Holland Aug 13, 2009

We left Dulles Airport on Aug 12 and arrived in the early am of Aug 13 at the Airport that serves Amsterdam.

This airport is below sea level (by about 8-16 feet or so). Thus the flight navigation channel is a bit fun to read as you are descending.

The airport has art showing ice cream and cows but nothing about the red light district.

The cruise line sent people to meet us at the airport.

We had about 5 hours before boarding time on the ship so we took a bit of a tour.

One site was the cheese and shoe factory. I learned that the reason Dutch people wore wooden shoes (Klompen ) was that it was wet in the fields (the water table being very high) and that was the best waterproofing they had in the 13th century when they started cultivating the area (or so the guy at the shop said).


Another thing we saw on this tour was Rembrandt Park which is not too far from downtown. It is not historically connected with the painter, they just thought he should have a park.