It's been quite a hectic September between travel for fun, travel for work (and fun), getting socked with a triple whammy of a ear infection, eye infection and upper respiratory infection, and, if that wasn't enough, packing up and moving out of New York City (more on that later).
Needless to say, I haven't been doing a lot of cooking. So while I get my new place set up, and plan for my first trip to the local farmers market, here are pictures from my canoe tour of the countryside around Amsterdam a few weeks ago.
After watching a segment on 60 Minutes featuring Rick Steves paddling through the canals around Amsterdam, I knew I wanted to do the Wetlands Safari tour. The 60 Minutes segment aired in 2005, right after my first trip to the city and right before my second visit. I tried to make a booking back then, the trips were filled, so I ended up waiting four and a half years to get my chance.
On a cool and cloudy Sunday morning, I met a group of tourists from Australia, Austria, California, the Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland and yes, Holland, at the local TI and boarded a bus a few minutes outside the city limits for what turned out to be a five-hour tour through small villages, part of a major canal, and then a nature preserve.
And despite a little rain and wind mixed in with sunshine, it was worth it for the combination of scenery, wildlife and sound of the water. During the lunchtime pit stop, I even picked some wild blackberries.
So if you've already hit the Rijks Museum, toured the cramped Anne Frank House, bought your van Gogh Starry Nights poster and gawked your way through the Red Lights District, a canoe trip is not a bad way to spend an afternoon in Holland.
No comments:
Post a Comment