There's a rumor in St. Petersburg...

....and it's not that Anastasia was alive; it's that Maggie was coming!

Let's face it--the highlight of this cruise was always going to be the two days we were docked in St. Petersburg. And as luck would have it, it was the jewel in our vacation crown. But before I get into the details of our visit, how about some historical background? It's kind of my favorite.

St. Petersburg was founded in 1703 by Peter the Great and was modeled on the great cities of Western Europe. After touring the other cities of Europe, Peter was determined to "modernize" Russia and build a city as beautiful as Paris, Venice, or London. He hired French architects and built the city on a series of islands spanning the river Neva. St. Petersburg was the capitol city of Russia from 1712 to 1918 and is currently the second largest city in Russia with 5 million people (Moscow is the largest). The city has also had several name changes in its time; during WWI it was called Petrograd as the Russians changed all German-sounding names in the country. It was then renamed Leningrad in 1917 following the Bolshevik revolution until 1994 when the residents voted to restore the original name of St. Petersburg.

My first impressions of the city were that it was one of the most beautiful I had ever seen. It's full of buildings dating from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as the Russians prefer to restore existing buildings rather then rely on new construction. I was also surprised by how many of the architectural details remain; I assumed during the Soviet era many of them would have been torn down, but the truth is that any damage done to the city was caused by the Germans during WWII. It's loaded with palaces (as each Romanov was given their own palace and there were 60 of them in 1916) cathedrals, and other beautiful old buildings.

Our first stop on our grand tour was the Hermitage museum. It's the second largest museum in all of Europe and houses the largest collection of Renoir paintings in the world. There's also an impressive collection of French Impressionist paintings including Monet and Van Gogh (who was Dutch but did his best works in France). It was founded by Catherine the Great in 1862 and is currently comprised of 5 buildings including the Winter Palace where the ruling Romanov tsars had their home in St. Petersburg. Our tour guide, Tanya, was incredibly knowledgeable about almost everything in the museum and took us on a path that avoided most of the other tour groups. Coupled with the museum opening an hour early to accommodate the many cruise tours, we had an experience few people get (as the museum becomes impossibly crowded during the summer).

The tour began in the main stairway of the Winter Palace and then curved through the official receiving and throne rooms of the tsars. Each room is filled with not only exquisite pieces of art including paintings, sculptures, and antique furniture, but the rooms themselves contain impressive gilding and floors. There was so much to look at it, but my personal favorites were the Impressionist paintings and the marble sculptures which looked ready to come to life at any moment.

Entrance to the Hermitage, aka, the Winter Palace

Grand Stairway of the Winter Palace

Rooms inside the Hermitage

The Three Graces, in the lobby of the Hermitage

We spent the entire morning wandering the rooms until after noon when we headed to a hotel for lunch. Russian food is very hardy, and we had a typical Russian meal which of course includes vodka. The first course was a light salad with raw salmon and caviar. The second course was a thick potato soup (which was delicious). The main course was chicken kiev, which as soon as you touched it with your knife and fork virtually exploded with butter and garlic and herbs. For dessert there was a thick cream with berries and as I said, vodka.

After lunch we spent the afternoon on a panoramic tour of St. Petersburg seeing the most famous sites such as St. Isaac's Cathedral,a Russian Orthodox Cathedral that took 40 years and 3 tsars to construct. It was also designed by a French architect and includes 48 columns weighing 114 tons. The interior reminded me a lot of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, but with even more icons and mosaics. We also got a look at one of St. Petersburg's most famous landmarks: the Church of Spilled Blood. It's coloful exterior and onion shaped domes are quintessentially Russian and it's now the first thing that comes to mind when I think of the city (you should google it--seriously).

St. Isaac's Cathedral

Statue of Peter the Great with the dome of St. Issac's in the background

Church of Spilled Blood

After some time shopping (where I got some Russian nesting dolls--so cute!) we were back on the bus for the ride back to the ship. When I write it out like this it doesn't seem like very full day, but trust me--it was a long day.

Coming up next: St. Petersburg Day 2, with even more palaces!

Traditional Fish-Schlapping Song

This post is not as long or as exciting as most of the others. Simply because we didn't spend a lot of time in Helsinki.

We hadn't booked an excursion for this one; there wasn't really anything that grabbed our attention and we figured we'd be ok walking around on our own. The cruise company operated a shuttle from the port to the city center, and everything about our plan worked perfectly. Except for the pouring rain. Literally, it poured rain the entire time. But we did get a nice feel for the city.

