I had afterwards.  Not as heavy as it looks.  Rather light, mouse style.

ELDE Haus, one of the Gestapo's police and holding buildings in downtown Cologne.

Lots of the prisoners would write things or scratch things right into the cell walls.

some more cell walls with writing.

The Golden Fiesta, made special by Ford for their European office, located in Cologne.