So Thursday we were in Amsterdam.

For lunch Jaap recommended La Place, a restaurant in the V&D department store. The one in Haarlem is good, but this one was even better. The restaurant has a huge selection of fresh food, sandwiches, coffee etc. I had the roomkaas on a sandwich, which is a sort of cream cheese with fresh herbs. The restaurant is beautiful and has a unique blend of the old Amsterdam canal house facades with a modern, open glass architecture.

After lunch we returned to the museum, and since there was so much to see we decided to skip the Rijksmuseum for today. Next time!

La Place.

We went for a long walk through the city. Bikes, bikes everywhere. At the Spui square we had triple beers with bitterballen.

The Munt tower, which we learned today was at the very edge of the city in the Middle Ages.

Near Dam square we went to the Bierkoning where I bought glassware.

Since we had pretty large lunch we opted for a simple dinner, and we went to a snack bar in the Red Light District. Fries are obviously available in the U.S., but snacks like kaassouffles (cheese pockets) are typical Dutch. As well as the use of mayonaise with fries of course. I've since long learned to eat my fries with ketchup, but it was nice to have the traditional patat met.

We walked back to the station through the oldest part of the city, part of which is now a small China town.

A great day in a beautiful old city!

We woke up a little before 5.00 am this morning.

A rather short night, with the party we had last night. The party was great, we had a lot of fun.

Thursday morning we took a 9.00 o'clock train from Hoorn, the nearest city to my parent's town Middenmeer.

There are a couple of new shops at the trainstation and we bought a cup of coffee in one of the new ones. The gentleman serving was very slow and mumbling under his breath "what was it that I was doing again?" but the coffee was great. The train was crowded but we managed to get a seat.

On the picture above the historical tram station of Hoorn (not the actual train station).

Mieke had taken a day off from work and my father has his own business and has flexible hours, so we had the whole day together which was great. We walked from Amsterdam Centraal Station to the main shopping street, the Kalverstraat. There we did some shopping, I was looking for jeans. Although ultimately I couldn't find a pair that I liked, it is a lot easier to find the right (tall) sizes in Holland for jeans than it is in the U.S. It was a regular Thursday morning so it wasn't very busy in the shops. It was great to walk around downtown Amsterdam; I really love this city.

The Centraal Station is Amsterdam has been under renovation for a few years now. It's a major overhaul of one of Holland's main public transportation hubs; a new bus terminal is being created as well as new underground metro station to connect to the planned new metro line in Amsterdam. Last time I was here was a year ago to meet Jelly, and it's nice to see the progress being made.

An old building facade, opposite the station.

Shops on the Damrak, the main street from the station to the central square.

Jaap & Mieke.

We spent most of the day in the Amsterdams Historisch Museum, the museum on Amsterdam's history. This is one of my favorite museums world-wide; not only because the subject is one I care about so much but it is a very well designed museum with a great selection. Later more (and lots of pictures) on this museum visit.

Yesterday Jaap, Mieke and I spent the day in Amsterdam and we had a great time. Such a beautiful city!

We spent most of our day in the Amsterdam Historical Museum. Now leaving for shopping, Amsterdam and Velsen-Noord.

I saw so many people today, it was great.

In the morning I visited Alrik and saw their home for the first time. Jaap and I went for a walk to my mother's school, and when we came back home the three of us went to Heerenveen.

We went to my grandmother's home where I met Ettie and Gerben, and we had a good time. We went for dinner (Chino-Indonesian cuisine), I saw Ettie & Gerben's new home and we closed the day with a cup of tea at their apartment in Leeuwarden.

Alrik & Esther's house.

The "sold" sign in front of Gerben & Ettie's new house. It was too dark for a good picture, but the house looks really nice. It's big!

Chino-Indonesian cuisine... delicious.

I am now in Middenmeer!

I left our office at 3.30 pm today and took a cab to Paddington train station. Traffic was fairly heavy already (it must be really bad during rush hour) and it took more than 30 minutes to get to the station.

From there I took the Heathrow Express and it was less than 20 minutes to the airport. It took a while to check in: there were long lanes and there was some hassle because my bags were 10 pounds heavier than the allowance. In the end I didn't have to pay a surcharge and around 6.45 pm we left for Amsterdam!

I am taking a few days off and I'm staying with my parents in Middenmeer. Jaap and Mieke came to pick me up from the airport and it was great to see them again. For dinner I had sandwich with Dutch cheese and a Grimbergen beer.

In the train to Heathrow.

Yesterday I went to our office in the London City, the central area of town.

The weather was as it should be in London: gray and rainy. I left the hotel and quickly went inside again to pick up my jacket. A colleague told me later that the weather had been like this all summer.

I took a red double decker bus to work and got there in 25 minutes. The working day was very productive. I went for dinner with a colleague, and after I got back to the hotel I went for a run to the river, crossing the Thames over the Millennium bridge, very cool.

There's 'congestion charging' throughout London now. It takes between 7 and 10 pounds ($14 to $21) just to get into the city by car per day. Obviously, that excludes parking.