DIVA

So, what's Jet been up to lately?

Maybe we won't notice a furball in the suitcase....

 Where's the kitty?  Jet's favorite toy... paper

When I was packing to leave, this is the Diva I was dealing with. 

She was into everything!

I came home last night & this is what greeted me....

A friendly looking kitty, to lure me in for the kitty attack! :)



DELFT

Delft is the home of Jan Vermeer, (Girl w/ a pearl earring) one of my favorite artists.  Our first day in Holland, Erica and I spent the afternoon in Delft. 

We walked around and then took a canal boat tour.

Here is a picture of one of the tour boats

This is a picture of the view from the boat.

To give you perspective of how deep in the canal the boat sat.

The following pictures I took on the canal tour.

This is the back of the Armoury.

In 1842 the Dutch state established a royal academy for engineers and colonial civil servants, the Koninklijke Academie voor Ingenieurs en Indische Ambtenaren. Its purpose was to educate and prepare civil servants for service in the colonial government.

In 1864 this academy was replaced by an educational institute, the Indische Instelling, which specialised in Indonesian languages, geography and ethnology.

Students attended lessons in diverse Indonesian languages (Malay, Javanese and Sundanese) and in history, ethnology, law and land surveying.

This building I took a picture of just because I loved the windows & the cast iron work.

Here is the lower level of the Library

Church...

Here is a picture of the houses & cars along the canal. They said they lose several cars a year into the canal. Notice there isn't much space between the car & the edge!

The keg on wheels is almost bigger then the old mini cooper.

I took this picture while Erica & I were walking around. Nothing like jumping out your back door for a quick swim!

This shop is in the main market.  It's one of many that sells delftware.

The blue pottery that Holland is famous for.

Delftware

Citizen M hotel

The night before we left, Erica stayed at the Citizen M hotel which is right by the airport.  The hotel is pretty cheap, but as you will see, it's rooms are also very narrow.  I don't think I'd want to stay in this hotel long term, it's just a little bit too small, BUT the rooms were fun for a night. 

Here's the room details from their website:
You'll find a wall to wall window, LCD television with free movie channels including blockbusters and classic favourites.

The hotel room also has an XL king-sized bed, just in case you like to dance in your dreams. There's more for free: wi-fi internet. Cheap calls to international landline phones. We'll keep going: power rain shower, luxury bed and bath linen, global plug system. And a full length mirror with theatre lighting.

Megalomaniacs will love the Philips designed touch screen mood pad. It allows you to control everything in your entire hotel room- television, window blinds, temperature, colored lighting, and wake up alarm themes.

Downstairs, you'll find our 24-hour food outlet: canteenM. Here, you can pick up daily fresh sandwiches, fresh wraps, sashimi, beer from the Netherlands, Italian coffee and much more because citizenM knows a good mind comes with a full belly. At night, the bar stocks the finest luxury spirits and cocktails around.

citizenM hotels offers all guests self check-in service on touch screen terminals with the assistance of citizenM ambassadors. The lobby is designed not to look like a lobby. No marble fountains. No piano man. Instead, you'll find contemporary living rooms with Vitra furniture

So, here's the room. I"m taking a picture from the toilet.

 Here's the toilet

The shower. WHICH, looks neat, BUT you have to close the shower doors to start the shower. WHICH means you get the nice first shot of cold water....

Mirror & Sink

Here's a somewhat better picture of the bed. You'll notice it's between the two walls. :)

 This picture is taken from the bed. So you can see the shower on the left, sink & toilet on the right and my bag by the door. Like I mentioned earlier. Fun room for a night... :)

Amsterdam

On Sunday the 17th, Amsterdam had beautiful sunny weather, so I decided to walk around Amsterdam while Erica ran the marathon.

Shopping Center

The Royal Palace!! (it's under construction)

Madame Tussaud's

Fun Little Drawbridge

Rembrandt's House

China Town!

This was a door to a hotel. Just a little bit creepy! :)

NEMO, science center

New Library - under construction

Central Station

And this picture, well, I just thought it was funny!

Walking around Amsterdam

The following are some pictures I took while walking around with Erica today.

McDonald's again. :)

I thought this was a neat picture with the houses in the background, canal, and then bikes.

This houseboat isn't that unique, except for this window. They had a perfect fitting shade in it, which I thought was awesome that the could find a perfect shade when it took us almost a year to get a shade in our Arch window.

I liked this street view and also the house with the big red shutters.

Notice the date on the business?

The houses in Amsterdam used to be built on wood poles. After a while the poles break down, shift, etc. So when that happens the houses begin to lean a little bit. Notice that the houses aren't all standing straight?

"plane" trees

I just thought this was a cool looking building!