2007
Holland with „Wizzi“ /Lori Sepp
Through the blog site „Journalspace“ I met Lori, or better known as „Wizardress“. Like me, she’s an American gal who living in Europe, in her case, in Holland. Through our journals we discovered that we had lots in coming and hoped to meet some day. That day finally arrived!
my cat, Shila, somehow knew I was leaving her behind…..
I boarded the fast ICE and arrived in Amsterdam after only 4 hours. Lori and her husband, Marcel, arrived to pick me up and we drove to their home to spend an unforgettable weekend.
Day One…. arrival
During the ride, I managed to take a film from the front of the train….
The view from Lori’s balcony….
Lori and her cat and JS account member „Mr. Mistoffeless“
At thei favorite beach restaurant
Beech impressions
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Day Two … Trip to Alkmaar
The weather remained perfect and we drove through the countryside, ending up in Alkmaar. We took a walk through the streets, then decided to take a canal boot ride…. and had the most fun!!
Mr. M. keeping me from writing in JS
varoius impressions
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| ducking low to pass under the bridge | |
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and finding a street with my name!! |
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After our marvelous day in Alkmaar, we drove to the beach. It reminded me a lot of California. I noticed many more shells along the water in the sand, and there were lots of jelly fish that the kids played with. Marcel stayed sitting on a bench while Lori and I took a walk along the shore…..
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Day Three…. Amsterdam
June 3, 2007
On Sunday we planned a trip to Amsterdam, the city where my dad was born. The weather was a bit more overcast, but still good. Little did we know that in the early morning hours, about 2000 people posed NAKED for an American photographer…. who knows, maybe we would have joined in? Eh, … no….. I don’t think so *wink*
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After leaving Amsterdam we drove to a castle near where Marcel and Lori live. Lori and I took a little walk through the lovely gardens. This is also the park where they had their wedding photos taken.
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Lori playing hide and go seek |
Day Four…. Good-bye!
June 4, 2007
It was time to say good-bye… to Lori, Marcel, Mr. M, and Chucky, their dog. He’s getting up in years, but manages to „survive“ Mr. M. quite well.
The train trip home started off well enough. I luckily had reserved seats, since the train seemed to be full.
Soon after crossing the Holland/Germany border, the train stopped in the middle of nowhere. Nothing unusual… technical problems they announced with a delay of 5 min… no biggie. We started off again, then stopped again, this time at a small train station that probably never saw an ICE train stop there before! Something with the battery, delay of about 20 minutes. OK, no problem. The lights went out, but then on again. Then came the announcement: we were all to get off the train, cross to the other track, and catch a regional train!
Everyone started grabbing their luggage and heading out. There was some pushing and shoving, especially among some teenage Dutch boys, but everyone follow orders without complaint! Very unusual…..
Luckily it wasn’t raining as we all stood on the other platform to wait for the train. The town is so small, I haven’t even been able to find it on a map yet!
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Thanks for the fun trip Lori!!