The End In Amsterdam

Andrew and I got to Amsterdam October 4. We found our apartment, got some groceries and settled in.

October 5 we decided to walk around the main canals, our favourite part of Amsterdam.

We ended up at our favourite canal and managed to catch yet another swerving paddle boat, with 3 tourists bumping into the walls of the canal and getting stuck in the corner. Look at the bridge, people were trying to teach them to steer and taking pictures of them getting stuck.

October 6, it rained all day. We were like little kids looking out the window waiting for it to stop raining so that we could go out and play. We managed to get some errands done, but that was about it.

October 7 we decided to see some things we had never seen in Amsterdam before, so we walked to the 'I amsterdam' sign in the Museumplein.

Next we decided to walk around a 'shopping' area of Amsterdam, another place we had never been. I almost died. There were so many people on these couple of streets and of course the streets seemed to go on FOREVER. I finally convinced Andrew to leave the area, without having gone in many stores.

 

We spent the rest of the day/evening walking around the canals. We were lucky to be sitting by our favourite canal when it lit up.

Since we didn't enjoy doing anything outside our normal element of canal walking the day before, October 8 we went back to wandering the canals. We found a nice spot closer to our apartment in the 'Old West'. It was a giant intersection of 5 canals. Unfortunately we found it late so it was pretty quiet with the exception of a few REALLY large boats.

Night picture of our favourite canal.

We planned on doing a few day trips from Amsterdam in order to see some more Dutch cities, so October 9 we went to Utrecht. Since half of Holland is at or below sea level even the farm land have canals running through them. Here is a picture from the train, This is very typical of a farmers field, sometimes the canals even have boats in them along the field.

When we got off the train at Utrecht we walked right into a HUGE mall (there was no avoiding it). If that was unpleasant enough we finally got out in the streets and the city was crazy busy (probably because it was a Saturday), there were so many people everywhere! One of the reasons Utrecht is deemed to be really special is because the canal is not at the street level and instead there are wharfs beside the canals. The wharfs are now home to a bunch of restaurants.

Andrew and I didn't enjoy Utrecht very much because the canals were not as usable as they are in Amsterdam. There was no place to hang out. After about 45 minutes of being in Utrecht we came to the conclusion that we were idiots for leaving Amsterdam, so we got back on the train and came back. We didn't enjoy Utrecht very much but we learned a good lesson: Don't leave Amsterdam, so we decided to cut out our remaining day trips we had planned.

Once we arrived in Amsterdam we were greeted by boats of pirates.

These people had live music on board, were chanting, singing, 'Arrr'ing', weaving in between other boats and stealing items from other pirate boats.

October 10, our last Sunday here, we decided to go to Vondelpark and take sneaky pictures of bikes. Here are a few of our favourites.

A bike with a box in the front with a couple kids in it. This is how newborns are commonly transported because their carseats can fit in the big boxes.

A family on bikes, both Mom and Dad have a child on their bike.

A bucket of 4 kids.

Unfortunately we missed the 'jackpot' shot, which was a Dad and his 3 daughters on a bike. There were 2 seats in the back of the bike and then one more in the very front. The girls were between ages 7-14... I don't know how he did it. We missed this picture because of 'Merlin the Homeless Magician'. Merlin, which is how Andrew refers to him, came to talk to us with his clan of homeless drummers. After a few minutes of him guessing where we were from he offered to perform a 'real' marriage ceremony, because according to him we were not actually married. At this point I decided it was best to leave before he put some homeless spell on us. Unfortunately Andrew got hung up in an awkward discussion with one of the homeless drummers who was teaching Andrew about how hurricanes got started (offshore drilling in Antarctica... of course!).

We left after this and went walking around the canals for the rest of the day.

October 11 we stopped at the big boat intersection we found earlier. When we sat down at our 'regular' bench I noticed something different. Look at the first picture taken October 10 and then the next picture taken October 11. Can you spot the item that has changed colours (you may have to click and enlarge the pictures to spot the difference)?

The answer: the cross and 2 balls hanging from the pole protruding from the canal changed from white to red, overnight. When we came here on October 11 I was telling Andrew that the cross and balls looked differently. I kept insisting that they were white the day before, but Andrew couldn't remember, until he took out the camera to look at the pictures we had taken the day before.

 Here is a boat about to come to the big boat intersection, they lifted the bridge for him.

October 12 we decided to have a throw back and do things we used to do in the summer. So we left the apartment fairly early and went canal walking. The only problem is that it is now the weather has changed and it is pretty cold out, too cold to spend the entire day outside. So we rushed but still managed to make it back to our favourite places and having a picnic lunch before going back to the apartment to warm up.

