Amsterdam Day 5 - Church

Today we woke up early to go to church. As far as we could tell, we had 2 options to get there. 1) take public transportation - about 1 hour away or 2) ride our bikes. We decided to do both. If we drove it, it would only take us about 20 minutes as it is only 12 kilometers away (you figure out how far that is in miles), but alas, we have no car, yet. So Jaimee took off with Cam and Bev and braved figuring out public transportation. Jannica, Ryan, Charlie and I took off on our bikes. Google maps estimated 34 minutes for the ride, but that must not be at the speed of a 9 year old. It ended up taking about an hour, but we still beat Jaimee by about 10 minutes. 

The ride to church takes us through a little bit of beautiful countryside and a beautiful little town on the Amstel river. There are cows, sheep, and horses along the way. There are few fences separating us from the livestock. They use little canals to keep the livestock on the property with little bridges with fences on them for the people to cross. I don't see how it really works to keep the cows in but then I'm not a cow (although Jaimee would argue that point). Further down the road are little farms, farmhouses, and windmills dotting the country side. It is an amazingly beautiful ride. And the best part is that it is all flat. 

Church goes from 10am to 1pm. We will have to describe church later as it is a true international affair with translation into English and Spanish. There were not a lot of people in attendance this week as all the Dutch take off 3 or 4 weeks at this time of year for vacation, or Holiday as the Brits say. After church, the young women get together for 30 minutes and chat over "Mormom Coffee". Jannica says that it is really gross and she is going to bring hot chocolate next week. It was a good time to chat and get to know each other. She was able to get the phone numbers from the other three girls that are her age so that she will have some friends here. 

The ride home from church was equally fun but with a bit more sun. My poor head got a sunburn from the ride. And poor little Charlie fell asleep on the way home. He had the hardest time getting comfortable leaning back and then laying his head on my back. But the bumps in the ride kept getting in the way of a good sleep. 

And by the way, we beat Jaimee home by about 15 minutes. I'm not sure if this public transport/biking only lifestyle is going to last long. I love how fit I feel, but this might be a bit excessive. I see a car, but only one, in our near future.