Survival and Emergency Preparedness

A few castles, there are something like 30 castles along the Rhine.

I was at my son's house yesterday helping him build a fence and showed him my Casio Dura. At dinner he came out with a box and asked when father's day was. Me..."It's in June, why?" Him.."Because I bought you this watch, not knowing if you were into watches. I want to give it to you n...

More stuff...All viking river boats on the Rhine are the same. I think we must have passed half a dozen on the river during our trip. http://i.imgur.com/IEVzNRJ.jpg Amsterdam....Scooters, bikes, E-bikes and motorcycles. The gas powered 49cc scooters (we call them and license them as mopeds in Michig...

Some random pics. Windmills....At one time, the guide said, there were over 8,000 windmills in Holland. Today there are only 80 something. Out of that 80+ only two are run for pumping water. Many of the others still work but are no longer used, except people still live in them. They are 5 stories ta...

Here's shot of the front of the cathedral in Cologne Germany. You don't really get how massive it is until you see it in person. At one point it was the tallest structure in the world.


Here's the inside

Got home last night. Dealing with the 6 hour time change. In the process of going through the 800 photos I took on my camera. My wife took about 900 more on her phone and camera. All in all we are very happy with our cruise and trip. We thought it would be a good way to see this part of Europe. Kind...

On the way back to our hotel yesterday we walked through the red light district. Yes there are sex shops but it was late afternoon and the cafe's, coffee shops etc were booming this being a holiday weekend. It was all very interesting. No, we didn't partake of any of the wares.

Yesterday we took a guided museum tour in the morning and a guided walking tour of the Jewish quarter in the afternoon. Overall we walked 9.8 miles. The nazis exterminated 120,000Jews from Amsterdam. There is a holocaust memorial with all the names on bricks. https://imgur.com/a/wRPN7h0 The photo be...

Another Rembrandt


A Vermeer
The milk maid


VAN GOGH

Went to the Rijks (pronounced Rikes) museum this morning. Saw some Van gogh and Rembrandt paintings. Thought you guys would be interested in some of the stuff. This is the cloven which was the militia or night watch in 1529 https://imgur.com/a/1dqFeOk This their ceremonial drinking horn. Cloven mean...