24 days left until departure

our trip is winding down and we are starting to think about home and things that need to be done there - the boat lift and pier are being put in the water this week, activities for the kids are being chosen, and we are thinking about what is coming home with us vs going in the garbage.. sad that the trip is coming to an end - it has been wonderful and exciting to live here.

spring is absolutely beautiful. the temps have been in the 60's and 70's every day for the past 2 or 3 weeks. trees and flowers are in full bloom. canal boat traffic is very busy. when we arrived in february we rarely saw a boat go by the house except for a few boats rowing crew - now there is a current stream of boats that pass within feet of our windows. i have to remember to shut the bathroom door bc there is a window directly across from it...

i feel like i am finally hitting my stride with meeting and getting together with people - just in time to leave... our babysitter's father is taking us to a tulip parade next weekend in a town about 45 minutes from here.

this is mike's final week of heavy travel! next week we will travel with him to belgium for 2 days and then have a few days off for queen's day, april 30th. it is supposed to be absolute madness for a day or two so i suspect i will have many blogs posts about it. then a quick trip to heidelberg for him and then he gets to relax here for the remainder of our stay.

we have been out to several museums thanks to our museum card - jewish historical museum, amsterdam historical museum, rijksmuseum (which is in the middle of a renovation and frankly, not worth a visit right now...), and NEMO. we still have the van gogh museum to hit before we leave and the tropenmuseum for the kids.

but i know that wisconsin is coming into the best time of year when we return, so i am focusing on that. i am looking forward to seeing my friends again and having the kids play with theirs. i am looking forward to wearing different clothes, too...

massive understatement of the year - the dutch have a more relaxed attitude toward sex

we visited the NEMO Science Center today. it is a fine science museum and i shall refrain from commenting on most of it. suffice it to say, it is worth its entrance fee and is a great way to spend the day with the kids.



however, the teen section was perhaps one of the most unexpected things i have seen during my time here in europe. it contained a 'peep show' exhibit that was for ages 12 and up. it was a very frank, honest, and explicit exhibit that explained that all people and animals have sex - complete with video and other props. you can see here the display case of anatomical models showing a variety of sexual positions as well a collection of condoms, birth control options, and other aids.. they also had quizes which tested your knowledge on HIV, masterbation, and homosexuality.

it also had little peep show booths with curtains that showed even more explicit sexual information. it showed proper oral sex techniques for both men and women (props were used), proper handling of womens' breasts, and a heat map visual during an erection.




never, in a million years, could i imagine this exhibit in the US. so, if you are over 12 and need explicit instruction on positions like 'pounding the spot' or 'the ram' head on over to NEMO!

De Kleine Reus

a few weeks ago our neighbor asked us if we would consider enrolling david in the local public (dutch) school. i had never seriously thought about school for him bc i heard getting into schools was very difficult and bc, well, we don't live here. but we inquired with the school administrator and they said it was no problem! he is now a Group 1 student at De Kleine Reus (The Little Giant) Basisschool. he is in a mixed class of groups 1&2 (4 and 5 year olds) and it is equivalent of 2 years of american style kindergarten. so starts the routine of setting an alarm every morning and starting our day early!

he has 2 teachers - Matilda and Mila. it is quite common for teachers
to work part-time so Matilda teaches MTW, and Mila, ThF. the school follows a developmental-oriented philosophy but i have not found much info about that other than they have a central theme that last several weeks in which they use to teach different concepts. the current theme is time and his class has brought in pictures of themselves as babies, talk about clocks and time capsules, and are going on a field trip to an old canal house to talk about history. they also have a weekly 'crea' in which all grades co-mingle and they talk about things like philosophy, biology, and yoga!

i love the morning routine - as we walk to school we see tons of parents and children on bicycles. as we turn corners the school traffic pics up and funnels closer to the school adding more and more students. by the time we get to the street where the school is located the street is thick with parents and kids - some walking, running, cycling, and scootering. i see parents with 3 and 4 kids loaded into and onto their bicycles. then all the parents escort their kids into their classroom and sit with them for a few minutes before the teacher claps her hands and starts the day.

the afternoon routine is a bit different - parents are not allowed in school (probably bc of the mayhem - in the morning they have a 15 minutes window in which the school is open for drop-off). all the parents wait outside and each teacher brings her class down and, one by one, sends the children off to their parent. it is hectic and crazy but fun at the same time.

david has befriended pascal, another english speaking boy. getting any information on what happens during the day is like pulling teeth but i know he is having fun. he did half days his first week and when i picked him up at recess time it was absolute chaos - 3 or 4 classes squeezed into a teeny tiny playground. it is a jumble of running, screaming, playing, climbing, and scootering kids all burning off energy.

