Bruce & Mark's World Wide Web Page
. . . a journal of our world travels
In July '99, I met Bruce at a bar called
"Trikkx" in downtown St Paul, Minnesota. There was little chance to talk and get to know each other, but something struck me and I knew that this was a man I wanted to get to know. After a series of double-dates with our
close friends, we finally had our first "real" date, coincidentally, at the very same little bar.
Little did we know what extraordinary things would happen six months later. For it was then, during that date, I popped one simple question; "Say, in January of next year, would you like to go with me to Amsterdam?!" Bruce was stunned and he responded with a shy giggle. He touched the rim of his bottle of beer and murmured; "Well, I
don't know...I mean, we might not even know each other in January!! How could I plan for something like that?!"
I explained to Bruce that my former lover Roy lived there with his new beaux Omi, and that I had a standing invitation to visit anytime I wanted. All of this was explained to Bruce, for I had a standing invitation by Roy to come visit anytime I wanted to. Bruce was still nervous about it all, but by the time October came around, he was the proud owner of his first U.S. passport. We would fly to Amsterdam out of Minneapolis/St Paul Intl Airport and stay with Roy for eight days.
By December, Bruce's life was already changing
dramatically, especially with his work colleagues who continually offered
suggestions of different hotels, restaurants and museums to visit while he was
there. Bruce reminded them constantly that he'd be flying with a friend and
staying with friends who live there. That didn't stop the flood of suggestions
and the jealous comments from them (most notably the "Red Light District) nor did it intimidate Bruce in changing his mind. For, it was in November that we were sitting at the travel agency office where a very nice gay man named Rueben helped us with our schedule and tapped
our reservations into the computer.
Our flight took us through Chicago on a Boeing 747, whie we dozed and watched airplane movies crossing the Atlanta. Once arrived, Bruce made the magical suggestion, which explains the purpose of this website; "Why don't we keep a journal of this trip, Mark? I mean, each day we write something down of what we did the day before so that we don't forget
it in the future. Don't you think that would work?"
What a great idea! A journal was kept while we explored The Netherlands together and e-mailed to close friends. This is what makes the body of this website.
Returning back to the United States, Bruce and I started sorting and separating the pictures and scanning, ticket stubs, postcards and receipts of various restaurants and souvenir shops.
With help, encouragement and suggestions from our
friends Tsunami and RngMaster, Bruce and I would like to share with you our adventure to Amsterdam . And hope you find ther journey through our website as enjoyable and as informative as we did being there. Once you've completed learning about our adventure, we happily encourage you to drop us a line and
sign our guestbook.
With love and happiness to all,
Mark and Bruce.
| DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4 |
| DAY 5 | DAY 6 | DAY 7 | DAY 8 |