Final Day in The Netherlands - Amsterdam!

Happy Sunday everyone!
A few months ago, I started posting individual blogs about specific days of my Christmas trip to Europe.  Well, we have finally reached our final day of the trip, Amsterdam.  Our hosts, Megan and Todd, decided to let us explore Amsterdam on our own.  They dropped us off at the Eindhoven train station early in the morning, and we took the 90 minute train ride north to Amsterdam on our own.  Apparently, the Dutch are trustworthy people because nobody came through the train and checked anybody's tickets!  The central Amsterdam train station is really cool.  It dates back to the late 1800s, and the facade is quite impressive.  Also, when exiting the station, the city's famous canal system is right before your eyes.  Amsterdam does not have a subway system, but it does have cable cars that run right passed the train station and carry passengers through the main thoroughfare of the city.  It was early in the morning, and we forgot to take pictures of the train station.  Here is a link to the station's wikipedia page and some photos if you are interested Link

We took a short tram ride to our hotel where we dropped off our bags in a typically small european hotel room.  Smoking both tobacco and marijuana is apparently prohibited.

Our hotel was located close to Vondelpark, which is basically the dutch equivalent of Central Park.  It was also a short walk to Museumplein.  Knowing that we only had one day to pack in all the highlights, we headed to Museumplein with hopes of seeing the Van Gogh museum.  The museum is crowded nearly everyday, so we planned to arrive early.  Once we got to Museumplein however, we found out that the Van Gogh museum has been temporarily moved.  So, we bought our museum tickets from a little kiosk and then started walking to the new site.  The mini-snafu actually worked out quite nicely by providing a good walking tour of the city.  The labyrinth of canals is incredible!  Literally, every 100 feet provides a different view of the canals.  Below is a sign we saw during our walk that pretty much sums it up.

Many of the canals also have houseboats on them where you can see people going about their daily lives inside.  We also read about a few houseboats available to rent for a few nights in Amsterdam, which would be a really cool way to visit the city if you had a small group.  Also, the cliche about bicycles more bicycles than cars is easily true.  Every minute, some rider is zooming passed you on a rickety bike. Various photos from our walk are located below.

At 10 a.m., the line to buy tickets to the Van Gogh museum was already really long.  Luckily, we had our tickets from the kiosk near Museumplein, so we got to walk right in.  We were not allowed to take photos inside the museum, but as you can imagine, it was awesome.  There are 200 Van Gogh paintings, along with plenty of other drawings and historical documents.  The museum is a must visit for anybody even remotely interested in art.  After we left the museum, we wandered through the streets and saw plenty of coffee shops.   We found a cool cafe for lunch a short walk from the museum.  Every person in the service industry knows English extremely well.  Sitting on a bench or at a restaurant, we heard most conversations occurring in English.  And, lots of menus were in English, something we did not seen much the rest of our trip.

After lunch, we walked through the famous red light district.  During daylight, there are a few sex shops open and some slightly overweight women in lingerie standing in the windows but nothing too shocking.  We were disappointed by that.  So we went back at night.  At night, there was a lot of hustle and bustle.  It seemed the Las Vegas of Europe.  Every other group was entirely college-age dudes from the UK who were on vacation.  I actually thought the scene was a bit more tame than I would have thought; I don't know if C felt the exact same way.  Aside from scantily clad women in the windows and a few theaters advertising sex shows, we didn't see anything too shocking.

Moving back to earlier in the day, we then traveled a short distance to Dam Square.  It is the historical city center and surrounded by the Royal Palace and various museums.  It was easily the most crowded area we visited.  Shooting off the Square are lots of shops with were all full of shoppers for post-holiday shopping.  From there, we walked to the Anne Frank House.  The line outside was literally three blocks long.  Given our short stay, we did not go inside, but it was fun to see nonetheless.  After a quick trip back to the hotel, we headed to Vondelpark.  It was actually a pretty nice day out, and lots of Amsterdamers were out riding rusty bikes, jogging and walking their dogs.   The park has a few ponds, playgrounds and cafes.  The neighborhoods around Vondelpark is pretty neat as well. Some of the most well-maintained homes seemed to be located just outside the park.  A few photos from the afternoon are below.

Like much of our trip, C wanted some hot chocolate.  So, we found a really cool cafe near the park.  I had some coffee.  I think C said this was the best hot chocolate of the trip, and she enjoyed her fair share of hot chocolates from three different countries.  Once again, I was impressed that our server spoke such amazing English.  It's likely a product of the diversity of Amsterdam.  While there is certainly plenty of Dutch, it seems like English is sort of unifying language that allows people from all over to communicate with each other.  Amazing coffee and hot chocolate below.

We had an early flight back to the U.S. the next morning, so we walked around a bit and then ate dinner at a little bar near the hotel.  The canals look great at night, and there were lots of lights up for the holidays.  We went to bed early and then flew back to the U.S. safe and sound.  Amsterdam definitely has lots of nightlife for folks who want to partake in that sort of thing.  But, it combines all of those cliches with a huge amount of culture, history and friendliness.  Although Amsterdam is the largest city in the Netherlands, the people were all very nice and helpful to us.  I would love to visit the city in the summer.  It would also be great to visit the Rijksmuseum, which just reopened since our visit.  It is the national museum and holds many of the country's finest works of art.  It was closed for renovations for 10 years!  There is plenty do see in Amsterdam on our next trip there.

Well, that concludes our European Christmas vacation.  We obviously made it home safely, only a few pounds heavier.  Props to C for being a trooper, as always.  Even though she was 5 months pregnant, she walked and rode a bike all over three countries.  She also put up with drinking hot chocolate and applesap, while everyone else had beer and wine.  She is the best travel partner ever.  A huge thanks for Megan and Todd for hosting us nearly the entire time.  They were great hosts.  Todd made some sweet breakfasts for us on a few mornings.  Also, they both put up with my beer obsessions and drove us around Europe even when none of us knew where we were going.  Hopefully, C and I can repay the favor at some point.

In other news, C is 39 weeks pregnant now.  The baby is due one week from today, and we could not be more ready/excited.  Thanks for reading!