Month: December 2014

Amsterdam–a Vibrant City of Canals, Bicycles and Beer

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Amsterdam — City of Canals and Bicycles

Libations and Victuals

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I spent a most enjoyable week in this bicycle-mad city where the canals may be one of the main attractions but when walking you have to keep your eyes sharply peeled for cyclists of all ages in some kind of a bloody hurry.

The Van Gogh Museum was a certain delight, as was finding the Louis Bar Café De Dam at Singel 43, which overlooks a busy canal.

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Here in the small environs of this bar I discovered the very fine locally brewed and unfiltered Brouwerij’T ij IPA, a 7 percent ABV stunner, with rich floral hop notes and citrus flavours stamping the palate with authority. Refreshing grapefruit comingles with juicy malt to keep the drinker returning for more. And I did.

082 (2)Label details here reprinted on a poster in another Amsterdam bar.

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Traveling America’s “Great Loop”

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http://www.greatloop.org/mod/ophoto/index.php?photoid=629. The link above leads you to the website for the extremely popular America's Great Loop Cruisers' Association. The Association is composed of a group of boaters fanatical about cruising America's east coast, "including the Atlantic and Gulf Intracoastal Waterways, the Great Lakes, the Canadian Heritage Canals, and the inland rivers of America's heartland." Eva [...]

“Colored” troops disembarking from a steamer returning from the war in Cuba

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http://youtu.be/9AOf30Fk0gU Rare footage recorded on Thomas Edison Moving Picture paper film in May 1898 at Tampa, Florida. This film records African-American troops walking down a steep plank as they disembark a troop steamer in May 1898 returning from fighting in Cuba during the short-lived Spanish American War. The plank was especially steep because the disembarkation [...]