Day 9 started out early as the kids were awoken at 3:00 am in order to make our way to Amsterdam International for out flight to Munich. This will not be our first venture into Germany as our tour of Groesbeek, which is located along the Nederland and German border,
drifted into the country for about 15 minutes. I kind of thought that our second stay wouldn't be much longer. Yeah right!
After winding our way through the airport in a hurried manner because we have only a few minutes between connecting flights to Toronto, we pass through customs and arrive unscathed in terminal 2 gate H 24, location of flight 847 to Toronto with Air Canada.
Not much later we noticed that the flight had been slightly delayed, thus the ephone calls home started and o began to chat with EF and their toronto office to coordinate pick up for hotel, room reservation, and our wonderful Greek meal at the hotel.......ummmm can't wait.
Well the delay became a full cancellation and the cancellation turned into airport shut down. As that occurred a lineup began at the Lufthansa air desk which in all honesty had about 2000 people in it, maybe more I just know the last people in line were there for about 8- 10 hours. More phone calls home, a few tears and a few complaints but all of that has to be ignored at this point from my end. Marilyn and Kelly are in line and I have a phone attached to my ear.
EF has always been very helpful and prior to leaving I had discussed any and all provisions about the event of a delay because the wonderful Eklyhsttymndgsic volcano( I can't spell that darn thing so that will be my only attempt). After a number of conversations with Amy at EF, she assured me that they were working toward securing a hotel in the area. Realistically, with about 10,000 people needing hotel rooms in the Munich area, this is not going to be simple.
By this point I think all of you know what a logistic nightmare this is, but I can reassure you that we are making the best of it and right now I am glad that Bruins are not playing tonight. Although we left the Westisle group at Amsterdam as the were flying to Ottawa via
Frankfurt, at this point we are unsure of what situation they are in as well. In Munich however, we are not the only ones in this predicament, Uxbridge high school in Whitby, Ontario is so stuck
here. They were actually split from their group the night before and although the other parts of the group are reportedly on Canadian soil, Carolyn Allen and her students have worst luck than us it seems.
From this point I ask Carolyn if she would like me to coordinate everything from the EF end so she can spell the ladies off in the line from time to time.
The kids were actually having a great time, Sam was dancing and singing for everyone, a bunch were playing cards either UNO or crazy eights (personally I would have liked seeing poker game break out, but then again I shouldn't be gambling with the kids!) and usual the Forbes duo
of Neil and Barb are fast asleep. I have been teasing Neil all week that it would have been cheaper to stay on the island and sleep all week, then again he wouldn't have gotten 15 hours sleep a day if he'd have stayed home!
Finally we have a breakthrough with regards to accommodations, in consultation with the airport and they have agreed to provide cots as well as some overnight bags for the kids to use. Hotel Munich Airport terminal 2 gate H it is.
I realize you may rather your kids have stayed in a hotel tonight, but after finally getting a hotel about an hour from the city combined with the fact that it would take about 45 minutes or more to get our luggage and get out of the airport, we wouldn't reach the hotel until close to 11 PM. Since we need to be back at 5 AM with an hour travel time, it would be ridiculous to leave for about 4 hours. In any event this is the decision and the kids are ok with it. Teachers will also
be doing 2 hour shifts throughout the night to make sure the kids feel safe, etc.
With everything going on has been going on, the subject of food has been on the backburner. The kids have eaten a little because the airport has given out plenty of sandwiches, drinks and fruit throughout the day. Since we haven't really incurred any extra expenses for EF to this point, I have informed them I will be ordering supper for all 42 of us(Ontario included). We found a restaurant that can accommodate everyone and provide the kids with French fries, pasta and some chicken. Everyone filled themselves silly and I paid the bill.........$610.00 Euros, by
far the biggest meal ticket I have ever sprung for. Thank god for EF's expense account and I guarantee we are not done yet on that expense account.
The sleep was actually one of the best they have gotten all week, In bed at 10:30 and most slept right until the wake up time at 6:00 am. Now back to gate 24.
Kent and I had checked the flight situation early in the am and things are a go!!!! Let's keep are fingers crossed! The kids are situated at the gate so Marilyn jumped in line for the new boarding passes and then flight delayed......arrrghhh...... Oh well, if there is one thing that I have learned in the last few years about travelling is the fact that most things are out of your control. If you get yourself to the gate on time, you have done your job and then it is out of your hands.
As a few minutes go by and we have the kids in place, I take half of the passports from Marilyn and attempt to get us new boarding passes to alleviate some stress from her. After a few minutes of great conversation with a the booking attendant I find out that the flight is delayed again from 7:45 to 8:26, if all goes well. After a few more minutes boarding begins and you can finally see a few more smiling faces, but without makeup I am not sure I know who most of these people are! As boarding begins life is good again......That is until we sit on the runway for 2 hours…….. life back to normal again!
Finally take off and the captain tells us of a more northern route over Norway and Greenland to avoid the volcanic ash. This should put us in Toronto in approximately 9 hours or 4 movies (which thus far have been Invictus and now Percy Jackson's The Lightning Thief...... Next up a Hangover, no I am not drinking on the flight although I deserve a couple, I was talking about the movie Hangover.)
