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Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity-Jig

I have no idea what that means, but it’s something my mom always said, and I love and miss my mom.

I woke up early today in hopes of getting some shots of Copenhagen in the sunlight. I didn’t, however fully appreciate what being at 55 degrees latitude actually meant.

It meant the sun didn’t rise until 8:40, and I had gotten up at 6:00. 🙄 So I had some breakfast and went a-roaming…


Copenhagen is gorgeous


There were several times, while wandering in the limited time I had, that my breath was taken away


capturing a corner…


entering a plaza


coming across Hans Christian Andersen


And those colors


Trying to be clever with my commentary for these but my lack of sleep is getting in the way, so I’ll try again tomorrow.

I will share one last story though… As I entered the check in line at the airport in Copenhagen this morning a gentleman from the airline said I would need to check my bag.

“I flew your airline to Europe and was able to carry this bag on to that plane.”

“Yes, but it is too big,” he began, “and some of you Americans are crazy so we have to check your bags,” he finished with a wry grin.

“Especially our President,” I replied.

“He’s fucking crazy!”

“Yes, yes he is,” I sighed, and continued on to check my baggage.

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Oh Shit

This is my last full day! I had the 29th stuck in my head as the day I was leaving, but that’s actually the day I get back! D’oh! My journey home tomorrow starts with a fight to Copenhagen where I’ll have a 12 hour layover; planned ahead, booked a room, might have an hour or two for Denmarkventuring.

So this being my last full day I implemented Plan A from yesterday. When I arrived I took too many of these and couldn’t decide which to post

I liked the photobombers, nice smiles.

Then I went to the Moco Museum for the Banksy exhibit. Here’s a few shots with limited commentary

And a few with commentary.

Partners

My favorite

What usually happens to me

These go together

Mickey Snake

Sculpture garden

Last stop here

Categories: Amsterdam, Geography, Original post, photography, Travel, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Sun Changes Everything

Plan A was to travel back to Amsterdam, see the Banksy exhibit, buy some souvenirs then, get some dinner and check out the Amsterdam Light Festival; but first I was going to explore a bit locally because the sun came out.

As I was slipping on my shoes, however, a discussion arose as to what the rest of the house was going to do this afternoon. Someone mentioned a castle.

Plan B, short local exploration, then castle.

Like I said, the sun came out

Saw some fowl

Thought this looked better with some sun

Found this amusing, note to self- come back when it’s open

Not sure what this is but I liked it

Pancho Villa? Wyatt Earp?

Whichever, or whoever, he was facing Frank Zappa

Went to Kebap Factory and got some to go, returned to the house to eat and await departure for our castle adventure.

Entrance to Castle de Haar

Arch to courtyard

Courtyard, hey, just realized what courtyard means 🙂


Found in the ticket office/gift shop (my students will appreciate it.)


(some seemingly random photos ahead.)

(I photograph what I like.)

Castle


This is my good side


Quite the knocker


Totally inappropes (for the ‘Archer’ fans)


Bathtubs in the floor and creepy mannequins

Woof.


On the way back we stopped at Geertje’s Hoeve, a working farm, pancake house and, um, family park? Where among other things I saw some cute critters.


mouse on the cheese plate


And we had time we could’ve roasted marshmallows

Categories: netherlands, Original post, photography, Travel, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , | 1 Comment

Fini

Our last day was spent on a bus tour of Munich, with one of the best guides we’ve had, knowledgeable and humorous. One of the stops we made was to Schloss Nymphenburg, the hunting lodge of King Ludwig I.


And were told to stay away from their poo…


From here half of the group went to town, the rest of us went to Neuschwanstein Castle;


Which had some great views…


Things I’ll miss about Europe

1) Using water with impunity.

2) Cheap beer in Czechoslovakia.

3) Medeival Czech villages.

4) Changing currencies….NOT.

5) Schnitzel and sausages.

6) Town squares.

7) Outdoor cafes.

8) Good public transportation.

9) The slower pace of life.

10) Dogs in lots of public places.

11) Many, many other things….

Keep an eye out for post trip posts!

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Epic Day 2

1) visited Anne Franke house.
2) visited diamond factory.
3) took canal cruise.
4) [here comes the epic part] myself and a few other students separated from the main group to duck into a supermarket and buy some Speculoos, mmmmm. We agreed to be quick and run to catch up with the others by the Dam (cathedral). We were, and we ran, but the large group was not where they said they’d be. As I walked the square to find the rest of the group, the students who were with me stopped to watch a juggler. Upon my return from not finding the rest of the group the following happened:
a) one of my students was selected to assist the juggler
b) he snapped a whip near her face.
c) he made several funny, slightly off color, full of innuendo jokes
d) for his finale he swallowed a sword then juggled a torch, a large knife and a baton then had my student pull the sword from his mouth.
5) After the juggler we decided to walk to the Red Light district, just to say we had, and ran into the tour leader who said everyone had 30 minutes to wander/shop around, so we wandered down to the Red Light district and saw some, uh, interesting stuff.
6) we rounded the corner from the interesting stuff and saw a condom store, complete with unrolled samples in the window.
7) we stepped into a gift shop and one of my students found penis shaped salt and pepper shakers.

To recap: my student assisted a sword swallowing juggler, we visited the Red Light district and saw a condom store, then found penis shaped salt and pepper shakers.

Did I mention the kids who were with me were all girls?

I’m so fired.

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Long Ass Days

Woke at 6:00 a.m. June 18, to meet the group going to Europe and head to the airport to catch a flight at 1:55. Checked in for the flight and 13 of our 22 were put on standby…all of us got on 🙂
Arrived in Amsterdam 9:15 a.m. June 19, and we’re picked up by our tour guide and whisked off to the hotel, where we dropped off our luggage and got on a train to Centraal station. We zombie walked through the Rijksmuseum, and the streets of Amsterdam.

I saw this: (Which sells British and American food)

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Which had this in the window:

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(Sugary foods and BBQ sauce! HELL YEAH!

Didn’t eat one of these:

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And we had Dutch pancakes for dinner and got back to the hotel around 8:00 p.m. Yep, up for about 30 hours, with maybe an hours sleep. Hopefully, my next post will be a bit more coherent.

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Hello

This blog will be a record of my travels through Spain, France, and Italy this summer.

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