"SUN"day in Amsterdam with AmsterDAN

I just realized the title of this blog is "Pennsylvania Dutch" and I've been a little light on posting "Dutch Stuff."  That ends now.  On Sunday, April 7th, Vicki and I ventured to Amsterdam.  A trip that usually takes about an hour and a half; instead, took us a good 2 hours due to construction on the rails.  But it was worth the trip; we had a gorgeous day.  Here are some of the highlights, in picture form.  Enjoy.

This street has it all, tattos & piercing; a coffeehouse and fries. And it's a stone's throw away from the Red Light District.

Little to the right there slick.

Here's this guy in action.

AmsterDAN enjoying a Westmalle.

Thanks for reading!

KLUNEN?

On our first two nights in Oss, Vicki and I noticed these signs hanging up in various restaurants and bars.  So I took a picture to remember the website.  When Google started to give me the translation I felt like I was unlocking some sort of mystique text.  I liken it to the archaeologists using the Rosetta Stone for the first time to decipher Sanskrit. As I pieced the translations together I soon discovered that this event was a PUB CRAWL across 16 different pubs or kroegen.   

Essentially “KLUNENINOSS 2013” is a pub crawl commemorating a speed skating race in the Province of Friesland.  When the canals freeze and the ice becomes think enough  skaters go from town to town along the canals and get a card or a stamp or something.  But where the ice is not thick enough to skate, namely under bridges, they must leave the ice and run with their skates on ground, that is called “kluning.”  The More You Know.  

(NOTE: Click the photo to see my Klunen 2013 Highlights video)