Phase one, in which Doris gets her oats.: Amsterdam!

All pictures at the end of the blog

Yeah! First road trip since we have been here. AMSTERDAM! My poor daughter will never be the same. LOL

We took the car up, had no problems with it all all, except having to use about 40 euros in parking meters. What a waste! We were also able to buy gas along the way at American prices, not the $5 it is a gallon (4 liters) here... Because we work on the army post, we can buy gas coupons to use outside the post, for the same price we would payon post... Pretty nice!! We used porbably less that $60 in gas, thinking more along the lines of $50.. Not bad!

There was really no border to speak of going into the Netherlands, though we took a couple of pictures in front of the sign, coming back into Germany there was not even a sign!

Our plan was to go to the Van Gogh Museum, Ann Frank's house, and to the Keukenhof gardens (link : Keukenhof) south of Amsterdam, hopefully seeing some tulip fields and old fashioned windmills on the way down, then MAYBE head through to Belgium on the way back to Germany, but most of that went down the tubes... or should I say "up in smoke" LOL

We got into Amsterdam with no problem, but it took up about an hour to find the hotel, which was located about 3 minutes from the Van Gogh museum.. The hotel was a privately owned place with only 8 rooms I think. To get in, you came though a door on street level and walked about, no lie, about 80 or 90 stairs! These were not flights, bought one solid libe ofnarrow, VERY steep stairs. Thank god our apartment is on the fourth floor and we have no elevator, I am used to stairs, and made it up these without even being short of breath!

I took a couple pictures of our room, it made me think of what a room in a French hotel would be like. It had a 12 or 15 foot high ceiling, and windows that ran from floor to ceiling, very nice. The only problem I had was that there were no towels! When we first arrived we just wanted to got check out the town, so I said nothing (also figuring I might have to pay for them!!!) And later I was too stoned to worry about it. Lastly we slept until about 5 minutes before checkout time, so I had no chance to even shower. LOL

It was about 6 pm before we got settled in the hotel and found that the pay parking i knew about would either take a geldacard (bank card from a German bank, which we didn't have) or coins. 20 euro worth! Let's just say getting change was NOT the easiest thing to do, and we ended up feeding the machine about 6 times throught the night.

We decided to go see the Van Gogh museum first, it was too late to do that and see Anne Frank's house, and since the museum was right there we picked the museum.

I really enjoyed it, but I know Jess was pretty bored. It cost 10 euro (each) to get in, but I was in awe of the works displayed. Unfortuately Starry Night is not on diplay there, but "Sunflowers" was on display as well as the self portraits, etc, so I was pretty thrilled. It was sort of like when I saw Abe Lincoln's stovepipe hat that was on display when the travelling Smithsonean(was that the museum??) came into Mpls a few years ago. Pretty cool.

After leaving the museum we started walking around, trying to get an idea were everything was...mainly the red light district and the famous "coffee" bars that sold pot. It was cold and windy, raining, and by this time were are getting hungry and grumpy. We stooped at a Pancake house and I had a regualr pancake for 3 euro, and Jess had one with bacon and egg on it.. These pancakes were thinner, more like a panakkukken(sp?) really, but the size of.... probably about the size of a large pizza! GOOD stuff.

So far we are NOT too impressed with Amsterdam, and to tell you the truth, it was not what either of us exp[ected, but it did get better later, and I admit, we were there on the offseason. People we talked to later said that in the summer you can even move down the street in the red light district, it is so crowded, so I am glad our first trip was now. First trip meaning I am definitely going back!!

We finally took the car and went hunting for the famout red light district.
Oh yes, everyone we ran into at the business in Amsterdam spoke great English, but I have to tell you, driving up there, listening to the radio... I mean German you can sort of pick out the words sometimes, but Dutch!!! AAUUGHGHH... I thought German was gutteral, I don't know how they manage to get some of the sounds OUT!.... And nothing sounds even remotely like a language you could ever understand. Very weird!

Anyway, it is dusk now, not dark yet, but we figure that we can just drive around until we find a block where there are red lights everywhere. Makes sense, right"??? Well, one more expectation brought down.. We had such a hard time finding the dang place, and at last when we got there, red lights seemed to be few and far between. Itw as SUCH a dissapointment.. But then again, we figured maybe things got a lot wilder much later in the night. We didn't last that long.. the night before we drove up, neither of us went to sleep at all, and for the last two evenings before, I was up until 3 and 5 am respectivelly, so we were tired...

