A mini trip Part I.

I always seem to forget that our states in America are like countries here in Europe. Over the last two years I have visited several European countries. I have been in more than a handful, but did not get to tour them all. I have of course been to France several times now. My first flight over I stopped in London, so I spent 8 hours in the United Kingdom. Sébastien and I went to Italy the first time I was in France. We drove through Luxembourg on our way to Belgium. We are living in Belgium now. And this past weekend we went to the Netherlands.

Friday we set out to visit Amsterdam the Netherlands' capital. The drive there was nice. There is beautiful countryside. It seems the country is know for not only tulips, windmills, and "coffeeshops,' but for cows as well. We saw plenty of cows along with horses, ponies, sheep, and some goats. We did see some nice old fashioned windmills, but did not find an easy spot to stop for pictures of them.There were some clouds, so we did not always get nice bright pictures, but nice pictures all the same. Friday afternoon was spent in the city.

We parked the car in a parking garage and went to walk what we could of Amsterdam downtown center. This is our first view of the city after parking. There were big clouds at the time.
It is a darker colored version of some of the scenery in Italy.
One of the main streets.
My maiden name is Dana.
As you see the sun did come out for many of our pictures. It was really a very lovely day.
Marijuana is legal in Amsterdam. There are "coffeeshops" everywhere. The smell was all over the place and much too strong. I felt a bit sick at moments. It is definitely not a good atmosphere for Léa, but is part of the city.
Many of the shops you could buy your own weed and the coffee shops I guess you could smoke your own or purchase some there.
Then there is the red light district, yet another part of the city. There were many shops to buy pornographic material among other things.
And shops to see shows among other things...
In the early afternoon we decided to go back to the car to drop off souvenirs. This was on our way to parking.
We changed Léa's diaper and gave her a bottle. We decided not to take the stroller this time. We had a little sun this time for the city scene.

This nice wooden clog was in front of one of the souvenir shops. It would be a shame to pass up a picture like this.