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 ...