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While we were walking around the day before we had made a note to remember this one particular pancake place so we could have breakfast there the next day.  We the next morning we walked back to where we had seen that pancake house... but, didn't "see" it as we had seen it before.  This really perplexed us and we could have sworn that the place was supposed to be right there.  So, think we missed a street or something we decided to walk around again to see if we can find the pancake house.  And again... we ended up right where we had gone the first time.  But, we don't see the pancake house and we're literally standing right in front of what should be the place.  But, it doesn't look right.  So, now we've wasted nearly 30 minutes of walking around and damn it if we weren't REALLY craving pankcakes.  So, we decided to totally retrace our steps and we headed way WAY around the neighborhood before turning back around.  This time it actually worked.  By this time we were now standing across the street of where we thougth the pancake place was supposed to be... only now we SEE THE SIGN!!!  It's there!!! We finally found the pancake house!!  Only as we cross the street do we start the realize that it's the EXACT same place we had gone to several times before. 

So, here's where things went wrong.  If you stand if front of the place we ate at it says nothing about pancakes.  It's just got some regular looking signs in the window about breakfast lunch and dinner.  Only when you are a across the street do you see the "Dutch Pancake House" near the top of the building.  When we walked in the hostess said she noticed us walking by several times and wondered if we were ever going to come in.  Dutch Pancakes + good laugh at ourselves = breakfast of awesomeness!  Now it's time of tourist fun and more Amsterdam exploration.

• Julie and I decided to take a Canal Bus tour of Amsterdam.  It was roughly 30.00 Euro's total for the two of us and I think worth every dollar crushing penny.  The Canal Bus, NOT the Canal Tour, let's you hop on or hop off as many times as you want and affords you a fantastic open air boat tour of the city.  There are several different lines that take you to many different landmarks around Amsterdam.  Not too mention if you just wanted to stay on the boat and take photos all day you can do that as well.  Many of our photos for the day were taken from the tour.  FYI - takes roughly 90 minutes to take a complete Canal Bus ride from start to finish.

• One of the stops we decided to hop off at was VondelPark.  VondelPark is by the famed Rijksmuseum and is absolutely stunning.  The park is named after Dutch poet Joost van den Vondel.  Whom many consider to be the Dutch version of Shakespeare.  Now, I just googled Joost van den Vondel and nothing about a comparison to Shakespeare comes up.  So, that may be a very loose comparison.  None the less the park is huge and very much like Central Park in New York.  Since we had a short amount of time we only walked a very small portion of this beautiful park before we stopped off at the Film Museum (it's in the park) and sat outside and had a quick bite to eat at the cafe there.

At this point Julie and I agree that we'll be back again soon and we'll spend a little more time exploring Amsterdam.

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We saw these great elephant sculptures all around Amsterdam Julie and
I decided to take a few photos. Turns out there's quite a story, not
too mention a good cause, behind each of these elephants.
 
http://www.elephantparade.com/home/
 
ABOUT

Elephant Parade is a ‘parade’ of copyrighted, life-size model baby
elephants which are being displayed in major cities around the world.
Painted by local and international artists, each elephant is a unique
piece of art.
 
Mission
 
It is Elephant Parade’s mission to become one of the world’s largest
financial support organizations for elephants. At the same time
Elephant Parade events will attract worldwide attention as well as
much needed public awareness and support for the cause of elephant
preservation: Elephant Parade elephants will not go unnoticed by the
wider public!
 
Background
 
Friends of the Asian Elephants (www.elephant-soraida.com) is an
organization run by Miss Soraida Salwala, was founded in 1993 and runs
the first elephant hospital in the world. Located in Lampang,
Soraida’s mission is to help and cure elephants which are injured or
suffering from disease and illness. At the hospital they receive
professional and dignified treatment.
Marc Spits, who together with his son Mike initiated Elephant Parade,
met Miss Salwala in 2004 and found that Friends of the Asian Elephants
needed more funds to carry on its campaign for the dignity and
survival of Asian elephants.
 
The Asian elephant needs urgent attention and support. At the turn of
the last century there were an estimated 300,000 elephants living in
Thailand. By 1960 this figure had dropped to about 40,000. Today, a
mere 1,500 elephants live in the wild, with about 3,000 more kept in
captivity. Worldwide there remain between 40,000 and 50,000 Asian
elephants, of which 16,000 live in captivity. If we don’t act now, the
Asian elephant may soon become extinct.
 
Elephant Parade events around the world
 
The first Elephant Parade was organised in Rotterdam, the Netherlands
between 1st September and 17th November 2007. Both financially and in
terms of publicity the event was a tremendous success. A survey
showed that the Elephant Parade elephants, which were spread all over
town, were the most photographed objects ever in the city of
Rotterdam.
 
During 2008 and 2009 Parades will be organized in Belgium, France and
Thailand. Please go to country flag for specific information on these
forthcoming Elephant Parade events.
 
Why Elephant Parade?
 
The Elephant Parade concept appeals to the public imagination in many
ways. Elephants are perceived as ‘cuddly’ and sympathetic animals;
most people genuinely like real elephants. The Elephant Parade baby
elephants are that much more appealing and provoke an even warmer
response; they can be amusing, eye-catching, newsworthy, ’cool’, odd
and sometimes even shocking. They are modern art in a very friendly
and accessible medium, thus generating awareness and support for this
endangered species.
 
Auction
 
The elephants created for Elephant Parade events will be auctioned by
professional auctioneers in each city where an event takes place.
Each elephant is a unique piece of art and will not be produced ever
again as a full-size baby elephant. a substantial part of the auction
proceeds will be used to fund Asian elephant organizations such as
Friends of the Asian Elephant, which support the cause of Asian
elephant preservation.