After a quick snooze and check on the kids after 7 hours of flying all seems to be going well. Although we are less than two hours from Toronto we are about the same distance from the island. The normal route would take us almost right over the top of home, but because of
the ash cloud and our more northerly route over Greenland of all places, we are currently over Labrador instead of the island.
A few are asleep, many more still watching the plethora of movies available (I am into the classic Wedding Crashers right now) but the bottom line they are all dealing with the rigors of international travel, and doing it “exceedingly well.” When we hit Toronto we will have another long wait as the connecting flight doesn't leave until after 8 PM tonight(est). With that in mind, we should be arriving back in Charlottetown around 11 PM tonight....... More details to follow. Back to my movie!
We have finally arrived don Canadian soil and we are all extremely happy about that. The luggage will a great sight to see as we all want to simply change, throw on some deodorant, and just feel a little more fresh( they all stink, I am as fresh as a daisy but the rest of the group smell like a pack wild dogs left outside for days!!!).
Around and around and around and around goes the carousel….it gets boring what a steel carousel going around with nothing on it…the adventure continues on and so much for the change of clothes! Unfortunately, only 3 of our group received their luggage, but this was the same with most of the other passengers on the flight.
Although we were tired and cranky and stinky, we tried to get everyone to stay positive. I would rather be in Canada closer to home and a little stinky than in a German airport at this point. Air Canada has said that they expect most of our luggage to be on the next flight from Munich, around 6:00 PM(EST). Let’s keep our fingers crossed again, at this point we may as well permanently super glue them together in this position!!!
We shuffled the kids out of the baggage claim area and on to customs and we are all happy to see the smiling faces of the Canadian customs officials at immigration. Many of the kids were kind of nervous about the claims forms they filled out, and once again we tried to reassure them that they would be fine. Everyone passed through unscathed and we were now officially allowed back into our own country.
After talking to a few people on PEI(Sorry about the lack of updates, but when we left it was only 2 AM and figured we would wait until you got up and we arrived in T-dot!), I treated everyone to lunch once again. We didn’t quite ring up the same bill as in Munich, but the bill still came to over $500.00, but we were stuffed Canadians on Canadian soil, so who cares!!!(and once again this was on EF’s bill anyways!!!!)
They final leg of the journey is now upon us and yes you guessed it we are delayed again. This time only about 15 minutes, in our experience that is nothing at all. For myself I am torn, do I get on the plane and go home or pretend to not know how to tell time and miss the flight and watch the Bruins game from a bar. The Bruins are important but I really need to get home and see my family and of course our new addition, Bruin!!!
Thankfully we left right on time(after the delay of course) and most of us, although anxious to see all of you, slept the entire way home. As Shannon and I exited the plane and were able to see many smiling faces(familiar ones for a change as well!) and it once again gave me a sense of accomplishment. These experiences are an important part of your children and this very important to me. It takes a lot of effort from all kinds of people to carry out all that is necessary to get this project off the ground and successful.
I would like to close with a few "thank yous". First I would like to thank my teacher and adult travel partners for all of the work and effort you have put into making the experience on PEI and in Europe a complete success. I would also like to thank the people from EF tours, specifically Mary Erskine and our tour director David Harrod for all of their “groundwork” with the trip. Without them, the trip would never have taken place. To Dave Robinson, who is the driving force behind all of these tours, you are an exemplary educator and individual with the best interests of students and veterans in mind at all times!!
I would especially like to thank you, the parents and guardians, for reading my blog and also for trusting us with your most prized possessions halfway around the world. It must not be easy and because of my love of travel, I am sure Mya and Max will be asking to do this sort of thing when they reach high school….I truly hope that they have the opportunity to experience something like this in a few years. Lastly, I would like to thank the students. It is obvious they are a key cog in this World Tour machine and without their enthusiasm and cooperation on the log journey it would never be possible. I really think that the journey will become even more meaningful for you as you age and especially when the last WWII vet passes away. When that happens it will be up to you to remember and recount the stories of what these men and women have done for our country and countries abroad. The torch has been passed……hold it high and be proud to be a Canadian!!!!
dc(dead-tired, delighted to be home chizzy)
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Day 8
Day 8
The final day of the tour has begun...the kids don’t like it but every once in awhile I announce “18 hours to departure” , a little further on “16 hours to departure.” All in fun!! Actually our day started with a quick trip to the hospital in Ede, Netherlands to pick up our good friend Sam, the kids were very excited to see him and we certainly relived to know that he was ok.
Since it was on the way to today’s first destination, it actually worked out perfect. Sam was able to have a shower and I brought the necessary essentials for the day, camera, tripod and iPod, oh yeah clean socks and underwear. I promised you Susan and Phillip that I would look after him!!
Our first destination was the Royal Palace at Appledoorn. Although not directly tied into the studies of World War II, we all know the connection to the Royal Palace from a Canadian perspective. If you are unsure read on, I will fill you in.
