Apr 2006

Queens Day what a party!!!! Today the Netherlands celebrates Queen Beatrix and take to the streets. I woke up this morning to boats on the canal with people partying, loud music and all wearing orange.

Here is a pic more later!! The view is from my living room window.

Here are a couple more pics from Queen's Day taken from the roof top of my bosses house. He had us over for a gathering at his house that was built around the year 1650.

Today we went and took a look at Zac's future school the International School of Amsterdam. Just the outside, however, as today was a holiday here and schools and most businesses were closed.

We found time to tour the Anne Frank House this evening, a must visit for any of you that make it over.

Zac and Martha are back to Pittsburgh tomorrow and I am off to Frankfurt, Germany for a photoshoot with some athletes.

I will try to keep this regularly updated for your amusement.

Thanks for checking in!! The pic below is from the canal outside our apartment as we walked to catch the tram to Zac's school.

The Easter bunny made his way to Amsterdam and we took a very nice walk this afternoon, here is a nice pic on a canal in the Joordan section of Amsterdam. the sun was out notice Zac's face!!!

Zac also played a pick-up basketball game with 3 Dutch boys, it was very interesting as Zac does not speak any Dutch, and the boys were very limited with their English. They had fun and were playing on cobblestone outside the Noordekerk a church built in 1620. Yes, you read correctly 1620!!!!

So you will not think it was all sports we have visited the Rijksmuseum, where we became acquainted with Dutch Naval History and the great Rembrandt, no pictures though because our cameras had flash and there is no flash photography allowed in the museums.

Surprise, Surprise we went to a football game!!! We attended the NFL Europe game between the Rhein Fire and Amsterdam Admirals at the Amsterdam Arena, also home to the Famous Dutch soccer team, Ajax. After the game we went to a nice Spanish restaurant off the Leidseplein.

Mode of transportation was train. 2 trainspotters are pictured below.

Martha and Zac arrived at Schiphol Airport on time at 7:45AM. The picture above is outside our apartment we are on the 2nd floor, the corner windows are where we live. After waking them up at noon we visited the Albert Cuypstraat Market and visited the Flower Market along the Singel and finished off with a nice meal at the local Italian restaurant just a 3 minute walk from our apartment the restaurant Calzone.

We also stopped by the UA offices at the Amsterdam Olympic Stadium. The picture below is Zac standing by the entrance to the venue for the 1928 Summer Games.