Amsterdam

We had a wonderful time in Amsterdam! We both really liked the city, the area, the people, etc. We flew there Sunday morning and got a train from the airport down to Leiden to visit my ex-coworker Saj who is living and working there now.

Us in front of a windmill and canal in Leiden

We walked around Leiden for a while and then took a bus out to a beach resort town called Katwijk. It was somewhat surprising to find beautiful sandy beaches in the Netherlands. With so much of the country below sea level I think we both expected the dikes to be holding the sea back. It was a lovely sunny day and we met up with Saj's brother and his wife and son for lunch.

The group out to lunch

Testing the water on the beach

Later that evening we caught a train from Leiden up to Amsterdam and walked to our apartment. We shared an apartment with our friends Jeremy and Liz who we met there Sunday night and we were all very big fans of the apartment that we rented. It had a double bedroom on either end and a big living space in the middle. And it was right along Prinsengracht, one of the main canals surrounding the city.
Monday we first went and saw Anne Frank's house which was just a block and a half from where we were staying. It was very sobering to see where the family hid for over two years only to be sent to concentration camps right at the end of the war. Her father is the only one who lived through the concentration camp and he published her diary. It seems even more real when all of the pictures of the area from that time look essentially the same as present day. The city does not seem to have changed a great deal.

Anne Frank's house

In the afternoon we rented bikes and rode around a couple of walking tours from one of our guidebooks. We saw Vondelpark and the Museumplein and then went downtown and rode through the red light district and a little bit of east Amsterdam. Everyone cycles in the city so the cycle paths are very nice and of course there are no hills. The only difficulty in biking is the amount of bike traffic! It was a good way to see the city though.

Taking a biking break in Vondelpark

We went out for Indonesian food for dinner since apparently that is considered almost as Dutch as Dutch food--and we didn't really want to eat traditional Dutch food.
Tuesday we took the train out of the city to a small town called Zaanse Schans. It has been set up to be like an old fashioned town, with a clog factory and a cheese factory and several small museums. They also had working windmills that milled things like mustard, dyes for paint, etc. It was interesting because though the town was folky and touristy people did actually live in all of the houses and had cows and sheep and goats grazing in their fields. Very much a mix of a fake town and a real town. It was a great chance for some Christmas shopping though--no shortage of souvenier shops.

Countryside by Zaanse Schans

Being dutch in a big wooden shoe

We rested for a bit late afternoon and then Saj came up from Leiden and met us in Amsterdam for dinner. We had pancakes for dinner-that was as traditional as we were willing to get- and then hung out at a bar for the rest of the evening.

Pancakes for dinner

Wednesday was our last day in the city but we unfortunately forgot to take our camera with us. We packed up our apartment and then went and took in the Rijksmuseum. Though it's closed for renovation they have 400 of their best works on display in an annex. It was really well done for a temporary display and they have a large collection of Rembrandt's works which were amazing. We moved Liz and Jeremy to their new guesthouse (they have a couple more days in the city) and then walked around the canals for the afternoon. Late afternoon we went on a boat tour of the canals. We went with this small non-profit company called St. Nicolaas boat tours. They are a boat club that fix up old boats and give boat tours on a donation basis so they can be non-profit. Boating is a good way to get around with all of the canals through the city. After the boat tour we had a little to eat and had to say goodbye to Amsterdam and head back to the airport. A short 35 minute flight and back to real life.
More pictures to the right on the side bar.
Italy in only 2 weeks though...:-)