Final week in Netherlands

The weather has been pretty cruddy this week it’s been cold, windy and rainy. Brett has been working at the Amsterdam Intel site each day. Monday me and the girls took the bus into down town Amsterdam and walked to “Dam Square” in the center of the square there were hundreds of pigeons a guy was feeding, they were all over his arms and head. The girls had fun watching and Alana even got to feed the pigeons. They also had horse drawn carriage rides, we just petted the horse. We saw a big cathedral Nieuwe Kerk (New Church), and walked around the pedestrian areas and went into a couple shops.
Tuesday was a big day in The Hague-on the 3rd Tuesday in September each year the queen comes and delivers a speech from the throne. The Hague or Den Haag, in Dutch has always been the seat of government and the official residence of the Dutch monarchs. Since Brett had many late night meetings that night, he was able to go with us in the morning to check out the big event. We walked around and saw the Binnenhof Court, the Parliament buildings and saw all the people lined up to see the Queen arrive. There were lots of people everywhere. There was a big parade with band and horses, the girls went on our shoulders and could see everything. The best part was seeing the Queen arrive in her golden coach like Cinderella-drawn by high stepping royal horses. We left after the royal procession, and drove to see the temple in the Netherlands. It’s small but it was neat to see the Hague Temple.
Thursday evening, our last night in Amsterdam, we went to downtown Amsterdam and walked around. We saw the Oude Kerk (Old Church). We passed by the edge of the Red Light District but didn’t go in as we thought it would be inappropriate especially with the kids. Ironically, it's actually a large tourist area. Prostitution is legal here and is controlled in this area. Everything is legal here, it’s normal to walk down the street and smell people smoking pot. I think it would be tough to raise kids here, as you would really have to teach them why those things are bad even if they are legal.
This past weekend we moved from Amsterdam and headed for Switzerland. On our way down we stopped in Germany. On our way south we went to Cologne and saw the Cologne Cathedral. This cathedral is Germany’s greatest Gothic cathedral and took around 600 years to complete! The twin towers are 516 ft tall. We toured the inside of the cathedral and saw the Shrine of the Three Kings, the Altar of the Magi, and an early Gothic carving of the Virgin Mary. The chapel contains huge stained glass windows! We decided to hike to the top of one of the towers, there was no elevator so we carried Allden in the backpack and carried Addy part of the way, but Alana did great hiking up all those stairs! We saw the huge bells and looked out and saw the city of Cologne.
Saturday we saw the Marksburg Castle it is famous because it is the last original castle along the Rhine River. It is sitting on a hill overlooking the town of Braubach. This castle was never attacked. We hiked up a hill to see the castle and walked around for a bit. However, the main attraction of the day was Burg Eltz. This was probably our favorite castle so far, at least one of the top 3. Burg Eltz is about 850 years old and is on top of a hill surrounded by a mysterious forest. We went on a tour of the castle. We had to gather up a few English speaking people and then had the tour in English. It was a neat castle and we learned a few things along the way. It was a comfortable castle for its day: 80 rooms made cozy by 40 fireplaces and wall-hanging tapestries. Its 20 toilets were automatically flushed by a rain drain. The delightful chapel is on a lower floor. Because "no one lives above God," this was problematic. But because the chapel fills a bay window, which floods the delicate Gothic space with light, its position was acceptable. The three families met — working out common problems as if sharing a condo — in the large conference room. There, a carved jester ("fool's freedom") and a rose ("rose of silence") look down on the big table, reminding those who gather that they are free to discuss anything, but nothing discussed leaves this room. It was quite a hike back up the hill after the castle and then we headed to Heidelberg where we stayed the night in a hotel. Heidelberg is situated on the banks of the Neckar river and is said to be one of Germany’s most beautiful towns.

Sunday we found the “military ward” and went to church there in Heidelberg. It was nice because everyone speaks English and most people were Americans that were moved to Germany for the military. After church we ate at a Greek restaurant (I’m venturing out now and trying new foods) it was good! We saw the Heidelberger Schloss it is towering over the town and is a vast residential complex that was built and repeatedly extended between the 13th and 17th centuries. After this we hit the road to head to Switzerland. It was about a 4-5 hr drive. Parts of the trip we got to drive on the Autobahn, there is no speed limit. Brett took the car up to 210 kph (130mph), cars were flying down the freeway! I guess that’s why Germany makes all the good fast cars. We are driving a Peugeot 407SW and that’s about as fast as that car wanted to go. Most of the time we were doing 130-150kph. We got to Switzerland late so we didn’t get to see the mountains until the next morning but they looked huge! We are staying halfway up a mountain in the Swiss Ski Lodge. The ski lifts are right by our house, but you'll have to wait until next week to see the pictures.