day 9 – amsterdam

Saturday we decided again to have an easy day and work in smaller groups. The weather the last couple days has been great, and Saturday was no exception. 70+ and full sun. Alicia headed off for strolling and market browsing through the Jordan district. Robyn, Kora and I stayed home and were bums for a bit, and everyone else headed out as well for shopping and eating. The three of us headed to a market we had been through a few days before and Kora picked out some ‘sparkle shoes’ and a dress.

From here we stumbled on a local park / playground that had a myriad of play structures, a water hand-pump in the middle of a sandbox, bicycles and scooters for everyone, and an in-ground trampoline. It was nice to let Kora run around with other little kids after days of dragging her around the Netherlands, and we were able to sit down for a bit. The place was very cool; like many things here, I’ve never really seen anything like this in our country – let alone Houghton! We headed back North and ate some Falafel and checked out stores along the shopping corridor; Lush was notably appealing for Robyn of course - think eco-chic body and bath. Without a key, we found the note in the mailbox to meet across the road in a bit so we killed an hour drinking Heineken (if you ask for a ‘beer’ this is usually the default) and were well entertained on a Saturday afternoon: spotted someone drinking beer from a wooden shoe whilst his friend wore the other one, a mobile bar (with a half-dozen patrons) being pulled by bike, alley cats everywhere, and continual near collisions involving bikes, trains, cars, birds, cats, and pedestrians. Still struggling with internet connectivity (there are 20+ SSIDs visible, but only one is unsecure, and it is SO flakey) I decided to move my operation downstairs to the street where I sat with an overfull glass of wine, cheese, laptop, matchbox cars, and a doll. Kora played street waif while I caught up on email and blog updates.

As a family, we all went out for dinner and sangria (Kora and Alicia made money by dancing in the middle of street) before the 4 of us kids went out for the night. Aaron and I took Alicia & Robyn to our favorite night spots and we found a few more which included a goth rock club and a very old and apparently Dutch-only bar in the Red Light District that unlocked the door for us. We have them fooled by appearance, or I’ve just learned how to roll my R’s and hack out my acht’s with confidence. We returned safely with french fries and mayonnaise; perfect!