I feel like I have to put these photos up because there is so much other news to share!
Dusseldorf
Here we were able to meet our friends Keiko, Ryo and Aru for a second time. It was so good to spend time with them and we had a great time exploring a nearby park with Keiko and Aru-chan. We’ve visited before, so I won’t waste time in explaining that this is a great city in Germany: it is walkable, has a great park, has a great shopping/city center and although it was raining we still enjoyed being back here.
Zoya and Aru
Keiko and Verena
Aru, Ryo and Keiko
For the person who has everything (I guess): A cow hide covered bike
In the old part of town, walking along the river
Amsterdam
And we ended our journey with a visit to Alison and Josh in Amsterdam. We were worried it would be so similar to Brugge that the appeal would be lacking but that was not the case. The canal ride, chocolate shop and the bicycle culture helped us fall in love with this city. Zoya and Verena were pretty tired from traveling over a month, so we may not have lived up to Alison’s “this is what every good tourist needs to do in Amsterdam” plan! (kidding!). We did go the flower market, Anne Frank Museum and take a canal boat tour.
Burger Miester
Josh playing and singing for Zoya
Alison on the rooftop
Verena dragged us to an artsy concept restaurant/kitchen. Table hockey with a lime ensued. I do not think that was part of the concept!
So here is one of the dishes. We probably should have documented this better, but I think this represented the beginning of the government housing projects in a suburb of Amsterdam
And of course we found a playground to visit