Travel Like a Scotsman

After picking up our car and being somewhat discombobulated by having to drive on the “wrong” side of the road, we set out with no plans other than to stop whenever we wanted to explore.  Our first stop was only eight miles from Amsterdam, but, since we never got underway til mid-morning, it wasn’t long before it was time to stop for lunch! Haarlem has a unique claim to fame.  A recent study found the Dutch to be the most content of the Europeans, and those folks living in Haarlem were found to be the happiest in the Netherlands.   As we were soon to learn, the steeple of the church marked the center of town, so we parked and headed there.  We were delighted to find - as had happened for hundreds of years - an open-air market in progress. While we all were shopping for scarves, shoes, and whatever, Ron found a hardware store.  In this store, he found a coffee pot!  The pot was only $15.00 and cups were about $2.00, so just for the two of us it would only take 5 cups of coffee

According to the guide books, you can’t go to Amsterdam and not see the Rijksmuseum with its collection of the Dutch masters, and the Van Gogh museum.  Verda and I wanted to do those, Bill is a flea-market aficionado, so he wanted to explore the street markets, and Ron, ever the sailor, wanted to take a boat ride on the canals. Sunday morning we had juice, fruit and croissants fresh from the bakery in our rooms rather than pay the almost $30 for the two of us to have breakfast in the hotel.  It turned out that having a restaurant in the hotel didn’t matter since it was too expensive for us to want to eat there.  Another lesson learned: don’t make your choice of hotel dependent on its having a restaurant on the premises.  In Amsterdam, there are many bars and restaurants within walking distance of wherever you stay.  And, if you don’t want to walk, you can hop on the tram and hop off at any of the “pleins” for refreshment. After breakfast, we took the tram to Museumplein, the