Ruth's trip to Holland 2004

Wednesday, 26 May
Today Steve took me to the airport and I flew to Detroit and then to Amsterdam, arriving there at 11 PM Indiana time, and 6 AM Amsterdam time. On the ride to Amsterdam, I watched "Win a Date with Tad Hamilton," which I thought was a cute movie.

Thursday, 27 May
Today Andrea (my best friend from college, who has spent the last year working in orphanages in the Ukraine) met me at the airport and we went back to the hotel room she had stayed in that night and crashed for a couple hours. Then we ate lunch at McDonalds, took a boat ride tour down the canals of Amsterdam, and just walked around the city for a while. It was really great to catch up with her, and to just hang out together. We ate dinner in a cute little café, and both had Dutch pancakes, which were really good, and fairly inexpensive. Then we took a train to the town of Rhenen, where we stayed with a family for the night. The family knows Andrea's family because the wife was an exchange student to the US 20 years ago, and lived with Andrea's grandparents.

This is Andrea and I in front of a windmill

Friday, 28 May
Today Andrea and I slept in, which was really nice, especially since I was still pretty jet lagged. When we got up, we ate breakfast in the back yard of the family we were staying with, and it was a gorgeous day, so it was great to be outside. Then, we went and saw two windmills, a fruit orchard, got ice cream, and walked along the Rhine. It was a really fun day, and very relaxing.

This is the family Andrea and I stayed with, minus the mom, who was taking the picture

Here's the mom on the bank of the Rhine with her children

Saturday, 29 May
Today I took a couple of trains (I transferred three times) and then a bus to the town of Urk to meet up with the choir from my church here in Indianapolis. Andrea stayed with the Dutch family because they were having a barbeque. When I got to Urk, I ate lunch, and then wandered around the town for a bit. Because it was a holiday weekend, lots of people were wearing traditional Dutch costumes, which was fun to see.

Sunday, 30 May
Today I was rudely awakened at 5 AM by a rooster crowing loudly. I got up and closed our window to block out the sound, and only succeeded in dropping the window crank on my toe and making it bleed. The day got better, though, because we sang in a church service that was translated into three languages. Because it was Pentecost Sunday, the Assembly of God churches were having a conference at Six Flags, so the service consisted of three churches joined together, one of which was an Indonesian church. Andrea met me at the church, and stayed with our group the rest of the day. We ate some Indonesian food at another church, and then went to the town of Weiss, and saw a drawbridge being opened (the highlight of the day for the town), and then ate dinner at McDonalds. I had something they call fruit and yogurt, which is really good. They should have it here in the States.

Monday, 31 May
Today Andrea left and flew back to the United States. Our group sang in a church service in a gorgeous church in Eindhoven. It had these really neat wooden beams that are rather hard to describe without a picture. At the end of the service, our bus driver backed up to the church because it was raining, and ran into the overhang of the church, which made us all jump!

Tuesday, 1 June
Today was our "free" day in Amsterdam. We got to sleep in (after getting up at around 5 the last few days), which was really nice! Then we took our bus into Amsterdam and met two men who gave us a brief walking tour of the city. Then we had a few hours to split into smaller groups for lunch and shopping. I ended up with a group of three married couples--the Dowers, Dutchers, and Ellingtons. It was a little strange to hang out with them as a much younger single person, but for the most part, I enjoyed it thoroughly. All six of them are really great people. We ate lunch at an Irish pub, which was really good. It was a bit funny to be eating British food in Holland, but at least I could identify the food on everyone's plate. After lunch, we visited a few stores, and then we met up with the rest of our group and headed to the Anne Frank Huis. I realized as I was walking through the house that I don't think I have ever read her diary (which is really strange for a book nerd to say), so I decided to buy a copy of it at some point before I left Holland. (The bookstore there was sold out of the English version). Once our entire group had gotten through, we walked to a really nice restaurant for dinner. We had a choice between carpaccia (raw meat) or Greek feta salad for a starter, and then beef tenderloin or salmon for the main course. I had the salad and the tenderloin, and the tenderloin was really good, but I wasn't super excited by the salad. While we were eating, my table decided to marry me off to a cute guy sitting outside our window, so we took our paper menu, decorated it, and had everyone sign it. I even went outside and inconspicuously took the guy's picture. It was a lot of fun. Then we went on a boat ride around the canals similar to the one Andrea and I had taken.

Just a random shot of downtown Amsterdam.

Wednesday, 2 June
Today we went to the town of Almelo. It has a rather large shopping district in the center of town, so we had some free time to shop and eat lunch. I ended up wandering around by myself because I needed some alone time, and I walked for almost three hours! I got a free lunch, because the leaders of the trip offered me their leftovers when I walked by (half a hamburger and some tuna fish), so that was nice. In the evening, we sang for our first "concert." This was different from the church services we did on Sunday and Monday, because we sang for a lot longer, and no one preached a sermon. This church was the largest Assembly of God church in the Netherlands (it sat about 1,000), so it was neat to be there. At the end of the concert, we did some jumping songs, and I lived up to my e-mail name. :D

Thursday, 3 June
Today we began the day by visiting Amsterdam for lunch and shopping. I ate lunch with two of the women on the trip, Lois and Sandy, at the café that Andrea and I had visited the week before and had another Dutch pancake, which was very good. Then I bought a cute shoe necklace. We did our evening concert in a suburb of Amsterdam called Zaandam in a very small church (50 chairs in the sanctuary and space for another 50 to stand). Zaandam is the least churched area in the Netherlands.

Holland is the land of bicycles.

Friday, 4 June
Today we spent the day on the Free University campus in Amsterdam. The guys from our band performed outside in the afternoon, and then we did a concert in the main auditorium that evening. In the afternoon, I found a copy of Anne Frank's diary in the bookstore and started reading it.

Saturday, 5 June
Today we spent the day in another suburb of Amsterdam at the church that we ate lunch at on Sunday. In the afternoon, we sang on some street corners in the little square in the center of town, and then we did a concert in the church in the evening.

Sunday, 6 June
Today we sang at a church service in Leeuwardenn at another large church. They had some girls that performed a dance at the beginning of the service, which was a fun lead in to our singing. We spent the night in a hotel close to the airport, and it was really nice and luxurious (and no rooster woke me up!)

Monday, 7 June
Today we went to a touristy place with lots of shops and windmills in the morning. It was a gorgeous day, and it was nice to just walk around and look at things. Then we drove to the airport. After a 7 hour flight followed by another 1 hour flight, I arrived back in Indianapolis. On the plane, I watched "50 First Dates" and was rather disappointed. It just seemed like a poor remake of "Groundhog Day", although it had some fun moments.

  I never did find the person who could wear this shoe.