Amsterdam, the Netherlands

After a LATE night at the O2, we got about 2-3 hours of sleep before hopping on the National Express bus up to Luton airport.  I'm not even kidding... I hit up 3 of London's airports on this trip! 

But somehow we made it onto the flight to Amsterdam.  Some of us are not amused (perhaps this is because I was the only one who had had a cocktail at this point... come on, ladies, join me!  It will all hurt less!)

It was raining when we got off the train, and we had to walk about a kilometer and a half to our hotel, lugging luggage behind us (thank goodness for my new Osprey backpack!)  Across the street from Amsterdam Centraal station is the Basilica of St. Nicholas from the late 1800s.

We were already excited to see bicycles and canals!

Thankfully, our room was ready and this was our view!!!  Eeeek, look at those super cool green shutters on that building! 

EVERYONE has a bicycle in Amsterdam.  I mean EVERYONE.  

Amsterdam is obviously known for the bicycles, the canals AND the "coffee shops."  And before you even ask, no... we were not patrons of any of these shops!

We DID, however, patronize this scrumptious little establishment called Cafe Stevens near the Nieuwmarkt.  I liked the lighting on this guy having a beer while reading the paper.

We had THE BEST sandwich that I've ever had.  It was a ham (like a Parma ham), mozzarella, basil, lettuce, pesto and tomato sandwich.  It was out of this world.  We all loved it so much, we actually went back the next day for another one!

After lunch we started our stroll toward the Anne Frank house, which was on the other end of the city.  These two were telling stories about Donna (Jen's mom, Kristin's mother-in-law) and laughing so hard!  Next time, Donna is coming on the trip!

The canals were so beautiful, but the wind was blowing and it was REALLY chilly. 

Even though it was snowing when I left Germany, it wasn't snowing when we were in Amsterdam!

I mean... when you see a giant, wooden Dutch shoe, you need to hop in and take a picture!

The Royal Palace of Amsterdam sits in Dam Square, and is made of sandstone which has clearly darkened with time.  It was originally the town hall and was opened in 1655, but it became a royal palace (one of three they have here) in 1806.  The Dutch royal family doesn't live here, but important state functions are held here.

As we got closer to the Anne Frank house, we approached the Westerkerk and we saw this guy in yellow (on the left) was having a PARTY at his little makeshift memorial.  I swear it was an interpretive dance or something - he was INTO IT!

The Westerkerk is one of the most famous (and the largest) churches in Amsterdam.  The painter Rembrandt is buried inside (somewhere, but he was a poor man when he died so they aren't exactly sure where.)  It's also mentioned several times in the Diary of Anne Frank because the bell tower could be seen and the bells could be heard from the attic skylight.

There is even a little statue of Anne Frank outside of the Westerkerk.

I didn't know that you weren't supposed to take pictures in the Anne Frank House, but I took this as we were climbing the very narrow and very steep steps toward the attic.  I literally don't remember anything about this house from when I was here last in 1993, except that I knew you were able to see her actual first diary.  This time, the whole place seemed dimmer and darker and more quiet. You can still see her original diary, but it's no longer in the attic - it's been moved to the last room of the tour in the new section of the museum.  Not having a whole lot of memories from that trip just reinforces why I keep this blog -- so the four of us will have some written record of our trips!

There's a new entrance around the corner at the Anne Frank House, and you purchase your tickets for a specific 15 minute entrance window.  Apparently only a couple of months ago, this new, revamped Anne Frank House was introduced.  It included an audio guide, where you had to hold your audio phone to a button on the wall in order to get information about that particular room.

The front of the building housed the offices of Otto Frank's business (Opekta, which was a Basel-based spice and pectin company).  It was two stories of space plus an attic, which you cannot go into.  They use mirrors for you to see what the attic currently looks like, and you can see the sky light that Anne and Peter used to enjoy.

It's hard to move on to fun after you experience the seriousness of the Anne Frank House, but life goes on.  We walked back toward Dam Square and did a little window shopping on our way.

We grabbed some dinner along the way, and then the girls wanted to run around the Red Light District at night.  You can't take pictures of the ladies in the windows, but they were certainly advertising it and you'll just have to take my word for it!  As we were walking, we were discussing the windows they stood in, and how bland they were without any flare or decorations.  Suddenly, Kristin blurts out, "I wonder if they can decorate their cubicles?" 

