Around February my friend Kim posted on facebook that she was going to Holland for a week and who would like to come along/meet her there. Ooo- me me! [Unfortunately it was the same weekend that Nick and Karli came over so I missed out on hanging with them in London.]  Isn’t that amazing? I mean I could just hop a little plane over to the continent for the weekend and meet her. I mean that’s great, a friend, who speaks the language to adventure with.  Since we had a performance critique on Thursday and the planes only run so often I arranged to fly out Friday morning and back on Sunday after she headed back to the states. She and her mom had been there for a week and the plan was that she would meet me at the airport and we would hang out for the weekend.

I first met Kim, over ten years ago at EdCC and in Institute Choir. It was funny because we had two classes together. I saw her one night at Institute Choir and we both said, “Hey aren’t you in my Western Civ class?” When we met up the next day in class we discovered that we had Shakespeare together too. So we hung out a lot that year, including my first road trip to conference in Salt Lake 

and a 98/99 new years dance followed by a late night viewing of Newsies. I know, it’s hard to believe that I was over 21 the first time I saw Newsies. I had some how missed out on that Mia Maid right of passage.

After EdCC we both served missions. I went to Canada and she went to Holland. Her family had lived in Holland for a good chunk of High School and so she was a bit familiar with it. Then she went to WWU and I went to UW. Now she works at WOU and lives with another EdCC friend, Andreya (who had been serving in Georgia while we were abroad.)  I haven’t seen Kim in at least three years. We ran into each other at General Conference for about five minutes but that hardly counts. And I can’t remember when I saw her before that. Sufficeth to say we picked up right where we left off and had a great time. There’s little more important that a quality travel buddy.

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I’m getting pretty good at this whole packing light thing. I had my backpack all loaded up and headed out early. Over an hour and two buses later I was really early for check in. 2-3 hours later I was ready to board my 50 minute flight. I dozed a little then the passed out crackers, cookies and juice and by the time they had gathered the rubbish we were descending.

Now was the tricky bit, meeting up with Kim. After picking up my bag she was waiting for me at the arrivals gate. Game for a new traveling adventure we stowed my stuff and headed into the mele. It was was Koninginnedag or Queen’s Day. It’s not technically the current Queen’s birthday but is celebrated as a national holiday. Kim had deliberately scheduled the trip to be on this day because she hadn’t been able to participate in the festivities while she was on her mission. She was really glad that I was game because her mom wasn’t keen on getting involved. It was insane.

We headed down to the train platforms where over the loudspeaker they were repeating, “Do not go to Amsterdam Centraal.” There were so many people that they were trying to reroute people to the south station and get them to walk into town. We decided to brave it and headed for Centraal. The trains are all double decker. We managed to get on the next one and get seats. The seats were full as were the aisles. At Centraal throngs of people poured out of the station into the city centre, and the main theme was orange.

The flag of the Netherlands is red, white and blue but since the royal house is from the House of Orange, orange is the national color and so orange is the word for Queens day. 98% of the people we saw around us were wearing some form of orange. Basically anything that can be worn they had in orange- pants, tights, skirts, shirts, jackets etc. On your head: tiaras, cowboy hats, wigs, feather wigs, wings, inflatable crowns, you name it, they had it. As we started walking I noticed that the entire city centre had been pedestrianized. 

No buses or trams were running and the streets were lined with booths of wares. This day is also like a giant flea market. Anyone can come out and sell anything that they want to with out tax etc. This ranges from your average Joe who lays a tarp out in front of his house to sell off second hand items like a yard sale to booths full or wares that you might find anything in the world. Clothes, bags, sun glasses, housewares, sheets and duvet covers, make up, drug store items, books, souvenirs, orange wear.  

And food- frites, Poffertjes (mini pancakes), sausages, drinks, waffles, donuts etc. I even saw a little girl with the Dutch equivalent of a lemonade stand.

As we got further into the town we turned up one of the streets lining the canals where the walkway was narrower and full of people. It’s nearly impossible to describe the feeling. It was as if everyone in the whole city had the day off, was out in the streets and dressed for homecoming. 

