I wasn't exactly in Amsterdam today, but the area I am in is unrecognizable to most people (assuming you don't know where Badhoevedorp is) so I had to change the title of today's blog.
My plan today was to see the windmills that are so famous in this region. Fortunately I told my lovely wife of my idea yesterday because I was going to go into downtown Amsterdam and then pay 34 euros for a tour. However, Bridget sent me a map of where I am staying and where I was planning on going and I saw that the hotel I'm at is only about 1.5 miles away from the windmill. So after getting up and ready I took a walk. I wasn't sure how easy it would be to walk to where I wanted to go because it looked like I would have to cross a freeway and I was warned by Google that the route might "be missing sidewalks or pedestrian paths".
It turned out to be extremely easy. I was so busy looking at the neighborhood, that I had to walk through to get to where I was going, that I was at the windmill before I knew it. I was there a bit early actually, so I took a walk around the town of Sloten where the windmill is. It was a very nice town...somewhere I could retire actually...if they spoke English. Here is a church in the town:
After walking through the town I went back to the windmill. There were four Romanians about to take the tour in English so I joined them. The ticket was 6 euros, cheaper than the train ride to Amsterdam. Here is a picture of the windmill I got from online...I don't think my pic e-mailed from my blackberry to my gmail account for some reason:
The tour was pretty interesting. Windmills are used here to pump water out of the cities and surrounding areas as they sit up to six meters below sea level. Here our guide shows where the current water level is and where sea level is at the top of this pole. We had to walk down some steps to get to where we are standing.
The tour included a video diorama of the life of Rembrandt who lived in this area for awhile and learned a lot of his art techniques here.
After the tour I went back to the hotel, but not before stopping by an Italian restaurant for some lunch.
When I got back to the hotel I napped, read, watched T.V., listened to conference, and packed for tomorrow's journey to Bahrain. All in all, a pretty good day.
My plan today was to see the windmills that are so famous in this region. Fortunately I told my lovely wife of my idea yesterday because I was going to go into downtown Amsterdam and then pay 34 euros for a tour. However, Bridget sent me a map of where I am staying and where I was planning on going and I saw that the hotel I'm at is only about 1.5 miles away from the windmill. So after getting up and ready I took a walk. I wasn't sure how easy it would be to walk to where I wanted to go because it looked like I would have to cross a freeway and I was warned by Google that the route might "be missing sidewalks or pedestrian paths".
It turned out to be extremely easy. I was so busy looking at the neighborhood, that I had to walk through to get to where I was going, that I was at the windmill before I knew it. I was there a bit early actually, so I took a walk around the town of Sloten where the windmill is. It was a very nice town...somewhere I could retire actually...if they spoke English. Here is a church in the town:
After walking through the town I went back to the windmill. There were four Romanians about to take the tour in English so I joined them. The ticket was 6 euros, cheaper than the train ride to Amsterdam. Here is a picture of the windmill I got from online...I don't think my pic e-mailed from my blackberry to my gmail account for some reason:
The tour was pretty interesting. Windmills are used here to pump water out of the cities and surrounding areas as they sit up to six meters below sea level. Here our guide shows where the current water level is and where sea level is at the top of this pole. We had to walk down some steps to get to where we are standing.
The tour included a video diorama of the life of Rembrandt who lived in this area for awhile and learned a lot of his art techniques here.
After the tour I went back to the hotel, but not before stopping by an Italian restaurant for some lunch.
When I got back to the hotel I napped, read, watched T.V., listened to conference, and packed for tomorrow's journey to Bahrain. All in all, a pretty good day.
