Berlin day 1

 In the morning I woke up to my mom's showering.  I had almost woke up myself and was sleeping lightly when she woke me up.  We skipped breakfast in the morning. We had to get to the train station.  We were actually too concerned about getting there early.  We had to wait for an hour for our train.  I could have slept  more!

When we got on the train I had a few minutes to stow my gear  for the long trip.  The train ride was six hours.  Wow what a ride!  Anyway, after I got settled I did some math.  I am doing pretty well in math this year.  My only problem is that I forget details, like dollar signs, or decimals.  After I did math for about 3 hours we explored the train for a bit.  The dining car is really fancy. It has big blue seats with golden rims.  I decided to order some food from the grouchy women behind the marble desk.  I wanted to see what it feels like eating in the dining car.  It's pretty fun.  After eating I did some reading. That was my train ride, pretty dang boring.   

When we arrived at Berlin, we were greeted by another close friend.  We will be staying with him and his name is Bill.  My mom has known  him since  forth grade.  He lives in another flat.  The flat is really harlequin with all its bright colors.  It even has a green bathroom.

After Bill showed us the place we went to dinner.  I really liked the restaurant.  The food was really good quality.  The waitress was really patient with me and my German.  She was also very pretty.  Ich moechte ein milkshake.  That means May I have a milkshake. Ich moechte noch ein milk shake.  That means may I have another milkshake.

After dinner, Bill told us of a cool walk we could do that would only take 5-10 minutes.  We stopped at this awesome park with a swing set.  These swings were different though.  They were that flat kind where the seat is usually made out of wood.  The thing is, these swings were made from steel. We walked for about 20 minutes.  We all laughed and had a fun time until we got home from our walk.

I hope I will like Berlin as much as I did Amsterdam.  I think it might be like apples and oranges.  No city is better than the other.  I like what I have seen of Berlin so far,  though Amsterdam is hard to beat. Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic!

Amsterdam day 6

Today I am happy to say that no one woke me up in the morning.  That does not mean that I was not tired.  In fact, I was too tired to eat breakfast.  I just lay on the couch and dozed.  After mom, dad, and David ate breakfast, my parents walked to the phone shop to ask some questions.  (We acquired new phones from Maren, but they were not working.)  I was left at home to do school work.  When mom and dad came home, we were off to see the Anne Frank House.

When we got to the Anne Frank House, we waited in line for about 25 minutes.  Considering the reputation of the museum, the line was very short.  When we got inside, they showed us the exact rooms where Anne's family and friends hid out.  It was extremely sad and horrific what happened to the Jews.  The most interesting thing about the museum was Anne's actual diary.  I was fascinated that she touched what I was seeing in front of me.  It made the Anne Frank Diary that I am reading even more personal.

Anne Frank's sister, Margot

After the Anne Frank House, we returned our rental bikes because we are leaving for Berlin tomorrow.  When we got to the bike rental shop we were sad to be giving up our bikes. We had to walk for the rest of the day.  I guess there are some advantages to walking.  We got to see the fascinating city of Amsterdam more closely because we were moving more slowly.  We paid the bike guy and we were off!    

Things you see when you slow down.

This was built in 1509

Our next destination was a pancake house.  We were all in the mood for yummy Dutch pancakes.  The hard part was finding the pancake house.  We asked tons of people but we could just not find a pancake house.  When we finally found a pancake house.  We ordered 4 pancakes:  cheese and ham, mushroom, and pineapple.  For dessert we had an ice cream pancake. Yum!

After that, my parents, David, and I went to a spa.  The thing about the spa was that it was the same spa that my mom and David went to 10 years ago.  It had a new invention that was called an infrared sauna.  The infrared is supposed to ease your muscles.  We did not understand how the infrared effects your body, so we decided to stay out of that sauna.

After the spa we went to the grocery store.  We needed stuff for breakfast tomorrow.  We also needed sandwichs for our trian to Berlin tomorrow.  Dad is going to make sandwiches for all of us.  How nice of him.  David also needed some pepsi.  Once we were all geared up, we set back to the house.

So this is my last day in Amsterdam.  I think Amsterdam is special.  I will miss this awesome city.  I will miss our nice flat also.  Berlin will be fun.  I am excited to see Checkpoint Charlie.  I wonder where we will stay in Berlin.  Hopefully somewhere nice.  Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic!   

Amsterdam day 5

I suppose you know of the disease Ice Cream Tongue?

Today I woke up to the sound of construction.   A bunch of construction workers had started making load noises.  I think it was inconsiderate of them to start so early in the morning. Rattle bang! bang!   Try sleeping with that noise blasting in your ear.  When I woke up I had eggs for breakfast.  After breakfast, I cranked out some of my schoolwork for the day.  My schooling involved math and reading.  I thought the math was boring and the reading not as boring.  I am reading the Anne Frank Dairy. The cool thing is that I am going to the Anne Frank House tomorrow. 

A little later in the afternoon, we went to the Van Gogh Museum.  I was fascinated with all his beautiful art.  He just has such an emotional way of painting!  I have never liked a artist so much!  The sad thing is he got a little too emotional.  He killed himself.  He was only 37. 

Tonight we went to one of my dad's old friend's house.  His Name is Rene´.  He has a wife named Anneke.  They have three daughters.  The three daughters names are Andrea, Marlous, and Laura.  They were really nice.  It was odd that we could not speak the same language.  We communicated with hand signs.  I hope we could visit them again.  As you might know, time passes quickly at a good friend's house.  Soooooo we stayed up too late and I am exhausted.  So I can not post a full length entry.