Once we left the Red Light District, we moseyed toward back to our hotel.  Formerly known as St. Anthony's Gate in the Nieuwmarkt, Der Waag is now a restaurant in a building built in 1488.  It's lit on the inside by over 300 candles.

I did it!  20,000 steps!  This is only the second time I've ever done this (Jerusalem was the other time.)  This one might be more impressive though since I did it on about 2.5 hours of sleep.

We were so good and patient.  We purchased some delicious pastries from one of the many bakeries (and by that I mean a real bakery.  Not a place that will get you baked) and saved them for our next day breakfast.  We were rewarded with a yummy breakfast which included (for me) an espresso made by Jen, and a strawberry topped waffle!

On our way out for the day, I grabbed a quick shot of one of my favorite things... decorative manhole covers!

On our trek, we also passed a school, with it's extremely urban playground. 

I just realized you totally can't tell from this picture, but the building on the left is seriously leaning.  Many of the buildings were built on wooden piles which have since shifted in the watery mud that supports the city of Amsterdam.  It's 11 meters down to any type of soil of any substance and solidity.

I'm really unsure of the architecture here.  First.  Those windows.  Second, the uneven black and red brick lines.  Third, the football-esque door.

The Cafe de Sluyswacht (the crooked building from the previous picture) is from 1695 and used to be a lockguard house and a home for the sluice master.

I don't know what is going on here but it's hideous and I love it!

And off we go, walking up the Nieuwe Hoogstraat to do a little shopping.

I told the girls all about the Stolpersteines around Europe and I finally found one!  This one is for Isaak Stopper, born 1899, arrested August 1943, Deported 1943.  Sent to Westerbork.  Murdered March 31, 1944 in Auschwitz.  So sad.  

I found a picture of Isaak Stopper, so we can all see his face.  This must never happen again.

Despite it being the dead of winter, Amsterdam always displays at least a few flowers around town.

This door!!!  It's so crooked!  Todd would probably hurt himself on this door.

Everywhere we went in Amsterdam, there were discarded Christmas trees on the side of the roads.  We must have seen at least a half a dozen!

Sometimes, ya just gotta jump on an extended bicycle with several large wheels of cheese!

We decided to do a one hour boat tour of Amsterdam because it was SO COLD with the wind blowing.  This was much preferable.

We rode past the Basilica of St. Nicholas again as we headed out on the tour.

A former shipping house, this building is now the Grand Hotel Amrath Amsterdam.

The Nemo Science Museum was designed to look like a ship anchored in the harbor, but it kind of came out looking like a shark (or maybe a whale?)  It's got a great rooftop, which would probably be awesome in better weather.

The entire one hour ride, we played the, "That's going to be MY houseboat" game. 

Once you leave the main harbor, you go under the Prins Hendrikkade where they have a little stop light with some painted on grass.

Let's talk about the different gables you will find all around Amsterdam. You can see these buildings all have a hook for raising and lowering larger objects which wouldn't fit in the narrow stairwells of this building (see: Baltimore, Maryland.)  Above you can see examples of neck gables (the last two on the right) and one that's more triangular in shape (second one in.)

The Montelbaanstoren Tower is definitely leaning to the right here. They think it was built in the early 1500s as a part of the wall that surrounded the city at the time.  When the wall was moved further out in 1591, this no longer held the function of a defense tower.

Looking down the Amstel River.  Don't let that blue sky fool ya!  It was chilly!

Neck gables, step gables and on the right, even some bell gables. 

Another wildly crooked building (this one with a neck gable.)  Look at that doorway!  The whole building is leaning to (our) right.  See how it appears to be leaning away from the building next to it?

THIS building is leaning forward!  But guess what?  This was done on purpose!  It was done so that both of the corners of this building were exposed.  This was likely done so that when they pulled the heavy objects up on the pulley to bring them to the top floor, they didn't careen into the windows.

This pretty building had little tulips on each corner of the building.  I want to stay here and enjoy that balcony!

The type of gable shown is indicative of the period of time it was built in and sometimes, the type of business it housed.  For example, the Tuit gable with it's shuttered windows were often warehouses instead of personal homes.  The shutters were placed to keep sunlight out that might destroy a valuable good, such as spices.

