Down the road we go

Yesterday we spent the day in Amsterdam, what a cool city! we were very impressed with all the people on bicycles! far more people ride bikes than drive cars. I guess thats what happens when its flat as a pancake, doesn't snow, and there is good infrastucture in place for cyclists. not only do riders have their own lane, it even has its own min-bicycle stoplight! We enjoyed all parts of Amsterdam, the huge open air markets, the old architecture. the van gogh museum, the canals, and the redlight district. pretty amazing the red light district surrounds an ancient church. We also found it weird that the hookers were out in force at 10 am! we even saw a business man heading in for some other "business".

Today we're up early and are heading south on our bikes. We're going to ride towards Brugge, although we're not sure how far we'll go. There are many nice spots along the way including Zeeland which is a likely destination for us today.

Cheers-
Mitch and Heather

2010-08-30 Day 1

transporting these boxes was a serious ordeal. all in one day we've utilized planes, trains, automibiles, and bikes.

2010-08-30 Day 1

Canal in Haarlem. notice the nice painting on the underside of the bridge!

2010-08-30 Day 1

Cathedral next to our hotel. 1300's

Across the pond!

Well we've made it across the pond without any major hiccups. once we got here to Haarlem we had a little trouble getting to our hotel. first we got off at the wrong train station then we couldn't find the place. turns out there aren't very many large taxi cabs in the city either so we were forced to walk nearly 1 mile with all our luggage... 2 x 50 pound bike boxes and 2 x 50 pound bags. it sucked!  we made it and once we did we were able to assemble the bikes and go for a little ride.

Haarlem is awesome with canals and waterways running right through the center of town. another interesting tid bit... the church outside the hotel was built in 1370!!!

Amsterdam Bound!!

Well we're currently sitting in the airport in Boston waiting for our departure to Amsterdam. in 7 short hours we'll be in Amsterdam.... hopedulyy our bikes will be there too! Days 1 and 2 will be spent in Haarlem, NL(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haarlem) and around Amsterdam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterdam) as well as getting the bikes put back togather. then we'll saddle up and head southwest to The Hague and  Brugge.

Hopefully we have smooth sailing across the pond. We did happen to score the exit row, and the seats even recline (couldn't sleep this am as I was worried they didn't. so i called Delta. at 7 am)! We also have some prescription strength schnapps on board to help us get to sleep!

Bye door we zullen je missen!!
Heather & Mitch