During the early portion of the Dutch campaign, the Royal family of the Netherlands lead by Queen Wilhelmina fled to England to escape the Nazi invasion. After issues relating to the air assault on England the Royal family fled to Ottawa. The royal family resided in Canada roughly to the end of the second war with little or no issues. However, throughout their stay the Princess Juliana was pregnant and the issue now was that the Royals wanted the child to be born in the Netherlands. In agreement with the Dutch Royal Family, the room and ward in the Ottawa hospital would be temporarily turned into international territory so that the newborn would still only hold Dutch nationality. In January of 1943, Princess Margriet of the Netherlands was born on international soil (in the Ottawa Civic Hospital) and thus claimed the nationality of her mother, Queen Juliana.
Attached above is a video of the famous Het Loo(pronounced low) Palace at Appledorn, just to give you a sense of what we saw today. As you can see the palace and its grounds are quite a site to see, but according to Brendan after just entering the main gates of Het Loo, the palace itself was not nearly as impressive as Versailles or Buckingham Palace. I remarked to Brendan that is because the Dutch are not as stuffy and pompous as the British are and that he should comment on that to our tour director David Harrod, who hails from Britain.
I just didn’t have the heart to tell Brendan that where we walked in and walked around first.......was only the horses stable. As he rounded the corner and looked down a row of large trees, we could see off in the distance(about 350 yards away...my oh my I miss my golf!) a very large gold leafed monstrous palace, where the people actually lived. “My now that is rather is impressive,” was the next line from Brendan’s mouth, “I guess I didn’t realize that first establishment was only for the horses!” I thought I was going to pee my pants!!! Brendan officially thinks that Het Loo is good enough for a royal family! One last story about the Palace and then I will move on.
At this point I am sure Brendan thinks I am nuts!!! After making ridiculous comments on anything from architecture to food, I am sure he thinks I am crazy. In and around the stable area there is a large bird cage. A couple of the animals, slower moving ones, wander about outside of the confines of the cage. These beautiful birds are peacocks and they are quite tame and you can get pretty close to them as you will see by some pictures. As we left the area, Brendan, he really should know better after a week of my crazy initial answers, asked where the peacocks are native to. “Well Brendan that is a good question, the peacock is actually the native bird of..............(denotes long pause and I have him suspended on the next word out of my mouth) Tignish!!!”(with a completely straight face and rather convincing tone I might add. The straight face, slowly turning into a smirk received the next comment, “Mr. Chisholm, you are crazy!!!” and with a gigantic smile on his face he scampered to the bus. The week has been a lot of fun for sure! Sorry about dragging it on, but this is also somewhat of a diary for me as well!!!
From Appledoorn we were back into the WWII history books into such places as Arnhem, Market Garden, Oosterbeek, and back to Groesbeek cemetery. WE picked up a tour guide just outside of Oosterbeek and we had her for the next couple of hours. The kids are very tired but they have been very respectful of the tour guides and most we able to stay awake for the tour. During this tour we were able to hear about how the whole invasion took place, Canadian and American roles, and as well as local stories of people (our local guides father as matter of fact) during this time in WWII.
I will not bore you with all of the details of the campaign, but I will tell you we visited a 1000 year old church that was used by Canadians and Americans near the Rheine River during the battle of Market Garden. As well we were able to see many memorials throughout the region, the famous Arnhem bridge from the movie “A Bridge too Far” and a highlight for me, Oosterbeek cemetery. Oosterbeek cemetery has very few Canadians in it, but it is home to 3 Victoria Cross winners. I have only seen I VC winner in all my travels to military cemeteries, so this is rare as far as I know. After a quick stop we were able to do grave rubbings of two VC’s and then move on back to Groesbeek.
This was not on our schedule but I wanted the kids to get a better look at this place because we were only here for the ceremony the other night and with 3000 people present it was hard to move around. This cemetery is the largest in the Netherlands and contains many Islanders who gave their lives in the liberation of the Netherlands. This is why I needed to come back here. We were able to get a number of rubbings of locals, we hope, and the kids are determined to make some connections when they get back home.
I hate to be ripping through this part but I need to be up in a couple of hours to get to the airport, so I am destined to complete any more thoughts in my final blog tomorrow evening before we return home. The week has been busy, the kids have been great and we are all ready to see our loved ones, and my new puppy who I just saw on webcam a couple of minutes ago!!!! Take care and we will chat in person soon, with hopefully one final update(whether you like it or not!) to come tomorrow evening in Toronto!
dc(dog-owning chizzy)
Friday, May 7, 2010
Day 7
Day 7 is back to Amsterdam for a more traditional tour of the city and its history in reference to its architecture and its people. The kids were able to spend a couple of more minutes...did I hear one you say “Oy Vey?”. A few of them still had to pick up some items for loved ones so I am sure that you will appreciate the effort.
After about an hour we reconvene at the meeting place and pick up two new passengers, Robert the official EF Tour photographer and Paul our local Amsterdam guide who is actually from the city of Voorthuizen, where we will be later today.
