Potatoes + a local friend + canals = another day in Amsterdam

After finishing up the packing and cleaning in Utrecht, Luke and I headed our separate ways, him to Sweden, and me to Amsterdam. I took the train again, and had a very unique encounter with a professor from UW-Madison on the train. After he found out that I live in Wisconsin, he told me that he is a professor, but actually he drives through Wausau a lot to visit the universities potato plantations in Rhinelander. He then told explained to me that his area of expertise is potato growing, and he traveled to the Netherlands to present at a conference for potato growers. When I showed interest in his potato research, he really got going on explaining what he did, and explaining everything you could ever want to know about potatoes. I found everything very interesting, and it was a nice way to spend the 35 minute train ride learning marvelous things about my favorite food. Long story short, the purple and blue potatoes from Peru are really good for you.

When I arrived in Amsterdam, this time without Luke and with my traveling backpack, I attempted to find the Anne Frank house, and after only one wrong turn, made it there only about 10 minutes late to meet up with my old swim coaching friend Joe DeLuca. He has lived in Amsterdam for the past 2 years, and gave me a real locals only tour of the city. Walking around with him was a totally different experience from when I came here on last Saturday. (I am sure Amsterdam is much busier on a Saturday, but the difference was amazing.) Completely avoiding most real touristy parts of the city he gave me a whole new perspective of the city-much less busy, less of the obvious associations with Amsterdam, and more of the true city. An example would be what seemed like a random door off of a busy tourist street that led to a convent-like church area for Catholic women. It is amazing that just behind a door of a busy tourist street in Amsterdam there is a near silent area to escape everything.

The best part of our tour came later when Joe and his wife took me on the boat to tour the canals of the city. We crossed under the bridges from the Amstel light commercials, and just rode through the city. Taking a ride on the canals through Amsterdam is something I would suggest to anyone visiting the city, just watch out for the boat traffic. The view of the city is great, and the houseboats are stunning.

We completed the night with dinner at a Peruvian restaurant. I had a tasty spicy chicken dish. Tomorrow morning I will pick up Krista and Becky from the airport and the true trek involving staying in hostels, picnicking in a park when possible, and probably some sibling arguing, ganging up, and bonding with begins.

Beers in the Hague

Today Luke and I got up early to travel by train to the Hague. After a short 30 minute train ride we arrived and Luke began our quick tour. We walked to a central square close to all the government buildings. Next we walked to the Peace Palace and saw the world peace flame. Each country involved has a stone next to the flame and contrary to what you might think the stone from the USA is rather small compared to most.


After walking around the flame and saying a prayer for world peace, we found a tourism center where we grabbed a map, and walked to another square for lunch. The map we grabbed suggested a small little bar called De Pass that has an amazing beer selection. Immediately upon reading the description Luke and I were on our way to locate this local establishment. The second we walked in we knew we would love the place. The bar tender was friendly and asked us if we wanted any advice choosing a beer. He gave us 2 great suggestions that we enjoyed throughouly. After our first beer the soccer game began between the Netherlands and Slovakia. We watched the first half of the game with about 10 other locals in De Pass. The bar basically closed while the game was on. A couple of people walked in and had to practically beg for service since the whole staff was crowded around the small TV to watch the game. Luke and I felt pretty privileged to be watching the game with the small local group.


After the first half we decided to go for a walk and ended up in the same square where we had lunch watching the second half of the game. The atmosphere in the square was totally different as about 100 locals crowded into a little Cuban resturant called Havana to watch the game. This was much more of an intense atmosphere with vuvuzelas playing and loud cheers when something good would happen. The Netherlands looked great during the game and ended up winning 2-1.

A day in Amsterdam and a USA loss :(

Yesterday was a pretty busy day for Luke and I. We woke up, biked into downtown Utrecht and got on a train to Amsterdam. Train ride only lasts about 30 minutes and then we were in Amsterdam on an extremely busy Saturday. The streets were as packed as I have ever seen a street. Imagine leaving a stadium after a football, basketball, or soccer game and that is what the streets were like in Amsterdam. The weather was perfect and this added to the chaos I am sure. We walked through the crowds to Luke's favorite neighborhood in the city called Leidseplein, and sat in a very nice outdoor square for a beer. Immediately the atmosphere of being in Amsterdam took over with a street performer who had set up a rope to climb. This guy performed gymnastics on the rope, and was showing off his aged but ripped body, climbing the rope, flexing and balancing with his legs hanging off, then balancing with only his legs and so forth. What made the experience truly unique was the fact that he did al of this wearing on a g-string. The guy must have been at least 60, but my guess is that he was almost 70. I snapped a couple pictures, but this is a PG blog so I will not put them up.

After a beer and some Dutch treats in Leidseplein we walked to the nearest "I am amsterdam sign" which I posted a picture of and took some pictures. This is also near the Van Gough museum where I will probably go with Becky and Krista when they arrive. Then we took a tram back to the more tourist section of town and walked around a bit more. Luke then took me into the red light district without any warning, and even though we walked down only one street, I still became extremely uncomfortable with the women tapping on the windows. Luke says that just prepared me for when I give Becky and Krista their tour.

We had to cut our day short to get back for the USA vs. Ghana game. We biked to the local irish pub pictured below called Mick O'Connels, which doubles as the best sports bar in town and plays all the World Cup games. Lots of Americans showed up at the bar for the game, but almost none of the them knew anything about soccer. The guys in front of us just kept yelling the 2 names of guys they knew (Donovan, and Alitdore) even when they weren't the ones touching the ball. It was good to see a big group of people there to watch the game and support the US in the world cup. Too bad they lost the game. Now I will probably just jump on the bandwagon of a team doing well (the Netherlands or Spain maybe?) to cheer for during the tournament. I guess watching Spain win in Spain would be pretty cool.

