Another houseguest

This time our houseguest doesn't have beady little eyes, a long tail, and hang out behind the garbage can ;) Jeff's friend and co-worker Joel came to stay with us for a few days. He has never been to Amsterdam and Jeff has been wanting him to come over and visit, so he arrived on Saturday.

Yesterday Jeff and Joel spent the morning walking around town enjoying the atmosphere and beautiful architecture. The kids and I did some errands and then met them at the Holland Experience 3D movie theater. We arrived early so the guys spend some time running around in the Waterlooplein square. The square normally holds a very large outdoor street market. There is usually a wide range of products there, but I have noticed that most items tend to have more of a hippyish feel - lots of patchwork bags, guatemalean fabric wraps and scarves, hand-made hemp jewelry, incense sticks, buddha statues, neat wooden carvings, and natural undyed fibers and clothing. It was a really interesting market, very different from the Albert Cuyup marketplace which seemed to have more trendy brand name clothing, leather jackets and coats, furs, and animal hair rugs.

Since the marketplace was not open yesterday the kids had a nice big area to run and play (and feed the pigeons,, of course!) Journey sat and studied the tree in the courtyard. It is a typical tree amongst a group of trees planted in squares amidst the plaza. But this tree has a number of brightly colored stuffed animals hanging from it. They are typical children's animals - mainly teddy bears but there were a few stuffed dogs and one cartoon character. They are hung from strings from the tree branches. Journey was very distraught. He collects teddy bears and was really upset that someone would do that to these bears. When we were visiting before and saw this tree I was thinking that maybe this was where Theodore Van Gogh was killed. I don't know if any of you followed the story, but Theodore Van Gogh was a prominent film maker. (yes, he is a descendant of Vincent Van Gogh). He made a number of controversial films and documentaries and his most recent one detailed the violence within the Muslim religion. His film partner is a woman who is in exile from Turkey because she spoke up about Muslim voilence. Theo was shot to death in the middle of the day a few blocks away from the town hall. His alleged killer was a devout Muslim. Theo's death caused a lot of racial tension within Amsterdam and the Netherlands in general. Anyway, I'm thinking that the teddy bear tree is probably a memorial to Theo (Teddy?) Van Gogh. I've been meaning to ask someone on one of the discussion boards, but I keep forgetting to.

So the show we saw was a 30-minute show that showed various places all over Holland. It was in 3D so we got to wear those *super cool* glasses! The theater was also on a moving platform that bumped and twisted in conjunction with the images on the screen. And when the movie took us through the Holland tulip fields we even smelled flowers! Okay, I'll admit that it was pretty hokey (and it was my idea to go too, darn it!) but the kids thought it was cool. I thought it was neat that the entire movie had no words - only music to go along with the scenery. Pretty clever idea since this is such a multi-cultural area with so many different languages spoken!

Today we went on a canal cruise. It took us through various canals throughout Amsterdam telling us about the history of the canals and the houses and buildings along it. Jeff, Joel and Justice then went to the Anne Frank House. We have been there before as a family, but I thought it would be good for Justice to go again. When we were there before Jagger and Journey were a little impatient (they just were not old enough to be interested) and we had to move through the house quickly. I could tell that Justice wanted a little more time to read things and visit the rooms, so I was happy when Joel suggested that they go for a visit. Jeff mentioned that when you go a second time you see things that you didn't see before. I'm thinking maybe I should stop by again myself before we leave.

I bought myself a cool speedy little stroller while we were here! It is a Quinny Zapp - a cute little stroller that folds even smaller than an umbrella stroller! It comes with it's own carry bag and folds down small enough to fit on the back of a bike or in the footwell of a car! I bought the steel blue color. Jagger likes it because it matches his eyes ;)

The only complaint I have about it so far is the lack of storage space. The one-handed steering and maneuverability helps make up for it though! For anyone who is interested in purchasing one - I highly recommend babycare.nl Erwin was a pleasure to work with and was very prompt in answering my questions. I ordered from him because I heard so many things about his good service. It was all true! And since I'm in Europe I only had to pay 6.95 shipping instead of the outrageous shipping costs to the US!

I've given up on my knitting projects until we get home. I have made a couple scarves while we were here. I also did a lot of practice with different stiches, needle sizes, and yarn weights. I'm still learning it all from a book :) I've put it aside until we get home because the yarn prices here are so high. I just can't justify paying so much for yarns when I can get them so much cheaper at home. The little yarn shop here is great but there is no competition and I miss the chain store selection and prices!

Since my stroller shopping is done, I've put my knitting aside, and we have 3 computer addicts but only 2 computers, I've started reading The Da Vinci Code. It was here on the bookshelf in the apartment and since we visited Paris I thought it would be neat to read it. I'm enjoying it so far - can't put it down at night until my eyes are droopy!