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Whew. It’s been a month for sure! We just got settled in to being home and then turned around and went to The Netherlands to visit family. And it was great. We were only there about 3 days, but we got a lot in. This was my first time there, and I loved it. It was a little more English/American than France but still retained its own vibe for sure. The trains were AMAZING. It was so convenient to have transportation that actually was very prompt, efficient and dependable. And side note: my husband left his phone on the train when we were on our way to the airport in Amsterdam. The train supervisor called me – I had marked his phone “lost” and put my phone number in as a contact – and he had found the phone and turned it in to the ticketing counter. We are still waiting for it. I was unable to get back to the train counter before the plane left to go home but my son sent it and it is en route. However, I was just amazed at the efficiency of these trains. And the bikes! SO AMAZING. The infrastructure is superb and bikes are king. It is so different from here in America where bikes are looked down upon. I loved it. We had a great time and visited Leiden, Amsterdam and Utrecht. Great food, shopping and scenery!

Here are some photos from Utrecht. Shot with the Nikon Z5ii and 24-70 2.8 (version one).

Here are some scenes from Amsterdam (yes, I know it’s a lot but there’s a lot to see there!). These are all shot with the iPhone 17 Pro; I was just not wanting to carry the camera all day:

And some from Utrecht, again with the Nikon Z5ii + 24-70 2.8:

Oh la la…so many photos. Well, I could have done separate posts, which I should have I guess, but here we are. Also some from a bike ride we did in Bussum (these are all iPhone 17 Pro):

All in all, I loved it in The Netherlands. I am so impressed with the infrastructure for bikes, and just all of it. Except the exceptionally steep stairs. Those I’ll have to get used to.