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.

Back To The Netherlands At Last! Groningen

Three countries in 6 hours, only in Europe. September 3, we flew from Girona, Spain to Bremen, Germany and then took a train from Bremen to Groningen, Netherlands.

Once we arrived in Groningen we couldn't figure out why we ever left the Netherlands in the first place and why we were going to be leaving again in less than a week. Everyone we come into contact with here, whether it be on the elevator or at a grocery store, are so polite and happy.

In Groningen people ride their bikes everywhere and although it doesn't have a ton of canals it rivals Amsterdam for beauty. Our visit began with wandering into city center and trying to figure out the bicycle rules... again, with little luck. We sat in a beautiful empty square for a while watching bikes, cars and people go by.

September 4, we started off the day with complimentary breakfast. Breakfast was so good, they had chocolate filled croissants, my favourite. After a delicious breakfast we walked back into city center to wander again. This time, when we came across the square that we were sitting in the night before, it was buzzing!

We walked around city center for a while. Then we found ourselves sitting at the square again watching bikes, cars and people go whizzing by again. We took this opportunity to 'paparazzi' some of our favourite types of people on bikes:

A family out running an errand (see the baby seat in the front),

A grandmother and grandchild.

We are going to 'paparazzi' some more of our favourite people on bikes in Amsterdam, which is our next stop.

Venice

August 7 we went walking around Venice. We avoided the really crowded spots and found some nice quiet places, which is hard to do in the middle of the summer in Venice.

August 8 we decided that instead of spending/wasting money on a gondola ride (we heard them asking 80 euros for a 50 minute ride) we would buy ferry transportation for the day. So we got to see the city from the canals. From our pictures it looks like we could have been on a gondola.

We went to the island of Lido because we heard that it had a nice beach. We walked along the shore for an hour or so before heading back to the ferry terminal and continuing with our water tour of Venice.

More of Venice.

That night we decided that we were really going to splurge and we went out for dinner (ok, take-away). We haven't been out for a meal in a while. We found a spot along the Grand Canal and ate pizza.

Once it got dark we got on another ferry for a tour of Venice at night.

We got off the ferry at Piazza San Marco and walked around the square listening to several different bands play.

We decided to walk back to the hotel from the Piazza. We found that in Venice following a map can be really challenging, and instead, heading in the general direction of the place we wanted to go worked better (sometimes). So, on our way back to our hotel instead of looking at the map to figure out how to get home we just started walking. After taking turn after turn and crossing bridge after bridge Andrew and I realized that neither of us were paying attention and instead we had been following a Spanish family. We both thought that we were headed in the right direction to get back to our hotel, so we continued to follow the Spanish family. Following this family was challenging at times: sometimes they would start walking really slowly and they would force us to pass them at which point Andrew would have to stop and take some pictures so that they would pass us. The really awkward moment came when the family made a wrong turn and had to turn around (practically into us). Since we didn't know what we were doing or where we were we thought it would be best to continue to follow them, so we turned around too. I'm so glad that they didn't catch on that we were following them, because that would have been really awkward. We made it back to our hotel... ok the family led us back to our hotel and we missed them the next night trying to find our way back home.

August 8 we took it easy. We were slightly sun burnt from the day before and it was really hot out again. We spent the day wandering around the city.

Our time in Venice was excellent. Now we are in Verona and it is a beautiful city, which made leaving Venice a little easier.

So So Vienna & Beginning of Venice

We were in Vienna for a couple of days (Aug 2-5). Not much to say about it; it was pretty boring. Really beautiful city, but not a whole lot to do there, unless you like museums.

The Hapsburg's city palace.

The Parliament building.

I'm not sure if you know this about us, but we are huge thrill seekers (haha). The sign reads: 'Due to storm entire park area DANGEROUS!'. Still not sure why the park was dangerous, but man were we careful...

August 4 we went to a palace in Vienna and the grounds were gorgeous.

 
We went through a maze and only ran into dead ends a few times.

I wasn't feeling great so we headed back to the hotel early. We figure we spent only 6 hours out of the hotel in Vienna because I was sick (or just a baby). The time in the hotel was spent watching 'The Wire'.

Yesterday, August 5, we spent the afternoon watching 'Inception'. It was a great movie and our favourite part of Vienna (is that bad?). We caught a night train last night and it was deluxe compared to the train from Poland to Prague (had AC, no bugs, got breakfast delivered to us in bed). When we arrived in Venice this morning at 8:30 we were well rested and ready for the day. We immediately fell in love with Venice. It is amazing. Here are a few pictures from this morning.

The Grand Canal.

Us.

We spent a few minutes in St. Mark's Square and although it is very pretty, there were too many people, so we left as quickly as we could.

The rest of the morning and afternoon was spent wandering the streets/canals. We didn't get too lost... yet. We really needed a huge change in scenery after so much Germany & Austria, and this definitely hit the spot.  We have the next 4 nights in Venice and are looking forward to it.

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.