" 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.