I'll tell you what really kept us going was singing this song from Monty Python's Spamalot:



We walked down one of the main streets to the city's old center, called Senate Square. There's a large cathedral (Lutheran) and the old government buildings. We then walked through the market square where there are lots of street vendors selling food and crafts. It was nice, but again, the rain made it all kind of a bummer. On the way back to the shuttle we managed to do some shopping--and found a three story shoe store--but we probably only spent two hours at most in the city. One interesting point: while walking around we noticed packs of students acting strangely, dressed weird (in animal costumes and like clowns) and some off behavior. When we finally asked the bus attendant what was going on, we learned it was the initiation day for the freshman university students, when they have to wear costumes and perform tasks all over the city assigned by the upperclassmen in their colleges.

Lutheran Cathedral and statute

Park in downtown Helsinki

Sweden, ya.

Our first real stop on the cruise was in Stockholm, Sweden. Now, I say "real stop" because the ship actually docked on its second full day in a small town called Warnemunde in Germany. There wasn't much to do around there; it's really just used as a gateway to Berlin, but since that required a three hour train ride each way, we decided to pass. We had signed up for a Segway tour of Warnemunde, but that tour was canceled due to "lack of interest." Basically, nobody else on the entire ship had signed up for that tour so it was canceled.

Since we no longer had a tour lined up, I basically treated the Germany stop as another day at sea--relaxing and not doing much. I did get off the ship and walk around the port town for a bit, but not a lot. Napping seemed a higher priority.

So the first real stop for me on the cruise was Stockholm! Before actually arriving at Stockholm, the ship had to travel through Sweden's archipelago islands--24,000 of them to be exact that were formed in the most recent Ice Age. They are beautiful and dotted with summer homes and chalets that can only be reached by private boat. The captain opened the helipad (which is located at the very front of the ship) so we could go out and watch the ship sail through the islands. Several of the ship's officers (and a crew member dressed as a viking) were also out there and posing for pictures with the guests.

After taking some pictures of our trip through the islands and grabbing some breakfast at the buffet, we headed down to check-in for our shore excursion. This time we had booked an excursion called "Sweet Stockholm" that included a tour of the city with a stop at a chocolate shop for a tasting of various Swedish chocolates. When we went to our meeting place and went to check-in for our tour, Chris noticed that there were only 3 tour number stickers (you wear the number of your tour on your shirt so the crew and tour guide know where you belong). He asked if we were the last 3 people to check-in for the tour and the guy looked at him and said "Actually, you're the only 3."

Here's the deal: we were the only people to sign up for this tour. But since we had the same circumstance for our German Segway tour and they had canceled that one, the shore excursion staff felt bad canceling our tour for a second time in a row. So they left the tour going and we ended up with a private tour!

It became something of a joke; we were tour number 22 and we spent the rest of the day saying things like, "Ok, everyone try to keep up!" "Do we have everyone? Look around and make sure everyone made it back to the bus!" I am sure this wore thin with the tour guide, but we had a great time. Our tour guide and driver (named Hans, OF COURSE) was somewhat surprised that we had such a small group, but it worked out for the best since it's always easier to talk to 3 people than it is 30.

Tour 22, where are you?

After boarding our van and meeting our tour guide and driver, we set out for Stockholm! The city is actually located on a series of 14 islands that are connected by 57 bridges. It's called the Venice of the North and while it doesn't have canals per se, the Baltic Sea flows all throughout the city. Our tour started with a drive through the city with the tour guide pointing out some of the more important points (such as various museums and government buildings) and then we drove to the chocolate shop.

The shop was called Chokladfabriken and they had a whole tasting area prepared for us. The young lady from the shop told us all about how chocolate is made, and we tried some basic white chocolate, milk chocolate, and dark chocolate to get started. Then the fun part! They had 9 different truffles prepared for us with all kinds of exotic ingredients randing from ginger, tea, and a sea salt caramel with licorice flavor. It was all delicious and was over much too quickly.

Looking out over one of Stockholm"s islands

In the chocolate shop!

Our chocolate spread

It was then back on the bus as we traveled to the Gamla Stan; the oldest part of Stockholm founded in the early 1200s. Cobblestone streets are lined with shops and (expensive) old town homes as well as numerous churches and squares. The Gamla Stan is also home to the Royal Palace; Sweden has a constitutional monarchy and let me just tell you, their royals are VERY good looking people. Seriously, google them. Tall and attractive, just the way a monarchy should be.

