Amsterdam was fun. It's wasn't too hard to wrangle the kids without Mike. Although it would have been infinitely better if he was there! I had the help some good friends of ours, Rachel and Jeremy. We got there about 5 on Friday evening, so we basically just settled in to the apartment. I set out with our kids to find something to eat and/or the grocery store. It was supposed to be right down the street, but I couldn't find it, nor could I find anything to eat. I ended up walking by this restaurant that had a picture of a few things out front--one of which was a pizza. So I took the kids in (the stroller wouldn't fit, so it stayed outside) and ordered a pizza--with cheese only.
What I got was NOT a pizza but it was still really good. We were calling it "Turkish Pizza" because I'm pretty sure the people and the place was Turkish and it seemed to make sense. It was basically just kind of a flat baguette with cheese in the middle. It also came with 3 dipping sauces--the only one of which I tried tasted like Ranch dressing. It was yummy, but for some reason the kids really didn't eat it. On the way back to the apartment, I found the grocery store--directly across from the apartment. I went in and got some fruit and milk and sliced cheese. Then we went back to the apartment to eat. Jeremy got back from parking the car and Molls went to see the Van Gogh museum because it's open late on Friday nights. I stayed with the kids and slept.
Sat. morning, Rachel made a bakery run and came back with chocolate croissants, regular croissants and a loaf of bread. We had bread, fruit and cheese and then headed to the outdoor market nearby. The market is behind the boys in this pic.
There was a big fresh fish stand and they were also frying up fish and other seafood that you could buy. I wanted some, but I didn't think it would keep until lunch time. Then we got on a tram and went downtown to walk around.
This is a clock tower. Rachel read us some history about it, but the only part I remember is that it use to be pretty much the edge of the city. Everything past that point was farms and countryside. Not anymore...
A church.
We saw the floating flower market, which was a lot less cool than it sounds. It's just stalls that are in the water as opposed to on the land. Looking from this angle is really the only way you know it's floating. They are all connected. I did buy tulip bulbs to put in my yard, but not here.
Then we ate, and napped. After our nap, we went to Oosterpark to play. Here is Ezra riding a toy with a Dutch girl. He fits right in with that blonde hair.
For supper we had some Dutch-Thai food. There was a Thai place just down the street from the apartment. Jeremy loves Thai, but it was a little spicy for this girl. After the kids went down, the grown ups sat on the balcony for a while. Although I had to make several trips back in to tell Jonas to lay down in the pack n play and tuck Ezra in again. The apartments were in a big square and all the balconies looked over into the same courtyard.
At one apartment across the way, someone was sitting on the balcony at a candlelit table and inside the apartment there was a guy playing the piano and a lady with a guitar that was singing. We enjoyed that for a while. The picture isn't the best quality. It was the best we could in the dark and on the other side of the courtyard. But hopefully you get the idea.
Sun, we took a tram to the Central Station and started a walking tour (guided by Rachel and Rick Steves book) through downtown.
This is a musuem now, but it used to be an orphanage. Can you tell it's a little slanted? It's not the camera angle. Many of the buildings are a little crooked in Amsterdam due to the settling of the boggy earth. Most of the land was previously underwater until they used the windmills to pump it out.
I think this is the Dutch Stock Exhange building.
A theater.
Nieuwe Kerk. "New Church"--where Dutch royalty is inaugurated and married since 1851
. It was built in around 1400 and survived 2 major Amsterdam fires, but then burned down during a plumbing accident in 1645. We didn't get to go in because we were there a little before it opened and didn't want to wait around.
The Royal Palace. Almost everything in Amsterdam is built on wooden stilts that were driven into the ground. The royal palace (which was originally the Town Hall) is built on over 13,000. There was a stage set up for a fesitval they were having.
This is the Central Station in Amsterdam.
The Church of St. Nicholas. One of the oldest churches.
We did not go cruise the infamous Red Light district. I wanted to see it just because it's one of the things Amsterdam is most famous for, but I just thought it would be awkward for us to be pushing 2 double strollers full of kids in that kind of area--just not really appropriate I guess. So we didn't go down there at all. But I really even forgot about it being there. It wasn't like Vegas where there's people handing out flyers of naked women or lots of signs or anything. If I didn't already know that it was there, it would have never occurred to me that an area like that was lurking in the city.
This was one of my favorite parts of the walking tour. The Begijnhof neighborhood was at the inner most ring of the canals and was completely surrounded by water. Only women lived there and it was kind of like a convent in that they devoted themselves to chastity and attended mass regularly. But they lived in these separate houses so I think they had a lot more independence. It was founded during the Middle Ages and is at medieval street level--1 meter below the rest of the old city center.
This is one of Amsterdam's two restored wooden houses. It is probably the oldest, dating back to 1470.
This church was orginally the chapel for the Begijnhof, but in 1578 when Amsterdam
adopted Calvinism the church closed. In 1607 the church was given to English speaking Protestants and became the English Reformed Church where services in English have been held ever since. They were having service when we were there Sunday morning, but again there was the issue of the children...
Some of the pilgrims that came over on the Mayflower in 1620 attended this church in Amsterdam for a few years.
After our tour (which ended pretty much at the floating flower market again),we got some amazing sandwiches at this shop (I got smoked chicken and avocado--yum) and everybody went back to the apartment for naps. Then, we did another walking tour of the Jordaan neighborhood which was nice.
This coffee shop won a 2008 Cannabis Cup award for their strain of marijuana (or so the tour book said). We didn't try it out.
This is the skinniest house in Amsterdam. The Dutch used to have to pay house taxes depending on the amount of frontage you had. This is really just an entry way that opens into a much larger house behind it.
It was basically a quiet neighborhood just outside of the hustle and bustle. We attempted to eat at the Italian place in the Rick Steve's book, but once we got seated, it took FOREVER to order our food. Once it came out, we were not impressed. Disappointed is more accurate.
Then we walked back to the Central Station only to find out that there were no trams running in our direction because of the outdoor concert and festivitess. So we had to take a round about way back to the apartment.
Monday, we packed everything back up and headed home.
Amsterdam is such a bicycle culture. When crossing the street, you had to watch out for cars, trams, and bicycles. There were bike lanes on the sides of every road. It was serious! Near the Central Station, there is a bicycle parking garage that will fit 2500 bikes. It was packed.
For Mike. We didn't eat here, but if Mike had been with us, probably would have. :)
If you are looking at this blog, you may also want to check out the 2 below this one (Jonas' first haircut and Sept. pics). I posted all of them today! 
