I'm so excited to start traveling!

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I amsterdam

This past Sunday I decided to take a day-trip to Amsterdam. When I was in Europe in 2006 I spent a day and a half in Amsterdam, but since then the SANDEMANs new Europe touring company added Amsterdam as a site for their free walking tours. I figured between that and going to a couple of museums, the $50 train ticket would be worth it just to get out of the house for the day.

The day started very early - the train from Dendermonde left at 6:30am! I had to take the train from here to Mechelen, wait an hour, and take another train to Amsterdam. By the time I got there it was just after 10, and the tour didn't start until 11, so I went to the tourism office, bought myself a map, and planned out my route for the day. (But that only wasted about 15 minutes, so then I just stood around and people watched until 11.)

This is a picture of Station Amsterdam Centraal.

At eleven o'clock, the tour guides showed up outside the tourism office and led us to the Nationaal Monument in Dam Square, where we were divided into smaller groups. From there we were taken on an almost 4-hour tour of the city center and all it's historical sites and points of interest. The weather was perfect - cool enough that I wore a sweatshirt comfortably, but very sunny.

This is the Nationaal Monument where we started the tour.

Some other highlights included the Royal Palace,


The Red Light District, It wasn't really all that bad - probably because it was a Sunday afternoon. But our tour guide said there are half as many windows now as there were two years ago because Amsterdam is trying to "clean up their image".

The Hidden Church,

Begijnhof,

and many, many canals!

The thing I love about these tours (I did their Berlin tour in 2006), is that it's completely free, running on donations, and the tour guides are SO enthusiastic about their jobs. Our guide waited until the end of our tour to tell us we were his first group to give a tour to, but I never would've guessed. He was very knowledgeable about the area (even though he'd only lived there for two years) and told us all sorts of stories and interesting facts that you wouldn't learn about walking around the town on your own.

Once the tour was over, my plan was to go to the Van Gogh Museum. I decided I didn't want to pay for public transportation, and I had plenty enough time (and calories to burn) to walk the whole way there. But, as luck would have it, I took a wrong turn, heading in the opposite direction of the museum by about 15 minutes, and then it began to pour! I had to duck into a bookstore until the rain let up enough that I felt like I wouldn't drown trying to reach my destination. However, about 10 minutes outside the store, it again began to pour. This actually worked to my advantage, however, because I stumbled upon a photography exhibit I had read about and wanted to visit anyway, but had planned on saving until the end of the day if time allowed. I was excited to learn that this particular exhibit was also free!

Once I finally found the Van Gogh Museum, I was able to relax and enjoy myself. I didn't pay the extra 4 euro for the audio tour, which probably would've made the museum more interesting, but I enjoyed myself all the same.

By the time I finished up at the museum, I had just enough time to buy a few postcards, take a picture of the "I amsterdam" statue:
take a picture in Vondel Park:
and buy some frits and mayo for dinner (healthy, I know...):
before catching the seven o'clock train back to Dendermonde. It was a busy day, but I had a lot of fun!

Not much to say

I realize my initial goal for this blog was to update regularly so everyone could see how my summer is going. However, I have failed this goal due to the fact that there is pretty much nothing to tell anyone about. I know I'm in Europe for a whole summer and should be having the time of my life, but honestly right now it's pretty boring.

We've been to the beach again since my last post, but were only able to spend one day outside due to rain.

I've gone to the Church of Christ in Gent twice, and really like it there. It's a small group of people who meet in the home of the minister, Luk Brazle. Everyone is very friendly and the whole service is translated for me and a few others who are English speakers. Going to church gives me something to look forward to; a chance to get out of the house and do my own thing. The process of going to the train station, taking the train to Gent, getting on the bus, going to church and then doing it all in reverse takes about 4 1/2-5 hours. It's nice to have conversations with young adults (not that I don't love hanging out with two little boys all the time...) and to experience church away from home.

Right now I have plans to go to Amsterdam for a day this weekend. I'm very excited to do a bit of traveling, even though it's not far and not long! Next month there will be a group from Ohio and a group from Oklahoma visiting the Antwerp Church of Christ, and I have been invited to their 4th of July cookout. We're supposed to go to the beach that weekend as well, so hopefully I'll be able to make it to both. Then in mid-July, my cousin Natalie and her friend will be visiting for a week and I'm hoping to be able to actually sight see in Gent and make a trip to Brugge.

My big trip is planned for July 17th. The whole family is flying to Dublin to visit one of Jan's friends, so we'll spend the weekend there. On Monday, July 20th, I've signed up for a 6-day tour of Ireland - a new city every day. I'm a bit nervous traveling with a big group of people that I've never met, but I feel safer traveling that way rather than on my own for 2 weeks. I'll have someone making sure I'm alive and well every morning when we leave the hostel and every night when we get to our new hostel. On Sunday, July 26 I will fly to Edinburgh, Scotland where I'll spend 2 full days and wrap up with a day-trip to St. Andrew's.

I'm so thankful for all the travel opportunities I've been blessed with. Now that I've started, though, I'm not sure I can stop!