Amsterdam

This past year has been a really good year for me when it comes to
traveling...which I love to do! (in case you haven't noticed or heard
me say already) Last summer we spent 2 weeks in Hawaii...in March we
headed to Ireland and we just took a short trip to Amsterdam!
Nick was sent to Bologna, Italy...home of the delicious bolognese
sauce and Amsterdam, Netherlands for two client meetings. Since the
end of his trip was the Thursday before july 4th, I convinced him to
extend his stay so I could meet him for the 4 day weekend! It took a
little arm twisting, but a week out, I booked my flight!
I had no time to plan or research our stay in Amsterdam so I grabbed a
guide book in the airport and read, highlighted, and made notes the
whole way there. My travels have taught me that if you're equipped
with a map, a decent guidebook and an idea of the currency and
language, you'll be good to go.

First Heineken in Rembrandtplein (Rembrandt Square) behind our hotel

typical Amsterdam square...Rembrandtplein

We had a great time!! Amsterdam is such a clean, beautiful, and
efficient city!  Holland is really flat and there is water everywhere,
so there is a canal every other street in Amsterdam and about 1,300 bridges.
They use a lot of this water for energy, but the canals are also lined
with house boats.  Also bc the land is so flat, bikes are a way of
life for the people who live there and everyone who visits. EVERYONE
bikes and its the main mode of transportation....as a tourist you have
to go with the flow and use hand signals. Nick stopped short in front
of me once, so I stopped short and the guy behind me cursed at me...as
we were 2 inches from a bus moving along next to us. Not so smooth for
the Americans.

lovely Amsterdam canal

Houseboats

bikes, bikes, everywhere.

biking like the locals

So we covered everything we wanted to do in Amsterdam....drank
Heinekens and saw the brewery, toured the Anne Frank house which was
so moving and interesting (The Frank family actually had a big space with multiple
rooms but the blacked out curtains and silent living for such a long
period of time made it seem tourtureous), toured the Van Gogh museum
which chronicled his life in paintings (so glad I did the audio tour
and heard the stories of his troubled life), toured the Rijksmuseum
to see tons of Rembrandt paintings.

Dutch frites!  they serve them with mayo

Heineken Brewery

Heineken green gift shop

Anne Frank house - the 4th building from the right.  The other 3 buildings are part of the museum.

relaxing on the Museumplein with Rijksmuseum behind me

We also really enjoyed the scenery by renting bikes for a day, having
a leisurely brunch in the famous market area, Neiuwmarket and hung out
on some of the lawns and parks.  We had some different
foods...Indonesian one night, Brazilian steakhouse another, and modern
Dutch (very local and fresh) the last night.  One afternoon we sat out
in one of the plazas and enjoyed some beers...relaxing and people
watching.  We also took an awesome boat tour through the canals...it
was more of a fun tour than an educational one...we brought beers and
were joined by an undergrad study abroad group.

European brunch

Neiuwmarket

Hemelse Modder dinner

Holland is known for it's tulips...this is an open air flower market on a houseboat

tulip bulb market

boat tour!

boat tour and our driver

We were sure to walk through the red light district which I found
weird, much smaller than expected and of course skeezy and visit some
coffee shops.  Coffee shops are literally like a cafe with food,
smoothies, milkshakes, coffee, soda and then a list of marijuana you
can buy like a beer or wine list...a different experience for sure.
Amsterdam seems to be changing though - rumor has it that they are
moving the red light district farther out, closing some coffee shops
and making it only legal for Dutch citizens to buy marijuana. So its
likely they will see a huge decline in tourism and therefore their
economy!

one of the coffee shops...they aren't all neon-ish.

Overall it was a great trip and we spent the perfect amount of time
there. The only negative is that I wish it had been warmer! The locals
told us it was unseasonably cool.  I don't think I'd return, but if
you're making a trip to Europe its a great place to visit.

we love to travel!



Relaxed and enjoying traveling