It's sunny today

Of course....because we are leaving Amsterdam, so naturally the sun has to come out! Today we are taking the train to Cologne, and we will have all sorts of stories to tell about that later.

But first, some last thoughts on our trip to Holland:

Things we loved:

• the coffee. It's amazing. It's WAY better than Starbucks or any of the normal çhains at home.
• Stroopwafel. The hotel has left us a sample every day, and it is so tasty. These are little waffle cookies with built in syrup. The bakeries all have one, but I've only indulged once there (because they go GREAT with the coffee). I need to learn how to make those.
  
• The museums--in my case, specifically the Anne Frank and the tenBoom House in Haarlem.
  
• Rereading The Hiding Place in one night. That would be last night. Because we're taking the train, so maybe I can sleep then?
  
• Rijstaffel.
• The canals--they go every which way
• Watching the way the traffic flows. Why they don't have more accidents baffles us, but somehow it all works.
  
• Laughing at the traffic jams. There is no patience for people who decide to hop out of their car....of course, because there is no where else for people to go to!
  If you're stuck....you're really stuck.
  
• The architecture and the gables and the skinny houses
• The flower market, and the super large tulips that the hotel had. I mean tall--like 3 feet or so.
  
• The big bouquet of tulips that was in our room, thanks to M for my birthday
• The cobblestone
• The shops and the people of Haarlem
• The tub in our bathroom. We are at an ämerican-style' hotel....and the tub is easily 5.5 feet long. It's a welcome thing at the end of 17,000 steps!
  
• The friendly coffee shoppes where people actually laught at my feeble attempts at Dutch, and then kindly help me say it correctly.
  
• Free internet at the library.
• Old cheese (oude kass). Now, that is really what it is called, and that's how you buy it in the store. It's salty and full of flavour, and makes a great sandwich. This is different than young cheese (jong kass). But that's good too.
  

Things we could have done without

• Blisters
• Rain. There was so much of it that it interfered with taking pictures. It was too hard to hold a camera, protect it from the rain, hold the umbrella and try to protect your stuff from all the pickpockets that are here. However, we survived.
  
• The bank machines. They work well, but we should have upped our daily limit before leaving home. The most we can take out at a time is €250, which means that we have to make more trips to the bank. And more trips means more conversion and user fees. Oh well.
  

Things we may never understand

• The traffic light systems. Imagine this: there are three traffic indicators for pedestrians on the street which appears to be divided in thirds. In some cases there is a tramline going down the middle. There may also be a bicycle lane and a car lane in either direction. But the way the lights for us worked is this.....first the one closest to you comes on, then the one at the far side comes on, and eventually, the one in the middle comes on, but the one on the far end goes off. Huh??? Also, the pedestrian lights have an audible rhythm to them--first it knocks slowly, then it ratatatats, then it ratatatatatatatats faster, and then it knocks slowly again. Very interesting indeed.
  
• Accidents---or rather the lack of them. But then, that was also one of the things we loved.

Well people--who don't appear to be out there---we're having a great time. But we don't know yet how it will work for internet in Cologne. Rest assured we will get back to our stories as soon as we can, as much for our own remembering as anything else.

And now, we have a train to catch.