We strolled with our tour guide through the Gamla Stan and saw some beautiful buildings and heard lots of stories of Sweden's history. We then had some time to wander about and do some shopping. Our tour guide, who of course became instantly enamoured with us probably for the reason that we were 1) fun and 2) under the age of 80 bought us some Swedish sweetcakes from a lovely little pastry shop near the Royal Palace.

A square inside the Gamla Stan

Shopping in the Gamla Stan

Posing with a statute of a Swedish troubadour

At that point, there was just enough time to drive back to the port before the ship left rather early for our journey to Helsinki, Finland! Once we were back on the ship, we went to a comedy magic show which was actually very good and better than expected. My experience with cruises thus far has been that the main shows are kind of unbearable, but the side acts are always really enjoyable. Then it was off to dinner (we had the second seating at 8:30) and then Chris and I played some craps in the casino. Right when we finished playing the cruise director, a lovely older British woman named Sue, walked by and we chased her down the hall (literally) and stopped her and invited her and the Hotel Director to dinner.

More on that later--since we ended up having quite the relationship with the Hotel Director on the ship. But I don't want to get ahead of myself....coming up tomorrow: Helsinki, Finland!

After 6 days of traveling on our own it was time to hit the ship! We were all excited to get the chance to indulge in some ultimate laziness (nobody more than Kent), but first we had to get to the cruise terminal, which is located about a 10 minute walk east of the Centraal Station.

Our trip onto the ship was something of an adventure. Despite willing to go on vacation practically every month, it has become something of a joke how cheap my friend Chris is when it comes to taking cabs. Since we still had time on our 24 hour tram access card, instead of simply taking a cab to the cruise passenger terminal, we dragged our suitcases the three blocks to the tram stop where Chris assured us we could take the #25 all the way to the terminal. The trouble began as we were pulling our suitcases; it began to rain. Once we got on the #25 we found out that it wasn't in fact going to the terminal, which would mean we would need to take a bus or walk 15 minutes from Centraal Station. AND THEN. Before we got to the station, the tram in front of us was hit by a small truck, and we were kicked off the tram along with all our luggage. As it was now pouring rain, we FINALLY convinced Chris to
take a cab to the terminal and the rest of our journey was completed without incident.

Getting onto the ship itself was relatively painless. You hand off your baggage to one of the many porters waiting at the front of the terminal (the cruise company provides pre-labeled luggage tags that you put on before you get to the terminal). You are then handed a boarding number and go through a check-in process similar to an airline. I would say within 30 minutes we were on the ship in our cabin and our bags arrived only a few hours later.

These first few days on the ship have been quite relaxing, a welcome change from our sight-seeing in Iceland and Amsterdam. We started off with a day at sea while we travelled to Germany (specifically the port at Wernemunde). Many people had booked excursions into Berlin that required a three hour train ride each way, but we had gone with a more relaxed Segway tour of the port town. Unfortunately, our tour was unceremoniously cancelled (maybe due to lack of interest?) and so we just kind of wandered around and enjoyed the sunshine and cool breeze for a few hours. Then we had another day at sea which basically involves laying around, participating in some activities (such as a lecture about the history of St.Petersburg, Russia) and relaxing.

Compared to the other cruises I have been on, which were with the more budget cruise line Carnival, I can definitely tell a difference being on Celebrity. The ship is smaller and the food, rooms, and shows are of a better quality. But don't get me wrong: being a cruise ship the entertainment show are still extremely cheesy. But that's part of the draw (for some people).

There were many performance groups on the ship including an a capella men's quartet (called Lemon Squeezy--you can find them on Facebook), a classical trio, party band, DJ, guitarist, and piano bar player/singer. And of course, there are the Celebrity Constellation dancers and singers who put on such shows as the Salute to Hollywood. They are really talented, but oh my goodness it was cheesy. We only made it to that one main-stage show, it was just too much ridiculousness for me to handle--at least while sober.

Another great thing about cruise ships (and why a lot of people go on them) is the food. For those of you who haven't been on the cruise, let me lay it out for you. Every night, there is a sit-down dinner in the main dining room. You sign up for an earlier or later seating when you buy the cruise, and eat at the same table with the same waiter staff through the cruise. Usually, you have random people assigned to your table, ad while Chris, Kent, and I sat at an eight person table, our assigned seatmates never showed up. Maybe it was something we said.

For breakfast and lunch there is open seating in the dining room, but most people go to the 24 hour buffet where you have more options and more flexibility. You have your standard buffet food, but also a grill with burgers and fries etc. and special late night offerings. The reason why so many people gain weight cruises is because there is always plentiful and free food to be had no matter the time of day. Thank goodness they also have a really good gym and even an outdoor running track that I was able to take advantage of...at least until I busted my ankle.

