We finished up the trip with a few days in Amsterdam. Sitting in our hotel now writing this post and trying not to stress out over the elections until it's time for dinner. Getting to town was a little hectic. Turns out there was a train with some mechanical issues on the line so two thirds of the trains into Amsterdam from Leiden were crowded. It only slowed us down by about a half hour but it was a little hectic and much more crowded than I would have liked.

Before heading off to the Netherlands we had one more day in Belgium. In Antwerp Specifically. We stayed one night right across from the railway station which is particularly magnificent. First stop, the Plantin Moretus Museum. This museum focuses on two 16th century printers - Christophe Plantin and Jan Moretus. The museum, which is based in their homes and printing business covers the history of the family, the evolution of their printing business and the industry in general as well as the development of technology.

After Paris, we spent a few days in Belgium. We have a friend there - Helen, who teaches at the International School. Helen and Devorah taught together at the Manhattan Center for Science and Math back in the day and while I got to see Helen on my last visit here with Batya last year, Devorah hasn't seen her for almost a decade. This was more of a visiting part of our trip than a run around like chickens without heads touring part but we still got in some good stuff.

Devorah and I are finally on our first overseas retirement trip. Our hope was to make up for lost travel time in retirement. We've already gotten away a bit - a few days in Charlseton SC and a couple of local driving trips but this is our first retirement biggie. Started out in Paris. Left Monday evening and got in Tuesday at around 6:00am local time. Went right to the hotel.

Time for another travel post. Figured that by posting here there's more permanence and search-ability than a Facebook or other post. So, Devorah and I are spending a few days in Philly. We started coming down here a year or so ago and this is our third trip. It's a nearby getaway from NYC and we've got friends here that we rarely get to see. Sports fans notwithstanding I'm surprised that Philly doesn't get more love from NYC people looking for relatively nearby travel.

As I mentioned in my CS-Ed Podcast post, yesterday was a washout. Seriously scary storms. We ended up spending the entire day in the hotel but was able to get to Middleton Place for dinner. The original plan was to do the entire plantation during the afternoon but that was a no go. Instead we got there a little before our reservation time which did let us wander the grounds a little before heading in to the restaurant.

We started day 2 with a walking tour. We've been using Free Tours by Foot or similar services. No fee or a small reservation fee up front and then pay what you want at the end. We generally haven't been disappointed and also generally end up tipping voluntarily about the same amount as what we'd pay for a pay up front tour. We walked around downtown getting more local and US history and learning about the city.

Depending how you looked at things, I started my retirement this past Fall. Part of the plan was for Devorah and I to travel a bit more - something we rarely got to do when we were younger. I did have a great trip with Batya to Holland and Belgium but Devorah and I, other than a couple of weekend getaways, weren't able to go anywhere. We planned to finally have a trip in January but I broke a toe.

Last day of the trip we decided to take a day trip to The Hague. On the way we passed through Haarlem For some reason I couldn't get this song out of my head We had some time to do some wandering and even stumbled upon their Chinatown: but the reason for the trip was the Escher museum Cool museum in a beautiful mansion. It had tons of Escher's work along with his story.

We started walking from our hotel to the Van Gogh museum. On the way we passed the Cow Parade store. This was pretty cool since we remember the Cow Parade from back when it was in New York decades ago. Big fiberglass painted cows at random spots in the city. The Van Gogh museum was pretty amazing (and also had wood floors). While most of his best known works might be in other museums around the world there were plenty of great ones to view and admire.