Today October 13 we leave for Gatwick. We are sad to be leaving and sad that our trip has finally come to an end but excited to come home.

Amsterdam Round 2

We loved Amsterdam so much the first time we had to come back. We arrived September 5 and after settling in we went for a walk in the large city park and around some canals.

September 6 we went to the floating flower market. Then we went to the flea market and found some really cool bridges.

We made it back to our two favourite spots in Amsterdam: our little canal and a square on top of a bridge. Andrew and I got to witness boat mayhem at our canal. There was almost a collision as a paddle boat realized it had to turn around to make way for a large canal cruiser. Water traffic is interesting.

September 7 we went to the harbour.

Then we went wandering around the canals and eventually we made it to our canal again.

We had a great time in Amsterdam and we are planning on coming back one more time before we leave Europe. Next stop Hamburg, Germany.

Love Love Love Amsterdam!

We had an awesome time in Amsterdam and we are already talking about when we should come back.

One of the first things we noticed is all the bikes. Everyone rides their bikes everywhere, packing everything onto them from groceries to babies (sometimes more than one baby). Below is a picture of a 3 storey bike parkade outside Centraal Station.

Our first day (June 24) Andrew and I stopped into one of Amsterdams' famous coffee shops. It must be a popular spot because there were pictures of both Brad Pitt and George Clooney behind the bar.

Next we went on a canal cruise to learn about Amsterdam.

June 25, we went walking around Amsterdam. It is the most gorgeous city we have ever seen. There are so many beautiful canals (over 100km).

Andrew and I have taken up people watching. We spent some time sitting on this bench watching people go about their daily activities. This is actually a large bridge over a canal. The buildings everywhere are really beautiful.

We also spent part of two afternoons at this bench looking onto a canal watching boat traffic.

This is the canal we were looking onto (our spot was on the left part of the canal where it narrows). Here, we saw a boat collide into the wall, a boat traffic jam and, what made me laugh so hard I cried, 3 girls trying to get down the canal on a paddleboat. They couldn't figure out the steering, so they went swerving from one side of the canal to the other hitting the walls. At one point they thought they had it figured out, and started to clap and cheer, only to find themselves spinning into a wall seconds later. We almost died.

Here is a picture of some of the boat traffic on a bigger canal.

Today we went to the Anne Frank House. It was really interesting to see the house and the memorial. 

We also found the best grocery store of all times called Albert Heijn. We found the best cheese there and baguettes that had just come out of the oven and were still hot. 

Tomorrow we are off to Brussels. We are going to really miss Amsterdam, but we will be back... someday.

F the French!

If it wasn't already official we DETEST the French. The are so miserable. To be clear, we entered France with an open mind and disbelief of the stereotypes. But they made sure that they earnestly reinforced those stereotypes. Anyways, we knew that today wasn't going to be a great day because we were traveling on the train (95% of which was French run, and therefore unreliable) from 6:30am (from Nice) to 5pm (to Amsterdam). At least, that was how it was supposed to go... Our first train (Nice to Paris) ended up being 45 minutes late, which made us miss all our later trains. This was strange to us as the train left on time, and is alleged to be the fastest train in the world... So, Andrew and I waited in line in Paris to sort out tickets for other trains (as our schedule was now shot). The smug fellow that was helping us was rude, true to his culture, and since I have had enough of rude French people I was really rude to him (and I'm glad I was, because he deserved it). So the count goes as follows for French people that Amy has yelled at: 3 (breakfast lady in Paris hostel, receptionist in Nice that kept turning off our AC, and ticket salesperson in Paris). People Andrew has yelled at: 0. I blame this only on the fact that Andrew didn't really communicate with these people since he doesn't speak French. He mostly just stood back and felt awkward... something I normally do.

Anyways, we got the trains sorted out, but it turned out to be a really long day (we didn't get in until 10:30pm). The Dutch are such a breath of fresh air. As we got to Amsterdam there was a really nice and helpful train employee who told us which train to take to get to the station near our hotel. Then, as we got off the train and walked outside the train station looking like lost/stupid tourists, a very nice guy rolls up on his bicycle, takes out his earphones, smiles at us, and asks if we need any help, and then proceeds to point out our hotel... this would NEVER happen in France. Next, the receptionist at the hotel pulls out a map of the city and begins to point out all of the things we should see and do, marking them off and answering all our questions with a friendliness we are now wholly unfamiliar with after a month in France. To make things even better the hotel and room is amazing! We have free, wired internet in our room finally, a fridge and a safe, and, most importantly, a king sized bed.

We are really excited to explore Amsterdam tomorrow... after some much needed sleep!