Utrecht visited.

 Today Cari, Mark and I took a train to the town of Utrecht.  Of course in the train station we had to get coffee.  And let me just say my cup of drip coffee was amazing! 

 As we walked through town the buildings were over whelming.

 The canals were quaint.

 Wow.  Nuff said.

 See what I mean?  The churches were so inspiring.  I can't even tell you.  Such a small town with large aspirations.

 And lovely gardens.

 As we walked through town we found a walking path.

 We so enjoyed strolling by the water, checking out the buildings and greenery.

 And admiring the rather odd signs...

 It was rainy and a bit chilly, but we still enjoyed the walk.

 We found some unusal things.  One of them was a flying saucer on a building.  Something you don't see every day.

 In a shop of security supplies, the uniform in the winder was from Washington. Kinda surprised us.

 We found a pay toliet  Mark decided to try it....

 So he paid to use it, the door opened, and it was nasty!!!  And he had to pay for it!  Can I say yuck and not hurt anyone's feelings?  Yuck!

 We founds some royal chairs to buy. 

And hanging bikes.  We enjoyed our trip.  Small city, but full of charm.

Walking Amsterdam.

 Mark didn't feel so well, so he curled up on the couch watching some Dutch TV and hanging out with the cat while Cari and I took a nice, really long walk.  Here we found some young men preparing for Queen's Day.

How did we know???

 The guy in orange, the color for Queen's Day, gave it away!

 They have the Queen's picture up.  You can't miss it!

 I find a big M.

 I'm happy I found a big M.

 The route along our walk was beautiful.

We found bridges.

We found court yards.

 See?

We found statues.  This one seems to be, 'she's so NOT into you!'

We found a ferry.  Love the small car in the middle of all the bikes.  Heck, here the cars drive on the sidewalk.

 We found a dog and his toy.  He just stood there calmly, showing off his prize.  We got such a kick out of this.

 We found a great place to have coffee and tea (well, Cari did take Mark and I here the last visit....I admit it....), with a great view.

 And I found a cookie with my coffee.  Mary loves finding cookies with coffee.  That's the best!

 The route on the walk back had amazing views.

 This is a dog who lives on Cari's street.  We saw him (or her, but I think it's a he) all the time on our last visit.  He's good as gold and he looks to be very social.  His owner is in the resturant there, having dinner, while he waits.  He was quite  content.

And we found these all over town.  A HUGE festival, Queens' Day, is this Monday.  Everyone goes NUTS.  This grey contraption is a public urinal.  Oh yes, these folks know how to party!

Het Scheep Vaart Museum

 So we finally made it to the museum.  We arrived in the covered courtyard and began to get our bearings.

 Love the fact the courtyard is covered, and you can still enjoy the sunshine (when it's there).

 Okay, the first person I've seen this trip that is acutally wearing wooden shoes out and about.

 This is a display on whaling.

 I like this saying: 'God created the world, but the Dutch created Holland'. 

 When we went out to see one of their ships it had begun pouring down rain, and was cold and windy.  It's all in the timing my friends!  The boat is a recreation and we really enjoyed touring it.  It was very interesting.

 Lots of school groups today. 

 This is the nearby NEMO, the science center.  Love the way you can sit on the roof.  Going to do that one of these days.

 This ship was so cool.

 Mark was having so much fun!

 One area had some colorful and unique stained glass windows.

 I thought these were the best!

 So powerful to have on a ship.

 On ourway back we stopped by the bar in the windmill to have a drink before heading out for home.  We'd gone here last year with Cari and some of her friends: it was one of our favorite places.

 We shared a sampler.  SO good.

See what I mean?

Great bar: in fact we bought two young men we know t-shirts from here.  Hope they'll like them!!!!