Summary

Vanity, Rijksmuseum Garden, Amsterdam
Originally uploaded by panopticon.

1. Most obnoxious tourists (in a large group): Americans. (But the Japanese are gaining.)

2. Most obnoxious tourists (in a small group): Japanese. (But the British are gaining.)

3. Best food I'd never tried before: Croquets at Van Dobbe in Amsterdam.

4. Biggest disappointment: Bruges. (Crowded, commercial, largely fake.)

5. Biggest pleasant surprise: Dutch windmills. (Really quite startlingly pretty.)

6. Biggest unpleasant surprise: Dutch wind. (Now understand popularity of windmills.)

7. Worst-behaved tourist children: French.

8. Worst-behaved tourist teenagers: German.

9. Hottest cops: Belgian. (Yowza.)

10. Favorite city: Amsterdam. (Would like to live there. Seriously.)

11. Least favorite city: Rotterdam.

12. Sublime moment: In the Mauritshuis in The Hague, face-to-face with Vermeer's "View of Delft" at last.

13. Scary moment: Our ship hitting a bridge on the way to Kampen.

14. Miracle moment: Arriving at entrance to Anne Frank House, notorious for long lines, at noon, and finding no line at all - then looking back over shoulder to see a line of 100 people had materialized behind me.

15. Weepy moment: First time a Dutch guy introduced me to his 'husband' and I realized it was true in every sense - including the legal one.

16. The Dutch and Belgians do it so much better than we do: fried potatoes. (And they don't talk about fat grams or carbs or any nonsense like that.)

17. Didn't buy any: Belgian lace.

18. Bought in quantity: Belgian chocolate.

19. Salivated over but did not buy: Delft porcelain flower holder.

20. Yarn shops visited: one (review forthcoming).