There are many amazing things about a canal city and until you go to one you just don’t know! Here is one very interesting piece of information about the history of the “XXX” symbol that is so often associated with explicit sex or pornographic materials. The symbols themselves really don’t have anything to do with sex; they are symbols that are found on the coats of arms of the city of Amsterdam.
The crosses have a religious origin as Saint Andrew is said to have been martyred on such a cross. Other people say the 3 crosses stand for the dangers of ancient Amsterdam which were fire, floods and the Black Death, while another story substituted the Black Death with famine. Regardless of the origin of the diagonal crosses or “x’s”, depending on how you perceive them, over a period of time because of Amsterdam’s liberal views and openness about sex they became associated by the “XXX” symbol.
After touring through much of the city of Amsterdam that we were unable to see by foot the previous day we were making our way outside of the main city center. A couple of further interesting facts to make about the city are the buildings, the dyke and damn system, and the newest addition to the city a subway system.
Due to the soft nature of the ground, remember it is all swamp or better yet a large body of water, it is very difficult to build on the land. The first problem was to get land instead of water, hence the use of the windmills. The windmills no longer operate in the city to remove the water by pumping it out through the canals as it is all run through a series of computer based pumping stations.
Many of the oldest homes in the main center of the city are built on either artificial islands or stilts. Therefore because of the unstable nature of both, these homes are referred to as “dancing homes.” They are dancing because they move or sway from time to time. They do not move on a whim but over time the home shifts from side to side. I will some photos from the kids and show you what I mean tomorrow evening.
The newest and most controversial piece of Amsterdam we found out today was the subway system which is still under construction. By the sound of our guide, much of the general population of the city are not in support of the move, but it seems to go going on ahead. You can imagine a city that has pumped out all of its water over the last few hundred years and has very unstable land, is now constructing an underground transportation system. Don’t like the feel of it personally!
From there we went to a traditional cheese farm where both cheese and wooden clogs are made. We had a quick tour of the cheese making area and of course some tasting...scrumptious! I dare say that some of you are getting some cheese for a gift and will also have some stinky cheese smelling clothes to wash when your kids get home. We then moved to the clog making area and were able to see and test a few pairs out...this was a really cool experience for sure...check out the video.
Although our day is not over, the tour is. We wish our guide Paul well wishes and thank him for a great excursion. Now onto Voorthuizen and the tattoo! Unfortunately the drive took longer than the scheduled 1:15 minutes due to heavy Friday afternoon traffic, oh well more time for most of us to power nap to get ready for another long day! Oh yeah I forgot to mention that the tour guide said the average temperature in the Netherlands at this time of year is around 16-18 degrees. Today it is windy, rainy and 7.....”oy vey!!”
We finally arrive in the beautiful town of Voorthuizen. We are just in time for dinner because of the traffic, but I suspect that most others are in the same predicament. Tonight’s meal is on the tattoo grounds and is a buffet. Yep, a buffet for 800 students, teachers and chaperones. Unfortunately, neither Sam nor I did get to have supper.
We have had our first mishap of the tour as the catering company did not label the food being served and Sam tasted a small bit of a sauce on his kabob. Our luck it was peanut based and Sam has a severe allergy to peanuts. After a couple of seconds I asked Sam how he was, he assured me he barely tasted the food: however, better safe than sorry as he did admit to feeling a bit weird and tingling sensations in his lips and throat. Enough of that get out the epi-pen....ya I know not a good scene!
Anyways, to make a long story short and positive, Sam is doing great. The right move was the administering of the epinephrine and getting him to the hospital...so yes if you watched the tattoo video, Sam and I are assuming that is what it looked like because neither one of us were there! The medical system is fast, efficient and they were very helpful. The nurses loved the fact that we were Canadian. Although she will never read this, special thanks goes out to Renatta, who were here last shift because she was suffering from B.O.B. Syndrome(Baby on Board), who was helpful in all ways from making phone calls for me, to waiting on Sam hand and foot. To the Mundy’s, your boy is doing great and I truly apologize for what has happened, it was good to talk to you today Susan.
On a side note, you all can be rest assured that EF Tours is there to work with your kids. Max Mercier, one of EFs key reps, was there with us at the hospital and was immediately getting all insurance information in place and taking care of any logistics with the hospital and such. That gave me time to spend with Sam and make sure he was doing fine, which he is for sure! Sorry to scare people....but in the end, everything turned out ok and it is just another reminder of how important it is to be aware of people around us with severe allergies! Take care all and chat tomorrow, our last day as we head to the Royal Palace in Appledoorn and then directly to Arnhem military cemetery. A great way to end our tour. See you soon!!!
dc( doctor chizzy)
After about an hour we reconvene at the meeting place and pick up two new passengers, Robert the official EF Tour photographer and Paul our local Amsterdam guide who is actually from the city of Voorthuizen, where we will be later today.
There are many amazing things about a canal city and until you go to one you just don’t know! Here is one very interesting piece of information about the history of the “XXX” symbol that is so often associated with explicit sex or pornographic materials. The symbols themselves really don’t have anything to do with sex; they are symbols that are found on the coats of arms of the city of Amsterdam.
