Amsterdam Day 393: Fresh Produce

The produce here is a lot fresher than standard in the US. Sure you can get fresh produce in the States but it is not standard. The downside to fresh stuff is that they have not added a bunch of preservatives to make stuff last longer. We have had bread that starts molding after a week. Beef will start to turn bad soon after purchase. And cheese starts to mold quickly. 

And there are snails on my lettuce right in the grocery store. 

Amsterdam Day 388: Bikes Are So Useful

We have lived here for one year now and so I've collected a few more pictures of weird things on bikes. 

I thought this one was hilarious. I've never thought of pulling your rollerboard behind your bike. I tried it once but you are two far from the ground. So the second person is necessary to split the difference between the pumper and the suitcase. Very clever. An taken without them noticing.

I'm not exactly sure why they thought this would be easier to do with a bike. Seems like it may have been easier to pick it up than use the bike to support it. But maybe they were not strong enough to walk it that far. Come to think of it, I probably should have stopped to ask I could help. Am I a bad person?

And we knew that this happened all the time, I just had not seen it. He is carrying a case of beer on the back of his bike. It took him a minute to get steady enough to take off. On second thought, he may have had a few drinks in him already because he was pretty wobbly. Much safer to drink and ride. 

Amsterdam Day 382: Aviodrome

We found this cool museum at a small airport about 45 minutes away. Think the Hill Aerospace Museum in Roy, UT or the National Aviation Museum in Pensacola, FL but with an amazing aviation playground. In fact it took us an hour before we actually saw anything in the museum because the kids went straight to the playground. I wish I had taken a picture, but there was this big ballon type of thing, probably 20 feet wide, that Charlie jumped on for about 45 minutes. He was just as happy as could be. 

The kids loved that they were able to sit in the cockpit of the planes. You might not be able to see the big grin on Cameron's face, but it is there. 

Charlie had to be told many times by the museum staff, who were dressed as pilots, in Dutch and English, to stop touching the buttons. But he just could not stop himself. He'd look at me and then look at the buttons. Then his hand would go for it. And would then says, "CHARLIE" and he would pull his hand back. And then a second later look at me and then move his hand forward. That little stinker. 

Most importantly, Delta Air Lines was represented. Although it was by this small wooden plane in the shadows of a large actual plane that was in the shadows of a huge KLM 747.  Speaking of the large KLM 747, they let us go up into it and explore all around it.

The museum was just set up so cool and targeted to entertain the children (and me) so well. 

Amsterdam Day 395: More Advertisements

I have seen this advertisement on several friends Facebook accounts in addition to seeing them all over. And instead of taking my own picture, I stole this one from Sonja. It is for a radio station. That's all I've got to say about that. 

Amsterdam Day 372: Zouderzee Outdoor Museum

In Saturday, we went to the Zouderzee Outdoor Museum. Think Nauvoo or Colonial Williamsburg but only Dutch style. It's a fishing village rebuilt to represent Dutch life around the turn of last century. 

The favorite place was the dress ups where the children could dress up as Dutch people from 1904, complete with wooden shoes. 

Aren't those shoes cute. I was able to even borrow a pair and walk around for 30 minutes. Man, did it feel good to get my regular shoes back on. 

The place had all sorts of shops like an old time bakery, candle store, rope store, fishing net store, laundry, and my favorite, the Smoked Herring store. 

Generally, none of us are fans of the herring here. But that is because they eat it raw. And it doesn't taste good. Yet I keep trying just in case I am wrong. Well, I finally found the herring that tastes good. Smoked. Think a cross between beef jerky and fish. So good. 

There was also the obligatory windmill, but we have enough pictures of all those cute windmills, that we don't even bother anymore. It's just another adorable windmill. 

So much fun and I think we didn't even see the whole place. We will be returning.