Around the World Tour 2010

While Lydia and I were enjoying the comforts of being in the USA, Dave worked his way around the world to join us in Kansas City. His travel route from Hong Kong to KC was far more interesting (no offense, Newark fans) and circuitous than the one Lydia and I took. So, Dave is “guest writing” the rest of this post to describe what he saw and did along the way…

I was on international business travel during the first part of Molly and Lydia's trip back to the US. My first stop was to the Netherlands.
Following our business meetings with the Hallmark Netherlands group, a co-worker and I spent part of the weekend in Amsterdam, before traveling to the UK on Sunday.
Despite it being late June, and the heat and humidity were bearing down on Hong Kong, Amsterdam was surprisingly cool. I ended up needing to buy a sweater so I had something warm for the weekend. Amsterdam has preserved some of its famous and historic architecture, and here are some pictures from around the city.

Amsterdam architecture in the canal district.

Many of the homes lean slightly in over the street, with a big beam and a hoist. Homes were built this way to be able to lift large items more easily to the upper floors.

Bicycles were everywhere, and many people used them for their primary means of transportation in the city.

Local markets were colorful and had tasty treats.

And, there were of course goods being sold that were somewhat unique to Amsterdam.

Privacy appears to be less of a concern in Amsterdam - here's a public urinal.

The World Cup was underway, and Amsterdam was filled with Orange in support of their team. We were each given a bright orange hat and shirt as a gift. They were very safety-orange in color, but we fit right in with what lots of others were wearing.

We watched the Netherlands team play Japan with the locals in an Amsterdam bar district. Even though the game was on through the lunch period, all the restaurants stopped serving food so that the waiters and cooks could watch the game. However, the bartenders were kept busy as the drink service did not stop.

Another great cultural experience was a visit to two local museums, one featured Rembrandt and the Dutch Masters; the other featured the works of Vincent Van Gogh.

I was able to cover a lot of ground over the weekend in Amsterdam. It was my first trip to continental Europe, and I really enjoyed the opportunity to see a bit of Dutch history and culture while there. The next stop on my journey was the UK. That part of the trip was all work, no play…so no pictures. After that, it was time to head to Kansas City, and I’ll leave it to Molly to pick back up the blog from here.