Days 5-9...oh how I'll miss the Netherlands!

This is going to be a long one! May 20th we headed to Franeker, a small town in the Netherlands. 

After getting of the train we had some free time, so naturally I found the first chocolate shop I could called Schaafsma Patisserie Chocolaterie. I got some delicious chocolate balls called Keatsballen which are apparently based off their sport that's similar to tennis? They were hand made chocolates though and they were wonderful! 

For lunch, we went to the cutest cafe, Grandcafe de Doelen. 

The food was amazing...shocker! I had a carpaccio broodje, which is essentially an open faced sand which. The restaurant was adorable inside and out! Plus Liz and Adam were eating there so we knew it had to be good! 

There was a bakery across the square from the restaurant with delicious smells, but I enjoyed the view and ate my chocolates. 

This town had so many purple houses!!! I could live there for sure! 

We went to the Planetarium of Eise Eisinga. It is the oldest planetarium and it was built in a man's living room. We got a chance to see all the gears and mechanical side of the planetarium...so cool! The tour guide told us he wouldn't let anyone help him other than his father when making the pins for the gears for precision purposes. There were over 10,000 pins...I can't even imagine! The whole device was only run off a single pendulum and weight system. The beds were right next to the observatory, which according to the tour guide, Eisinga's wife was not totally thrilled about, as the weights were stored near the beds. She was okay as long as he didn't make the pendulum longer which would cause it to be only a few feet above their bed. 

That night, we ended up going out to the red light district. It was definitely a different perspective seeing something so accepted that is illegal back home. Back at the hostel, we grabbed some beers, did our homework, then headed to bed for the extra long day to follow. 

Day 6...Utrecht. We took the train and had some free time to explore and eat right away. We stopped at Pickles: Burgers and Wine, and you guessed it, Liz and Adam were there! I had some bitterballen (deep fried meatballs pretty much) and some frites (fries) with rosemary and mayo. Mayo is ketchup over in the Netherlands... I will never eat fries the same again! 

After exploring the market, and getting an AMAZING nectarine, we went to Utrecht University Museum (thanks for the pic Abi!).   

We got to see a cabinet of curiosity that was owned by Jan Bleuland (1756-1838). People used to gather a collection of the strangest things of the time and display them in their homes to show off their wealth and how well traveled they were. 

We saw one of the first bypass machines from 1956, various other cardiac devices, a model of the LHC, and some more cabinets of curiosity. 

Outside the museum, was the oldest botanical garden which was absolutely beautiful. It gave me a chance to give my parents a call and enjoy the beautiful weather! 

Next we had a few hours of free time while waiting for our next site. Wandering through the markets, there were flowers everywhere!!!

We decided to stop and eat at a Croation restaurant...best life choice ever! I had some grapefruit that was in pear liquor, and some strawberries with ice cream...yummmm! Lactaid pills were on hand, don't worry! 

The Croation liquor was potent but delicious! 

Walking back from dinner, we saw the aftermath of the flower markets. 

We also found some more purple houses!!!! 

The Sonnenborh Observatory was our last stop of the night. 

We climbed to the top of the observatory where our guide had built some Galilean modeled telescopes. These scopes, though made of PVC pipe, allowed the user to see a distant object by the use of a concave and convex lense system. The objective lense, which was the convex lense, had a focal length of about a meter. The eyepiece lense, or concave lense, had a much smaller focal length of merely millimeters. This system of lense cause the image to be non-inverted and magnified. Since there was cloud coverage for most of our viewing time, we viewed some neon signs in the distance. Finding objects with these telescopes was much harder than one would imagine. It really put it into perspective that since you need to know what you are looking for before use, Galileo must have had a frustratingly difficult time. The second set up, a Kepler telescope, was a system of 2 concave lenses with the objective lense having a larger focal length (4 meters). The eyepiece lense had a focal length similar to that of the Gallilean eyepieces. This system creates an inverted but magnified image which we saw with the neon signs being upside down. This set up was challenging to find the object since you had to move the lens in the opposite direction you would expect, due to the inversion. It was amazing to be able to see the way Galileo did. 

Before leaving, we all got a chance to look through the observatory's main telescope (from 1854). It was an amazing experience all together! 

Getting back to the hostel, we took a couple of bottles of wine out to the bridge and had some good drinks and conversations. 

Sunday was our free day!!! We headed to the Reijksmuseum on our free day. There was an exhibit on musical instruments which was pretty cool, being the band geek that I am. There was even an ivory flute.   

We found a camera obscure which they called a 'magic lattern'...we thought that was pretty hilarious. 

There was a board game box that was made with engraved silver plaques that had chess, checkers, backgammon, and Quirkat. 

The museum was ginormous! There was a room for just about everything....guns, pottery, ships, and of course the artwork! 

There were so many famous enough paintings, solid oak and ivory cupboards, and drinking game descriptions. :P 

The building itself was beautiful and full of stained glass! Reading our book about Vermeer, of course we had to stop and see his paintings! 

Afterwards, we saw some paintings by Rembrandt. 

Van Gogh is my favorite artist so you can believe I dragged everyone to see those pieces. 

On our way out we saw the beautiful gardens that were next to the museum. 

We took a walk through the open market (which was actually closed) and got some wine!! On the way back to the hostel, we stopped at Amsterdam Cheese and Deli and had some delicious cheese samples. Sorry Wisconsin, Amsterdam knows what's up. After food, I met up with my Aunt Veronica's friend Caspian. He took me to a true Belguim bar and we had a wonderful conversation and some great beer! We chatted about the differences betweeen the states and Netherlands, the history and infrastructure of Amsterdam, and both of our lives.  The second bar we went to, In 't Aepjen was built with in the 1519 and is one of the few buildings to survive the fire in the mid 1500s. The sailors used to bring in their monkeys they had captured while with the VOC and would trade them for beers, leading to the name of the bar. 

Getting back to the hostel, I stopped at the bar and ended up meeting a solo traveler from Austria. He had come to Amsterdam for a Peral Jam concert for his 30th birthday. Turns out he started a tourism website and gave me some good sites to see in Prague, Budapest, and Croatia!

It ended up being another late night, but the next day we went to Delft to the Royal Delft Porcelain Factory. Our tour started off with some delightful apple pie! I will never taste pie that good again. Our tour guide was great as usual. We got to see the whole process of making the pottery from start to finish. 

There was a lunch waiting for us after the tour....so so so good! 

After making a quick pharmacy stop with Liz...yay sickness...we went on a walking tour of Delft given by the wonderful tour guide Adam! We saw the tombs of Vermeer and Leeuwenhoek along with some historical sights from our book. 

We all climbed to the top of the old church...though some were more scared than others. :P The sight was beautiful though!!! 

 

After trekking down the treacherous spiral staircase that was much too narrow, we found a small cafe on the square to eat some poffertjies, which essentially are pancakes with fruit and whip cream! 

When we got back to Amsterdam, we went back to the monkey bar with Liz and Adam! It ended up being a great night! 

 

Tuesday the 24th was our last day in Amsterdam. We checked out of the hostel that morning, and headed to Hortus Bontanicus, the botanical garden in the city. There were some awesome raised garden beds that my parents would love. 

There was, of course, a butterfly house...no I did not go in. 

Purple flowers were everywhere! <3 Of course, there were other flower colors too. 

After the gardens, I tracked down some pharmacies...again....and met back at the hostel. That night we took a night train from Centraal to Munich. We all had snacks and some wine bottles and turned the beds into couches, making a little party room! After a nail polish party, a few wonderful heart to hearts, and much wine, we headed off to bed.