There are also two specialty restaurants on the ship: one French, one Italian. There was a $25 charge to eat at these, but they offered two 20% off nights that we took advantage of. Both times we ate at the Italian one and the food was AMAZING. Totes worth it.

Even though our assigned dinner partners didn't show up, we did meet some nice people who decided to randomly sit at our table one night. Two older couples from South Africa who have been extensive world travelers (and are Jewish!). One of the ladies is one of the premiere South African diva opera singers and we got along with them all famously. We met up with them for drinks on several occasions and would often bump into them around the ship.

Coming up next: Stockholm, Sweden!

The Celebrity Constellation

Our stateroom aboard the ship, the couch in the back opened into my bed.

Chris orders dinner in the main dining room with our head waiter, Bobby

The dessert spread at the special Sunday brunch (note the ice sculpture)

Me doing my best bathing beauty impression at the indoor pool

Our South African friends at the martini bar

Our main dining room water staff: Bobby (from Indian), Tarjeche (from Macedonia), and Peggy (from Nicaragua)

Out waitstaff at the specialty restuarant, the Tuscan Grill. Mustafa (a giant flirt) and Sennon.

Stop and smell the sunflowers

On our third day in Amsterdam, we finally had some sunshine. Our first sight-seeing stop that morning was the Museumplein (meaning museum square) a large park-like area bordered by some of Amsterdam's finest museums. We headed to the Van Gogh (as the Dutch say, Van Kkkkkokh) museum on the north side where the 200 paintings owned by Vincent Van Gogh's brother, Theo, are housed. As with the Anne Frank House, we had bought advanced tickets and were able to skip the sizable line and go right into the museum.

Here's a little blurb from my Rick Steve's travel guide about Van Gogh and his art: "You could see Vincent Van Gogh's canvases as a series of suicide notes--or as the record of a life full of beauty...perhaps too full of beauty. He attacked life with a passion, experiencing highs and lows more intensely than the average person. The beauty of the world overwhelmed him; its ugliness struck him as only another dimension of beauty. He tried to absorb all of life, good and bad, and channel it into a canvas, and the frustration of this overwhelming task drove him to madness. If all this is a bit overstated--and I guess it is--it's an attempt to show the emotional impact that Van Gogh's works have had on so many people, me included."

The museum is laid out chronologically with Van Gogh's earlier works in the Netherlands first moving into his time in Paris. His first paintings focused on the reality of peasant life and were painted with dark somber colors. The style was crude, but Van Gogh's technique of applying thick paint was still clear. When Van Gogh went to Paris in 1886 he began to experiment more with the impressionist style and began to perfect his own techniques: thicker paint, broad swirling brush-strokes and bright clashing colors that "made his subject pulse with life" (example: Starry Night). Unfortunately, his mental stability also began to fluctuate and after mutilating his own ear with a knife during a fight with Gauguin (whom he shared a studio with briefly), he checked himself into a mental hospital in May 1889. When he left a year later in May 1890 he moved back to Paris, but in July walked into a field and shot himself in the chest. He died several days later.

Walking through the museum left me with a huge sense of sadness. Here was one of the most brilliant artists of all time, but he only sold one painting during his lifetime and eventually became so despondent that he saw no other recourse but to end his own life. How different would our culture be if Van Gogh had lived and painted through a full lifetime? There is no way to know...but wastefulness of any kind makes me sad, especially the waste of such talent.

The Van Gogh Museum

Concert Hall on the Museumplein

After spending the morning at the museum, we grabbed a quick lunch from a hot dog vendor. In case you didn't know, they are mad about hot dogs in nothern europe. In Iceland you couldn't go 3 feet without tripping over someplace selling hot dogs and the trend continued in the Netherlands. I'm not sure what it is about them (the cheap price? the easy portability?) but they sure love them.

Chris and I then decided to follow the self-guided Amsterdam City Walk described by Rick Steve in the guidebook and for the first time in our three days in the city fully immerse ourselves in the history and story of Amsterdam.

Rick Steve will guide us through Amsterdam!

The walk began outside the Centraal Station, which was built in the early 1800s during the city's economic revival. It's of the neo-gothic style and directly ahead lies the Damrak, the main street of the city. The area along the Damrak and in front of Centraal Station is known as the Times Square of Amsterdam, due to its hustle and bustle and also, of course, for the number of tourists and tourist traps.

