Delfshaven

Delfshaven is the old neighborhood in Rotterdam, annexed from Delft in the late 1880's. Early immigrants to America in the 1600's left from here, including Henry Hudson of NY river fame. Located west of town, along the river Maas, it is hard not to fall in love with this little island.








































Tapas one night at "Apricots" (note: we attempted to order seafood tapas in the dutch only menu. alas, kip is chicken, not kippered fish, and ooster is oyster sauce, not oysters. nonetheless, it was delicious)


















Look, there's a lovely place overlooking the canal to have a pint...










































and then they pulled down the screen to project the local football match. This pub is perfect.

Amsterdam

We decided to head to Berlin for the weekend, to see some art and visit this dynamic, historic city before heading northwest to the German ports of Bremen and Hamburg on Monday. We found a cheap flight from Amsterdam to Berlin Saturday at 6am, which means we get to spend a day in Amsterdam (and a night at the Amsterdam airport). Sweet.































beautiful, fairytale Amsterdam









Joe had a hankering for herring. This is the first of two broodje haring. Simple deliciousness--pickled herring, pickles, chopped white onion, hot dog bun. Makes you feel alive.










Bikes, bikes everywhere. We particularly noticed the happy family biking, with mom or dad plus one, two, three kids, heading home from school or off to dinner via Vondelpark. Couples holding hands while biking was pretty darn cute too. Check out the sweet bike designs, wish Seattle were flatter...































































those slanted platforms across the canal are bike racks for....a 1000 bikes?









Work bike styles










If you know what you want, you will find it...









...mussels












Happy times









Check out our first video


off to the airport....dank u wel Holland!