Weekend

What a great weekend... I got caught up on laundry and cleaning, did some shopping and also fit in a few sights. And I had plenty of time to lay around on the couch and veg out.

Friday night, I went to my new gym to workout. It really is true what they say about Europeans and them not wearing deodorant, just anti-perspirant. The gym is NOT a nice smelling place! I don't understand how people can't smell themselves. I ended up on a treadmill next to a guy who did not smell like roses and it was a little distracting. My gym is in a few old houses combined and is 7 floors tall.



Starting Friday night through Saturday afternoon, I did 5 loads of laundry... this is a big feat considering it takes 2 hours for each load to wash. I washed all the sheets in my apartment and ironed them. I found out when Meg left that they told her we had to iron the sheets or they might charge us! I scrubbed down the apartment while I was waiting for the loads to finish up. After that, I went shopping on Kalverstraat, a pedestrian only street with tons of stores (and tourists). There were lots of sales going on... my mom would have loved it! : ) I managed to only buy a few things, now that I've started thinking about how I'm going to get everything back home to Chicago with me.

On Sunday, I went to the Amstelkring Museum, the oldest museum in Amsterdam, which also happens to be right down the street from my apartment. It is three canal houses joined together with a hidden Catholic church in the attic. It was forbidden to celebrate mass in the 17th century during the Reformation, but as long as the Catholic churches weren't recognizable from the outside, it was tolerated.

The church and confessional:




Then, I went to the Oudekerk (Old Church), which is close by the Amstelkring. While I was in the church, there was an organ concert and then a flute concert.



There also was some contemporary art exhibition throughout the church. It was really strange. Here's a life-size pick-up sticks game... and some really weird "bodies" laying in middle of the walkway. Not what you would expect to see in this really old church.


Since it was so sunny and warm (in the 50's), I decided to keep walking around the city. Just a random canal pic...



I came to the Saint Francis Xavier (Krijtberg) church, which is part of the St. Nicholas parish that includes 5 different churches around the city. The church was built in place of another secret church. The church was really beautiful inside, but I doubt you can see that from these pictures since I had to take them with no flash.




I couldn't believe this when I saw it... I was just in London at the Camden Market last weekend and now it's burnt down. I guess they still don't know what caused the fire and no one was killed. But it took 100 firefighters over 3 hours to get it under control.