Luckily several months ago a woman I had met here gave me the website: www.9292.nl When you go to that website you just type in your starting and ending destinations and the time you want to leave or arrive. It provides you with walking directions to the nearest public transportation, including buses and trains! It's so convenient and easy to use. I also discovered that there is an app for my IPhone and my IPAD, so I have downloaded those also!
To get there, I had to walk to the bus stop around the corner where I caught the bus to the Haarlem train station. When I arrived at the station I bought a roundtrip day ticket to Amsterdam Centraal.
When I arrived at Amsterdam Centraal on the train I was very early as I wanted to make sure I found the place to catch the bus. It was very easy. Everything at Amsterdam Centraal is well marked. I would be taking the Number 33 GV bus towards Nieuwendam.
Because I was early, I decided to walk around a bit. I took a left out of the station and what did I see?!?! A beacon!!!!
I headed over to catch the bus at the "C" Platform:
It's so nice to have google maps on my phone! When I have it on my screen and the GPS is on, it tracks my location. So, while riding the bus, I know when my stop is coming up rather than having to guess. Some buses don't have a display and sometimes when the driver announces the upcoming stop you can't understand him/her because the speakers aren't functioning properly.
We went under the Oosterdok (a body of water) in a tunnel and came up at the north end of Amsterdam. My stop was at Johan Van Hasseltweg.
I arrived there early also, so I walked around a bit and saw this interesting building:
and this cute tree fort (on the side of it in English is says "Dream it! Wish it! Do it!)
I met Lisa at Leefkringhuis at around 1420hrs.
It is a place where they help children of all ages. The AWCA women go there once a month for about an hour and do an art project with the children. The women bring all the supplies for the projects, including paper, scissors, staplers, etc.
http://www.leefkringhuis-noord.nl/site/index.html
We had a lot of fun with 5 children, ages 3-11 making paper lanterns for St. Martin's Day! They will take the lanterns out and go door to door, sing a song and receive candy! Since I don't speak Dutch I was a little hesitant about going. The woman that was with me speaks Dutch pretty well, so that was a tremendous help. There was also an employee there who stayed with us and helped out. We had a lot of fun, and the children seemed to really enjoy the project! We finished a little early, so we had them color and make paper snowflakes! We left the paper supplies, stickers and markers with them when we departed.
As we were leaving, I noticed the car Lisa was driving:
She says these cars from Greenwheels are all over Amsterdam. You can rent them by the hour! To have a car in The Netherlands is very expensive, and having a car in the city is difficult as there is limited parking. So, she rents a car five days a week for a couple of hours! You book it on-line and within fifteen minutes you can go pick up the car!
http://www.amsterdamtips.com/tips/green-wheels-car-rental-nl.php
You just use your OV Chipkaart to pay for it.
The OV Chipkaart is also used for most public transportation, including the buses, trams and some of the trains. It's all very convenient and easy to use.
When I got back to Haarlem I decided to walk home from the station and pick up some groceries on the way. I saw some unusual art on display:
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Last night Jennifer from the AWCA hosted a clothing party at her house. A friend of hers, Ylva, is a professional shopper. She goes to Paris and shops directly from manufacturers and is able to offer clothing at terrifically marked down prices! Andrew and I walked there together-the house is about 3/4 mile away.
To go underneath it, I bought this squishy inny thingie that women wear now to smoooooth out all the bumps that life has left all over our bodies! I decided against trying that on last night...but did buy one (at only 15 Euro!).
I also bought a pair of leggings (7.50 Euro) (a first for me, everyone wears them here!), a little sweater (35 Euro) and a scarf (20 Euro)....thought that would be a cute outfit with some black boots!
After the party, I started to walk home. It was about 2230hrs. I called Andrew, as he had said he would meet me so I wouldn't have to walk alone. While I was walking I noticed several women walking and riding their bicycles. Haarlem is a very safe town and I felt okay walking by myself. Next time though, I think I'll take my bicycle-it's faster!
This morning, I decided to try on the squishy inny thingie that I had bought, just to be sure it will do the job! Wellllllllll....I "stepped into it" as Ylva had said....but, how are you supposed to get outttttt of it?!?!? Aye! It felt like it was melded to my body! I was worried that I was going to be stuck in it forever...or I'd have to cut it off!!! After a few minutes of struggling with the darn thing, I was able to get out of it. Whew! My my....the things we do to try to look good!
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For a snack this afternoon I thought I'd try something new. Since I love pickled herring and olives, this sounded good!
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