hopefully he will pick up a little dutch during his 5 week stint at school. but he is busy and having fun and that's all that really matters. now all i need to do is find a place for naomi and i can become a real woman of leisure!

here is a little video for you all, showing our journey to school on the first day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI4rdG3IxkU

more adventures in overnight train travel

the 15 hour journey from copenhagen to amsterdam was actually enjoyable and fun! and the time seemed to fly by. luckily the kids fell right asleep as soon as i turned the lights off after they enjoyed watching the first harry potter movie (we had just finished reading the book so they got the movie as a special train treat).

i am going to state the obvious that having a first class compartment is supremely better than a second class. we were comfortable and had privacy away from the riff-raff back in coach. ;-) we had a locking door and a key entry bathroom down the hall - with a shower, too! we had a sink with hot water in the room, fresh towels, and crisp sheets.

despite all of this i slept no better than in the second class cabin from frankfurt.. the neighbors were loud and the smell of the train brakes flooded the cabin every time we slowed down.

next week i will put some videos up on facebook so you can see what the cabin felt like.

exploring copenhagen

we had a nice 5 days in copenhagen just being tourists - although walking all day on cobblestones is murder on the feet. i am sure i have a stress fracture in my left foot. the weather was fantastic - warmish and a clear, bright blue sky. copenhagen looks much different than amsterdam - the roads are really wide and the buildings large so it feels less quaint and cozy. however, it does not have an urban feel to it. it is very civilized and proper feeling - the streets and sidewalks are clean and everybody obeys the walk/don't walk signals.

like amsterdam, lots of people use bikes here, and their bikes were a lot nicer than the standard crappy dutch bike. and more people use helmets.

believe it or not, i took the kids to the Ripley's Believe It or Not. this was completely upon david's insistance and really not up my alley at all. it was located adjacent to our hotel and we passed by it several times - each time his curiousity was piqued more and more. it had an animatronic Quasimodo in the entrance which seemed fun to david from the doorway but once we paid our steep admission fee he could barely look at it. it was pretty painful to walk through but we did slowly so we could get our money's worth.. we also went into the Hans Christian Andersen exhibit which, while not totally fear-inducing, had the retelling of some pretty gruesome HCA stories. take the tin soldier and the matchstick girl for example. in the first, the tin soldier falls in love with a toy ballarina and both end up thrown into the fire. the latter is a story about a poor little girl who freezes to death. not exactly 'feel good' moments.

on saturday we went to watch the changing of the Royal Guard. we gathered right before noon and waited for the guards and their band to march into the palace grounds. the kids got a kick out of that. after walking and more walking i set off to find a laundromat for mike's upcoming week of continued travel. $10 later i had 1 load of washed and dried clothes.


later that day we went to Christiana. i shall dedicate an entire blog post to that subject soon. {edit: it appears beneath this post for some reason}

sunday was departure day but we had plenty of time to go to the National Museum of Denmark. the cherry on top was that it had free admission! finally, some value for the VAT we have been paying! we spent most of the time in the large children's section where the kids could play with swords and shields on a viking ship, play in a pakistani kitchen, build a brick wall by hoisting up baskets full of bricks, and draw pictures. we then had about and hour to zip through the regular exhibits of both national and international artifacts. at that point we were all completely exhausted and mentally preparing for the upcoming journey. we certainly did not do the museum justice as we flew through the exhibits.

when finished with the museum we parted ways with mike - he went back to the hotel to retrieve his luggage and then off to the airport for paris. the kids and i loaded up on food and drink for the train, fetched our own things, and headed for the train station. upon confirming we were at the right place as soon as we entered the station, we read a bit more harry potter and waited for our track assignment. i am not sure about the kids, but i was ready to be back in amsterdam and not go anywhere for a while. but first, a 15 hour train ride.

loser's paradise

no trip to Copenhagen would be complete without a visit to Christiania. this is what wikipedia says about it:

Christiania, also known as Freetown Christiania is a partially self-governing neighbourhood of about 850 residents, covering 85 acres. Christiania has established semi-legal status as an independent community, but has been a source of controversy since its creation in a squatted military area in 1971. Its open cannabis trade was tolerated by authorities until 2004. Since then, measures for normalising the legal status of the community have led to conflicts, and negotiations are ongoing. Christiania is thus one of the greatest tourist attractions in Copenhagen, and abroad it is a well-known "brand" for the progressive and liberated Danish lifestyle. Many Danish businesses and organizations also use Christiania as a show place for their foreign friends and guests. The purpose is to show something Danish that cannot be found anywhere else in the world.

Among the local users are many social security recipients, pensioners, immigrants and clients from social institutions. Single mothers also visit here, not to mention the many homeless and jobless young people. Greenlanders, street people and vagabonds, all find a sanctuary here.

