Amsterdam

We decided to use my four day weekend to drive up to Amsterdam. We dropped off Bailey at the vet's house (she does boarding out of her home as well) and headed north with our trusty TomTom guiding us to the Golden Tulip hotel in Amsterdam. We made surprisingly good time on the drive considering the driving snow / sleet storm that we were going through. You haven't lived until you've been driving through the Netherlands in a blinding snow storm on a five lane highway packed with trucks and trying to read roadsigns in Flemish. Fun times!

Once we passed Antwerp and crossed into the Netherlands, the snow let up a little and we stopped for lunch at a rest stop. This place of course had a gas station and the obligatory McDonalds, but there was also a small but well stocked market. We were able to get fresh sandwiches and fries, but they also had meats, fish, fruit, and anything else you would find at a normal market. We took our sandwiches and sat in a very nice restaurant complete with a fountain and books to read while you ate. Much nicer that any rest area I've seen back home.

The rest of the drive had off and on snow, but less traffic. True to Holland stereotypes, we saw all sorts of windmills, big and small. There were the old wooden ones that the Dutch have been using for hundreds of years, and then we saw the 300 ft tall modern ones outside the Electrabel power company. We pulled into the hotel parking lot about 3 1/2 hours after we left Mons, not bad considering the stop for lunch and poor weather conditions.

The hotel was very nice, we had a good sized room with our own bathroom. Everything was newly renovated and the hotel was right on a canal. Our room didn't have a canal view, but we had a few drinks and a meal in the restaurant where we were able to see the water. It was extremely expensive, but we were very happy with it.

Our first destination was the Van Gogh museum where they have what else, but Van Gogh artwork. The museum itself was quite nice, but the collection was a little disappointing. They didn't have several of our favorites...I don't know if they were on loan or if they were in another museum. I tried to take a few pictures, but was only able to get one before a 4 foot tall picture Nazi came over and yelled at me. I later watched him yell at another guy for taking photographs of the city out the window. I think he was just drunk on power. Anyway, the museum was nice, but as we have both seen the Louvre and Smithsonian, we were not blown away by it.

Next, we walked across the street to the Amsterdam Diamond Museum. The city is well known for its diamonds, so we figured this would be a very impressive display of some amazing jewelery. Boy were we wrong...there were literally more diamonds on Elizabeth's finger than in the whole Amsterdam Diamond Museum! We paid 12 Euro to watch a 10 minute movie on how diamonds form, and then walk through and look at replicas of famous jewelery. Replicas! Not one single diamond in the whole diamond museum!

We were pretty sick of museums at this point, so we decided to just walk the rest of the way to the Central Station in the heart of Amsterdam. This is where the city really shined. The architecture is amazing, and the row homes right on the canals are just beautiful. We stumbled upon the famous Amsterdam flower market, which is a bunch of flowers shops all built on floating platforms in the canal. Despite it being winter, they still had some of the most amazing tulips you have ever seen. The other fascinating thing here was the abundance of boat homes. We later read that there are about 10,000 people living on boats that they just parked in the canals. Some of them looked like they were ready to sink into the water at any moment, while others looked like luxurious yachts.

We made our way to the main plaza which was very similar to that of any other European city, except instead of the standard living statues, they had a guy dressed as Darth Vader. Strange. We passed several very nice shopping areas, as well as countless cafes and restaurants. Overall, Amsterdam is a very nice city to just walk around in.

After that, we called it a night. We had drinks and a dinner in our hotel, which as I mentioned had a very nice canal view. The next day we bought tickets for the "hop on - hop off" canal tours. Basically it was a glass top boat that took you on a tour of the city through the canals. It also functioned as a water taxi, since we could get off at any stop and get back on later. It was quite convenient, and the tour was very relaxing and informative. However, I think if we go back to Amsterdam when it's warmer we would do as the locals do and rent a bike. Bikes are far more popular than cars in the city, probably because the city is so well setup for it. There are bike lanes on every street, including special stop lights for bike traffic. As you can see from the pictures, the bikes are tied up to every bridge, fence, and lamp post in the city. It's quite a sight!

And what trip to Amsterdam would be complete without a walk through the Red Light District? I don't know how to describe this area other than to say that everything you've heard about it is true. There are countless "coffee shops" in which people simply drink beer and smoke marijuana. The smell is so strong that you can get high just walking by these places. Every store on the street sells drug paraphernalia, pornography, or a combination of both. There are strip clubs, topless bars, even live sex shows. Then there are the "window girls". Down every side street are just tiny rooms with a door and a full sized window. Here, prostitutes stand half naked in the window luring guys in to their tiny hotel room. It was one of the strangest (and possibly saddest) things I have ever seen.

Finally, we finished up our Amsterdam trip with lunch and a beer at the Heineken Hoek...which apparently translates to Heineken Corner. It was a nice little cafe with a great view of one of the shopping squares. Although we've really started to enjoy the Belgian beer, we figured we couldn't leave Amsterdam without having a Heineken or two.

Overall, it was a great trip despite the weather. Amsterdam is a beautiful city with amazing architecture. Elizabeth and I are just about ready to purchase one of the homes on a canal there. The other great part about the city is that unlike most other European cities, everyone speaks fluent English and are proud to do so. It really makes getting around the city easy.

It's still both odd and exciting to be in one country in the morning and home in another country hours later. The best part of getting home was picking up our muddy and tuckered out Bailey who spent the weekend playing with seven other doggies. Living abroad isn't all fun and games though, today is back to reality...laundry, cleaning, dog washing, and avoiding the sometimes blizzard like conditions outside.