Adventure of the month

It may seem that I am combining the fishing villages of Marken and Volendam as a way of speeding through my Dutch travelogue. This is partly true. However, the two really are inextricably linked by a 45 minute ferry ride and a world of tourist brochures. If ever you find yourself in a conversation with someone who has just visited Marken (unlikely I know, but it could happen), the correct response is "But did you go to Volendam? Volendam is much nicer." If it so happens that the person originally mentions that they went to Volendam, telling them that Marken is much nicer is also perfectly acceptable. The bottom line is that touristic conventions require you to visit both. Funny thing is that despite the geographical proximity and the shared commercial backgrounds, I found the two to be quite different from each other. Marken, which was once an island highly prone to flooding, still ret...

So, I have returned to my home base of Miami and am staring at half a dozen bags that need to be unpacked. More dauntingly, I am realizing how much I have done and seen during the past few months, all of which I intended to blog about. To give a brief idea of the task ahead of me, I should point out that in the prior 2 months, I have visited 21 cities in 4 different countries, taken 1483 photos (not counting the many that were deleted for various reasons) and worked a total of 21 days. In the Netherlands alone, which was home base, I visited (in order): Amsterdam (of course), Marken, Volendam, Edam, Haarlem, Alsmeer, Almere, Lelystad, Delft, Gouda, Geithoorn, Zaanse Schans, Den Hague, Texel, Utrecht, Alkmaar, Maastricht and Rotterdam. Add to that some overnight trips to Copenhagen, Denmark; Brugges, Brussels and Krakow, Poland and you may begin to see my cause for concern. Oh and did I mention that I leave for a 10 day trip to Venice (the one in Italy, not the one in California) in 5 ...

I know I have been very negligent in updating this blog, but ironically, it turns out that the more adventures that you have, the less time that you have to write about them. At some point, this merry-go-round will slow down and I will be able to go into greater detail about where I have been, what I have seen and how damned charming it has all been. But for now, I am just posting some photos from this weekend's visit to Bruges, a medievel fairytale of a town, that just happens to have museums dedicated to two of my favorite things, beer and chocolate.

On a recent 4 day break from "work", we did as the Europeans do and hopped on a cheap-o airline, Transavia, for a long weekend in Copenhagen, Denmark. I really enjoyed it and will write all about it soon , but in the meantime, here are some photos... UPDATE 09/06/07: OK, maybe "soon" actually meant six weeks later, but better late than...nah, can't do it. But I did want to blog about how really great Copenhagen was. Initially I chose Denmark for a variety of reasons. It was easy and cheap to get to from Amsterdam. I had heard good things about it from fellow travellers. And most importantly, it would be country #65 on my list. But, I never expected to like it as much ...