The people in Christiania have developed their own set of rules, independently of the Danish government. The rules forbid stealing, violence, guns, knives, bulletproof vests, hard drugs and bikers' colors.

Famous for its main drag, known as Pusher Street, where hash and Skunk weed were sold openly from permanent stands until 2004, it nevertheless does have rules forbidding hard drugs, such as cocaine, amphetamine, ecstasy and heroin.

if you want to read a more colorful description about Christiania try this link: http://www.hackwriters.com/Christiana.htm

to be honest, i was not overly impressed. granted, i was only there for about an hour so maybe it was just my initial impressions, but it looked very third world and was filled with shifty eyed people. i wouldn't be caught in there after dark. christiania became a social experiment in the 70's - people of all backgrounds living in an active participitory democray with their own laws. however, many of its founding ideals are currently pretty mainstream - freecycling, recycling, repurposing, use of green space, organic foods, etc. i really wonder how relevant it is today.


perhaps i am just being ignorant and would look at it differently if i spent more time truly understanding what kind of community it was. it is a utopian society where liberal ideals and progressive lifestyles prevail or simply a place for backpackers and homeless to sit and get stoned all day?

international woman of mystery?

two nights ago, while walking out the hotel alone at night, i was propositioned by a man who clearly had 'romantic' interests.. i just chalked it up to being fantastic looking that evening. then again, judging from the women in the red light district in amsterdam, many men are not picky..

last night i headed back out to the cafe for some wireless signal while mike gave the kids a bath and put them to bed. i ordered a beer and then a second. however, a few sips into the second beer i realized i was not going to finish it so i put it in a paper coffee cup to bring back to mike. it was expensive and i wasn't going to let it go to waste!

i was walking down the street, paper coffee cup in hand, as i crossed the entrance to a pedestrian walking zone very close to my hotel. a police car was driving in this zone and it was clear they were not going to stop to let people walk past. so i paused for a second as i was almost pressed against the police car and suddenly a crowd of men enveloped me. they could have gone on one side or the other but choose to go both ways. i rolled my eyes at them and skirted around the police car. as i did it i thought to myself 'i bet the police think i rolled my eyes at them.'

i walk into my hotel lobby and wait for the elevator when 2 police walk in and head toward me. greaaaaat. they ask for my passport which i actually had on me (as well as 2 for the kids and they asked me why i had so many passports on me). they also look into my cup, which i thought was odd. at first i thought maybe they were stopping me for having a beer but: #1 how would they know i had a beer in my cup, and #2 EVERYBODY drinks outside, so clearly that is not illegal. he said i changed direction when i saw the police car (which was not true, i was just going around them) then saw me walk into a fancy hotel and thought i might be breaking into somebody's room. upon seeing my passport he explained that i fit the description of a romanian woman who was either begging or had taken somebody's money. they walk around the square, coffee cups in hand, asking for change. he apologized for the mistake and then explained to the hotel front desk staff what happened and that it was just a case of mistaken identity.

so now i am concerned who i will be mistake for tomorrow?? i don't think it could get any worse than a romanian street beggar...

feeling guilty

i am standing on a street corner in copenhagen, in the dark, getting somebody's open wireless connection. i feel like i am doing something illicit.

the price of living in copenhagen

i took one of those hop on/hope off bus tours today. upon paying the driver we started up a little chat so i asked him how people survive in this expensive city. his reply was 'have you been to norway? go there and see how good we have it here. cigarettes cost 10 euros per pack!'. then he continued, 'people visit and think we have it really good here but really it's only the really rich that do. everybody else has their coffee and beer at home – we just cannot afford to eat out'.

european road trip #2

so picture us with 2 heavy and cumbersome cases for mike's 20 work laptops, a huge suitcase with a weeks worth of clothes for the family, a very large backpack filled with computer equipment, 2 smaller bags that we hand carry and 2 kids. we are chilling in the train station with plenty of time to kill, watching the departure board for our train information. time ticks away and trains numbers that depart after ours start appearing on the board. suddenly mike says 'why don't i see more night trains here? where are the trains to paris, rome, and amsterdam?” i take our tickets and go seek out a train station official. i find a help desk and ask her about our train and she informs me WE ARE AT THE WRONG EFFING TRAIN STATION... she tells us to go down 2 flights of escalators and catch a subway train to frankfurt south station – the next one departs in 8 minutes. i run back to mike and within seconds we grab all of our stuff and negotiate said escalators and children (who still don't like getting on an escalator without holding somebody's hand...). we find the track and 3 minutes later the subway arrives. we have to go 6 stops before frankfurt south, then find our track for our train and we have about 17 minutes to do it...