And then there were the canal boats. The canals were bumper to bumper full of boats of every shape and size full of revelers in orange. 

Some of the boats had themes and people were dressed up, others were a bit more tame. Some of the larger boats had generators on them to power their DJs and giant confetti canons.

 Of course everyone was drinking Heinekken but it didn’t feel crazy or out of control. All of the rubbish bins were full to over flowing and so if you had trash you just had to set it somewhere. There were also public, open, BFI style urinals on corners. Interesting.

We turned off a main canal street onto a side street, because we got a bit turned around looking for the Anne Frank House, and found a little karaoke performance of two tween girls singing Billy Jean in front of a restaurant.  We finally found the Anne Frank House and went through. We were able to go right in which was brilliant. When I came by later on Sunday there was a line down the block. I had read the Diary of Anne Frank back in middle school, in another life so the walk through and signs were helpful to remind me of what had happened. It was amazing to see this space that they had been living in in her father’s office. After the main museum walk through we were sitting in a video exhibition and through the frosted glass windows you could see the insanity outside along the canals. It was a bit surreal.

Next we wandered toward Dam Square where they had a fair set up. There were several rides including a usually tame swing ride which towered over the nearby buildings. 

We followed a little samba band into the square. 

The crazy thing about this party was that it wasn’t confined to a few blocks. Every time you turned a corner there was another crowd of people celebrating, another stage with another band, more booths to buy from etc.

And we didn’t even get to the main park open space where there were yet more people and performance spaces. We both wanted to get sweatshirts and found a booth with the best selection and proceeded to try on nearly every style in every size until we committed to one each.

We peeled off the main square and started back towards the station. We managed to find a street that was a little bit quieter and enjoyed the natural beauty of the trees and the architecture of the houses. 

We arrived back at the station with everyone else. It was a lot fuller than when we had arrived, which is saying something. I imagine it was something like being at an English football match and I was glad for Kim’s green coat that I could easily pick out of the sea of orange. The platform was standing room only full of people. A train pulled up and when the doors open the mob surged forward which is not helpful since there are people trying to get off the train. There was a lot of pushing and shoving and yelling and elbows but we managed to get on the train and even get seats. The seats were full, the aisles were full, there were even people sitting all on the steps between levels.

A rather loud Englishman started chatting with a Dutch guy in front of us and complimenting them on the great party and inviting them all to come to England. It was a rather comical conversation and soon everyone was listening. My favorite part was when the Dutch guy asked the Englishman if he lived in London, “Well just north or London. In Manchester.” Just north of London? Manchester is a different planet. The guy sitting directly in front of me, next to the Dutch guy was from Leeds, funny that.

We managed to get off at Schiphol (shipl) , the airport station. It’s just so fun to say. We picked up my bag and took the hotel shuttle back to Kim’s hotel. We had picked up some grocery store salads for dinner and ate them with our feet up after walking over 8 miles that day.

The weather in Scotland was a bit all over the place.  The first two days it was grey and rainy then later sunny and cold.  Friday night I hauled all my luggage off the bus and turned the corner onto my street and got a big whiff of spring.  I looked up and there was a huge blooming tree and flowers in the garden boxes.  Spring had arrived while I was gone.

My first Saturday back in Leeds I almost went into shock.  It was sunny and lovely outside and genuinely warm.  I walked down to the grocery store and soon had my hoodie tied around my waist.  I haven’t been outside in shirt sleeves in months! It’s so freeing.  So I skipped down and got groceries then went for a walk to the park.  People were all over outside walking up and down the street and filling all the outdoor seating at the restaurants and cafes.

The park was full but no packed. Everyone had the same idea, it’s the Quad at UW on the first sunny day of spring. There were people of all ages, kids, teens, couples, families, dogs, strollers, football and cricket games, ice cream trucks, picnics, bicycles- fantastic!

I’ve been leaving my window cracked too and the fresh air is wonderful. And don't even get me started on being lighter later.  I think a dark, rainy winter with no car has given me a new appreciation for nice weather. Sure it alternates with grey and rain but the sun is life-givingly wonderful.  Hooray!  Now if only we can coax the trees to really go for it and bring on those green leaves like they mean it.

