Netherlands, in three parts.

Recently I spent 18 days in the Netherlands.  The main reason for going there was the 24th (?) World Canals Conference, being held during the 3rd week of September in the city of Groningen.  The primary sponsors were three provinces:  Groningen, Friesland, and Drenthe.  These provinces are in the northeast of Netherlands.  Two of them border Germany:  Groningen and Drenthe.  And two of them border the North Sea:   Friesland and Groningen. 

With three friends from the C & O Canal Association, a boat was rented for a 4-5 day cruise on the canals and lakes of Friesland.  For the conference itself and a day or two before it, we rented two flats in the old center of Groningen for 6 of us.  And following the conference, the six of us rented an apartment in Amsterdam for another 4 days just to go sightseeing.  During the end of the conference I got sick, dragged myself through Amsterdam, which really was unexpectedly a very interesting place, and came home to spend lot of time in bed, sick, feverish, and coughing.  Now that I'm back (physically, mentally, and health-wise), I'm going to organize and select photos and post some stuff about the Netherlands trip.  Probably in three parts, one for each of the three parts of my visit.

So this post is sort of warming up to the idea.