As you walk along the Damrak, on the left you pass over the Amstel River which is now channeled into canals throughout the city. The next stop is the stock exchange (Beurs). The old building was constructed of nine million bricks (and 5,000 tree trunks hammered into the marshy ground) in 1903. Stocks used to mean anything that could be loaded or unloaded unto a boat, and this was where Amsterdamers always came to trade, even before the building was constructed. The architect who built the stock exchange was a famous socialist, and in a triptych frieze above the door, indicated that capitalists and brokers would lead to disaster in the future. Not exactly the message the stock exchange would want to send out, but whatcha gonna do?

Amstel River (looking towards Centraal Station)

The triptych above the stock exchange; the last panel shows people being crushed by capitalism.

Next down the Damrak, you hit Dam Square the cultural and political center of the city. On one side is the Royal Palace. It was constructed in 1650 and was used as a Town Hall, but got its current name in the 1880s when Holland was invaded by the French and Napoleon named his brother Louis king. The Netherlands currently has a monarchy--but it's in the British style where the King or Queen is the symbolic head of state (and not the head of government). The current queen, Queen Beatrix, uses the Royal Palace as her official residence when in Amsterdam. She normally lives at the Hague. Not too shabby, eh?

In the middle of Dam Square is a National Monument shaped as an obelisk depicting a crucified Christ, men in chains, and howling dogs. It was constructed in 1956 as a WWII memorial and is considered a monument for peace. The Nazis occupied Holland from 1940 to 1945 and deported and murdered over 100,000 Amsterdam Jews (including Anne Frank and most of her family).

The tour then took us down the pedestrian-only street, Kalverstraat, which is loaded with cheesy shops. There are some cool sights though; one of which is the "hidden" Catholic Church. In the late 1500s when the Protestant Reformation took control of the country, Catholicism began illegal and although it is now legalized, the Catholic churches in town keep a low profile. The church is called hidden because it's an unmarked row house between a McDonalds and H&M and you would literally never know it was there unless you were looking for it.

Royal Palace

Dam Square and the memorial

Dam Square looking towards the Royal Palace (the memorial would be at your back)

Kalverstraat

Another hidden treasure off the Kalverstraat is the Begijnhof, a beautiful courtyard lined with houses and a church that has been used as a woman's shelter since 1346. The Beguines were women who removed themselves from society and dedicated their lives to God--but were not nuns. The church on the side of the courtyard is called the English Reformed Church and is where the Pilgrims on the Mayflower stopped to pray before beginning their overseas voyage to Plymouth Rock. A stained glass window in the middle of the sanctuary commemorates the Pilgrims' visit.

Courtyard of the Reformed Church in the Begijnhof

Homes in the Begijnhof

By this time, our feet were pretty much shot, so we headed back to the houseboat for a little R&R. For dinner, we headed back towards Centraal Station and the Central Library which is located next door. Believe it or not, the library has a great cafeteria-style restaurant at the top terrace and the best view of the city.

Coming up next: we board the ship and enjoy some lazy days at sea! Also, I try not to eat so much that I swell to the size of a beluga whale. Mission somewhat accomplished.

Anne Frank and High Tea

One of the things I love about our trip here in Amsterdam is that we took a more relaxed view of sight-seeing. We definitely saw a lot of stuff, but we didn't embark on day-long trips that left us exhausted (we learned lessons from our Mediterranean trip). We just went at a more leisurely pace and had plenty of time to chill on our houseboat (de boot as we called it).

We got started on Wednesday by heading to the Anne Frank house, located on the west side of central Amsterdam near the trendy Jordaan district (more on that later). The museum is one of Amsterdam's most popular attractions and the line to get in the door can stretch down the block and last for hours. BUT. Because we had done our homework we knew that you could buy tickets in advance online. This allowed us to skip the line and go to a separate entrance. You just ring a bell, go inside and show your tickets to a person at a counter, and go right in. Easy peasy.

So Anne Frank: she and her parents and older sister emigrated to Amsterdam from Germany in 1933, the year the Nazis gained power in Germany. As The Netherlands were more accepting of Jews and had a good economy, it seemed the perfect place for Otto Frank to move his business and take his family. However, in 1940 Germany invaded Amsterdam and the Franks began trapped by the Nazi occupation. As the persecution of the Jews intensified Otto made plans to hide his family in a secret annex at the back of his shop and warehouse (most buildings in Amsterdam had these "secret" rooms, but the Nazis didn't know and so didn't suspect anything at the beginning of the occupation. In July 1942, Anne's sister, Margot, got her work orders to report to a work camp (i.e. concentration camp) so the family went into hiding in the secret annex where they would remain for two years.

