Maritime Hotel Rotterdam

Wow, okay, its been a while, but I've been crazy busy (As anyone who has seen my FB comments knows). But this is just a quick send off. I can't believe its been 8 weeks already, but I'm leaving Leiden today. Last night we had a fantastic night at my Law professor's house with him an his family. Yesterday I sent my luggage on to Vienna, that was ...

... and rainy, so I’m hoping this is conducive to getting work done. Lots to do the next 2 weeks, paper, presentations, tests, packing, etc, etc, and we are also going on our last professional seminar on Wednesday. We are headed back to The Hague to go to the Peace Palace. I’m not sure when the next update will be, might be after the Peace Palace, but it might not be for several weeks.

Hope you all are doing well

Love, Heather

... because no is nee. So we each drank like 3 cups each, taking full advantage of the only place in Europe that allows free refills. Later, at a museum we saw a sign on a door that said "geen ingang" and underneath, "no entrance." Whoops! No wonder the Subway workers started giving us dirty looks after that 3rd refill! Anyway, after Subway, we followed the signs to Museum Park, which we thought would be an area with a bunch of museums together ...

I decided that these photos deserve their own entry; the reason being that the fellow in the photo is none other than Zaleski-Zamenhof, the grandson of the founder of Esperanto. He seems to like the t-shirt. I forgot to ask him whether he wanted to buy one...

... exploration, tommy was just checking the talent, saying he was going to purchase one that night, fat ones are a little cheaper. Our tickers were still valid so we went back home and were back at yvonnes by about 4. Tucked into half a dozen of the hertog jan, and by 7 we were ready to go and meet our soon to be new friends, two girls from couch surfing invited us for drink at their place in the centre of Amsterdam. it was a ...

... half dressed in the windows of these places... i thought these people were meant to entice people in... we everted our eyes to save our site and made a speedy retreat to the train station! There we found something far less disgusting but quite suprising, there were salsa lessons being taught in a room on the station platforms, it was such a random site, i wanted to join in but we had a train to catch... so unexpected though... loved it!

... she will never forget. The canals reminded me of the pictures I had seen of Venice. It was amazing to drive down the road and have a boat on the North Sea Canal ABOVE us! We walked through the Red Light district (you don't go to Amsterdam without having a look). The kids covered their eyes alot! It was the only place on our entire trip where I felt unsafe. We saw two American girls ...

... Delft tiles. Looked at the watch and said gotta get back to the train station. Yep you need at least a full day here or even two. I'd love to eat dinner in the town square surrounded by all those historic building. Got our tickets, jumped on the train, and looking out the window, nothing looks familiar. We're headed in the wrong direction! We think we're in Vertrek? A nice guy says we need to cross the track and get on that train. We have no Dutch money ...

... than Brugge. We went on a walk that took in all the old buildings and the river that the city sits on. We each got a pizza for lunch, and saved half for dinner, go the cost savings :) We were very proud of ourselves. We wandered back to the train station and went on to Den Haag. When ariving at the other end, we were a bit lost, as all we had was the address of the place we were heading to. But there was help, in the form of a fantastic, god-send, computer. This ...

... swaying at the edges and I was going cross-eyed. We were desperately trying to keep any paranoid feelings to ourselves, but were certain that everyone was staring and watching our every movement. They were probably thinking “Bloody tourists, can’t handle illegal substances.”

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After an excruciating shuffle/limp/walk through Amsterdam’s streets we found ourselves outside Centraal Station. Not ...