Amsterdam was the third stop on my last European trip in 2007. We had just come back from 10 days in Cyprus, so this was a real change of pace. I loved everything about this place...from the tiny cobblestone streets to the tiny cars, the coffeeshops and cafes, the beautiful canal houses and houseboats, the friendly people, the museums and the food.
I am going to try putting the captions under the pictures for this post....just to see how I feel about it.
Banks Mansion Hotel on the Singel Canal...our hotel for a week.
Our first walk around the city looking at all the lovely canals.
Oh, a Heineken cafe sign....we better stop and have one or two.
May I have another, please?
The next morning we headed out to the flower market. Lots of flowers and lots of bulbs. My friend was propositioned by one of the sellers.
Flowers were most definitely not the only thing that was being sold at the flower market!
These little suckers were dangerous.
We wandered the canals for hours after the flower market. I loved this tiny Mercedes firetruck The Dutch firemen were not bad either!
Tiny truck.
Some of the canal houses were simply charming.
Me at the end of a long day of walking. I was pooped! That is the Singel canal right by our hotel, thankfully.
The next day we headed out for a bit of culture to the Rijksmuseum area. That is me in between the "a" and "m" of the I amsterdam sign.
Rijksmuseum
Walking around the Jordaan District.
This is not a very good photo, but it is the only one I took of the front of the Anne Frank House. This was an extremely emotional visit for me, as I'm sure it is for many people.
After partaking of a bit of culture, we headed to our first coffeeshop...The Bulldog!
This was us coming out of the coffeeshop a couple of hours later. That was a fun experience, especially going downstairs to order off a menu. Something everyone should experience at least once, preferably more.
Luckily, after the coffeeshop experience, we had reservations at this Indonesian restaurant near our hotel for dinner.
Look at ALL that food! Yum! We had the rijstafel (this word was furnished by my really good Indonesian friend, Laura), which translates into rice table.
Walking to Red Light District.
After our big dinner, we headed back out to the streets...this time to the infamous Red Light District. I must admit that I was fascinated with this place. Where else can you find store fronts with red lights and girls showing their wares and coffeeshops and cafes, all surrounding the oldest church in Amsterdam, Oude Kerk.
Me in front of the original Bulldog Coffeeshop...the first coffeeshop in Amsterdam!
On our last full day, we headed out on a tour of the Dutch countryside. After a wonderful bus and boat ride, we arrived at this lovely little fishing village. We stopped for lunch and we had the fresh Herring, which I was a little nervous about, but it turned out to be delicious!
We wandered through this charming little fishing village on our way to a wooden shoe factory and cheese factory!
There I am :).
There we are :).
Of course, what blog post of Holland would be complete without a photo of windmills. They really are beautiful and so amazingly Dutch!
Here we are at the cheese factory. Lots of Edam and Gouda and Almaar cheeses. Yummy! I think we tried them all.
And, finally, our last stop was the wooden shoe factory. I was tempted to buy a pair, but man oh man, were they uncomfortable! I settled for a tiny decorative pair.
Just wanted to end this post with a completely dorky moment of me posing in a wooden shoe. Amsterdam, and Holland in general, were really lovely places with friendly people and beautiful scenery...a place I hope to visit again!