The crosses have a religious origin as Saint Andrew is said to have been martyred on such a cross. Other people say the 3 crosses stand for the dangers of ancient Amsterdam which were fire, floods and the Black Death, while another story substituted the Black Death with famine. Regardless of the origin of the diagonal crosses or “x’s”, depending on how you perceive them, over a period of time because of Amsterdam’s liberal views and openness about sex they became associated by the “XXX” symbol.
After touring through much of the city of Amsterdam that we were unable to see by foot the previous day we were making our way outside of the main city center. A couple of further interesting facts to make about the city are the buildings, the dyke and damn system, and the newest addition to the city a subway system.
Due to the soft nature of the ground, remember it is all swamp or better yet a large body of water, it is very difficult to build on the land. The first problem was to get land instead of water, hence the use of the windmills. The windmills no longer operate in the city to remove the water by pumping it out through the canals as it is all run through a series of computer based pumping stations.
Many of the oldest homes in the main center of the city are built on either artificial islands or stilts. Therefore because of the unstable nature of both, these homes are referred to as “dancing homes.” They are dancing because they move or sway from time to time. They do not move on a whim but over time the home shifts from side to side. I will some photos from the kids and show you what I mean tomorrow evening.
The newest and most controversial piece of Amsterdam we found out today was the subway system which is still under construction. By the sound of our guide, much of the general population of the city are not in support of the move, but it seems to go going on ahead. You can imagine a city that has pumped out all of its water over the last few hundred years and has very unstable land, is now constructing an underground transportation system. Don’t like the feel of it personally!
From there we went to a traditional cheese farm where both cheese and wooden clogs are made. We had a quick tour of the cheese making area and of course some tasting...scrumptious! I dare say that some of you are getting some cheese for a gift and will also have some stinky cheese smelling clothes to wash when your kids get home. We then moved to the clog making area and were able to see and test a few pairs out...this was a really cool experience for sure...check out the video.
Although our day is not over, the tour is. We wish our guide Paul well wishes and thank him for a great excursion. Now onto Voorthuizen and the tattoo! Unfortunately the drive took longer than the scheduled 1:15 minutes due to heavy Friday afternoon traffic, oh well more time for most of us to power nap to get ready for another long day! Oh yeah I forgot to mention that the tour guide said the average temperature in the Netherlands at this time of year is around 16-18 degrees. Today it is windy, rainy and 7.....”oy vey!!”
We finally arrive in the beautiful town of Voorthuizen. We are just in time for dinner because of the traffic, but I suspect that most others are in the same predicament. Tonight’s meal is on the tattoo grounds and is a buffet. Yep, a buffet for 800 students, teachers and chaperones. Unfortunately, neither Sam nor I did get to have supper.
We have had our first mishap of the tour as the catering company did not label the food being served and Sam tasted a small bit of a sauce on his kabob. Our luck it was peanut based and Sam has a severe allergy to peanuts. After a couple of seconds I asked Sam how he was, he assured me he barely tasted the food: however, better safe than sorry as he did admit to feeling a bit weird and tingling sensations in his lips and throat. Enough of that get out the epi-pen....ya I know not a good scene!
Anyways, to make a long story short and positive, Sam is doing great. The right move was the administering of the epinephrine and getting him to the hospital...so yes if you watched the tattoo video, Sam and I are assuming that is what it looked like because neither one of us were there! The medical system is fast, efficient and they were very helpful. The nurses loved the fact that we were Canadian. Although she will never read this, special thanks goes out to Renatta, who were here last shift because she was suffering from B.O.B. Syndrome(Baby on Board), who was helpful in all ways from making phone calls for me, to waiting on Sam hand and foot. To the Mundy’s, your boy is doing great and I truly apologize for what has happened, it was good to talk to you today Susan.
On a side note, you all can be rest assured that EF Tours is there to work with your kids. Max Mercier, one of EFs key reps, was there with us at the hospital and was immediately getting all insurance information in place and taking care of any logistics with the hospital and such. That gave me time to spend with Sam and make sure he was doing fine, which he is for sure! Sorry to scare people....but in the end, everything turned out ok and it is just another reminder of how important it is to be aware of people around us with severe allergies! Take care all and chat tomorrow, our last day as we head to the Royal Palace in Appledoorn and then directly to Arnhem military cemetery. A great way to end our tour. See you soon!!!
dc( doctor chizzy)
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Day 6
Off to Amsterdam....Day 6 is an early morning by normal standards, but Euro Tour standards we got to sleep in. The fact that I barely went to bed when the alarm went off, could be easily seen in my eyes. Thankfully we are off to Amsterdam where if my eyes are red and glossy most people probably won’t notice!!!
It is about an hour and half drive from Wagningen to Amsterdam, which in fact received its name because the city is located on the Amstel River and there are just a “few” dams in and around the city, thus the name Amsterdam. So what have we got in store today...well let’s see there will be some reflection on the loss of the Jewish community in various sectors of the city and a bit of an impromptu walking tour given by our excellent tour director David Harrod, supper in the city and some free time.
