Amsterdam

[April 26-28]

This is a sad post because we have no exciting photos to share. Not that it wasn't an exciting town, we just did our own thing here.

A summary of our time in Amsterdam:

Accommodation: A sweet apartment big enough for 5 people. Expensive enough for 5 people too, but it was all we could find for the approaching Queen's Day. We spent a half hour just wandering around through the rooms in disbelief. The place also featured a neighbor cat who liked to wander in.

Food: Didn't eat one meal out (it was costly due to the fact our entire daily budget was spent on lodging). Had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the first time in since last year. Yum! Also made better things in our big kitchen like pasta, salads, Papa-style fry bread (no oven), and ate siroopwaffles, a highly addictive Dutch specialty.

Activities:

--Red light district, of course! Not what I really expected, especially since it was the middle of the afternoon. Lots of, ahem, "svelte" figures in the windows here who obviously enjoy the Dutch cheese as much as I do. Let's just say that I didn't have to worry about Dean shopping around.

--Rijks museum:
A great place for Dutch art and to learn some of the history of the country. But it was a little small and I was disappointed that "The Girl with the Pearl Earring" was not among Johannes Vermeer's works here. But you could buy a postcard of it in the shop. Big deal!

--Anne Frank House:
A neat place to see the house that we've all read about in middle school. I had a nice wave of claustrophobia here because in the actual living quarters we had to wait in line to move from room to room. It was packed with people. And the curators made it more authentic with darkened windows and what felt like a minimized air flow. I got over it with a backrub from Dean. They had a neat computer program at the end with a lot more information about her life.

--Canals:
Took a walk around the many bridges and canals here. Just like you've seen in the pictures.

--Concert:
Saw a wonderful lunch time concert in the Concertbauw. It was free so we were lucky to get one of the last seats. Four young artists played for an hour and it was great.

--Shopping:
Had to get our orange shirts for Queen's Day. Dean even bought some jeans and he looks very cute in them.

--Bicycles:
We were going to ride these since it seemed to be the best way to get around. But we ran out of time and motivation.