Red Light District

For over 700 years Amsterdam's Red Light District leaves nothing to the imagination.  Women show off their goods for sale, in the red lit windows.  Sex, soft drugs, prostitution and pornography is all legal in Holland. The coffee shops sell weed, hash, and cannabis and maybe even some coffee as well.  This is by far the biggest tourist attraction in Amsterdam.  You shouldn't tour this area alone or late at night.  Ignore the freaks and keep your wallet or purse close.  We spent a couple hours in the narrow alleys window shopping. I had to figure out how I could get a great blog with photos of the working women forbidden.  I got yelled at more than once shooting from the hip,  the flash gave me away,  Trust me on this,  after you've been here, you've seen it all,  So there I was getting yelled at by some ugly skank in one window, the next ho is inviting me in, then my wife is trying to drag me away.  Gees I'm a respectable guy,  all I did was ask how much.....
(Album posted on Facebook)

Floris

Floris lived with us in 1998 while going to high school in Wenatchee Washington USA.  He was one of several Rotary Youth Exchange students that we hosted.  Floris was born and raised in Arnhem, The Netherlands, and is now working in Amsterdam as a business financial specialist for the countries largest mortgage bank. Floris hosted us last weekend while taking the time to be our tour guide for 3 days.  I'll do the same when he comes to London.  We got a first hand education on real estate prices and saw how expensive this densely populated city is to live in.  Floris has over 300,000 euros ($400,000) in his 700 sq. ft. one bedroom flat shown here.  Floris also gave us the guided Red Light District tour.  He seemed to know a lot about that area.
Julie and I have stayed connected with all the rotary students who lived with us.  They have enriched our lives more than they would ever know.  Thanks Floris, you are like our own son and our house will always be open to you.

Amsterdam

                    

Last Friday we flew out of London City Airport and touched down in Amsterdam 40 minutes later for a long weekend. We had a fabulous stay at the 100 year old Grand Hotel Amrath(bottom pic). The capitol city of the Netherlands dates back to 1275 and now has a population of 780,000. In the 17th century Amsterdam became the wealthiest city in the world. It is home of the very first Stock exchange ever, the Dutch East India Company, that opened in 1602.
There are over 100 kilometers of canals and 1,275 bridges here where at high tide, the city sits 2 meters below sea level.  Many of the old historic buildings were built leaning forward with large hooks on top, so furniture that wouldn't fit up the narrow stairs could easily be hoisted to upper floors (see pics).  Buildings are also leaning because of the rotting wooden poles on which they were built.  In my world if a building leans it would be condemned until repaired, of course with the exception of the 'Leaning Tower of  Pisa'.  We toured the original Heineken Brewery, the Anne Frank house, the Rijks Museum with Rembrandt original paintings and also the popular Van Gogh Museum.
I have never seen so many bicycles in one city.  There is just no room for autos here so most people who work and live in the city use the bikes.  It is quite strange that it took 5 years for us to get to such a historic and fun city that is so close.  Complete album posted on Facebook...

Shakespeare, Birthplace

We are standing on Henley Street in Stratford-upon-Avon, at the birthplace of William Shakespeare.  The worlds most famous playwright was born here and also spent the first 5 years of married life to Anne Hathaway.  This beautiful village in the heart of England is about a 3 hour dive north of London.  Visitors have been coming here for over 250 years.  This is just one of the many historic places that tourists shouldn't miss here in the UK.  I'm sure that I would have been as great a writer, had I not  contacted the dreadful virus, Dyslexia, at birth.  In those days the critical 'spellcheck' vaccination hadn't yet been discovered.  But with the lifesaving medical breakthrough called, B L T, ('British liquid therapy'), I tink I mite b ritten mo bedder!

