Amsterdam with Damn Fine Weather

Arrived at 7:30 am into Schipol, trained into Centraal station. Packed up the bags in a locker and we headed in the general direction of our 10am meeting at Den Waag in the Niewmarket (I know I spelled that wrong. No sleep since Wednesday night.) The weather is balmy, humid and the sky is clear except for some brillian puffy clouds. As we sat at the outdoor part of the market, a really loud sound decended. Soon dust was blowing into everything as an ambulance helicoper landed on the square. Two emergency medical people jumped out, popped into waiting police cars where they then penetrated deeper into the small streets of Amsterdam. The copter shut down and crowd gathered around to look at it. In the US? Land a copter in a public square? Let people get close to and LOOK at it! NEVER. About 20-30 minutes later the cop cars brought someone, loaded them into the copter and he covered our eyes and tea cups while the big yellow bird took to the sky. But duh, I never took out my camera. (Maybe it was because we were having a GREAT conversation!)

This evening I leaned out of our hosts' 6th floor apartment...


On the other side the courtyard was festooned with orange flags, a common site in the city with the upcoming World Cup qualifying rounds.