There are only around 100 step gables left in the city of Amsterdam because they fell out of fashion at one point, and wealthy homeowners changed the facade of their home or business.  This one is crazy.  Look at how it's leaning - the first level right above the windows slopes to (our) left.  The door looks crooked.  You can even see metal bracket securing it to the building next to it.

I know you were DESPERATELY waiting for my second toilet selfie.  We stopped into Dwaze Zaken for a beautiful cup of cappuccino (aaaaand maybe a beer for me) after our boat tour of Amsterdam, and this is what the bathroom looked like!  Mirrors and tiles and all kinds of fun!

The boat tour ends where it begins:  Right across the canal from Amsterdam Centraal, which was looking super pretty in the late afternoon light.  It was built in the 1880s and over 8,000 wooden piles were used to support it.

We kept seeing this sign (mostly in flag form) all over Amsterdam, and of course, knowing the history of the city, we were curious.  Naturally, one assumes it has something to do with the Red Light District, but it doesn't.  It's actually symbolic of the three virtues of the city in the form of three St. Andrew's crosses: Valiant, Steadfast, Compassionate.

We did a little shopping and then strolled back through Dam Square on our way to grab some cocktails.

I spotted this little car that I thought Grant would love - the Canta LX.  It's actually a car for disabled drivers!  A wheelchair can enter the car from the ramp in the back.  Pretty cool!

There was a guy in Dam Square feeding some pigeons (GROSS, but you know Grant would have loved this) and Jen said, "I wanna get a closer look!"  So she did.

This decision had dire consequences.  The man started throwing bird seed on her and the birds started going crazy.  At this point, Kristin and I, who were each filming this scene from a horror movie both started to high tail it in the opposite direction!

Phew.  Jen was miraculously saved from the birds and that meant it was happy hour at Cafe Zwart.

We sat at this outdoor cafe and people watched (which we all agreed was one of our favorite things to do) for some length of time.  This is the view looking down the Damstraat.

The Royal Palace was looking particularly lovely in the evening sunset.  This was just to our right and we could enjoy this view from the cafe.

After happy hour, we had to go into this souvenir shop in Dam Square STRICTLY for the cows and grass that were on the ceiling.

And I couldn't let Kristin (photobomber that she is) and Jen be the only ones who got to ride in the Dutch wooden shoe!

Alas, it was time to head back to the hotel so we could get our bags and head out to the Amsterdam airport and fly back to London for the night.  This time, we flew into Heathrow, and if you catch the weather just right, you can get some SERIOUSLY amazing views of London. Here we are flying over the Tower of London and Tower Bridge.  The Shard (see last year's London trip) is on the left near the visible train tracks.

Then we flew over the heart of London.  Here, you can see the Mall, Piccadilly Circus, Parliament, Big Ben and even the London Eye (in red, on the right.)

London, you are so beautiful at night.  Can you find Buckingham Palace here?  St. James Park and Hyde Park are the two large unlit parcels of land.

We spent a restful night at a hotel near Heathrow and then the girls had to get up early to head back to Heathrow to fly back to the States.  So sad.  Don't worry. I drowned my sorrows in my favorite adult beverage before my afternoon flight to Hamburg.

As we taxied away on my Eurowings flight to Hamburg, we got to pass one of the last remaining Concorde aircrafts!

Cheers, Heathrow airport!  Goodbye airplanes, big and small!

We had a pretty smooth and uneventful flight, and I almost always look out the window (which my kids hate, because I never let them sit there.)  Imagine my surprise when this airplane came gliding over ours at close range!

The end of this trip did not end as well as the beginning did.  First... when I got off the plane at Hamburg and went through security to head to my Nuremberg flight, I got a serious frisk up by the female security agent. I'm talking she touched between my boobs and went down the front of my pants!  Phew!  She could have at least bought me a drink first!  Then the passport guy smashed a big old stamp right over another one of my stamps!  Anyone who collects passport stamps knows how valuable these are in Europe, since they are hardly ever given.  Since I went from a Schengen country to a non-Schengen country to a Schengen country to a non-Schengen country and back to a Schengen country... I somehow got 6 stamps!  But then of course, Eurowings lost my bag.  With Croco and my makeup in it.  But it was returned to me a couple of days later, so not all was lost. Literally.

Until next time, Amsterdam!  See ya next spring!