Netherlands

Alex had a business trip to the Netherlands, so I joined him for one Saturday after he was done.  We left the kids at home for this day trip.  I had an early morning flight into Amsterdam.  I had to get up at 3:15am to be able to leave by 4:00am for a 6:00am flight.  Alex met me at the airport and we took a train to get (most of the way) to the Hague Netherlands Temple.  We had to take a bus and walk about a mile to actually get to the temple from the train.  It was interesting to participate in the temple work in Dutch.  I didn't understand any of it, but I was familiar with the work (so I had the English running through my mind as I was hearing it in Dutch).  

After the temple, we headed back to the airport, stored some of our stuff, and went into Amsterdam.  We did a boat tour through the canal, which was pretty cool.  By the evening, we walked through the city and had dinner.  We weren't very impressed with the city, mostly because of the stench in the air of marijuana or something in addition to cigarette smoke.  Also, there were tons of people - too crowded.  I have never seen so many bikes either!   

We had a late flight into Newcastle, which got in a little after 10:00pm, with a 30 minute drive, so it was late when we got back.  Long day, about a 20 hour day for me!  But we got to see another country and another temple (our 44th temple together).