Homeward bound....

We have had a great 3 plus week adventure-but we are ready to go home-we're ready to empty our bags and wear something different! Here are a few last shots of our trip home! Cheers!


a young dog being trained to "sniff" out potential bombs



smiling as we fly along.....it was a very long 10 plus hours....


one of many cows around Schipol Airport. Besides the cows, there was lots to do while waiting for our flight.

Last day in Amsterdam and tomorrow we go home

We had a kind of laid back day-lazy morning-except for fine tuning the final packing as you NEVER EVER go home with less than you came with...hahah....we always bring little giftees for family and friends...plus rocks, sand and shells....
We then took a boat cruise around the canals-sounds rather touristy but, it actually was nice. Here are a few last shots.....

The Van Gogh Museum and more!! bicycles!

We finally got to the Van Gogh museum today-wonderful space-familiar favorite paintings and some works we had never seen before. Time well spent.

....and my goodness me- I don't know if I will ever get over the use of bicycles in Holland. It's like the locals here are born on bicycles; they come close but never collide-a dance between other bicycles, pedestrians and most importantly the car....fun to watch and also a fashion show. We saw absolutley gorgeous women dressed to the nines in dresses and high heels-skid up to a halt, jump off, quickly lock up both locks and saunter off looking like a million bucks! WOW

Here are a few of the many photos we took of bicycles!!

Rembrandt Museum and more

WE had a great day today-what with number one: going to the Reich museum and seeing such fabulous paintings that we had only seen before in art books-to see them in the flesh was awesome and inspiring-so many years past these works of art had been created-but yet they were before us-in fingertip range-one could almost reach through the years and touch the actual people that put paint to canvas...incredible and so wonderful....then back to basics-we found good food! Away from the crowd restaurants-we got good pasta at good rates....later on we just watched the locals riding their bicycles in a way that is sinuous and lovely to watch-generations have practiced this way of transportation-we could learn from this would our hills be smaller.....hah!

Travel can be too much work...

.....and not enough fun. So-when did water become our enemy any how??? When did toothpaste become the Evil Mr Snidely? Our experience going through Edinburgh's airport was less than satisfactory....the Buchenwald trained ServiceAir employee lecturing waiting passengers to NOT cross the imaginary line bewixt steerage and Elite First Class was just plain stupid. And then we personally experienced the "oops we forgot to tell you you cannot have more than one carry on"....fortunately I managed to circumvent their evil plan by cadging a free large plastic bag that we could put all our carry on into... gosh- two bags all of a sudden become one bag...SHAZAM...anyhow-I'll stop my rant about the "joys of modern travel" and just leave you with the photo of the "Employee of the Day with Service Air in Edinburgh" What a maroon.

Unbelievable art in Edinburgh

Today we went to three galleries-the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, the National Gallery of Scotland and the Royal Scottish Academy Building. BY far, the National Gallery had the most incredible work by Ron Mueck. He creates oversize humans that defy your imagination-they are so real. Then he has lilliputan size humans....all very realistic down to their toenails...check him out on the web....

We're back in Edinburgh!

Good old Edinburgh-we arrived mid-afternoon from Glasgow-Toni dropped us off and we said fond farewells til we meet again on one or another continent!
Yesterday we went to two museums-the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art that had a fabulous exhibit of Robert Mapplethorpe's work. Who ever curated it did a great job.
Then we went on to the Dean Gallery-just across the street and saw the Van Gogh exhibit. Again-a good show and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
Off to lunch and then we strolled down Dundas Street and went in and out of many llitle art galleries. Some better than others. But most of them practise a most uncharming manner of ignoring the customer....their loss....we did come across a few galleries that were actually very friendly-so we were able to have conversations about the art "scene" in Edinburgh.
We did find two small pieces that we will hand carry back. Really lovely contemporary works.
Here a a few shots of our day-

Another day-another pub and yet another ale to taste....

I would post another photo showing our very rainy drive down from Fort William-however our web attachment is tenous-so this will have to do...cheers!

Thoughts about and some photos of Scotland

Scotland is a country full of dramatic vistas and simple understatements....
A stormy blustery day will bring a remark of " tis a good day for a brisk walk isn't it?""
Whereas we'd be saying" Man- it's nasty out"..........Here are a few photos of the absolutely beautiful landscape taken in the West Highlands.. come visit- you'll fall in love with it too!

A walk in Scotland is a hike at home!!

Yesterday we took a "walk" with Toni and her friends Andrew and Sue. We drove to Abiemore, which is a ski resort in the winter and then a bit further where we walked up the hill
Meall a Bhuachaille. We started at about 1pm and were back down around 5 pm. Stright up and straight down!!!! We walked about 5 miles and gained about 1500 feet in elevation The hill is about 812 meters high. Here are a few shots:



Looking down from the top....

On the top....

To Amsterdam and beyond!

Here we are at Chantal and Berry's house and here is their darling baby Mauri...3 months old and perfect as perfect can be! We stayed here with them for 4 days and now we are in Scotland. For more photos go to my flickr site to the right of this......


The most important thing I learned in our short stay is how sensible the Dutch are....no nonsense-just common sense and very family oriented...more later!