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Georgia Guidestones

November 4, 2014 Drew

We left the beautiful tree lined shores of Lake Keowee, and headed further south to Lake Hartwell. We finally made it to a sight I’ve wanted to see for quite a while – the Georgia Guidestones!

Lake Hartwell is a reservoir between South Carolina and Georgia. This thing is big too – if it were summer, I think we would be staying here for quite a while – there is so much to do!

But it’s not summer, and we are here for one thing only – the Georgia Guidestones. I’ve wanted to come see these things since we saw them on that awesome conspiracy show “America Unearthed”. This big granite “American Stonehenge” was erected in 1980 by a mysterious group of people, and aims to provide some rules on how to rebuild society in a new “Age of Reason.” A crazy New World Order conspiracy and big monolithic stones – sounds like a good time to me!

On the way back from the monument site, we stopped at another little roadside attraction: “The Center of the World.” When I first heard about this little sign, I thought for sure it was yet another example of our lovely American way of thinking the world revolves around us. It’s actually a reference to an old Cherokee meeting ground and trading center. I guess it’s crazy to think about how some small patch of land in tiny-town rural Georgia used to be the center of things for a thriving, well-developed society – interesting stuff!

Back at the campsite, we discovered that we had new neighbors. They were a really nice couple from Florida, but it was their first time camping, and they had a brand new rig. They had some troubles getting it all set up, so soon enough I found myself over there, flashlight in hand inspecting the multitude of pipes and switches that were to run their hot water. Noelle has taken to calling me Macgyver due to the many times she finds me tinkering away with a variety of tools spread around me. She even has a nice little song to go with it – isn’t she nice!

Amsterdam

I Amsterdam Day Three

October 4, 2014 Drew

Day three started a bit late for us. Ok it was 1:30 in the afternoon, but after two days of walking around all day, we were freakin tired!

Today, we took the tram to Centraal station and hopped on a train to the outlying “tourist trap” of Zaanse Schans. This place has a bunch of cool, old-world dutch stuff like windmills and bakeries, and the first ever Albert Heijn (it’s a grocery store). The windmills were relocated here sometime in the 1970’s though, and now the whole site has a reputation for just being one of “those tourist places.”

Honestly though, I’m all for a place that lines everything up nice and neat for you to take pictures and have fun. Zaanse Schans has a ton of good information, and was a lot of fun to visit. The weather was beautiful and sunny, and the fact that it was all covered with the I Amsterdam card made it even better!

After walking through the site we headed back to the train station – already pretty tired and hungry. We made our way back those beautiful Golden Arches in Dam square for another quick pick-me-up of good American food (and probably chemical) engineering.

We tried to go in to the New Church, but it was closed. We tried to go visit the Royal Palance, but it was closed. We returned to the Red Light District and tried to visit the Old Church. I saw a sign that said ‘Open’ with an arrow pointing through the church doors, but they were locked. I was starting to get mad that all these places were closed, but then we found the correct side entrance – whew, rant averted! The church was very cool, and had a distinctly naval style and feeling on the inside.

We then headed back to Centraal station to catch the canal boat tour that is included with the I Amsterdam card. This experience was actually very disappointing. We stood in line for about an hour and a half waiting to get on this boat. Turn’s out you can’t really see out the windows that well, and the seating is a free for all so if you happen to be towards the back of the group you are screwed.

Here is the lovely old Italian couple that decided to take up both window seats so they could see better. They didn’t move from there the whole time – lovely.

Finally off the boat, we headed back to experience some more of late night Red Light District before the skies opened up with a cold torrential rain. After three days of intense touristing, and almost two months of great weather and great times, Amsterdam was telling us “it’s time to move on!”

Overall the I Amsterdam card was worth it. It lets you in to a ton of great museums and sites, gives you free GVB tram transportation all over the city, and includes a bunch of additional non-Amsterdam sites and discounts. We are exhausted from three days of bustling around, but I also feel like we are capping this whole trip off with a set of great travel experiences. We head back to the States next week, and I’m looking forward to what comes next!

Amsterdam

I Amsterdam Day One

October 2, 2014 Drew

Our time in Amsterdam is quickly winding down. We came here to test and develop our plan to travel-work, and I feel like we have done a pretty good job balancing those two competing priorities. But… wouldn’t it be awesome to tip that scale over to the travel side with some last minute, aggressive, push like it’s Disney World type of touristing? Answer: heck yeah!