England Canal History

After spending some time on the UK canals, I am totally fascinated with its history.  The Roman influence is what started the canal system here as they were the original great canal architects and builders. Thousands of miles of canals were built totally by hand, here in the UK Between 1700 and 1830.  It was much more efficient to move large amounts of raw materials, building supplies, and even fragile materials, on the water even before a motor was built.  A single horse could pull a 50 ton barge on a canal, slow but steady.  After the rails and trains came to England and every other country, the canals just couldn't compete. British Waterways govern the use and upkeep of the canals and locks.  A lot of donations and volunteer hours go towards keeping these canals open. All boats on the water have an annual license whether it's a full time live-aboard or used as part time recreation.
The top historic picture shows a canal boat being pulled by one horse which was the common way to move barges back then.  The split bridge photo that I took is a simple way to slack the tow rope and drop it  through the bridge not having to untie any lines at all.
The bottom historic photo shows the technique of "legging".  This was the most efficient way of moving barges through tunnels without any horse power.  The longest tunnel built in England was the 3,800 yard Sapperton tunnel.  This took the legger's 4 to 5 hours to get through, all done by walking along the ceilings or walls.I am exhausted just looking at the picture.

Canal Boat Tour

Last Friday Julie and I joined two other couples for our first Canal Boat tour in England.  We drove 3 hours north of London to Stratford where we boarded our 62 ft. x 6 ft Narrow boat, for 3 nights.  There was a short helpful orientation on boat operation and using the locks.  The boat was powered by a 4 cylinder diesel engine and was quite easy to operate.  British friend Geoff had experience on these canal boats so we loaded 3 days supplies and were off. Our boat had two staterooms, two baths,  and a dinette that made a double bed.  This was a working holiday as we went through 30 locks and over 3 aqueducts in 3 days.  We had a captain on the helm and two mates always opening and closing the locks.  The women did a fine job of keeping the food and drinks coming.  We followed the canal from Stratford to Kingswood stopping each night and to top up our water supply.  We did actually end up in a few pubs if you can believe that.  This is a very slow moving holiday but a fantastic way to see the lovely English countryside.  There are thousands of miles of canals that are 7 feet wide with locks that can only handle boats of under 80 ft.  We booked with the Excellence Afloat tour group, which costs around 7 to 800 pounds for 3 nights, or 11 to 1300 pounds for a week.  These prices are for a bigger boat that would sleep 6 to 7 people.  The canals were built between 1700 to 1835 for trade and commerce but were retired for leisure use after the rail system arrived.  This was fantastic Christmas gift to us from our wonderful British friends.  Lower photo, "The Motley Crew" Rob, Me, Julie, Debby, Geoff, and Jane.   I will post a photo album on Facebook.

Alexandra a.k.a. "A Rod" has arrived

Alexandra Roddy was born to son Brent and Sandra, early this morning in Scottsdale Arizona. 8 lbs. 4 oz, 20.5 inches.   Leave it to ol Grand Dad to get the proper nickname, not Alex but  "A Rod".  I hope they get that spelling right on the birth certificate.   A bat and glove might be the perfect gift since it's spring training now in Arizona.  Julie and I are both just sick that we couldn't be there to welcome her into life, and give Sandra a big hug.  Its important to let everybody know that I take just a little ownership in this beautiful young lady.  If  you look closely, you can see that most of her beauty had too come from me. We love you all and miss you a lot, our spirit is there.  Tonight I think I might just curl up with ol Granny and talk about it.  Yea Baby!

London Gym Etiquette

During my 4 years of living in England, I've belonged to 2 different gyms, in Guildford and in London.  There is a pool and small gym where I live, (shown here), which works great for my daily cardio workout.  I joined a very posh 4,000 member gym here in London about 3 years ago specifically for the use of free weights. I am finally at my wit's end with free weights being scattered about and left for staff to pick up later. And why bother when even personal trainers sometimes don't put weights away. Then along come the members who say, nobody else does it so why should I. I've seen it!  During peak gym hours it is sometimes difficult to even find matching dumbbells, and I already have enough trouble converting kilos to pounds. Being American, I have never seen this allowed in the many US gyms that I've used.  Golds Gym, Wenatchee, USA, thanks a lot...you sure spoiled me,  and are still the best run gym I've ever seen.  I believe a membership is ownership, so take some pride in "your" gym and pick up after yourself.  Fitness is essential for me and it starts in the gym.  In my world you've got to be bloody fit to survive a proper London pub crawl.
A chat with the management told me where the real problem lies,  They would rather hire staff to clean up than to politely remind someone and risk loosing a member... You don't see me complain much on this blog but you're getting it today.  The bulk of these 4,000 members are professional people, and it's the small few with a "pick up after me attitude" that does muck it up for the majority.  You know who you are and you give a new meaning to the word "Dumbbells".