The house itself is very unassuming on the street. It looks like any other house, but the museum was clever and purchased the two buildings next door so the outside off Anne's home could remain as it was in the 1940s. You enter from the building at the end of the block and then work your way through the Anne Frank house. First, you start on the ground floor and first floors which were used by Otto Frank as his store front and warehouse (he sold wholesale herbs and spices). On the second floor, you walk behind the moving bookcase used to hide the entrance into the annex and into Anne's world. The Franks inhabited 3 rooms in the annex (and shared the overall space with another family--a mom, dad, and their teeenage son).

There was a common dining/living room and kitchen, and several bedrooms. All 8 people in the house shared one bathroom. All the windows were blacked out and the family lived without sunlight for 2 years. Otto Frank's employees helped them by bringing food, supplies, and keeping people away from the entrance to the annex. During the day, the Franks had to be as quiet as possible; they could not speak above a whisper, had to avoid all squeaky parts of the floor, and were not permitted to flush the toilet. Anne had always been an aspiring journalist and writer, and one of the reasons she kept her diary was because she was aware of the importance of chronicling her experience. She also planned to write a novel based on her experiences in hiding called The Secret Annex.

Going through the Anne Frank House was very emotional and gave me a new perspective on the holocaust. We usually look at WWII and the extermination of the Jews through such a large lens: looking at the millions of people killed, the countries where the entire Jewish population was wiped out, etc. But in the Anne Frank House you are looking at the very personal experience of just 8 people; as you move through the rooms that comprised their home for 2 years, you have a laser focus on the different kind of horror the war wrought and aren't just dealing with numbers. You feel close to the flesh and blood people who lived there and can't help but imagine yourself in their situation. Anne's diaries themselves were also on display, as were Anne's notebooks that contained her many short stories, the beginning of her novel, and her favorite quotes and passages from other books.

In August 1944, working off a tip from a person still unknown, the Nazis found the annex and arrested all 8 inhabitants. The Franks were processed by the Germans, split up, and sent to different concentration camps. Anne was eventually sent to the camp Bergen-Belsen where she died of typhus in March 1945, only a few weeks before the camp was liberated by British troops. Of the entire Frank family, Otto, the father, was the only one to survive the war. He was given Anne's diaries and other notebooks by a friend who found them in the annex after the family was taken by the Germans, and spent the rest of his life seeing that they were published so people could learn and perhaps one day understand what had happened to his family.

The actual Anne Frank House (the museum also encompasses another three row houses on the right)

Original door to Otto Frank's store (and the house with the Secret Annex)

The block and canal of the Anne Frank House (you can see the people lined up on the street to get into the museum).

That's enough serious stuff for one email, right? After the Anne Frank House, I needed a break from the emotional so I decided to go for a stroll through the Jordaan (my guidebook included a walking tour with info on the area). The Jordaan (pronounced yor-dahn) is kind of like the Old Town Alexandria of Amsterdam--it's full of yuppies, hippies, and hipstirs and is the trendy shopping and cafe area. It's quiet, beautiful and was a great place to finish off the morning. Especially when it started pouring rain and I ducked into a cafe for some hot chocolate.

Chris and Kent outside a coffee house in the Jordaan.

Houses in the Jordaan--notice the different shapes of the gables and if you squint your eyes you can see that there are hooks hanging from the top. People use these to hoist large furniture up through the upper windows. Clever!

After wandering around the Jordaan (and buying some chocolate at a little shop), I headed back in the direction of our houseboat to pay a visit to the Museum of Bags and Purses. Amsterdam has more museums per capita than almost any other city in Europe and many of them are very specialized. The Museum of Bags and Purses is exactly that: a small museum that traces the history of handbags from the sixteenth century.

It was fascinating to see how purses have changed according to need, and they had some very unusual old and modern items. Chris and Kent weren't super interested in going through the museum (they are boys after all),but they did meet up with me at 3:00 for high tea in the museum cafe. We were seated in a lushly decorated dining room with murals and gilding, and were served sandwiches, a selection of pastries, quiche, and of course, tea. It was a very relaxing way to spend the afternoon,especially since it was so rainy, and we felt very posh.

Outside the Museum of Bags and Purses

Purse made from an armadillo (those are the legs wrapping around the edge), circa 1800s (I think).