We were dropped off at the bottom of city center at around 9:30ish by our wonderful bus driver Will, who hails from the Netherlands, but was born in the country of Surinam. Very nice fellow and unbelievable bus driver!!! Today is a day to be out and about and on foot, all day!!!
Out first look at the old city of Amsterdam is one of ornate architecture on many of the 300-400 year old buildings. Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to see the official home of Her Majesty Queen Beatrix, because the majority of the building is undergoing a “facelift”. David told us that she normally resides in the south of the country, in a city called The Hague, and the palace at Appledoorn that we will be seeing on Saturday is another one of the royal homes....tough life!!!
Seeing as it is early morning and we are on the way to the Portuguese Synagogue we made the decision to take the fastest route there. The reason I say that because we cut across the infamous Red Light district. I can assure your beating hearts right now that much of what you hear about that area is very untrue, especially at 10:00 AM in the morning. Because of the river system that runs all the way through the city, the Red Light area cuts across many side streets and apart from signage there is very little to see or do at this time of the day. It is a very interesting area because many people and families also live along the main street that runs with the river, but the "Red Light" area across in the small side streets that are only accessible by foot or by bike, of which in all of the Netherlands there are millions it seems.
David did an excellent job of explaining to the kids about the liberal culture of the city and the concepts behind the drugs and the prostitution (of which none were around I assure you and those that were had there window shades drawn!). What I didn’t realize was that drugs are not legalized in Amsterdam, the police simply choose to ignore the use of “soft” drugs and their private usage and deal more with the hard drugs and other types of crime that are more difficult and dangerous to cope with.
AS far as the discussion on prostitution, which they will get in grade 11 law classes; David Harrod made an extremely interesting point about the industry. He presented the fact to them that there are more slaves now in North America than there were during the time of the infamous “Triangular Trade” from Africa to North America and back to Europe. Shocking for sure!!! The majority of these slaves are in the sex trades are in it against their will, often kidnapped and taken illegally from Europe, or promised jobs as actresses, etc. In the system in Europe, these women pay taxes on their earnings, receive medical care and insurance as well as pensionable earnings....I realize it sounds crazy but it’s true. Anyways, after a couple of minutes we arrived in the Jewish sector of Amsterdam. You can all relax now that that is over!!!
The first area that we arrived at was the Portuguese Synagogue, although I have spent a small amount of time in the Jewish section of Montreal on tour before, this will be my first trip into a real live synagogue. Before entering the synagogue we were told of the beginnings of Judaism in this area of the world and of course we will learn about the dispersal of Jews during WWII a little later on.
The synagogue was very beautiful and very different from the churches we attend on PEI. First and foremost all of the benches or pews face one another.....I actually liked that a lot. Actually, before that, all of us males had to put on the traditional Jewish Yarmulke, no offence to the Jewish faith but to me it was a beanie. After a few minutes there and quite a few pictures of our Yamulkes, we departed for some more time in the city.......and some SHOPPING finally!!!
As I warned all of the girls prior to the tour, this would probably qualify as the worst shopping trip in history, but the best history lessons in the world would be had in Europe 2010. Well let the “mishegas” begin!!! Pretty good Yiddish for just having the Yamulke on for 15 minutes isn’t!!! By the was “mishegas” is Yiddish for you guessed it, craziness!!! David told everyone we needed to be back at the city square in one hour....one hour...one hour to shop in Amstedam!!!! I am pretty sure I heard an “oy vey” from my usual shopping partners!!! By the way “oy vey” is “Oh woe is me!” and I really think that I should be saying it as Emily, Shannon, Ashley, and Rachel looked right at me and said “gein fest”. Ok I will stop using my new found language of Yiddish...by the way that means “GO FAST!”
The shopping went well as everyone split with an adult, but since the commercial district is really on one street they all would have been fine, but better safe than sorry. I will have to admit that between Amsterdam, Paris and Rome, I have felt much safer here....seriously. I have been keeping my eye out for pickpockets and petty thieves, mainly because we have some "green"(and I don't mean TOSH green) travelers, but I have seen nary a one!!!
Following the Dutch version of speed shopping(don't know the Yiddish translation for that) we reconvened and made our way across town to another Jewish quarter where we were scheduled to visit the Amsterdam Holocaust museum, the Auschwitz Memorial and the Auschwitz Museum before supper at the Hard Rock.
Powerful stuff was told and seen as we looked at the list of names of all the Jewish families who were deported through Amsterdam in the 1940’s once the Germans invaded and the Dutch capitulated. Out of the roughly 120,000 Jews that lived in the city at that time, 104,000 of them never returned. No need to say more. This museum is actually located in an old Jewish theatre that served as the deportation house for the Nazis during WWII. Very eerie and extremely sad when you heard the Jewish guides talk about members of their own family and their round up and deportation.
From there we went to the Auschwitz Memorial located in a nearby park and spoke to a wonderful lady who told about her grandparents and other Jews and their struggles during those times. Another very powerful moment in our tour for sure!
