Ahh....Amsterdam!!!

You know about a year ago I wasn't all that excited about ever going to Amsterdam because of its reputation, but in all honesty I am really glad that we have been there. My overall impression of the city is one of amazement that there can be so much beauty in architecture and the canals and an amazement of how sex and drugs create an awkward ambiance in parts of the city. Yes, we did make our way through the tip of the Red Light District and stopped in front of various drug paraphernalia stores, but I didn't let it disrupt the awe I had for everything else I was seeing.

Here are some cool things we saw in Amsterdam that I haven't really seen anywhere else in the world:

#1 - Bicycles, bicycles and millions of more bicycles and these guys are compounding loads of them for what looks like a lack of registration I guess.

There were bicycles with large wooden baskets in the front, bicycles with baskets in the back, people riding doubles on bikes and some with just one passing by. There are no rules for bicyclists in Amsterdam so pedestrians beware. In the first half hour walking about my mom had a life shattering scare with a bicycle sneaking up behind her and not knowing where to turn as he zoomed up behind her. Luckily she wasn't hit but we made a rule from that point on that if you hear a bell just stop in your tracks until the bike is past.

How cool is this...a bike ramp right out of the front door of this house!!!

#2 Architecture

Our first stop was the Dam Square and The Royal Palace, one of the few beautiful buildings in the square, was completely covered up in scaffolding and plastic...now nice!

But in all honesty, I LOVED the buildings, the colors, the windows, the bridges, the canals, the brick roads, loved it all. It was all so different to anything we had seen in a European city and it was everywhere and got better with every corner we turned down. We walked a lot of the city and it truly is the best way (other than a boat in the canals) to see Amsterdam.

We walked by Anne Frank's house. I had started reading her published diary before we left but didn't get to finish it. The best way to see the hidden annex where she and her family lived for over two years is to order your tickets online, otherwise you have to wait in a 2 hour queue to get tickets. Disadvantage to that is that you have to set a specific time to come which we couldn't nail down before going. I got to at least see the building and picture in my mind this little girl running down the very same streets I was now walking on.

We walked through an area called the Jordaan which used to be all warehouses but was converted into a high end housing area. It was a look into more how the average Amsterdamian may live, but we saw a few surprises. How about this giant water faucet coming out the side of a building???

The white house is Klein Trippenhuis (aka “Mr. Trip’s Coachman’s House), but ordinarily known as Kloveniersburgwal 26. At only 2.4 meters or 7 3/4 feet wide this white fronted house has an interesting story behind it. Across the canal is the widest house in Amsterdam No. 29 at 22 m wide and built for the Trip Brothers in 1660. The story goes that the coachman exclaimed one day "Oh, if only I could be so lucky to have a house as wide as my master's door," and I guess he did.

The narrowest house in all of Amsterdam is Oude Hoogstraat 22 which is raved about in all the travel books and online and it is nothing but an abandoned old place with nothing inside and you can't even really see the No. 22 on it, but here it is measuring at only 2 meters wide.

#3 Bridges and Canals

Every corner you turned lead to a new canal and new bridges to cross. Oneneat thing that most of the bridges had where their names written on them in white metal lettering (good thing too because it was the street name and sometimes those were hard to find). Again the whole scene with the bridges, canals, and old bicycles is just classic.

We walked out to see the famous Magere Brug which is a traditional double leaf, Dutch draw bridge. I misunderstood the books to say that it still opened every 20 minutes to let boats go through, because in reality it is lucky to open once or twice a day we found out. It's just a pretty bridge!

#3 - Drugs and Sex (Yep, got your attention with that one)

Across from the narrowest house is one of Amsterdam's finest drug paraphernalia stores where you can actually look at marijuana seeds under a microscope to check out the purity. The only reason we know this is because we were in search of a pocket knife for Harrison as that is what we collect for him from each country we visit. Sadly enough the only ones Kevin could find had "Hemp Cutter" written on them, so poor Harrison didn't get his souvenir knife. I personally don't approve of all the promiscuity involved with the reputation of this city, but you can't help but be amazed how it seems to surround you from all sides once you get into a certain part of town. We also had a short walk through the Red Light District, which was loaded with sex shops and a few working girls standing in shop windows. Kevin and I didn't say a word to each other until we got out the other end and turned to each other and said "Well, that was interesting." Some how my mom had missed the display of scantily clothed ladies in the windows, so my dad casually brought her back through.I have to say that this wasn't the most attractive parts of Amsterdam but if you don't focus on it and let your eyes skim past it all, it really is an amazing city.

#5 Things We Missed and Could Have Missed

We made our way to the Albert Cuypmarkt area as my father loves markets and this was to be a treat for him. Unfortunately because it was Easter Monday, the market was closed for the day...we we made a 1 mile trek in this direction to end up seeing "Euroland" instead as it was the only place open. We didn't actually go in the store, but we joked about Dollar General stores in the States, Poundland in England, and now we see Euroland to round it all out.

Our walking journey also brought us past the Heineken Brewery. They found out that they don't actually make Heineken in Amsterdam anymore...interesting....

#6 Parks and Play Time

Our final destination of the day was the park right outside the Rijksmuseum. The kids had been real troopers all day and so we let them have some much needed play time. Traveling with little ones can be challenging sometimes and we can't always do all the touristy things we would like to do but it also gets to experience some other things that others might not. We have to find parks and wide open places to let them play about and sometimes those relaxing times and play times that remind you of being in your own home park make the world seem smaller because this is what parents all over the world do with their kids.

One of the coolest parts about Amsterdam though was experiencing it with my mom and dad. How wonderful it was for me to just sit in a park in Amsterdam with my dad and watch my kids run around and play. It could have been any where in the world, but we were enjoying our little space at the time in this unique city.

Of course no day is complete without having ice cream as it seems to becoming tradition for us. It was freezing cold and windy, but my daughter insisted on eating ice cream and her brother won't say no to it either.

At the park I saw this on the rubbish bin and thought it was cute...a little "Trash Can Therapy" can't hurt.

As we got back to the Olympic Stadium where we did the Park and Ride we saw a little Easter Bunny band playing outside a little carnival. My parents were completely amazed how we got two little kids through the carnival without having to put them on a ride. We do have amazing powers of distraction I told them.

We did take a quick look at the Olympic stadium before we left. We have always tried to see the Olympic parks in cities that have them throughout Europe. Kind of interesting to see what they look like now being so many years later.

It was a long day with lots of walking, cool weather, and lots of interesting things seen, but I do give Amsterdam a thumbs up on all the new things we saw and experienced.