once on the subway i thought i was going to throw up. i could not believe that we didnt verify we were in the right place. with all that time we killed in the station we could have made a simple inquiry and saved ourselves this problem. what would happen if we missed out train?? i didn't want to think about it. we just took it minute by minute and prepped the kids for the sprint out of the subway and up to find our departure track. 2 strangers helped us with our stuff up the stairs and we located our track to find all of the train personnel still having a smoke on the platform. we made it! we get on with maybe 3-4 minutes to spare.

when we booked this trip we reserved first class sleeper cabins to and from copenhagen. but something happenedwith the reservation and it never went through – mike found out that there were no more first class cabins to copenhagen so we had to take a second class cabin. they have 6 bunks in them so it was a gamble - would be have one to ourselves or would we have 1 or 2 other people in it? we find our cabin which has 2 men and a shitload of luggage already in it. but at that point, having just barely made it on to the train, i didn't care. we were there and we would make the best of it. upon entering the train david says quite loudly 'mom, these bedrooms are small'. i heard couple of passengers laugh.

in our cabin was a german man who was off to buy a new car in denmark to save 7000 euros that he would have paid in germany and a chinese man that spoke no english and just a small bit of german. the kids practiced the words they learned on Ni-hao Kai-lan and he was quite impressed with david's pronunciation of 'happy chinese new year' in mandarin.

we found a locked room to put most of our stuff in and settled in for the evening. the kids thought it was pretty cool to pull the beds down and climb in. despite having an ongoing, yet silent, argument about how much the window should be open, it was really like taking a long plane journey and having other passengers around you. the kids feel asleep pretty quickly but mike and i had difficulty falling asleep and barely got more than a few cat naps in the whole night. the other guys had no problem sleeping... we were roused pre-dawn for a passport check at the danish border. i think i had actually been sleeping at that moment, too. david, who slept in a bed and not a crib his entire life, fell out of the upper bunk. how he was unscathed by that we will never know. then i pulled naomi out of her bed and brought her into mine. i didn't need 2 kids falling out of bed and i was continually worried about the train stopping short and bodies flying.

morning came and we arrived around 10am, got in a cab, and went to our hotel to start our time in denmark. our hotel had changed ownership that day from a starwood to a scandic hotel (thanks for the notification starwood...) and there was some big shin dig in our lobby with lots of men in skinny pants.

my initial impressions of copenhagen: everything costs a bloody fortune and everybody smokes. seriously, things are double and triple the cost i am used to paying. a latte that would cost me $2.50 in wisconsin and $4.50 in chicago, costs $7 here. a bowl of soup in our hotel is $20. an order of fries with our falafel was $7. how do people afford living here?? i inquired about cigarettes and they were not as expensive as i thought – about $6.50 a pack. i guess it is a relatively cheap addiction to have. i can't wait to get back to amsterdam where things are relatively cheap!

european road trip #1

we rented a car in amsterdam and hit the road for heidelberg. despite a small snafu at the start – the local rental car office that we could get to by bicycle opened at 10am but closed from noon-5 so mike had to trek out to the airport to get our car – all was well. however, instead of a nice minivan we had to take a large VW eurovan type thing. luckily mike was driving bc it was stick shift!

driving through the netherlands can be described in one word – flat. speed bumps are about the largest thing out there. lots of canals, a glimpse of a few dutch style windmills, and huge greenhouses dotted the landscape. as we entered germany we started to see many massively large wind turbines, which can look pretty ominous when you get up close to them.

driving on the autobahn was, uh, interesting. luckily there was close to zero traffic and our lumbering giant VW got up to about 145 km/hour and of course people were still passing us by a lot. we had no car seats for the kids (we had planned on getting them at the car rental place but at the last moment were told it was not possible on a one way car rental). not our finest parenting moment...

we had a great stay in heidelberg – the kids and i spent 5 hours at the castle. despite having been there on a trip i made with my german class in high school (1985 or 86) i had ZERO recollection of the place. the castle was great and the kids were highly entertained but completely exhausted by the end of the day. we also took city buses and streetcars which are always a hit.

day 2 of heidelberg was bit more low key – just some walking around the city taking in the sites, eating local food, and having the kids frolic in large town squares. the weather was clear and warm.

after mike's workday we packed up the car and drove to frankfurt for our night train to copenhagen. we ate dinner in a beautiful square and the kids ran around like crazy while we enjoyed some german beers and schnitzel. we had to find a gas station and return our car by 9pm, which we did with 10 minutes to spare. we got to the train station with plenty of time for our 10:18pm departure and hung out in the train station taking pictures and reading harry potter to the kids. we were just so proud of ourselves for timing everything so perfectly (and without any stress-induced arguments!). but that would come back to haunt us... more on that in my next post.......