Amsterdam day 4

In the morning I was awakened by my dad.  We woke me up at 10:30 in the morning. That was too early for me! I was pooped (last night I stayed up to 2:00).  Dad woke me up because I had to pack up my stuff.  We are renting a new house in Amsterdam!  So we packed for a bit, ate breakfast, and packed a bit more.  I was sad to be leaving.  I liked our old house.  Sadly though, the owners could not rent the place for the next couple days.

We biked to our new home.  Maren drove all of our gear there.  Another example of how nice she is.  When we had almost biked to the house we got lost.  Mom looked at the map, but some how we just could not find the place.  We asked the people and studied the map even harder.  Success!  We quickly scurried there not to keep Maren waiting.

When we got there, the owner had to clean up more and said she would like to see our passports.  Oh no... we had left our passports at the last house!  We all got freaked. Dad and Maren  took the responsibility to take the car and go get the passports. When dad got to the old house, no one was there.  He called them and they said that they would be home in two hours. So David ,mom, and I went to the park.  Dad and Maren waited at a cafe. After a little wait they found the passports.

When we got home we met up with dad. He said Maren  had to go because she had a long long drive.  That was sad because I could not say good bye.  When we got home we made sure we had everything.

After that adventure, mom and dad went on a walk.  David and I stayed home. We are in a big flat .  Our flat was on the top of the building with access to the roof, by going up a ladder.  We walked on the roof.  It was nice up there.  We also had some staring contests.  David won all the time except once.

FIND HARRY UP ON THE ROOF  (extremely tricky)

After mom and dad came home, I went to a pick up game of soccer. I played with the local Dutch kids. They are real nice and are really good sports.  As you might know, the Dutch are really good at soccer.  This next statement will only be understood by people from Rogers Park Elementary: They could even beat Gus in a snap!

SCORE!!!

My days somehow keep getting better.  I have not quite figured out why.  I think it's just that Amsterdam is such a cool place.  I really do hope we will visit again.  Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic.

Amsterdam day 3

Maren

Today we were awakened by a close friend named Maren.  She surprised us by coming in to our house at 10:00 in the morning.  She lives in Germany. She works for IBM. She likes to travel and kayak. When she travels she sleeps in her car.  She has a big red mini van.

After breakfast we went to the beach. The beach was on the North sea.  The beach was crowded.  The kids there built some cool sand castles. Some people there were professional quality sand builders. They made some amazing sand sculptures. They built three sharks and a person.  Wow I would never even dream of building a person out of sand!

Later at the beach, we went out to a sand bar far away from shore.  We had to swim to get to it.  Out at the sand bar, there were some pretty big waves. I practiced my body surfing.  I was getting pretty good at it.  On the way home from the beach, dad got me soft serve ice cream. Yum. I love that stuff.

When we got home, we realized that mom and David (who did not go to the beach and had gone to the park) had the key.  That meant we were locked out.  Dad played the guitar outside until mom and David got home. We only waited for 5 minutes.

When we got home, I read my book for awhile. While I read my book dad made dinner.  He made pork, spinach, and couscous. I loved all the food except the spinach. I don’t care that much for spinach. It tastes a bit gross to me.

I just heard that we are going to Berlin. The thing that interests me there is called Check Point Charlie. This was once a border between West and East Berlin. If  people crossed that border they would be shot dead. I am interested in how people escaped. 

I loved my day. This even beats day 2. The beach was the best part. I love the water. It feels so nice on your skin. I hope to go to the beach again.  It is also nice to have Maren here. She is a nice girl. Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic.      

Amsterdam, Day 2

David in the morning

Last night  I slept long and hard.   Dad woke me up this morning at 8:30.  David had breakfast on the table.   I said I wanted to sleep more, so I sleep until nine. You might think (sense I was tired yesterday) that this is kind if early.  The thing is, I went to bed at 6:oo, so I slept 15 hours!  Here is a  picture of David in the morning.

Dad tells me I need to take more pictures.   I think he is totally right, but it just does not come naturally to me to take a picture.  So if I am slacking on the pics, please tell me.  Do you like the picture of David?  You know he usually smiles!

Anyway,  after the morning,  we set off to go to the Torture Museum.  That was pretty gross.   They made it all creepy in there.  They made the Museum pretty dim, and made it look like a dungeon.  It was scary!  It is brutal what they did to people back then.  Here are some pictures of the meuseum.  It makes me cringe at the thought of it.

After the museum, we met Dad's old collage buddy.  We met him for lunch.  He was nice.  He lives in Frankfurt,  Germany.  He could only stay for a few hours, though.  We may see him for longer in Frankfurt.  I look foward to seeing him later.  He has kids,  so that will be nice.  I hope his kids are nice to. 

After lunch we went to a volley ball game.  I did not know that people play volley ball in Europe. They had good players.  I did not know the teams, and I did not know who to root for.  So, I rooted for the orange tean (orange is my favorate color.)  Here are some pics. 

Today was a fun day.   I don't think I would change anything.  I especially liked the volley ball game. You see,  I am big on sports. Watching them is fun.  I like Amsterdam. The people are nice.  I hope we come back to Amsterdam some time.  Thanks for reading Rohan Geographic.

Amsterdam

We have arrived in Amsterdam.  When we finally got to the airport we all breathed a sigh of relief.  The hardship of traveling was over.  We were in Amsterdam!  The atmosphere is good, but the air smells of drugs.  Hey, you take the good with the bad.

After the airport,  we rendez-vous'ed with a close friend named David.  We will be traveling with him for 4 weeks.  We also met the people who own the house where we are staying.  They are a nice couple.  We are all happy to be their customers.  The house is soooo nice.  It has a TV and everything!  The colors are also very pretty.

After we got settled in we explored the town.  Here are some pictures of Amsterdam:

FIND HARRY

P.S. -  I am extremely tired from travel and jet lag.  I am not publishing a full length post today.