So, we each bought a 72hour I Amsterdam card, and proceeded to get our tourist on. This card covers a majority of the many sites and museums that Amsterdam has to offer, as well as unlimited GVB tram travel. They include a number of sites in the outlying areas, and throw in an hour long canal cruise to top everything off – Sweet!

For day 1 we got a fairly early start taking the #14 tram to the Museum of the Tropics. This place is interesting to say the least. The guidebook said “Stories, splendid works of art and objects bring a variety of cultures to life.” What we found was a pretty odd and eclectic mix of stuff. They have everything ranging from 1600’s era Caribbean and African items that the Dutch have relocated (read plundered), to some kids toys from the 1980’s and 1990’s, to some Teletubbies riding a zebra chariot. Noelle tried to argue before we got there that this was going to be a bit of a roadside attraction. I didn’t believe her, but the pictures prove it… I was wrong!

After leaving the Tropenmuseum behind, we grabbed a quick toastie and a Coke Light, and headed to the Zoo! The Artis as it’s called is a Victorian era park and zoo that spans a big chunk of real estate in the Plantage neighborhood of south-east Amsterdam. This place houses a pretty random bunch of animals and birds, and has that old-school, look at the pretty monkey through the bars, type of a feel which was fun for me; mostly because I’m not behind the bars (at least that’s what they tell me).

The weather was actually really beautiful, and had a kind of spring-like quality in the air. I think the animals could feel it too. From the lions to the lizards to the little fat mouse things – they all seemed… twitterpated…

This dude is just so chill:

On a side note, they wanted 2euro for a park map. I of course immediately declined before I heard that the money went to some save the elephants fund… oops. Noelle still feels guilty.

After several hours at the zoo we strolled over to the Botanical Gardens. Getting in to these places with just a swipe of the I Amsterdam card was cool.

The gardens are relatively compact; a nice reprieve for our feet. We saw some cool plants which was fun too. I did notice that they have a very rare and ancient type of tree from the time of the dinosaurs imprisoned on site. I’m not sure what you have to do to get a jail cell like that in Amsterdam of all places!

They even have a redwood:

Once we got our fill of all of nature’s carefully curated beauty, we headed down the street to the old Jewish Quarter. We spent some time reflecting at the Holocaust museum and memorial, and toured the Portuguese Synagogue. This was my first experience in a Kippah – not half bad!

By this point it was getting into the evening, and we were pretty wiped out. We managed to make our way over to Rembrandt square and grabbed a decent bite to eat at one of the many restaurants lining the area.

Amsterdam is definitely one of the better places to just sit and people watch – always lively and interesting! We ended our I Amsterdam binge Day One watching “Gone Girl” at the historic theatre nearby. On to Day Two!

Amsterdam

Amsterdam Canal Cleanup

September 23, 2014 Drew

Yet another exciting day in Amsterdam. We saw this on the way back from an excellent lunch at Amsterdam’s Singel 404. I took a video because that’s what cool people with iPhones do! None of the canals really have any rails or walls, so it would be pretty easy to lose something over the side. Looking at the number of bikes piled up on the boat, I’d say a lot of people have had that problem!

[jwplayer player=”1″ mediaid=”1094″]

Amsterdam

Amsterdam Travels

September 17, 2014 Drew

In the 4 weeks or so that we’ve been in Amsterdam, we’ve been to a bunch of places and seen a lot of cool stuff. We’ve also spent a lot of time sitting around working in front of our computer screens – I guess trying to make enough passive income to sustain global travel while simultaneously paying someone to patch holes in an old VW bus takes a lot of work… who knew!

In the midst of this week’s lack of real “travel” experiences, I was feeling overly reflective about what we are doing and where we are headed. If only there was a way to see what the heck I was up to this same time last year…

This week last year I finally had the bus running ok enough to drive out onto the neighborhood streets for the first time, only to find out that everything still didn’t work right. Ha, it makes me smile thinking about how clueless I was! Another word to use might be naive, but either way I’ve learned a lot in a year. I am also really happy with where we are at!

I like looking at old pictures on the blog, and so in that spirit, I am going to upload a bunch of Amsterdam extras that haven’t made it into a post to-date. Enjoy!