Put simply, Rick Steves was right about Bruges. We borrowed his guidebook from our Amsterdam hotel one morning, and he said it was a tourist hotspot.  However, once the daytrippers leave after the early-bird special dinner, the town’s character changes. If you’ve ever been in a port town when a Carnival Cruise docks for the […]

Read More Ruminations on Bruges

Officially in France, using WiFi from McDonald’s at the Lille train station. TGV for Paris leaves in 20 minutes, but we had enough time to walk around the city to realize nothing is open on Sundays. The unholy marriage of the church and unions. I like the fact that I can understand a small percentage […]

Read More Ah ah ah, en francais!

I’ll be very concise. Liz and I were in no shape to drive…. In Bruges. Needless to say, we didn’t. It’s a pretty tiny town with the perfect Brasserie to cathedral ratio of 80:1. Picture:  On the near left, a local favorite of Stella + Grenadine (4%), on the right a local Bruges Trippel (8.8%), […]

Read More Not driving

(note: this is a recount of events on July 1, before we headed for Bruges, despite the specified date) (disclaimer: all of these blog entries are being written on my phone, so please bear with any grammatical mistakes) Took out our rented bikes for a little longer ride to countryside north of Amsterdam.  That meant […]

Read More Cycling on the dike

Quite a bit to update on from yesyerday, but who has time? We’ll fill in gaps out of sequence. For now… We left hipster Amsterdam today for something more like medieval Disney world, aka Bruges. Our hotel is smack dab in the center of town, great location. We’re torn, stage one of the TdF is […]

Read More In Bruges

With bike lanes literally everywhere in Amsterdam, it is truly a pleasure cycling in this city. There are still some gaps in my knowledge,  however, particularly when it comes to left turns.  In the states, our mantra is always that we are like any other vehicle, except for the interstate/freeway exceptions. That means a left […]

Read More Can’t turn left

Went out looking for some Sudafed-like remedy to ease my sinus pain and was directed to a local pharmacy with a real doctor. A quick consult and 2 euros netted me a prescription nasal spray that is working great. What a crazy way to live.  People taking care of each other. In other news, the […]

Read More Dutch pharmacists rock

Check her out! We have these for the next few days and they each weigh more than all of our bikes at home combined. Beautiful day for a ride.

Read More Actually we do have bikes now

Safe and mostly sound at our beautiful hotel in the Jordaan district of Amsterdam!  We both remarked at how at home we feel here – the bicycle culture really is astonishing. English-speakers abound. Our room is on the third floor of a 360 year old home, at the top of an impossibly steep spiral staircase. […]

Read More Vacation confirmed