My Little Brother Does Amsterdam Part IV

Hi boys and girls! It's time once again for another visit with Patrick in Amsterdam, a mostly visual journey through the eyes of my little brother as he explores Europe for the first time.

First, let me preface this weeks adventures by saying that though the information from Patrick is great-it tends to be somewhat vague and haphazard at times. So if I mispronounce a name(good thing I looked up Eindhoven-as it's not "Edenhooven") or the facts seems a little bit askew... well it's all directly quoted from his e-mails. Also, downloading and sorting all the pictures is quite an arduous task. I was initially cleaning up and labeling the pictures, but it just got to be too much, so you get them the way he sent them and they more than likely won't be presented here in any proper order. Just think of it as a random visual journey or travelogue.

This week Patrick has been busy going to see live music, meeting up with friends, journeying to a small town to see "Dutch Design Week" and just general daily exploration around the city of Amsterdam.

Patrick's landlord Theo, along with his wife Bianca, took him to the small town of Eindhoven for the Design Week. Seemed he had a nice time and from looking at the pictures-saw some cool stuff.

This was also a week for music! I had suggested some shows going on in Amsterdam while he's there and this week he attended 3 of those shows. First up was John Hiatt at the Theater Carre', which was a show he picked on his own-as he is a big fan(me too), and he enjoyed it. Next was a British band I recommended-'if it's a cheap ticket and you're bored...' Hard-Fi at Melkweg. He said the show was "OK", but he loved the club and met a couple British lads who later took him to a pub to watch the England rugby game against South Africa...had a "great" night out. Finally, Nick Lowe at Paradiso - a show I highly recommended seeing. He said the theater/club was three floors and he enjoyed being able to move about each flooring getting different perspectives on the show. "Nick played for 2 hours and his 12 minute version of Peace, Love and Understanding brought tears to my eyes" Nick Lowe NEVER disappoints in concert. My other musical recommendation to him was to go see, without hesitation-Arcade Fire! That will be coming up next time, can't wait to hear his thoughts about their live show.

Also this week Patrick met up with a friend of his from here, Kevin. They met up with some other "friend-Brian" and went bike riding in the countryside..."got there by ferry....on an island....rode by a windmill....." and so on. Enjoy.