Happy EASTER! He is risen, indeed! Luke 24:34
A great four-day weekend traveling together, despite the late winter-early spring rainy, cold weather!
By very good fortune, we managed to fly regardless of the Air France strike that started Friday, March 30 – the day we left France for Amsterdam (of course!). We took a walking tour of the city on Saturday morning and continued to walk the rest of the day, until we could walk no more!
It’s so crowded! Amsterdam has a million people. The sidewalks are crunched up with people everywhere, and avoiding the bicycles is like the 80’s video game Galaga, raining down near death!
AND Amsterdam has more bicycles than people. Hard to imagine if I didn’t see it with my own eyes.
The Dutch people are savvy business people who are all about the money. If it sells, sell it. They like order, process, taxes, and profit. So, yes, prostitution – yes, cannabis – yes to just about anything, as long as it’s regulated, government-controlled, taxed, and not bothering someone else’s business. Sounded a lot like the Mafia to me. Regulate it, sell it, control it, profit from it. (They do say NO to ‘hard drugs,’ though. Whoop-ee.)
Selling cannabis is actually against the law – BUT, if you are going to sell it, please register with the government so we know where you are selling it. Really?!? Coffee shops have licenses to sell pot (and DON’T SELL COFFEE), and everyone’s happy and making money, as long as you are discreet about it. Not too discreet here 
Owning a marijuana plant is illegal, but every family is allowed to have several. If you have one child, you can have four plants. Two children will get you six plants. Please register your plants at City Hall. Huh?????
If you really want COFFEE, don’t go to the Coffee Shop – look for a Café! And pancakes – they are famous for little pancakes with powdered sugar!
The country is the Netherlands, the city capital is Amsterdam, and the region is South Holland. The people are “Netherlanders,” but also are okay with being called “Dutch,” a derivative of Deutsch (German). They were ingenious about maritime shipping, making money, and reclaiming land from the sea.
The land is so flat, you could see the airport tower from 8 kilometers away. Much of it is below sea level, which they control by canals and waterways and incredible pumping stations. No wonder it’s bicycle heaven!
Rembrandt spent many years in Amsterdam and painted the majority of his work from this house, in the old Jewish quarter.
And the Van Gogh Museum here has the most extensive collection of his work in the world. We didn’t get in. Note to self – buy tickets online months in advance next time!
And haute couture – some really bizarre designers live in Amsterdam!
The Easter Bunny visited the canal – he threw a chocolate egg up to us on the bridge. I ducked, but Tanner caught it!
There were many reminders of WWII, as well. The Anne Franke house, where she and her family hid in an attic until their discovery, is in Amsterdam. There are bronzed tiles on the streets in front of houses where Jewish Nederlanders were forcibly taken and murdered, with their names and dates of birth and death, and location of concentration camp. 
In 1944-45, the people of Amsterdam were freezing and there was no food due to the occupation of Nazi Germany. The people were literally starving to death and, for the first time, tulip bulbs were eaten. The growers couldn’t export them, so they sold them as food because of the high starch content.
Keukenhof on Easter Sunday
And the TULIPS! Tulips actually came from Turkey / China, but the Dutch seem to have the Midas touch with commerce. Over 2 BILLION tulips are exported every year, and more than 1 billion lilies. Pretty impressive!
It was too early for the full bloom outside, but the inside gardens were breathtakingly beautiful.
If you want to see more pictures, click on this link to the short gallery. Click here.
We had a great time…now back to France where we can understand what people are saying! 😊
Bisous,
Mindy
PS – The airport security at Schiphol was intense. They even opened our umbrellas, scoured through every nook and cranny, even took Tanner’s toothpaste away. (DARN THEM! I went to great lengths to get that toothpaste here from the US!) Maybe threat levels were red, or it was high traffic weekend, but it took over an hour just to get through security.
Luke 24:34-35 New International Version (NIV) 34 and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.”
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