Often when I attend a conference in an interesting place not only do I arrive a few days early, and leave a few days late, but I pick and choose conference sessions to attend, and spend time each day wandering around. Many days, evenings are spent at museum, shopping, and wandering around. This conference was definitely different.

To start with the sessions were covering such interesting topics with so many amazing presenters, that missing a session wasn’t even an option. I spent the two days I was here before the conference began wandering around, getting a feel for small parts of the city. I discovered that just about everything was closed (except for restaurants, grocery stores, and souvenir shops) on Sundays and after 6 PM Monday-Saturday. Does this mean that everyone who lives and works in the city can only shop on Saturday?

On Wednesday I opted to head back to the hotel after the last session, do some shopping on the way, work for a couple of hours, and have an early evening. I was on a shopping mission. My amazing grandson is very much into soccer and I promised to find soccer cards and maybe something else while I was here. Thanks to search engines, and Patrick, a fellow attendee at the conference, I located a shop where I found (what I hope is) the perfect soccer fan gifts.

On the way, I passed a dancing bear – every city should have one.

The streets and alleys were really charming, but on this trip, I was careful about how many photos I was taking – I only had my phone and its storage, not my camera with the huge sd card. What was I thinking when I packed. My camera always goes with me, but strangely for this trip, I took it out of my computer bag. Definitely not a smart move.

Wednesday’s dinner was quiet, on my own – pizza and a salad, with a lovely pinot grigio to accompany.

Well, it is what it is – the photos are clear, but not as well framed as I would have liked.

Thursday I am off to the Jewish Museum, and then a special dinner with conference attendees. Friday morning I have a 7 AM flight which means leaving the hotel at 3:30 AM (ugh – another sleepless night), a quick plane change in Amsterdam and then on to New York where I will arrive around 1 PM.