Dorint Novotel Badhoevedorp

... br>Unfortunately, I have about 6 (now only 4) hours of waiting in Amsterdam. So I have plenty of time to relax in the lounge, surf on the internet, and eat a real lunch.

Maybe I will catch up on uploading photos from past trips.

... we visited was the Anne Frank house. It's a lot more bare than I thought... Anne Frank's father, Otto Frank didn't want any of the rooms set with any furnaiture after finding out that the house was going to be a museum. Thus, the house is filled with video's on TV's mounted on the walls, re-creation miniatures of things and quotes imprinted on the wall. It's humbling. It's very sad. Worth a visit though. It makes the history of ...

... and are living there again, he is still making Tiffany lamp reproductions, beautiful. I went there unannounced and peeked in his window. He saw me and recognized me right away, it was great. His wife Katie was there, son Dikie and his daughter Rose, who works with him now. I had lunch with them and invited them over for dinner at my apt. I love these people. We picked up right where we left offf. They bought a house in ...

... We wonder how much they charge. Strange. As Stoyan has said: "It's like I've died and gone to hell"..lol. We went on a short canal boat ride and enjoyed the neighbourhoods. Smells like Ottawa and the ambiance is very similar. I think this is why I like it so much. The other reason why I'm sure I like it is: all the men are gigantic tall!!! I'm in heaven!!! Most are Scandanavian or Dutch and they're impeccably dressed. Who ever said ...

... I get another day in Cuzco to acclimatise to the altitude Negatives: Miss the jungle Lose the first 3 days of the trip Ah well - things like this happen. I'll update you all as soon as I can, but I am on my way - just hope my luggage is too or that will be another saga. For some reason I keep thinking about a bottle of champage when I get back too - can't think why. Until next time ... where ever that may be

2008 has started in the best way possible.... New Years'Eve was great, not perfect cos the one person I wanted to be there was not. I went to Mechelen, Belgium, as Christa and Sander invited me and some more friends to their place. We had fun, eating at home, watching the fireworks in Antwerp by the waterside, just before 00.00 o'clock I had a diffecult moment and took my I-pod to go for a wander alone. After we went to the nightclub café D'Anvers and had a good ...

... t know technically how big Amsterdam is - population or landmass - but I like it because it feels like a smaller city, more manageable in size and experiences than many other European cities. London, for example, is immense - it seems like you could live there forever and never really get a sense of the place. Amsterdam, on the other hand, feels like a place that people live and work (and certainly play) in...you could learn this place and be ...

... and didn't I mention everyone bikes! I also joined the craze and went on a little bike tour. The biggest hazard was not car traffic, but the bike traffic. Thankfully, everybody here rides old grandmaish town bikes, which mover rather slow. ( I used Mike's Bike Rental and Tours and was very satisfied. Our guide was knowledgeable, entertaining, and we got a little workout.) Tomorrow I off to Paris to meet up with David. I can't wait !!

... September 29, 2006 One of the weirdest episodes in American history is engagingly chronicled in "The U.S. vs. John Lennon," David Leaf and John Scheinfeld's revelatory documentary about the American government's surveillance of the former Beatle in the 1970s. And readers tempted to write that episode off as yet another paranoid fantasy of The Left should take heed: "The U.S. vs. John Lennon" includes the firsthand testimony of the spies themselves, from apostate FBI agents ...