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Julie and I headed off to Amsterdam for a two day excursion out on our own. We had a great time while we were there, but I think we both realized that there's SO much more to Amsterdam than just Coffee Shops and the Red Light district. And after a day and half in town we had barely even scratched the surfice.

Our first day found us traveling by train all the way from the suburb of Zoetermeer to Amsterdam. I like traveling by train as it gives us a chance to see much of the countryside. Overall, the total travel time was just shy of two hours (there was one transfer at Den Haag Centraal that added about 20 minutes).
 
There's way too much to tell about our trip... besides, it would probably bore everyone to death. Instead I'll give a few highlights of day one.

• We stayed at a great old classic hotel called the Park Plaza Victoria, which was definitely 4 stars all the way. Not too mention its in the heart of Amsterdam Centrum! Which means that it's within a few blocks of many of the main tourist attractions.

• Walking. We did a great deal of walking around when we first arrived.  We went to Dam Square, the famed Flower Market and then we went up and down several of the "shopping" streets they have as well.

• Red Light District is pretty interesting to say the least.  Sex, drugs and rock & roll...quite literally.  We walked around for about an hour or so trying to experience it, without having to actually "experience" it.  The best line of the night as we were walking past the mostly naked women standing in the doorways... "I feel sorry for their mom's and dad's". So, no.  We didn't partake in any drugs at a coffeeshop (the contact high was enough).

• Indonesian Rijsttafel or Rice-Table.  We treated ourselves to a fantastic Indonesian dinner at a great restaurant called Sarang Mas located just past Dam Square on Damrak Street.  Basically, Indonesian food rocks and is flavorful and delicious.  But, when you experience it as a rijsttafel it borders on heavenly.  Imagine your own personal buffet of great food.

                               

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After the great dinner we walked back to our hotel and called it a day.  It was a fitting end to a great day.

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A few quick posts from my iPhone using the Hotel wifi...

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Since the Netherlands is basically one flat country with no hills or mountains they have built something they call SnowWorld.  SnowWorld is an indoor skiing and snowboarding facility... basically, it's an Indoor Mountain!!

We had dinner there and I snapped a few horrible photos.

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Madurodam is actually a 1:25 scale model of the many hightlights of The Netherlands.  Quite impressive actually... but, the cool part was to be able to act out the Godzilla movie I have in my head.  But, sadly my camera battery died only after having taken a few photos of Mardurodam.  I will try to get more pics from Julie or see if I have any on my iPhone.

                                   

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Today we hopped on the tram from my oma's (grandmother) place and
headed into Den Haag to finish our tour from yesterday. However, this
time we had some more touristy stuff in mind. We decided to go to the
beach resort of Scheveningen and miniature model of Holland called
Maduradam. I'm posting the pictures of Madurodam as it's own post
here... http://travel.therev5275.com/those-crazy-dutch-madurodam
 
Now Scheveningen (don't ask me how to pronounce this... I'll end up
spitting on you) is one heck of a beach. There is a fantastic
boardwalk with plenty of shopping and family fun activities. Not too
mention if you're up for it there is a nude beach about 1km north of
the light house. Otherwise, it's just your regular style topless (if
you're so inclined) European beach. Sadly, mostly old ladies in their
late 50's and early 60's were topless. However, I think that
Scheveningen Harbour is mostly used as a thoroughfare for container
ships heading to the port town of Rotterdam.

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Today we had a great honor bestowed upon us.  My Oom (Uncle) Maurits volunteered to give us a walking tour of the city of Den Haag.  Also known as "The Hague".  While Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands, Den Haag is the city of the Dutch Government.  Oom Maurits has worked for the Dutch government in The Hague for many many years and was the perfect tour guide.  He's since been long retired, but you wouldn't know it.  He walked Julie and myself all around The Hague for a little over 2 hours before we had our first break!

We learned a great deal and took some great pictures.

Thanks to Oom Maurits for a fantastic time!

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While we were exploring the little town of Delft we spotted some sort of local Bocce Ball Tournament.  It was pretty interesting to see just how serious they were about it.

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It was actually pretty cool though.  We sat down outside a litte cafe where we drank our beers and ate our Poffertjes (aka dutch babies).  The Poffertjes are fantastic little puffy pancakes the size up a fifty cent coin covered in powdered sugars and butter.   Mmmm... butter.

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I'm not sure if this video is even going to have anything that sounds like a song on it as it was SO LOUD in the club.  But, check out the video none the less.  This U2 tribute band (note its a tribute band NOT a cover band) is called The Electric Co and I have to say that they rocked it.  And just so you know I just checked with Julie and she says they definitely rocked it.  However, the lead singer dude was SO cheesy... I mean this guy really loved himself... not in a good way... and it showed.  Ultra cheese on stage. 

And even cheesier were their fans.  But, that's an entirely different story. 

On this particular evening Julie and I were taken out for an evening out on the town.  My cousin Jacques and his friend Fred decided it was time to show us Americans a good time.  Well, one beer led to four or five and the next thing we know we are at the famed De Paap Muziekcafe and this crazy Dutch band was kicking out the U2 songs. 

Not only did the band rock it all night, but so did we.  See, the thing you need to know about the bars in Den Haag is that they don't close.  So, we were there until 3:30am and I think that I personally got into the double digits with the amount of beer I drank.  Which pretty much means that was the most beer I've drank in over 12 years.

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