Amsterdam Part 2

At the airport we looked around for storage lockers to put our carry-on luggage in so that we wouldn't have to lug it around the city with us, but we couldn't find any.  Ironically, when we returned to the airport later for our flight, I spotted the sign for the lockers.  Go figure. 

Getting off the train at Amsterdam Centraal, our introduction to the city was the smell of marijuana and garbage.  The streets were covered in litter.  The street cleaners were out sweeping up the streets, and all the shops were still closed.  Pretty much everything was closed until 9:30am or later--it was just after seven in the morning.

Consequently, we took many pictures as we wandered, waiting for shops and the cafes to open.  With the garbage off the street, and as more people started to emerge, the city grew quite welcoming.

Amsterdam Centraal:

After seeing the cleanliness and non-marked streets of Japan, seeing graffiti was a little jarring and seemed out of place in this quaint city

 The Street Cleaners:

Cars, pedestrians, bikes, and trains all converge through these intersections.  Emily was almost run over by a motorcycle and I really don't know how they don't have more accidents.  We had fun figuring out where we were supposed to walk (in the beginning, as the day wore on, the pedestrian path was more obvious).  Places that seemed obvious sidewalks had cars driving on them.  It was just crazy.

If you look to the left in the picture, you see the pedestrian, the car behind, and you can see the rail tracks where the light rail goes speeding by--there are no curbs or lights or anything to guard the people from the light rail/cars

 Other places were more obviously marked. 
They even had intersections where the pedestrians, bikes, and cars have their own separate crossing signs. 

 Sights of the city:

Not sure what this is about, but it caught our attention...it just seems so...European

When we first came upon this museum, it was completely deserted, but when we came back upon it a few hours later, the square was teeming with people...and a couple grim reapers.  Not entirely sure what they were up to--but they would go up to people and bug them.  Some people wanted their picture taken with the grim reapers.  We didn't stick around to find out.  We just thought it was weird and creepy and avoided them. 

 

 Later in the day--can you see the grim reaper to the right?

 How about now?

This very Dutch looking wagon was played music and was just outside the museum square.

Some City Sights:

Christmas Miracles

"At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person.  Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us."  --Albert Schweitzer

I'll admit it, last year the green-eyed monster of envy crept upon me.  My three year old niece had been diagnosed with cancer just two months prior to Christmas, and they received an outpouring of love and support not only from family and friends but from the community as well.  They were given Christmas three times over; they were given the promise of free landscaping for their yard (they had just bought and were in the process of finishing up remolding their home), and so much more.

I tried hard, I really did, but as we struggled with providing Christmas for our kids, and with the added financial strain of a new baby any day, seeing my sister-in-law's family receive such an abundance was really hard.  It wasn't that I didn't think they deserved it--quite the contrary; I was grateful that they had so much support--there was just part of me that was envious too.  Why is it always such a struggle for us when others are given in abundance so easily?

I kept my green-eyed monster down, however, knowing that all too soon the newness of the diagnosis would wear off, and with it, the material support would decrease. They would be fighting a tough battle with their little girl in the next couple years, so they would need all the buoying up that they could get from the first few months.  Christmas was magical for them--and, I might add, for us, too.

Life moved on, and I forgot about about my little monster.  River was born, and with her perfect babyness, our family has become whole.  We were able to get away from it all quite a bit this summer.  We went to Yellowstone twice, as well as Zion National Park, and I had the amazing opportunity to go around the world with my sister.

My monster started to feel embarrassed.  How could I have been jealous even for a second?  I have an amazing life--challenging at times, yes, but amazing, and oh-so-blessed.

Then I ate some real humble pie as the holidays began. 

We went as a family to the Festival of Trees.  My grandparents came with us, and it was really busy.  We were in line to get tickets with excited, wiggling kids, and Kai's stroller was just adding chaos to the tight space.  My grandma and I took the kids out of the way while J and my grandpa stayed in line.  When J was next in line to pay, further down the line, a boy was playing with a sign and flipped it my way: Cash Only This Line.  J was in the cash only line and he was going to pay with a card.  I had brought some cash for activities (face painting, giant bubbles, etc), so I went up to J and pulled out my cash for him to use, but when I saw the guy ahead pay with a card, I realized we could use the card after all.

At that moment, an older teenage girl came up to me and held out some cash.  She said that it was for us to get in.  I was so flabbergasted that my first instinct to refuse almost came out.  She must have seen my hesitation and my almost denial, because she pushed her hand closer.  I thanked her, still in shock and handed the money to J, who was now at the register.  When we turned back around, the girl was gone.  I would have loved to be able to talk with her more, and tell her how much her generosity meant.

Not even a week later, we received a gift card in the mail.  It had an unsigned note on it, and no return address.

Blessings upon blessings--and I cried.

The Christmas miracles did not end there.  A few days later, when I came home from picking the kids up from school, I walked in to discover a bunch of gifts under our Christmas tree.  The deliverer wanted only to be known as "Santa."

I tell you, my heart has been tremendously touched by the unexpected kindness of others this year.  " 'Tis the season," one person said to me--but that person didn't understand.  It is more than just "the season" to me.  It means everything.  This year--this year when finances aren't as tight, when we have been so abundantly blessed throughout the year, this is the year that we are given Christmas miracles.  Because miracles they are; someone--some people out there, thought of us, and not because we are "in need."  I think that means more to me than anything.  They thought of us.

They brought the spirit of Christmas into our home, and with it, added joy into our hearts.  One day, I hope to be able to do the same for others.

So to my anonymous friends, I say thank you.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart.  May you be blessed as you have blessed us.

Merry Christmas

Amsterdam Part 1

We were finally able to board our plane a few hours after we were supposed to leave.  It cut into our exploring time, since Amsterdam was technically only a layover on our way to Scotland.  Instead of going out into the city when we arrived, we crashed in our hotel room.

Emily was funny on the bus ride to our hotel.  She kept staring at all the Caucasian people and commenting on all the tattoos (in Japan, tattoos are still mostly taboo).  English was still not the most commonly heard language, but we would catch snippets here and there, usually heavily accented which made it hard to understand.  She was also shell-shocked because we were driving on the right side of the road.  She was pretty funny to watch, and I spent a good deal of time just laughing--I wonder if that's what I had been like when arriving in Japan.

The plane ride was pretty good, but not as nice as my flight to Japan.  We took the time to catch up in our journals, read, and just enjoy spending time together.  Emily was having a hard time leaving Japan, not knowing when she would be able to return.  It became real to her that her sojourn in Japan was at an end.  She had to cancel her Japanese phone plan and do a few other things to finalize her leaving.

There wasn't much in the way of customs getting into Amsterdam.  It was crazy how easily we got off the plane and out of the airport.  We kept thinking that somehow we had missed something. 

 Our airline meals.  You could choose the Asian meal or the European meal.  Emily chose Asian (below), I chose European (above).  It wasn't too bad considering it was airplane food. 

 Our hotel:

 I don't know why they had the beds squished together, but we separated them. 

Emily checking out the shower

Pretty flowers

We only slept a few hours, both of us excited to get an early start and explore as much of Amsterdam as we could before catching our flight to Scotland that afternoon.  We must have given up sleeping and gotten up around five or so because we were at the train station before seven.

We had to wait a few minutes for the free shuttle back to the airport, so we took some pictures around our hotel.

Waiting for the bus

Our train ticket

Waiting for our train into the city