well, we're back from our Netherlands adventure. we had a pretty awesome week, all-in-all. we got a chance to spend time with some of steve's closest college chums and got to see quite a number of things outside of Amsterdam, which is probably something less than 5% of the tourists to amsterdam get to do, by my guesstimation.
we were there for steve's college chum sera's wedding to a dutch bloke (mo), and they had us way planned out, which was very sweet of them (although sometimes a little bit tiring). i felt sort of guilty that they had made so much effort to entertain us, and at times felt that we could have had more time to bum around Amsterdam, but i know that they enjoyed having the people they love visiting from the U.S. and that they just wanted to make the most of our time there and show us the places that they love. here's a play-by-play rundown of the week, in case you're keeping score:

sunday: thank god the day was was pretty low key because we were so tired from the overnight flight that we could barely stay awake. we met the lovely couple for brunch with a big group of their family and friends at a really amazing looking cafe. after that we pretty much passed out.

monday: the groom's dad took a group of us all over North Holland in a minivan to see some sights. so much of the province had been reclaimed from the ocean and it was amazing to see the canals -- well above the level of the surrounding fields -- still holding water at bay. sometimes the canals would run straight through a field that was up to ten feet lower than the water level. it was really surreal! we spent some time in the seaside town of Hoorn (which you can see on this map) and then went to the "Realm of a Thousand Islands" which is -- as it sounds -- an area that has lots of very small patches of land that were farmed for centuries and is now a nature preserve. the islands aren't like the more naturally shaped ones of the New York State "Thousand Islands" region. they're pretty much reclaimed in rectangular shapes, each less than 1 meter above the level of the surrounding water. the final event of the day was attending what was billed as "the world's oldest vegetable auction" where all of the farmers from the "Thousand Islands" region would take their produce (by boat, sailing right into the building) and a Dutch auction (price going down instead of up) would ensue. you can see a pretty good photo of the auction house interior here. be sure to click and enlarge the photo of the auction clock, which was probably a foot in diameter and quite beautiful. that night we went out for thai food near our hotel (which was in a really ritzy upper-east-side sort of area alongside the Vondelpark, the Amsterdam version of Central Park). somehow steve got really sick from the food later that night. since we all passed plates around, i have no idea how he managed to do that. weird.

tuesday: we bummed around Amsterdam (nothing scheduled for the group) and it rained and rained. we thought about going to the art museums (Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh) but apparently so did every other tourist in town because the lines (which were outdoors) were crazy long. we ended up at the Heinken Experience, which is pretty ridiculous but fun. they give you three beers during the course of your travel through the exhibits, which helps make it more interesting. we couldn't help thinking about the challenge that the exhibit creators must have had: "make an interesting museum about brewing beer with at least 20 exhibits" (the exhibits were numbered) and we thought of our friend bruce, who would have had some fun exhibit designing an answer to that challenge. check out the website here, if only to see the crazy list of countries that they've customized their homepage legal drinking age access to (for example, if you select "Greenland" the site will just ask "are you of legal drinking age?" before granting you site access). we were still pretty messed up from jet lag, so we didn't really do much else that day, and had a big long nap before dinner.

wednesday: another rented minivan, another daytrip! we went to the national park of the hoge veluwe, which is one of the largest nature reserves in the netherlands, and has an amazing art museum tucked inside (as well as a really nice website, so check it out). one of the really cool things about the park is that they have lots of free bicycles in lots all over the park and you can just borrow one and ride around on the trails, which we did as a big ol' group. lots of fun! evan was part of the group this day, and it was awesome to see him. since he's really dang tall he and i had the fun challenge of adjusting the bikes to our very different heights (these are bikes that stay outside in the rain, mind you, and are have pretty much non-adjustable seat and handlebar levels because of it). we decided that the landscape reminded us very much of north-western michigan (evan is from g. rapids), what with there being some sand dunes in the park and similar trees and all. that evening the dashing groom's family had us all over to their place for a BBQ. i have no idea where in the heck it was and we were all pretty much asleep in the minivan on the way home.

thursday: the original idea was that we'd all participate in a scavenger hunt that afternoon. i was able to get together with my long-lost friend pam (fellow um psych major that i hadn't seen in a couple of years), since she just finished her phd at nyu and moved to amsterdam a couple of days before. it turns out that this didn't make me the non-scavenger-hunting pariah that i thought it would since the bride wisely decided to cancel the scavenger hunt after deciding that the last minute preparations were stressing her out too much. most of the group spent the afternoon at the outdoor cafe at the Waag, which is a former weigh-house and a great spot for people watching on popular square right downtown. pam and i went off on a shopping excursion while steve drank a bunch of weissebeers in the sun and discovered that he detests the taste of campari.

friday: wedding day! and i still can't believe how awesome the actual event was. we were bused (yes, a bus and not a minvan this time) out to Naarden, which is an incredible walled city (check out the aerial photos and virtual tour on the town website. mo's parents and grandparents had been married in the town hall, which dates to 1601, so the couple had a lovely civil ceremony (in english, which was nice touch!) at the town hall. we then all went to a nearby cafe, where cake and champagne were served. finally, and most incredibly, we ended up at the Castle Muiden for the reception. the official website for the castle is here but it's all in Dutch. however, it's still worth checking out the virtual map on the right hand side. there's also a "fan site" of sorts located here. there were trumpeters heralding our arrivals, there was dinner, there was dancing, and yes of course, there were drinks.

saturday: after the wedding we all needed to recover. a bunch of folks headed with the newlyweds to the beach, but the UM gang decided to spend more time in the city, wandering around and enjoying the cafe society (we had a close to three hour lunch, i believe).

so that's it.
and now i'm completely screwed up, sleepwise. we got home today sometime 3:30-4ish and did the inevitable unpacking, laundry, grocery getting (well, we submitted a peapod delivery order) and then went out to eat. by 7:30 we were nearly asleep on the couch and we decided to go to bed. i figured i'd probably wake up sometime later (turned out it was much later than i thought when i woke up after 11!) and thought i'd putter around a bit before going back to bed, hopefully for the night. steve actually thought he'd be tired enough to sleep until 6ish, so we'll see how that goes. we're thinking tomorrow morning might be a good day to start an early morning workout routine!
i think i'll do some more laundry and turn in. g'night.