So we drive and we drive , though tiny little roads and big roads, across litle bridges that span one of the canals (made me think of what Venice looks like) and FINALLy come across and area that looks promising.. not seedy, just a couple of sex shops..

WARNING, IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ ABOUT THE RED LIGHT DISTRICT AND SMOKING POT, SKIP DOWN TO THE NEXT SET OF BOLDED LETTERS (my disclaimer notice)

We decide to park the car (more money) and get out to take a look around...

BINGO, within a block or two down we hit the red light district. There is no road persay to drive down, it is an all pedestrian area...

We start walking down it one way.....A few of the windows are open, YOUNG girls still in clothing at that time, staring out the windows and doing their little suggestive dances... Kind of funny in a way, sort of sad, but these were not the nasty looking women you see in porn films (NOT that I have ever watched one mom!!) but young really attractive women.. ....But still there really isn't much going on. We continue walking, and look down into a window and see a group of people who look like they are having a MEETING, regular people. with a nun heading it.. Liek a bible study group! We decide that these people will be doing some sort of sordid sex show there later. LOLOLOL...

There is one huge place there, which was the only place aglow in red neon, it was a live sex show place...... Now maybe some of you (and you KNOW who you are) will be dissapointed that we did not go in there and then report back to you, but believe me, it was weird enough going to the red light district with my DAUGHTER, no way would I ever do anything like that with her along. UGH..

This is the honest to god truth, we are standing at a corner, trying to figure out what to do when we are suddenly surrounded by a large group of asians... What the??? Jess suddenly starts laughs and shows me a man at the head of the group, who is holding up an unbrella like our tour guide in Italy did!! They were actually running TOUR groups through the place, all of them oriental...... That was pretty bizarre!

Now some of you may judge me at the point, most I am sure won't care, but i thank god comments are off now, because we then decided to stop into one of the coffee bars and smoke some pot.

Jess had only smoked once before, actually just a week or so ago, and had not even gotten stoned.. That can happen the first time you smoke, so she wasn't really sure what she was getting into. Me on the other hand.... well that is all I have to say about that.. *g*

I had read online about the coffee bars where they have actual menus of different types of pot and their prices... Now I thought everyone knew it was legal to smoke pot in Amsterdam, but obviously my mother didn't know, because when I spoke to her this afternoon after we got home and told her about it, she was NOT happy I smoked with my daughter, etc... and then she asked me when I was going to grow up??? LOLOL I told her I had been grown up for the last 23 years, and now I had come here to NOT be grown up.

Anyway, we go into the bar, and up to the counter, tell the man it's our first time in Amsterdam, and asked what he could suggest. He showed us the menu with all kinds of diiferent typpes.....and jess picked out a little bag for 15 euro, I decided to go for a single joint. He asked if I wanted it pure or cut with tobacco. i decided to try with tobacco, because I had no idea how strong this stuff was....

I also bought a space cake (this was pound cake with THC or pot in it) and we got two waters and sat down.... Jess had bought a little pipe, but I think smoking from a pipe is too harsh, and so did she once she lit it up.

My prerolled joint was kind of weird to get used to. It had like a mouthpeice on it, which made you want to hold it like a regular cigarrette, which is truly dumb, but you couldn't really squeeze the end to inhale it, so... anyway, I wasn't too impressed with my choice of pot, and after we had been there a half hour, I was a bit fuzzy, but nothing great. we decided to buy one more joint, not cut with tobaccao, and walk around outside and smoke.

Where the first joint had cost 4 euro, this one was 7.50....... We went down the street to a place that sold all sorts of candies, cookies etc made from pot or hashish, and they even had mushrooms! i couldn't believe that.. They also had muchroom tea, etc... Maybe another time.. LOL But, jsut bought a couple of "Bob Marley suckers" and we sucked on those while we went back to the red light district...

OK, second joint was a winner, poor Jess was NOT liking being stoned, and liking even less that fact that I was having a hell of a time!! ( I am her mother you know, how embarrassing)

After driving her crazy for a while, and going back to put MORE money into parking, we decided to go back to the first coffee bar and sit for a while....

