Amsterdam

We drove several hours from Bruges to Amsterdam. I must embarrassingly admit that I though Amsterdam was in Denmark :( It's in the Netherlands. Reminder for me to study basic geography, let alone culture!

It's a legit city. I drove on a highway with 14 lanes across both sides of highway (7 each way). The speed limit was 100 kmph. Similar to the UK, everyone followed the speed limit, apparently those cameras really do work. The hotel staff told me that tickets are issued as low as 4 kmph over the limit - I'm a bit nervous!

Once you're in the city, the somewhat predictable bikes and mopeds take over. But wow are there bikes, there must be 100 bikes at every corner.

We started at the Anne Frank house. It was almost a 3 hour wait to get in. We knew it would be long, but not that long. Given that time, I made good friends with all the people around me whilst the girls wandered around shopping. At one point I did hear two locals go by in their bikes as say "I've never seen the wait so long".

We had a great experience in the house. I wondered how my daughters would perceive it. My oldest had been well prepared in school, so she learned a lot. Seeing the rooms and her diaries is quite impactful. The one message from her dad that stuck with me was "most parents don't know their kids". He was saying that because his perception was that Anne's diaries were much deeper than she ever portrayed in reality. I find it a slightly controversial and memorable statement. Oh, before I forget, there was an oustanding violin player entertaining the queue. And, when it started to rain, the staff brought out umbrellas, very nice.

We then walked through the recommended neighborhood known as Jordaan. Honestly didn't see much there. 

We then walked all around the water based roads. It doesn't take long to see Amsterdam is heavily influenced by marijuana. It was interesting to see that shops weren't parallel to the water as I expected, all shops were on the roads perpendicular to the water, it seemed counterintuitive and "off the beaten path". There's also a heavy music influence in Amsterdam, we liked that part.

We walked back to our car to be extremely disappointed. Someone had smashed our back windshield and stolen a suitcase! :( we called local parking garage security and the police. We figured out that 2 iPads were in that suitcase, so the guess is that the criminals used a signal detection device to find them. We're still in the middle of insurance conversations. Very disheartening, but we're healing. 

We drove back to Brussels for our flights. When we checked in for our flights, I said "we're flying to Brussels", whilst we were standing in Brussels. The lady tried not to laugh, so I said I must still be flustered about the bag. Given the story, she didn't charge us for any bags, so big props to EasyJet!

Belgium

We visited Belgium! Our first few nights were in Brussels. Our flights were on time, so we had a nice, unplanned first night to wander around. We stopped by Grand Place and the Mannekin Pis statute. Grand Place is basically the city centre gathering area. Imagine beautiful buildings around a cobblestone square area. There was a live jazz festival going on in the centre, so that was great timing. The aroma waffling around Brussels is unforgettable, I'd say the best smelling city in the world as far as I know :)

The next day we walked through 7 world class chocolate shops. The people were so nice and the chocolate was excellent. My oldest daughter and I loved Passion Chocolat. 

We then took the metro up to a place called Atomium. It's an extremely unique and unforgettable structure. It was built for the World Fair a long time ago, and soon thereafter it was decided to keep it. It basically looks like a huge atom, several hundred feet tall, with large spheres connected by "small" diagonal tubes. Once you're inside, after a long queue, each sphere tells a story about the structure. One sphere is dedicated to young students spending the night for science lessons. The views from the top are great!

The plan was to drive up to a town called Bruges, but we decided we had time to stop halfway in another beautiful town called Gent. I had never been there before. What a great place! It's about an hour from Brussels, and it has the same cute small town feel as Bruges. Except Gent has an amazing area of churches and castles, fantastic. Bikes and cable cars kept the town buzzing. There's a great bridge called St Michaels I think, that gives a view of 5 different awe inspiring structures.

We enjoy researching the names and ingredients of local popular dishes when we travel. Waterzooi is apparently popular in Belgium. I tried it in Gent and loved it, it's basically a thick chicken stew.

We drove up to Bruges from there. I was a bit worried that Bruges would lose its appeal after Gent, but it stood strong. Even driving through rush hour traffic, it was about an hour to get there.

First we walked to a place called Lake of Love. See, Bruges is one of those cities like Venice where there are a lot of waterways and bridges. Bruges was larger than I remembered it, which was a good thing. We took the boat tour around town and then learned that there are only one or two cash machines in the whole area. 

We went to the city centre and had lunch in the view of the tallest building, known as the bell tower. I carried my youngest daughter up 366 steps to the top, but who's counting :)

Unfortunately the Bruges trip ended a tiny bit sour as we shopped. One store owner fussed at my daughters because they were touching the merchandise. It caused a bit of a spat with her, so I guessed we learned local culture the hard way. Still looking forward to going back to the town someday!

National Training Lab (NTL) - Org Development Certificate

I don't normally mention work-related items here, but this one is a bit of a blend between work and play. I'm extremely fortunate to be part of a certification programme for Organisational Development (OD). 

OD is a very broad field with many definitions, one that I like is "improving organisational health and effectiveness through the application of behavioural sciences". It's very close to Knowledge Management. 

