Miracles start to happen
as much energy
to your dreams
as you do to
your fears
The apartment we rented in Amsterdam turned out to be as good as depicted on the internet. This is not always the case. Our lovely apartment was right across the road from the Amstel Canal, which is actually a river and is wider than most canals. We were walking distance to many of the sights we liked including the Rijks Museum,
Rembrandt House and Rembrandt's Plein. I seemed to be getting some energy back and the peripheral neuropathy was bearable. Thank goodness for the joggers I bought the day of our departure from Sydney. They are light and soft and have been a godsend.Amsterdam is flat except for the little bridges over the canal so we managed to do quite a bit of walking. Very pleasant along the canals and amongst the old houses. We spent quite a bit of time just strolling along the canals. We were also lucky to find an organic food store close to the apartment. One of the ideas of having an apartment as opposed to a hotel is that we can be more picky about the food and so eat more healthily. Our landlady even brought us a freshly made vegetable juice.
I don't like museums much as I find them very tiring but we went to Rembrandt House which is quite
small and so easy for me to get around. It is a lovely old house from early 1600's and Rembrandt lived there from 1639 to 1658. It is a beautiful old house with interesting old features such as the beds. These were in cupboard like structures with doors and very small as people sat up to sleep as they thought they would die if they were lying down. There was an old hand water pump in the kitchen which reminded me of one we had in our kitchen in Holland when I was very young. The other really interesting part was the demonstration of paint making. Rembrandt only used mineral based paints as they would last longer than organic based paint. It required the stones to be ground and mixed with oil. Hard work, very interesting process and apparently mostly done by Rembrandts students. We also walked to Rembrandt's Plein a few times to have refreshments at one of the many cafes and enjoy the ambiance.
In the short time in Amsterdam we managed a little excursion to Bussum, where I was born. The landlords drove right to the street where I was born and dropped us off to give us time to look around and make our own way back to Amsterdam by train. I was standing in front of a house, number 11, thinking maybe it was the one I was born in. I rang my sister, Yvonne, in Australia and asked if she knew what the number was and it was in fact 11. Amazing. We had a bit of a look around the village and visited a couple of nice cafes to rest before catching the train back to the beautiful central railway station in Amsterdam.The highlight was catching up with family. My cousin, Joke, organised a family get together starting with some drinks and nibblies at the Amstel Hotel which is a beautiful old hotel on the Amstel and very close to our apartment. My cousin Carla was there who I had not seen for 38 years so that was very special. Her partner also came and I had not met him so that was nice too. My cousin Joke was there and her mother and it was delightful to see them. We then went on to an Indonesian restaurant near the Flower Market. The fabulous food and the wonderful company made for a great evening.
We also met up with another lovely cousin, Ingrid, and her partner, Evert. They came to our apartment and we looked at some photos then went to have dinner at the cafe in the corner, a few doors up from the apartment. It was wonderful to catch up again. They also took us to the airport when we were leaving to go to New York.
Our trip to Amsterdam was cut a bit short as we had to go back to the clinic in Germany so I could have some more antibody treatment. One treatment was an apoptosis (tumour cell death) inducer and the other treatment was a little more complex. It involved blood being sent to a Greek laboratory six weeks prior where they grow up the cancer cells and manipulate the genes which then somehow comes back as an infusion. Not fully clear on how it works but it is supposed to address some of the genetic problems the cancer cells have that stops them being destroyed by my immune system and treatments. For example the MDR (multiple drug resistance) gene in the cancer cells is over expressed by 65% which means that the cancer is very resistant to a lot of treatment options. If this can be improved I would obviously have a lot more treatment possibilities that are likely to be successful. So we flew to Stuttgart on the 12th (via Hamburg to get a cheap flight), caught a taxi to the clinic, had the treatment and left again at 5.45am the next morning to go back to Amsterdam. The next day we flew to New York.Loved the time in Amsterdam - beautiful city and wonderful family. I feel blessed and grateful.
New York was not really a city I was looking forward to visiting. It is a good stop to break the journey to my sisters place near Phoenix but the last two times we were there I was too sick to enjoythe city and spent most of my time in bed in hotels that were less than pleasant. It was warm when we arrived late evening and we had some packets of organic tomato soup which has been a staple for me when I have been unwell from treatment or the cancer itself. The apartment was very nice exceptfor the street noise although that didn't keep us awake. The next day was sunny and warm and I was feeling pretty good again. We caught a taxi to the big Apple store near Central Park, found a phone store and got US SIM cards for our phones to help keep our bills to a minimum. It was then a short walk to Central Park where we got a bicycle buggy into the park. We had a bit of a walk around, checked out some buskers and then had a leisurely lunch at the famous Boathouse by the lake. We then walked to Times Square and watched to passing parade of people before heading back to the apartment. We also managed to book some tickets to a Broadway show, Mama Mia.The next day I had developed a nasty head cold (no surprise after 5 flights in 3 days).
That put me in bed basically for the rest of the stay other than managing to get to the Broadway show. Glen went off to the United Nations, Rockefeller Center, Radio City and Ellis Island. I read several books and slept a lot. Unfortunately my health is such that a small cold can really affect me. Fortunately was getting much better by the time we left for Phoenix.Living and thriving
Linda
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