At that point the laughing part of being stoned hit me.... Oh.... my.... god...... First Jess was appalled, then she was laughing as hard as I was at things like me saying " I can't look over at the rest of the people here, they know I'm stoned... Oh wait, this is a place where people GET stoned, and they are all probably as stoned as WE are!!" This statement was followed by hysterical laughter by both of us,....... The problem is, Jess came down WAAAAY before I even started to, she had barely smoked any of the second joint... so after a while she was just going.... Oh my god, I don't think I can handle this... being stoned with my mother... this is freaking me out.... which of course put me right back into hysterics.........

FINALLY I tried to compose myself so we could drive back to the hotel.. We had a parking place next to and parrallel to the canal.... Now I had a hard time not getting nervous getting out of the car when I was straight.. but stoned.... EEWW... I am not sure why Jess let me drive, but after I got in, started the car, and inched forward a foot or so... I panicked and said oh my god, I will accidently drive this car into the canal... I CAN'T DRIVE!!!! I was so scared that I was going to get out of the car and fall into the canal just going around to the other side, I had to climb across the front seat while Jess got in the driver's side.

Now anyone who has done drugs at all KNOWS that even though you ask someone if they are still high and they say no..... don't believe them... So when I asked Jess and she said no she was fine... I didn't beleive her. At that point I started panicking about HER driving us into the canal, at which poiunt SHE started panicking about driving us into the canal. LOLOL

I waould have been very happy to just sit in the car a few hours... but she decided to start driving.

Now she swears she was still not stoned, but I tell you, it took us over an hour to get back to the hotel. Not that I think we were lost because she was still high, but that she just got lost, and was the worst FUCKING driver I had ever seen. I swear we went over curbs, she would change lanes in front of people.. I was just waiting for the police to zoom in and take us to stoners' jail.... Then again, I may have just been really stoned.. LOL

Anyway, by the end of the hour we drove, i was now down enough to help decipher the map of Amsterdam we had, and she finally found the way back to to hotel....

At which point we plugged MORE moeny into parking. Jess now decides she is hungry, and it is like 11:30 at night.. We wonder down the street..(ok, I am stilled stoned, just not stoned silly anymore) looking for food... Everything was either closing in 5 minutes, closed, or had expensive food or nothing we liked. We wandered back and forth between three blocks I kid you not, 3-4 times and finally went into the last restaurant open. It was way too expensive and by this time we are pretty broke, so i do the old "We are going to keep it light tonight" to the waiter and we ordered two appetizers(sp), a dessert and a big bottle of water. (I love Europe and the big bottles of water you order at restaurants.)

The food was good, a shrimp spring roll, some penne pasta and a dessert that was apple slices,with a few walnuts, covered with a sort of thin custard sauce, and had ice cream... unfortunately there was no vanilla in the sauce, and an abundance of rum, YUCK...We were so hungry we didn't really care.

We walked back tothe hotel. Jess was pretty down (depressed) now, it wasn't as she expected and she would never get stoned again (i can hear my mom saying "GOOD" out loud as she reads this) and she wanted to go home, drive back down to Hanau right now, 12:30 in the morning.. Well, I would have almost said ok, except I hadn't really slept in like 4 days, and just needed sleep. PLUS I wanted to keep the option open to go to the Gardens the next day, with the possibilty of going through Belgium on the way home to check out the chocolate. (only one extra hour driving to do this) Ann Frank's house has gone the way of the wind (or smoke) a long time ago.. I convinced her to stay there and get some sleep, also reminding her that they bring breakfast right to our room in the morning helped her. LOL

So we went back to the hotel and were asleep in like 5 minutes flat.

I woke up inthe morning long enough to let them bring in breakfast, then went back to bed until 20 minutes before we had to check out.
We got dressed, though our stuff back into our backpacks, scarfed breakfast and headed back down to Hanau.

Breakfast was a typical European one..... toast, jam, a couple of boiled eggs, coffe, tea, some extra bread and a couple of slices of both meat and cheese. You can eat all, or a normal way of doing it is to makes sandwiches of the meat and cheese and take them with you for lunch... Which is what we did, though we eat them in the car about 10 minutes later. LOL

Going home was fast! Anyway, I have to get back there by early May to see the gardens in all their glory, and to go see the Ann Frank House. Ok, I am tired now, going to upload the pictures and go to bed!!

PICTURES