" We wander for distraction,
but we travel for fullfillment."
~Hilaire Belloc

Last weekend was spent in Amsterdam. I drove (about 5 1/2 hours) with Sara who visits often because her Irish boyfriend Mike is studying in Amsterdam. What a beautiful city. She dropped me off at the Hotel de Filosoof, http://www.hoteldefilosoof.nl/ located in the Vondel Park area of this great city. It is the "Philosopher" Hotel, with quotes in the rooms and on the outside of the building. I thought the juxtaposition of the quote and grafiti says alot about society (I hate graffiti). I enjoyed staying here and will choose it again for my next trip here. It is a really cool hotel and I recommend it to anyone. I plan to visit whever Sara wants company driving. This spot is close to the downtown areas and to the museum section of the city. It is a very walkable city. I spent Saturday morning in the Van Gogh museum. http://www3.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp (in English). It was really crowded, but definitely worth the lines. He is one of my favorite artists.

I walked around the hight fashion area- stores by Louis Vuitton, Diesel and many, many designers- too rich for my wallet, but a nice stroll. I met up with Sara and Mike at Dam Plaza, the site of the first dam on the Amstel River- thus the name, Amsterdam. There were these cool automatic fast food restaurants called FEBO, http://www.febodelekkerste.nl/ that remind me of the old automatics that are making a comeback in the US. The Dutch also like to order french fries in a cone served with mayonnaise- saw lots of people eating these. Later in the evening we met with some other co-workers. We walked around the famous Red Light District, but Amsterdam is more than that. It is a beautiful city with cool architecture and canals that add to the ambience of the city. All in all a nice trip.

Settling in....

"I met a lot of people in Europe. I even encountered myself." ~James Baldwin

Well, my apartment is furnished. Thank goodness for AFZ. The German's aren't such bargain hunters as we Yankees, but somehow the merchandise flies out of this store- if you see something at least put a hold on the piece or it will be gone tomorrow. The profits benefit special needs individuals, so it feels good to shop here.

I went on a long day trip into Poland. The bus from the post left at 4am and we returned at 10pm the same day. About 10 hours was driving- I slept about 7 of those- and the other 8 was spent looking and buying beautiful Polish pottery from the town of Boleslawiec. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boleslawiec_Pottery
Those of your from Philadelphia might remeber the French store Carrefour. It was located by Oxford Valley (???). There was one here and I bought my lunch there.
I plan to take advantage of these excursions when possible.

Work at the dental clinic has its ups and downs as I adjust. The last few days have been better as I get the routine down. There is definitely a need for dentists in these military clinics. There are two Army specialists- Pedo and Endo, two Army general dentists and five contractor general dentists (like me). It is a much larger operation than I expected. The one good thing is that teeth are teeth- thank goodness. No one should be surprised that I have found aspects of the clinic to complain about !!! I can't change too much.

Still no computer in my apartment. The one I had ordered mysteriously disappeared after the supposed shipment. That is my excuse for not posting to the blog. Can't add pictures on the Army computers, but I can add links to show anything interesting.

Bye for now....June