The Jewish section of the tour continued as we continued to learn more about the Jewish people, their faith, their lives and their traditions. The kids had a great day learning about the menorah and the hannukiah as well as the Torah. They had a great time in the children’s section of the museum as they learned about all of the famous Jews in the world such as Steven Speilberg, Lenny Kravitz, Mr. Spock, Marilyn Monroe, Bob Dylan and of course Sammy Davis Jr. Personally I learned about famous Jewish people through the Adam Sandler Hannukah Song, if you haven’t heard it you should youtube it! Its clean and quite comical, in fact there are 3 versions now.
We learned about kosher meal preparations and Jewish music and literature. Coming from mono-cultural Summerside, this was another great learning experience for your children. Off to the Hard Rock Cafe and then to another highlight.....but first a little more free time for.
I may as well tell you now, I was late!! They all had a great time laughing their butts off as I showed up 15 minutes later for the walk to Hard Rock. I think the lack of sleep caught up with me this afternoon. After we left the museums, David said that we have about 2 hours before our dinner reservation...”Oy Vey,” More shopping!!!! Well this time I told the girls I would take them to a couple of stores then there were getting dumped onto Kelly or Marliyn, so I could shop as well(can't come home without things for the fam)!! Well, let’s just say I lost track of time, not shopping all the 2 hours by any means, but wandering aimlessly on the same street everyone else was on and I showed up 12 minutes late. Brendan took great pride in running towards me and telling me that “my tardiness would no longer be tolerated any further on the trip!” The things I have done for these kids and they are chirping their heads off about being late!!! All in fun!
We proceeded to the Hard Rock with about 20 minutes to spare(I could have shopped for another 10 and we still wouldn't have been late!) and sat down for some good music and a good ole Cheeseburger and chips (fries). Following the quick 45 minute supper we were off to Anne Frank House. More learning!
As we waited outside the museum/house we all brushed up on our Anne Frank story. Although I know the story very well, I have not read the book and a number of them were very excited because of their love of the book. As we wound around the beginning of the museum before we actually enter the house, Anne Frank’s writing on the walls is chilling to say the least. I am not sure if I can describe what we saw over the next hour, I just know that I was speechless when I left. I will post a couple of videos pertaining to the house and leave you to form your own opinion...it is a must see I will finish with.
A gute nahkt,
dc
It is about an hour and half drive from Wagningen to Amsterdam, which in fact received its name because the city is located on the Amstel River and there are just a “few” dams in and around the city, thus the name Amsterdam. So what have we got in store today...well let’s see there will be some reflection on the loss of the Jewish community in various sectors of the city and a bit of an impromptu walking tour given by our excellent tour director David Harrod, supper in the city and some free time.
We were dropped off at the bottom of city center at around 9:30ish by our wonderful bus driver Will, who hails from the Netherlands, but was born in the country of Surinam. Very nice fellow and unbelievable bus driver!!! Today is a day to be out and about and on foot, all day!!!
Out first look at the old city of Amsterdam is one of ornate architecture on many of the 300-400 year old buildings. Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to see the official home of Her Majesty Queen Beatrix, because the majority of the building is undergoing a “facelift”. David told us that she normally resides in the south of the country, in a city called The Hague, and the palace at Appledoorn that we will be seeing on Saturday is another one of the royal homes....tough life!!!
Seeing as it is early morning and we are on the way to the Portuguese Synagogue we made the decision to take the fastest route there. The reason I say that because we cut across the infamous Red Light district. I can assure your beating hearts right now that much of what you hear about that area is very untrue, especially at 10:00 AM in the morning. Because of the river system that runs all the way through the city, the Red Light area cuts across many side streets and apart from signage there is very little to see or do at this time of the day. It is a very interesting area because many people and families also live along the main street that runs with the river, but the "Red Light" area across in the small side streets that are only accessible by foot or by bike, of which in all of the Netherlands there are millions it seems.
David did an excellent job of explaining to the kids about the liberal culture of the city and the concepts behind the drugs and the prostitution (of which none were around I assure you and those that were had there window shades drawn!). What I didn’t realize was that drugs are not legalized in Amsterdam, the police simply choose to ignore the use of “soft” drugs and their private usage and deal more with the hard drugs and other types of crime that are more difficult and dangerous to cope with.
AS far as the discussion on prostitution, which they will get in grade 11 law classes; David Harrod made an extremely interesting point about the industry. He presented the fact to them that there are more slaves now in North America than there were during the time of the infamous “Triangular Trade” from Africa to North America and back to Europe. Shocking for sure!!! The majority of these slaves are in the sex trades are in it against their will, often kidnapped and taken illegally from Europe, or promised jobs as actresses, etc. In the system in Europe, these women pay taxes on their earnings, receive medical care and insurance as well as pensionable earnings....I realize it sounds crazy but it’s true. Anyways, after a couple of minutes we arrived in the Jewish sector of Amsterdam. You can all relax now that that is over!!!
