Amsterdam

Another friend of ours, Michael, arrived just a few days after Tesch left us. He flew in on a Thursday and we started his European adventure with a bang. After Jon finished work on Friday we headed to the airport to catch a flight to Amsterdam! We got into Amsterdam and took the train and tram and then walked a few blocks to our hotel. We got settled in, but it was late and we were hungry so we headed out in search of a good restaurant for dinner. We found that this really wasn’t a hard task as most of the food we tried in Amsterdam was quite good! At dinner we saw something on the menu called Bitterballen (a local favorite) and we had to try it. Our server described them as a “fried meatball”…this was not the case, at least not the way you and I think of a meatball. The best way for me to describe them is this…fried beef stroganoff without the noodles. If you ever come across it, you should try it and decide for yourself. It definitely was not the most amazing thing I’ve ever tasted, but not bad either…let’s say interesting:) We were all glad we tried it and plus it was fun to say! Our hotel was in a great location right on one of the many canals around Amsterdam and surrounded by little restaurants and pubs.

Saturday morning we stopped at a little cafe for breakfast and fueled up for our 2.5 hour walking tour of Amsterdam. On our tour we visited The Oude Kerk or The Old Church (The oldest parish church in the city dating back to 1306. Another interesting thing to note is that is it right in the heart of The Red Light District. Apparently, the church made money from this, as people would come to confession and give the church money after visiting the Red Light District.), The Red Light District, The Jodenbuurt or The Jewish Quarter, The Royal Palace (in the center of the city), The Jordaan District (a very high end part of town), The Dutch East India Company, The Begijnhof Convent, Masterpieces of Dutch Art, the Widest Bridge in the city and Narrowest Bridge in the city. After the walking tour we were in the need of a rest and some sustenance. We had a great leisurely lunch at a wonderful little outdoor café. Michael tried one of the best sandwiches he’d ever had! We spent the next hour or so wandering around the various shops and picking out some souvenirs from our trip. Next, we took a canal cruise tour in the afternoon. Traveling through the cities many canals was a great way to see the city.

It was early evening by this point and we headed back to our hotel to freshen up and pick a spot for dinner. We decided on a highly recommended restaurant in little neighborhood just north of our hotel. The restaurant was perfect! It was in a cute little neighborhood, was filled with locals and had great food and drink. We really enjoyed ourselves. After dinner we headed to the downtown area to see the Red Light District at full tilt. It was lively and full of people taking in the atmosphere. After a quick walk-a-bout we headed to a local watering hole closer to our hotel and had an excellent time just hanging out together.

Sunday morning we started our day off with a tour of the Anne Frank House. This was unbelievable! Such an amazing piece of history. I have to say reading her diary as a kid it seemed like it happened such a long time ago. As an adult with a better perspective on time, it amazes me what happened just a “short time” ago. We really enjoyed refreshing our knowledge and being reminded of the strength of the human spirit.

Amsterdam is known for having great pancakes and we wanted to see for ourselves what the fuss was all about and went in search of a place for breakfast. We settled into what looked like a small little diner with good food…it was not…well, diner it was and the food may have been good had it not been ice cold. We waited for such a long time to get the food in the first place; we feared a complaint might just delay us longer. Well, you can’t have it good all the time and with that we got over it and moved on to our next stop on the tour of Amsterdam…The Van Gough museum. This museum was HUGE and filled with original works of Van Gough. We had so much fun looking at all the work, picking our favorites and recognizing ones we’ve seen before. Before we headed home, we stopped at a café for a toasted cheese sandwich that our guide recommended the day before. It was a great way to finish off our tour of Amsterdam.