Out in Nether Netherland

Good evening all,

Well we are at our last overnight stop in Europe in Amsterdam. Got in here mid afternoon stopped in at Cologne (spelled Koln in Deutschspeak).

Magnificent old church that they are restoring and saying it will take 100 years to finish.  The place originally took 700 years to complete so I guess some techniques have improved huh?  The material that they built the original facade from is so soft and porous that any attempt to clean it will destroy the stonework. So what they are doing is taking each stone out and replacing it with a new one.  I said its just a little bit slower than putting new siding on a house :)

Hit the Netherlands about 1 pm interesting seeing still some old style windmills pumping water out of the lowlands into the canals and the waters held back by dikes.  Apparently the Dutch have a saying that God created the world in six days and the Dutch created Holland on the 7th.  Almost 50% of the land here has been reclaimed from the waters and the seas. Since all pasture lands here are separated by canals there aren't any barb wire fences so rumor has it that Rolls Royce only buys there cowhides for their leather upholstery from here. (so they say) :)

Got in to Amsterdam about 4 and walked around a bit downtown.  Saw some of the places that Lary and Linda Fisher took us to almost 5 years ago.  Lary they're still working on the bridge and road way around the train station.  Went on a canal tour and then were dropped off at a floating restaurant for dinner.  After dinner went for a quick walk through the red light district but nobody bought me anything there :(

Its actually pretty demeaning to even walk through there in my honest opinion but to each their own.

Just got back in, we are off at 7:00 am tomorrow to catch the ferry at Calais back to London.  We will be traveling through Brussels to get there.  In total we will have visited England, France, Spain, Monaco, Italy,The Vatican City, Austria, Lichtenstien, Switzerland, Germany, The Netherlands and Brussels in the span of 27 days.  Its been a great trip VERY busy really no chance to relax except for the pictures that you see of me sleeping on the bus :)  but we have seen and done a lot.  I liked the tour and of course all the great people we have gotten to meet!

Will do a recap tomorrow night or Friday morning before we head for the airport back to Houston.

Good night all,

D&D