The Museum tea room

Our dessert spread

After tea we headed back to the houseboat to relax a bit. Because tea had come so late in the day, we didn't really need anything for dinner, but we struck out again that evening for our Red Light District tour, since it had been rained out the night before. Luckily, the sky cleared right before our tour and we had our first taste of Amsterdam's famous Red Light District!

It was certainly as advertised; prostitutes stand in windows framed by red neon lights trying to entice one of the roving bands of randy young men. There's something for everyone: girls of different ages and nationalities, transvestites, and homosexuals. Surrounding the windows are streets of sex shops, movie theaters, bars, and coffee houses (coffee houses are where you buy pot). But here's the thing: it didn't feel really sketchy. In fact, it reminded my a lot of any party area of a city, think Adams Morgan in DC or Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Just with prostitutes. The entire area is also becoming extremely gentrified as the Red Light District houses many of the oldest buildings in Amsterdam and the rich people are starting to move in. Our tour guide estimated that in the next 10 years many of the seedy parts of the area would be gone.

I have to admit that I was kind of uncomfortable walking around there, but not because of the overt sexuality on display. The best I can equate it to is when you go into a shop just to look at the wares, but you don't intend to buy anything and the pushy salespeople are coming over to you "can I help you can I help you can I help you" and you feel SO AWKWARD. It was kind of like that. You've got these young women just trying to make a living and here I am in a tour group just wandering by. Weird. But the Red Light District is certainly part of the Amsterdam experience and you've got to do it!

Coming up next: the Van Gogh Museum, and a walking tour of the city itself!

Iceland...to Amsterdam!

Traveling from Iceland to Amsterdam was basically hassle-free...except it was quite an early morning. Our flight departed the Reykjavik airport at 8 in the morning, so we had a 5:30 pick-up from the shuttle that would take us to the bus terminal where we would then catch a bus to the airport. Another great thing about Iceland: because it's so small, all your tours, even the shuttle to get to the bus station, will pick you up right outside your hotel. I guess I'm just used to having to schlep myself and all my crap miles to get anywhere, so it's quite nice having door to door service. However, because I am a worrier and having the bus shuttle come pick me up seems like such a foreign thing, I spent most of the night worried that the shuttle would be late or just not show up, but at 5:29 there it came, right around the corner, and picked us up in front of our hotel. God, I love Iceland.

Here are some final random pics of Iceland:

This picture was taken at about 9:30 at night. Sun still going strong!

This was the name of our street in Reykjavik. Please don't ask me to try to pronounce it.

Our second morning in Iceland it was rainy and cold (about 40 degrees). I told Kent I would give him some Icelandic krona if he would run around the street with his shirt off. Clearly, he did it.

We had no problems at the airport or during the flight, and it seemed like a good sign that the breakfast in the airport cafe cost the EXACT amount of Icelandic currency I had remaining. From there it was just a hop, skip, and a jump to Amsterdam! Well, a 2.5 hour hop, skip, and a jump but you know what I mean.

After our arrival in Amsterdam we ran into a tiny problem concerning money. In Europe, they use debit cards that are called a "chip and pin" card. So called because they contain a microchip and a PIN number, but they work just like our debit cards--allowing people to pay for purchases or withdraw money from an ATM. The problem is that American debit cards don't have the chip, so they are not usable in the European machines. After striking out at an ATM and being unable to use our cards to purchase a train ticket at the self-service kiosk or teller, we tried a second ATM and success! We had Euros and were ready to head into downtown Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is fascinating and beautiful city--the whole thing is below sea level and is built on wooden pylons to keep it from sinking into the Amstel River. The river itself is channeled through a series of canals throughout the city, and despite what I had heard, the city does not smell weird because the canal water is flushed out every several days.I was kind of afraid the whole place would smell like pee.

The city's hey day was in the seventeenth century--when the Dutch ruled supreme economically thanks to the East India Company. This Golden Age led to a huge boom of building in Amsterdam (as it became the banking center of the western world) and many of the houses and other buildings in the city date from this period. Lining the streets and canals are tall row houses with ornate decorations, gables, and beautiful details. Think Old Town Alexandria but bigger and better.

Typical Amsterdam street---houses line the canals with one-way streets (going opposite directions) on each side.

The starting point for every tour and city center itself is the Centraal Station, the central train station. From this point you can catch trams, buses, or boats anywhere into the city and the main streets (including the Dam--pronounced Dahm) end at the central station. Upon our arrival we hopped on the Number 4 tram and rode about 2 miles down the Dam to the stop nearest the management office of our houseboat.

