Amsterdam!

We took a train to Amsterdam this morning after letting ourselves sleep in a little. The train ride was about 3 hours. I listened to my music and watched the Belgian and Netherland countryside pass by. We finally pulled in to Amsterdam around 2 in the afternoon. We found our hotel and took a tram there. It's amazing how the trams and traffic almost dance together as they both are able to move down the road without really getting in the others' way.

We made it to our hotel and were pleasantly surprised. It's almost like a hostel. We have a small room with a double bed and it also has a sink in it. Our toilet and shower are downstairs and are shared. There's free breakfast every morning though. And everything is clean. They gave us like 3 towels each. And we have a window. The pillows are a little too hard, but overall we were pleasantly pleased. And there's free internet (although it is a bit slow, which is the reason for the delay in posts.)


We dropped off our stuff and jumped back on the tram to see more of the city. We had already ridden through the main part, so we went back and explored that. We found our ornament rather quick which is always nice. We walked through central Amsterdam completely before really doing anything.

For some reason I found this really funny as I pictured someone doing this


Apparently Doug has a store here. Sells cosmetics and the like


The Dam Square. Apparently there were two settlements and when they decided to link them, they built a dam. So now that's the name of the square, and there's a monument too.


The Palace




This is their mall. A MALL! Sheesh!


We ran into this little fun exhibit. It's called the Amsterdam Dungeon. It's a fun house that tells the "dark" side of Amsterdam's history. The slave trade, the Spanish Inquisition, the Plague, ghosts, etc. Cast members were dressed and in character as they told some of the history. It was really fun. It ended with the world's shortest roller coaster. You would have thought we were going on a ride like Space Mountain (we were hoping), but it just lifted the car up to a rail above, which led to a five foot ramp down, then we turned back and forth on a platform, then dropped down a maybe ten foot ramp. And that was the end of the ride. We were kinda bummed about that, but enjoyed the walk through. They had a fun mirror maze too that they made a closed circuit until they finally opened a door up so we could go to the next room. Clever.


We were hungry after that and it was already 6. Amsterdam isn't known for any specific foods (I looked it up). It's kind of like America where the foods that they have have been brought from other places. We went to an Italian restaurant. Doug got pizza and I got tortellini. It was really good.


We walked back to our hotel because our tram tickets had expired and it wasn't that far. Plus, you get a better feel for a place when you walk it. We loved all of the canals that consume the city. This was the best shot that we got since the sun was setting.


By the way, now that we're even farther north, the sun takes forever to set. It looks like 5 o'clock for 4 hours, and then twilight sticks around for another hour. It doesn't get really night time dark till about 10:30. So strange. Almost like time stands still.

We like Amsterdam so far, but we're not here for the things that people normally come for. We don't care to try pot, and the Heineken museum would be awesome if we drank. And neither of us are interested in the Red Light District either. The city itself is charming, it's just a bummer that it's known for so much crap that's in it.