Tomorrow we will travel to the Haag and finish up cleaning Luke's apartment.

Bikes, football (soccer) and more bikes.

climbing the tower in utrecht (pictures) watching the soccer game and vuvuzuelas. riding a bike in Utrecht.

As much as I have heard about the overwhelming amount of bikes in the Netherlands, nothing can describe it until you are here. I rode into downtown Utrecht yesterday, and today I went for a couple cruises around campus. It seems as though every street has a bike lane, and the lanes are always filled with traffic. I had to resist to urge to be a complete prototypical tourist and constantly ring the bell. (i did ring it a couple times) Flick guided me through all the bike traffic into downtown Utrecht where we took a tour of the largest tower in the Netherlands which is located right in the center of Utrecht. We had a tour guide who took us up too the top, and it was a pretty difficult climb. The view from the top was phenomenal. You could see all of Utrecht. I took pictures at the top and will put them up once Luke shows me how to put pictures on the computer.

Last night I watched the Dutch soccer game against Cameroon with a group of Luke's friends. While watching you can hear vuvuzelas going off in the streets, and after the Dutch scored each of their goals you can hear the entire city celebrating. I saw a couple of people who have taken the beer hat and turned it into the vuvuzela hat.

One great piece of engineering to another.

Luke took me to a bar that is his favorite here in Utrecht. It an unreal amount of beers on tap, and available in bottles. We just stopped in for one beer, but I am sure we will be back. The bar reminded me of Guu's in Stevens Point, but without the amazing jukebox. We have come up with some tenative plans for this week including a trip to Amsterdam, a trip to the Hague, and a trip to another small town in the Netherlands. Also we will for sure be watching the US game against Ghana tomorrow, and hopefully be celebrating another victory!

In Utrecht

Well after over 20 hours of travel I made it to Utrecht. The trip was long, but on every flight I was in an empty row and that made it very easy to sleep. Philly was uneventful, but Lisbon was a little crazy. The most exciting part was the guy who showed up at my gate wearing at least 10 t-shirts, and 10 pairs of pants. Upon arriving at the gate he proceeded to take off the extra t-shirts, and extra pants and fold them up to put in one of the sweatshirts he was wearing. I guess this was his alternative to packing? I snapped a picture of his folded clothes slyly with the iphone and will put it up sometime.

I arrived in Amsterdam, walked directly to the train station inside the airport, and rode the train to Utrecht. On the train I received help from 2 nice people. The first was a helpful Dutch man I had to ask to make sure I was on the correct train. He assured me that I was on the correct train to Utrecht, and let me know that it was the next stop. He looked a lot like Jack Bauer of the current season of 24 when he dressed up like a German, so I knew it was good information. The next guy I talked to on the train was British. He asked if I saw the football (soccer) game that the US played that day, and since I hadn't he gave me the update. Donavan scored a goal in the 94 minute which allowed the US to win the group.
The most surprising thing about the talk was that he told me he was impressed with the US's soccer team, and said that they totally deserved to win the group even though England was in the group. He enjoyed watching them play "such aggressive attacking football," and thinks they'll go far into the knockout stage now. Let's hope he is right.


Upon arrival in Utrecht Luke and Flick greeted me at the train station and we took the bus to Luke's apartment. Luke and Flick made a great dinner while watching the Australia vs. Serbia soccer game, and I got to meet all of Luke's roommates. After eating we went for a walk along what to me appeared to be a bike path, but Luke and Flick told me it was a borderline road that you could drive on. We saw some old war bunkers, and almost got ran over by a group of dutch bikers, but the walk was very nice. (just the right thing to do after sitting on a plane for the past day!) Today while Luke finishes a paper, I look forward to touring Utrecht with Flick and one of her friends. The adventure has begun, and is going pretty well so far.

Less than a week

Less than a week until I leave. Everything should be booked now and hopefully the reviews from hostelworld are accurate. The first week there I will help my brother move out of his international dorm/flat and mail his stuff home. During the week we will do some traveling throughout the Netherlands and watch some soccer (fútbol). The only plans for the first week are not having plans. Things that might be accomplished: a war criminal trial involving some celebrity, traveling south in the country where Luke hasn't been, a beer tour through Utrecht, day trip to Amsterdam, bike tour through Utrecht, trip to Rotterdam to see architecture, and even a music festival featuring Vampire Weekend, the Black Keys, and Pearl jam. We will see what actually gets done.

Got our passes in the Mail

We got our eurail passes in the mail this week, school finished up, and the time has come to really prepare for the journey. The itinerary changed yesterday, and with most of the hostels booked, it is pretty well cemented. We will start with a day in Amsterdam, and then train to Antwerp in Belgium for a night. After some waffles for breakfast, we will be on our way to Paris for the next three days. Our entire Paris trip was planned by Becky's friend who was there last summer. It includes day trips to Versailles, and Normandy. After Paris, we will take a night train to Barcelona and begin the Spanish part of our adventure. Three nights in Barcelona, one night in Madrid, and one night in Granada. Después de cinco días en España, es posible que vaya a hablar castellano. When we finish in Granada, we will trek back through Madrid to finish our voyage in Lisbon. We have a lot to cover in 2 weeks.