House of Houben

Hi from Harlem. ignore all typos i'm trying to beat the clock. this is way too expensive so i'm sure it will be my last blog. sorry about that. we had a great day in volendam. it takes 10 minutes to get to the train station then 15 min to get to amsterdam. from there we caught a bus to volendam which took 30 min. the day was beautiful...hot and sunny. the town is so quaint with the neatest little houses. great dutch food of course... this keyboard is so hard to type on and it's hard to do... we took a boat ride to the island of Maarken where we had a fantastic lunch and i bought a lovely Dutch doll wearing the Volendam costume. we walked a long ways into the countryside thru the neatest little brick houses. i mean we walked beside them...i'm exhausted and sunburned, alas. we walked across a dyke up close to a windmill built in 1650 and it's still turning. we took lots of photos and shortly after a huge tour bus showed up so glad we missed all them! there was a farm house across the street with sheep grazing in the yard and an old man sitting in the shade wearing Dutch shoes. came back to Amsterdam and took a canal ride and learned some of the history. ate dinner in a lovely cafe. Matt had lamb, I had hamburger which tasted sooooo good and not at all like hamburger at home, Robert had beef. we are eating well. not sleeping so well but getting naps. slowly catching up to this time of the world. we are off tomorrow (july 9) to Nijmegen where I doubt i'll find a computer but you just never know. Hello to all of you who are reading this, i'll check for messages after this. Hello Mom and Dad...you would LOVE it here, i know you would! everything including the bathrooms which are called toilets are spotlessly clean...people are so friendly and nice...it's wonderful to be here at last. we are sure enjoying ourselves. Matt loves it here so does Robert. I'll sign off and I'm thinking of you all!