The first area that we arrived at was the Portuguese Synagogue, although I have spent a small amount of time in the Jewish section of Montreal on tour before, this will be my first trip into a real live synagogue. Before entering the synagogue we were told of the beginnings of Judaism in this area of the world and of course we will learn about the dispersal of Jews during WWII a little later on.
The synagogue was very beautiful and very different from the churches we attend on PEI. First and foremost all of the benches or pews face one another.....I actually liked that a lot. Actually, before that, all of us males had to put on the traditional Jewish Yarmulke, no offence to the Jewish faith but to me it was a beanie. After a few minutes there and quite a few pictures of our Yamulkes, we departed for some more time in the city.......and some SHOPPING finally!!!
As I warned all of the girls prior to the tour, this would probably qualify as the worst shopping trip in history, but the best history lessons in the world would be had in Europe 2010. Well let the “mishegas” begin!!! Pretty good Yiddish for just having the Yamulke on for 15 minutes isn’t!!! By the was “mishegas” is Yiddish for you guessed it, craziness!!! David told everyone we needed to be back at the city square in one hour....one hour...one hour to shop in Amstedam!!!! I am pretty sure I heard an “oy vey” from my usual shopping partners!!! By the way “oy vey” is “Oh woe is me!” and I really think that I should be saying it as Emily, Shannon, Ashley, and Rachel looked right at me and said “gein fest”. Ok I will stop using my new found language of Yiddish...by the way that means “GO FAST!”
The shopping went well as everyone split with an adult, but since the commercial district is really on one street they all would have been fine, but better safe than sorry. I will have to admit that between Amsterdam, Paris and Rome, I have felt much safer here....seriously. I have been keeping my eye out for pickpockets and petty thieves, mainly because we have some "green"(and I don't mean TOSH green) travelers, but I have seen nary a one!!!
Following the Dutch version of speed shopping(don't know the Yiddish translation for that) we reconvened and made our way across town to another Jewish quarter where we were scheduled to visit the Amsterdam Holocaust museum, the Auschwitz Memorial and the Auschwitz Museum before supper at the Hard Rock.
Powerful stuff was told and seen as we looked at the list of names of all the Jewish families who were deported through Amsterdam in the 1940’s once the Germans invaded and the Dutch capitulated. Out of the roughly 120,000 Jews that lived in the city at that time, 104,000 of them never returned. No need to say more. This museum is actually located in an old Jewish theatre that served as the deportation house for the Nazis during WWII. Very eerie and extremely sad when you heard the Jewish guides talk about members of their own family and their round up and deportation.
From there we went to the Auschwitz Memorial located in a nearby park and spoke to a wonderful lady who told about her grandparents and other Jews and their struggles during those times. Another very powerful moment in our tour for sure!
The Jewish section of the tour continued as we continued to learn more about the Jewish people, their faith, their lives and their traditions. The kids had a great day learning about the menorah and the hannukiah as well as the Torah. They had a great time in the children’s section of the museum as they learned about all of the famous Jews in the world such as Steven Speilberg, Lenny Kravitz, Mr. Spock, Marilyn Monroe, Bob Dylan and of course Sammy Davis Jr. Personally I learned about famous Jewish people through the Adam Sandler Hannukah Song, if you haven’t heard it you should youtube it! Its clean and quite comical, in fact there are 3 versions now.
We learned about kosher meal preparations and Jewish music and literature. Coming from mono-cultural Summerside, this was another great learning experience for your children. Off to the Hard Rock Cafe and then to another highlight.....but first a little more free time for.
I may as well tell you now, I was late!! They all had a great time laughing their butts off as I showed up 15 minutes later for the walk to Hard Rock. I think the lack of sleep caught up with me this afternoon. After we left the museums, David said that we have about 2 hours before our dinner reservation...”Oy Vey,” More shopping!!!! Well this time I told the girls I would take them to a couple of stores then there were getting dumped onto Kelly or Marliyn, so I could shop as well(can't come home without things for the fam)!! Well, let’s just say I lost track of time, not shopping all the 2 hours by any means, but wandering aimlessly on the same street everyone else was on and I showed up 12 minutes late. Brendan took great pride in running towards me and telling me that “my tardiness would no longer be tolerated any further on the trip!” The things I have done for these kids and they are chirping their heads off about being late!!! All in fun!
We proceeded to the Hard Rock with about 20 minutes to spare(I could have shopped for another 10 and we still wouldn't have been late!) and sat down for some good music and a good ole Cheeseburger and chips (fries). Following the quick 45 minute supper we were off to Anne Frank House. More learning!
As we waited outside the museum/house we all brushed up on our Anne Frank story. Although I know the story very well, I have not read the book and a number of them were very excited because of their love of the book. As we wound around the beginning of the museum before we actually enter the house, Anne Frank’s writing on the walls is chilling to say the least. I am not sure if I can describe what we saw over the next hour, I just know that I was speechless when I left. I will post a couple of videos pertaining to the house and leave you to form your own opinion...it is a must see I will finish with.
A gute nahkt,
dc
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