Unbelievably, I haven't had any jet lag symptoms - NONE AT ALL!!!!! This has never happened to me before, but you can be sure I'm not complaining!

I got home late Sunday and didn't do much that night. Since waking up at 7:00 Monday morning, I've unpacked everything and put it all away, distributed gifts to many friends, done two loads of laundry, detailed my car inside and out (including waxing it,) reloaded and organized all my work equipment in the car again, caught up with all my correspondence and emails, paid all my bills, confirmed my work schedule for the next month, did my monthly invoicing and sent it all out, gotten rid of the weeds that have grown crazy in the rockscape in my front yard, stocked my fridge with groceries, and made some headway on disseminating some of the approximately 850 pictures I have on cd's and memory cards. I am halfway through making a big batch of dog food for Rocco, so I can divide it into small packages and freeze it. I will complete that task after I finish this blog entry.

Now, I'm ready to start on a series of blogs to "show and tell" my trip.

"Follow me!"

I've been to Amsterdam a few times before, so I pretty much knew what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go. On my first day in Amsterdam, I couldn't wait to head straight for Dam Square and soak up the ambience there.

The square is full of weird and wonderful people and artists. In the foreground of this picture, you can see the "Green Man" wearing an orange suit - Holland's symbolic colour, symbolizing its royal family, the Family of Orange. The wax museum is in the background. I'll blog about that place later.
There are always costumed performers spread around the square, acting out their characters very convincingly. The Grim Reaper likes to wave his scythe at people and shake his fist, swaying his body menacingly.

Ths medieval jester is lewd and pushy. Here I am, hamming it up with him.

Here is an old man who was standing there in scruffy clothes, singing religious songs and periodically shouting out to everyone (in Dutch, of course) that they needed Jesus in their hearts. He offered religious tracts to everyone he made eye contact with.

Then there are the street performers. This guy was doing some cool, techno vocals into a sound system that boomed across the huge square.

This guy did juggling and rode a monocycle. (Oops, my finger got into this photo!)

The monocycler asked me to hold his juggling knives, and a girl standing next to me offered to take a photo.

At the end of the day, I was pretty wiped out. Decided to take a bicycle taxi to the hostel where I was staying. They are more expensive than taxis, and slower, but I figured what the heck, just once .........

Stay tuned for the next installment.