Amsterdam - Day 1

The Netherlands sign

I know this seems like a busy month, and it is. But, I have a personal record to meet. Before May, I had been to 5 countries - The US, Canada, Mexico, Australia, and England. After Amsterdam, I will have doubled that number in a month. I have added Germany, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and The Netherlands (which I will call Holland, since it's shorter). Awesome, no?

So strange

So, Amsterdam. Amsterdam is about 5 hours away from us driving. We had made the trip to Luxembourg no problem, so we figured another couple of hours would be OK. It was. We got up super early on Saturday and drove up. We had a little adventure with finding gas, because our cheap gas deal is only with Essos in Germany. We needed to find the Esso closest to the Holland border, so we asked the GPS. It took us unerringly to an abandoned one. Luckily, there was another not too far away, so we went there instead. After that, it was on to Amsterdam. The country looks much the same as Germany, until you see the buildings. There are some odd buildings in Holland.

I had looked online and had seen that the IAmsterdam card looked like the way we wanted to go. It included  admission to the things we wanted to do for cheaper than had we paid at the door, and it included all public transportation within the city. I saw online that we could get it at a gas station not far from our hotel, so we drove there first. Unfortunately, they were out of the 48 hour card, and it would have cost more to buy the 72 hour card than it was worth to us. But, they were also sold at the main train station, so we just checked into our hotel and then hopped the tram to the main train station. It didn't cost much to get there.

We stayed at the Novotel just outside town. It was really nice and right at the end of the #4 tram, so it was super easy to get into town. It also included a really nice breakfast buffet in the price.

The station from the canal

The main train station in Amsterdam is beautiful, as you can see in the picture. After we got our cards, we were starving, so we checked our cards for discounts, and we found the closest restaurant to the station. It was a very nice little Greek place with a huge kids meal. Then, decided to go for a canal cruise, since it was sunny, and it was supposed to rain later in the weekend, so we decided to take advantage of the nice weather. I'm glad we did, becasue it poured on Sunday. It was a nice cruise through some of the Amsterdam canals. It wasn't spectacular, but it was free with our cards. Actually, my only complaint is that I wish the boat had been more open, so I could have gotten better pictures.

Bike parking at the station

The first thing you notice about Amsterdam is the bikes. Bikes are everywhere. They have their own lanes (and not like the bike lanes in the US, I mean real lanes) and they will run you over if you aren't careful.  They have an entire parking structure at the train station, as you see on the left. That's only half of it, since it has ramps on the other side, too, just like a regular parking structure. Then, you notice the canal boats. They can be homes, businesses, and even museums. Some are beautiful, and some are just odd.

A houseboat "yard"

Another  houseboat "yard"

By the time the canal cruise was done, it was late afternoon. Unfortunately, the museums in Amsterdam close early, so we didn't make it to any museums on Saturday. But, unlike Germany, they are open on Sunday, so it wasn't too much of a tragedy. We wandered a lot on Saturday. We wanted to see the if the Red Light District was something we could just see a tiny bit. Since we have Em with us, we didn't want to go strolling all the way in, but we did want to see a bit of it. One of my apps had some skinniest street that it said was in the heart of the RLD, so we thought if we headed towards that, we would find the RLD. No. So, I looked at another app, which said it was on the other side of town. According to the map, it wasn't too far, so we turned around. No again. Let me say, the maps we had of Amsterdam are deceiving. If you look and think that something is within a reasonable walking distance, get on a tram, because it isn't. One thing to know as you wander Amsterdam is that a coffeeHOUSE sells coffee, while a coffeeSHOP sells drugs.

But, we did head that way. We wanted to stop at the Old Church, which is the oldest church in Amsterdam. We giggled at the Old Church Coffeeshop and walked around the church. On the other side, we saw a little stand up urinal right by the street. Max thought it would be fun to pee in the street, so he stopped to use it. It isn't such that you can see any more than the feet of the guy using it, so it's not like you have to watch people pee. Em and I stood to the side to wait for him, and a window opened behind us. Prostitute! We found the edge of the RLD! As we continued around the other side of the church (the church is round), we saw that the whole alley on the north side of the church is lined with windows. We must have gotten there at a cheap time of day, though, because all of the ladies looked to be in their 50s, and they were all rather rubenesque. Em was quite cool about the whole thing. Her comment was that she would have thought they would have had nicer underwear. I thought the same thing. There are strictly no pictures allowed of the windows, so you will just have to go and see them yourself.

We went over to Van Gogh, but the line was horrible, and it was beginning to sprinkle, so we decided to save it for Sunday. I was quite disappointed that we hadn't done much but run around in circles that day, and I was close to crying. But then we saw a souvenier shop and went it. We found perfect little ceramic Dutch shoes that could be sent to our friends back in MD. They were small and inexpensive, but still really nice. We also found several other small gifts for others, and a perfect little Delft Santa ornament for my Grandma, whose birthday was coming up. After that, I was satisfied with the day.

Emma says - the houseboat yards were fun. I liked the one with the pipe with the mannequin legs sticking out of it. I loved the souvenir shop, I got a Hello Kitty Amsterdam shirt.