I first went to the Netherlands in 1996 in what I was calling the "Sin Tour".  This was a tour that started out in New Orlenas where I met some friends for a weekend at Jazz and Heritage Festival followed by a few days of sight seeing and a lot of drinking.  After Leaving New Orleans I flew to Ireland were I continued drinking and touring the homeland, including a few days in the North in Crawfordsburn where my father was born and raised.  I next flew to Amsterdam where I relaxed and enjoyed shuch sights as the Heineken Brewery, the Van Gogh museum, the Reichstadt museum and a tour to Alkmer and the windmills.  On subsequent trips I also toured the Anne Frank house, the Walletjes and the canals and harbour.  It is a very beautiful city and one that I look forward to viewing again.

This is the tower at the main train station.  The arrows indicate the direction of the wind. 

This is the old Heineken brewery.  It is no longer used to brew beer, instead it is used for tours.  In addition to the brewery there are stables for the Clydesdales that they used to house there and a very nice tap room where they serve great beer to the people on the tours.  I remember having quite a lot on my vist and walking out more than a little tipsy at 11:30 AM.

This is one of the many statues that are all over the city.  On this visit I was in Amsterdam just after Christmas and it was beautiful.  There was a covering of snow on the ground and some of the canals had sheets of ice covering them. 

This is one of the ubiquitous house boats that are found all along the canals.  Many of them, like this one, are garishly painted  with cartoon characters or other motifs.  One of my favorite is covered with Disney cartoon characters and is a "Coffee" house, meaning they several all kinds of marijuana in addition to drinks and snacks. 

This is one of the churches of Prague as seen from the harbour.  The harbour cruises give you a great perspective on the city.