travelenvelope: May 31, Amsterdam

See the World for Free

The idea here is to TRAVEL THE WORLD regardless of time or budget. It dawned on me one day that even if I had unlimited time and money (which I definitley do not), I still couldn't see everything in the world that I'd like to see--I'm simply not going to live long enough to do it.

But I had a bit of brain wave and soon after the travel envelope was born. This is an actual physical envelope. I typed the name of every country in the world, plus every state in the US on little slips of paper which I then put into the envelope. In the beginning we (myself, my husband, Dave and daugher Catherine) would draw out a slip at random at the beginning of the month and that's where we would go---at least in our minds. We grab some books about the country from the library and put them in our bathroom to look at. We also check out some videos about the country if any. We check it out on googleearth, listen to the music, try the food, maybe even attempt to learn a dance or celebrate a festival.

After the first two years we discovered that even virtual traveling can be tiring, so we travel now whenever I happen to be in the mood.

It's great fun. I especially love it when people I meet have been to the place I'm "visiting" in real life, or get excited and have some virtual adventures of their own. I hope that anyone who comes across this blog will feel welcome to come with us on the trip!

You have a standing reservation to see it all!

May 31, 2015

May 31, Amsterdam

Catherine liked church in Dutch. She speaks some German, and so could understand a great deal of the service, and there were lots of foreigners and so people were singing in English, Dutch and Spanish all at the same time.

After church, she met up with her friend, Cynthia, from her Disneyworld days, and went with her to the royal zoo.

She also found the cheese museum, which was tiny, but any museum devoted to cheese is a step in the right direction I think. Check out: cheesemuseumamsterdam.com

Other Holland delights