Remember this picture?

We went there yesterday.

Brimham rocks is about 20 miles away, outside Harrogate. We didn't take the main roads which made the trip all the more scenic.

It's a beautiful place and we had a great time climbing all over the rocks, even if they were a bit wet.

I can't say that I identified the exact spot used in that scene but we were there ;)

Part of the group was going to climb Arthur’s Seat this morning but I had more things that I wanted to fit in and I didn’t know that I would really feel up to it.  I wanted to head up to the Castle first thing but Ashley and Sydni had already seen the castle so I was on my own, which I didn’t mind actually.  I figured that I would see the castle, museum and gallery and pick up a souvenir or two. The castle hill is actually an interesting conglomeration of different buildings in addition to the castle proper. 

It’s up upon a defunct volcano [see above video] overlooking the city and in typical Scottish weather isn’t the most hospitable place.  At the bottom of the Royal Mile is Holyrood Palace which is a more comfortable royal residence.  Inside the castle they had the National War Museum and a specific regimental museums.

 I saw the crown jewels and where Mary Queen of Scot’s gave birth to James VI. 

One of the most interesting displays they had was vaults of prisoners of war from the era of the American Revolution. 

They had the rooms made up with hammocks- some with speakers in that would say things as you walked by.  It was interesting because the prisoners were allowed to make things to sell while they were there and they had on display things that that had carved out of bones left over from meals and made from straw from their bedding and they were just amazing.  The more enterprising of the group carved the bone into stamps that they used to counterfeit bank notes. Too bad I didn’t get a picture of those.

They stopped using it for prisoners of war after a massive break out where 49 prisoners lowered themselves out a hole in the wall using their washing line. Later in the 19th century they did still hold some of their own offenders there.

As I made my way out of the castle I was surprised to find Ashley and Sydni waiting for me and ready to go shopping. We hit all the shops down the Royal Mile and as is the case in most tourist towns they were all selling the same stuff for about the same price and all the shops seemed to be owned by people who were most likely not Scottish.  I got a window cling and a Scotland hoodie- because any comfy hoodie is a good investment.  This was the cutest shop but too expensive.

We had lunch at the Elephant House Cafe where J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book.  

10-15 years ago she was a single mom on welfare and would go there and buy a cup of coffee and drink it slowly because she couldn’t afford another one, and would write all evening and then go home and type it up on a typewriter. As time has gone on she’s set up to write in other areas of the city but the Elephant House has chosen to kind of take the banner as the Harry Potter tourist stop by.  We had some great chicken bacon pizza and then headed back up to Greyfriar’s Kirkyard which we could see from the cafe windows.  The Kirkyard is next to George Heriot’s school which may have inspired Hogwarts and there are a few familiar names in the kirkyard.

We did a little more shopping but there wasn’t really time to go to the National Museum or the Gallery.  So they’ll be on my list for next time along with Arthur’s Seat, Holyrood Palace and Mary King’s Close. Exhausted we sat down in the Grassmarket near the hostel, just glad to be sitting.  

My feet were SO done. We loaded back on the bus and started the long drive back to Leeds. 

Kev didn’t ride back to Leeds with us because he lives in Edinburgh but he trained us up so that we would sing O Flower of Scotland to Nevil the English tour organizer when we got back to Leeds.  The day before he had given us lyric sheets and stood on the bus at his own peril playing the guitar and singing trying to teach it to us.  I was little doubtful of our ability to sing it a cappella without him.  Someone had bought a CD of it which we listened to no less that 5 times just before coming into Leeds.  The recording however was rather slow and the bus driver would turn the volume down so we would sing on our own more which also meant that the tempo would take off.  But we got home and managed to sing it for Nevil.  That song is STILL in my head and will forever be associated with this trip.

We loaded off the bus for another group picture before going our separate ways to catch buses.  Nearly all the other girls hopped on the #1 bus and headed for campus.  I was sad to see them all go.  Thank heavens for facebook.  Within 24 hours we had all looked each other up, become friends and started tagging pictures.