Holland

Let's see, I went to Holland this weekend with Lloyd and Ale. Lloyd is a young single adult in our ward. He is British and went on his mission to NL. And Ale is just awesome.

It was 19 hour bus ride there Thursday night/Friday morning. 19 hours is a freaking long time.

We got to Amsterdam around 2. We wandered, marveled, and went to the Anne Frank house. It was neat to go there. I have an EPIC page in my journal from that house. I'm surprisingly crafty.

That night we stayed at a friend of Lloyd's house. She was a CRAZY cat lady. And quote, "I share my house with 2 cats". Not I have 2 cats, I share my house with. She talked to them like they were people and took them to bed with her (sound like a certain mother of mine and a dog named Whimzy) There was cat hair everywhere. It was gross.

Saturday morning we went to Delft. We looked a pottery, climbed 375 steps to the tower (I nearly DIED. They were steps in a circle, and I was so dizzy), and went in the church where the dead members House of Orange are buried.

After that we went to the Hague. No, I did not get to see Charles Taylor. Which actually disappointed me a little bit. Yes, there is a part of me that wants to go in the prison and see international criminals guilty of crimes against humanity.

Then we went to the beach! I love the beach. It was perfect and beautiful and I was wearing my yellow sundress. I love it when I can wear clothes at the beach.

After that we went into Rotterdam where we had a new appartment all to ourselves because Lloyd had a friend who was out of town. We were not going to stay with crazy cat lady again.

Sunday afternoon we went to the wardhouse after church ended so Lloyd could see some of his old mission friends. We were trying to find a ride to Kinderdyke. This woman offered to take us to her windmill. She and her husband took us home with her, fed us, and took us INTO their windmill built in 1776. We climbed one of the sails. All the way to the top. Pictures will be on my other blog soon(ish). Going into that windmill was one of the coolest things I've ever done.

One of the people we were with had a bike, so I got to ride on that. In my skirt. Then Lloyd petaled while I rode on the back, the style that women used to ride horses. Both feet on the same side. I looked so graceful (well, as graceful as I get) and so dutch. So epic.

After those adventures we went into Rotterdam for the game. We were standing in the square in front of city hall 2 hours before the game started. So I was standing a total of 5 hours. My feet and back hurt a lot. The game was fun to watch until about the 80th minute. Then I just wanted it to end. When Spain scored, some guy NEXT TO US threw his beer. Then another guy got angry and he and his gang went after him. Pushing quite aggressively past me. They were close to a fight, right next to me. Security showed up and we were safe. It was scary though.

Monday morning we went back into Amsterdam. We went to the Blumen Market and ate pancakes with apples.

We got on our bus. Another 19 hour bus ride. Right when we crossed the NL-German border, the police pulled over our bus. They made everyone show passports and made a few people get off and went through their bags. It was a little scary. After that I took an ambien. I slept but I woke up feeling hung over.

Well, that is a nice summary of my last 96 hours.