The programme takes place in Oxford and it has 6 modules. Each module is 4 days, except the first module is 5 days. The entire programme runs over 11 months, so the modules are separated by about a month or two.

I finished Module 1 a few weeks ago. Frankly, it's been some of the most transformational learning I've ever had. We learned many OD models, but mostly, we learned about ourselves and group dynamics through a process known as T Group (also known as Human Interaction Lab).

I'm not exactly sure how to describe a T group. Basically, you have 8 people in a room with a facilitator for 5 days. That's about it. Very little structure, very few rules. The idea is to learn about yourself and how your "use of self" impacts the group. They sometimes call it a deconstructive process, because you'll most likely need to check your assumptions and then re-build. Gestalt principles are recommended, which means you stay "in the moment", as opposed to discussing past or future. 

I'm still digesting all that I learned. It was such a great experience, I found a renewed version of myself and a tremendous growth in understanding group dynamics. 

Winnie the Pooh

My wife is a pretty big fan of Winnie the Pooh. Turns out that it was written in the UK. Not only that, it's only an hour or so from our house, and it's based on real life places.

So, we did our research and headed over to a town called Hartfield, where it all started. A good starting point is a tiny tea room called Pooh Corner. It's on the north end of town, all the action is south of it. 

After the shop, you can actually drive right to A A Milnes (the author) house. Well, the road is clearly marked private and it's very quiet, so we only turned on the road, then turned around. The signs scared us, as they probably should. I believe Mr Milne's wife still lives there. 

So then you can drive to Pooh Bridge and play Pooh Sticks. If you've read the books or watched the shows, wow, it really comes to life in a magical way.

You can then drive (or actually, it's all within a big hiking distance) to the 500 acre wood - as opposed to the hundred acre wood in the book. It's part of a forest called Ashdown Forest. You can park and walk around - the views are fantastic. It makes perfect sense how such great stories came from the area. There's even an area for Roo's sandy pit, and Eeyores Gloomy Place. They make perfect sense when you see them!

Gills Lap is another name for the area, it's kinda the circular hike around it all. We were surprised to see virtually no signage at all, it felt like we were 25 years before the commercialization of the area. There's one plaque in the forest that commemorates A A Milne and his graphic artist, but that's about it. I loved it!

Harry Potter World

My oldest daughter learned of Harry Potter over the past few months. She was instantly hooked. She read all the books and watched all the movies in less than 6 or 8 weeks (I think, give or take). 

We booked tickets to Harry Potter and drove a couple hours to get there. Actually I think it was less than 2 hours to get there. It was just her and I, so it made for great conversation time.

The place really is quite magical. I'm not much of a fan of the author or story, if I'm allowed to say that, but we still had a great time. Kids' eyes light up in there. 

You start in a wide open room where they play a movie (talking about the tour), then the walls lift and you're at one of the front doors from the real movies. This is the real sets for the movies, the actors day they "lived there" for 10 years.

You walk into the dinner hall, or whatever they call it :) again, a real set. Then you go into a museum with lots of real pieces, there are interactive parts (shoot your own movie, etc). Then you can drink butter beer, which was like a mix of lemonade and apple juice - or something - I liked it. You can also go outside and see Harry's real house. Oh, how can I forget, you get to walk the real train and station as well.

My daughter loved it, I think it's up there with minecon for her, so that's a win! I just enjoyed seeing her exited and all the great conversation:)

Picnic at tower bridge

We packed a picnic lunch and jumped on a train to London. The only plan we had was to walk south bank. 

We got off at Waterloo and walked to the Thames, headed to the east, toward Tower Bridge. The weather was perfect and it wasn't too crowded at all. We ran into a little festival with white tents at the bridge.

We decided to stop right there and setup our picnic. There's a patch of grass by the bridge and it was just outside the festival - perfect!

It was great family time, maybe even a highlight of our entire time here so far. We walked across the bridge after we ate, then back to Waterloo. Really nice.

Popular Phrases

"New" phrases stopped for awhile. But over just the past few weeks, I've learned a number of new ones. And even some that aren't appropriate to share! 

Jam tomorrow - promised benefits that never arrive. 

Rock up - cool way to say you're arriving somewhere, with a touch of "I'll bring the party". "We could rock up in togas and see what happens"

Blue peter. I think it's a tv show and I think it can somehow mean "in draft form". I'm not sure I understand this one :)

Ok here's another one that's popped up a couple times that isn't quite word for word but you'll get it. 

"Can't polish poop but you can roll it in glitter"

Starter for 10. This one has really popped up a lot lately. I almost wonder if I've missed it over the year. It basically means "ice breaker" or "quick way to get us started for a few minutes".

It certainly makes me wonder which American sayings would be completely foreign to others...

Cadbury World

We bought tickets well in advance and went back to Cadbury World. We enjoyed it, such a great spot to learn about chocolate and have some fun!

They have a self guided tour that includes some "rides" or 4d experiences. They have live chocolate demonstrations and the whole building is still a half working factory. The fresh chocolate was fantastic! At the very end, you can buy a ton of chocolate at volume rates, love it.