Did I mention we rented a houseboat?

We figured you can stay in a hotel or apartment anywhere...but how many places can you actually rent a houseboat?

The management people assured us that the houseboat was only a few canals (i.e. blocks) away. But it's not just a true vacation until Chris makes me drag my luggage halfway across a European city (remember, we did that in Reykjavik too). And due to map-reading snafu (we were heading down the wrong canal), it took us about 30 minutes to get to our houseboat. We were hot, sweaty, and irritated, but when we finally arrived we couldn't more pleased.

The houseboats in Amsterdam are almost all converted cargo ships, so they are large, spacious, and have cement floors. Ours was decorated in a pseudo-Moroccan style with low to the ground soft couches, cool wrought-iron lamps and chandeliers, and an open floor plan. Oh, and portholes of course. It couldn't be more comfortable and the extra bathroom was a welcome surprise.

Centraal Station

Our houseboat on the Keizersgracht canal.

Interior of the houseboat...not too shabby!

After settling in, we decided to strike out and check out the neighborhood. We walked around and discovered we were in a quiet but charming area surrounded by funky shops and a cafe on every corner. We were scheduled to go on a tour of the Red Light District that night, but since it was pouring rain, the tour got canceled and instead we did a bit of wandering on our own and stocked up on groceries for the houseboat. We might have have made a quick stop into one of the famous Amsterdam coffee houses and indulged in a bit of local fun...but that's a story for a blog that my family doesn't read.

Coming up next: The Anne Frank House, the Jordaan neighborhood, and high tea at the Museum of Bags and Purses!

Ankle Gate 2011

We interrupt our regularly scheduled vacation coverage to bring you this breaking news:

Maggie is a clutz and managed to not only fall, but also injury herself on her vacation.

SHOCKER!

I'll give you a minute to catch your breath due to the surprise.

Yeah, that was sarcasm, because if you know me AT ALL you know that I fall all the time. It is pretty rare however for me to actually hurt myself beyond a bruise. But this time I really managed to screw the pooch.

Let me set the stage: there I was on the cruise ship enjoying an amazing dinner of Italian food at the specialty restaurant on board. We were between the first and second courses (meaning I had just finished my beef ravioli and was waiting for my arugula and mozzarella salad) and I had to pee. And not just pee, but pee like woah. 2 glasses of wine, water, and a cocktail will do that to you. I also had to take the elevator down to another level to get to the bathroom, so when I got to the bathroom I was in a hurry.

That was my downfall.

I remember opening the door, walking in quickly, making note of the woman mopping the floor, hearing her say "be careful the floor is very we--" and that is when I wiped out. Full on, slide out, ankle slamming into the stall. I hopped back up, played it off, did my business, but I knew something was wrong. Because my ankle hurt. Not just "ow I hurt my ankle" but "HOLY SHIT WHAT DID I JUST DO."

I walked back up to the table (I could still walk ok so that was promising) and finished dinner. However, at the end of dinner I leaned down to feel my ankle....and yeah, it was swollen to about three times the normal size.

I spent the rest of the night with ice on my ankle and it propped up on some pillows. Luckily, I could still walk on it, but for the rest of trip a rather spectacular bruise appeared that just seemed to worsen as the days went on (this happened the Saturday before my return to DC the following Thursday). Since there didn't seem to be real improvement, I started to get worried and the morning after my return to town I got my ass to the Urgent Care Center and had an X-ray.

The good news? My ankle wasn't broken--hurray! Although I wasn't too surprised since I had been walking around on it for almost a week. But I did have a bad sprain and a small possibility of a ligament tear (which would SUCK), but if I took it easy for a week and didn't run for two weeks I should be fine. I am now pretty sure I don't have a ligament tear because there has been a lot of improvement the past couple days.

The worst thing about all this is how it's impacting my 5K training. I finally got myself to 3 miles on the treadmill and was planning to begin my outdoor training as soon as I got back from vacation. But now I will have been out of the game for 3 weeks--not good when my race is coming up at the end of October. I have been still getting to the gym though; I can use the stationary bike, elliptical machine, and weights so I haven't been a total waste of space. But I am still pretty nervous.

But now the good part: a picture! Warning, this shows some pretty bad bruising, so if you don't want to see it...don't look.



This was taken on Sunday (4 days ago). It's much better now, I promise. You can see all the yellow and green of the bruise, ew. The dark part near the bottom of the foot was actually bleeding into the tissue from the injury, which is what made them think I might have a ligament tear. Luckily, I think I dodged that bullet!