Amsterdam

I AMsterdam. The city seems do very well on promoting themselves as a brand, which is unique as I can't think of a place that does that. We trained into the central station. Every major city seem to have a real unique train station. Essentially a big old building from the front a pile of train tracks tucked somehow in behind. Amsterdam central seemed to have a clock tower as well as some kind of compass tower, not sure exactly how this works, but it was definitely moving around as we watched it. 

 

We started our day with a canal cruise, through the city. This was super cool. Not only is the canal almost 100km long and running through the city in crazy paths, but there are tons of boats; and not just small boats and paddle boats, but long boats that are impressively driven. This was a great way to start the day as we got to see so much, and from a unique perspective. The one hour cruise, with information commentary, took us to the main places that Amseterdam has. We really enjoyed the cruise and seeing all the different sights.

 

See we were all smiles! The stairs and hallways are much to narrow and steep for moving, so every building has a hook at the top of the building that they use to pick things up, and move things into the apartment via the windows. Pretty neat as they really are on every building. Interesting to hear all about the diffrerent buildings and history as well.

 

From there we walked through the main square and headed in the direction of the floating flower market. Literally Floating on the canal and full of flowers. It is quite the sight to see. I read that they have a 24/7 flower market, when the owners go home you can still purchase flowers through the vending machine. The longer that the flowers are there the cheaper they get. But apparently they are great flowers and equally as good of an option. Flowers are definitely a thing in the Netherlands. Luckily the specialize in Tulips, which are my absolute favourite flower. 

 

Along the way we came a cross a cheese museum. A small place but really the perfect size. We were told about the process of making the cheese, and saw some old equipment they would use, and then proceeded down to the store where we got to try some cheese. In the museum part I got to put on an almost my size pair of clogs. I am being converted! The store was awesome! We tried vanilla cow cheese. Yes cow is important as they make it out of cow, goat, and sheep milk. The use vanilla beans mixed in. SOOOO GOOD! It is so hard to describe, it is almost like white chocolate, but cheese, anyway it was delicious. GARLIC cheese was also delicious, but I am a garlic and onion girl, so no surprises that I enjoyed this. 

 

As we continued walking we saw a perfect opportunity for a picture by the canal. Beautiful trees covering the canal, and bikes leaning up against the hand rail. We walked these few roads off the beaten path, which was great and quite. It seems that as the day went on more and more people started to trickle to the streets. Making crossing the already crazy streets even more dangerous.

 

FUN FACT! Or maybe not so fun, but a fact none the less. The Netherlands has 11 provinces. We have driven through many of them over the week. But specifically North Holland and South Holland peaked my interest. Good ole Rick Steveswas talking to a lady who lives here and she cleared something up for me. We have very much Americanized 'Holland' as just referring to the Netherlands as a whole, which is in fact wrong. North and South Holland are two of the provinces in the Netherlands, but due to the fact that the major touristy places fall into the two provinces is why we usually just say Holland. This was interesting to me as we were driving and seeing many different flags of the provinces, and I also wasn't entirely sure if there was a difference or not.

Coffee shops are not coffee shops, cafes are where the coffee is sold. The smell of weed is often in the air, and it tends to linger. It's odd because Amsterdam has had the most cigarette smokers in the Netherlands. It hasn't been everywhere like we have experienced in the rest of Europe. Amsterdam definitely got us back into what we have experienced, and what it imagine we will continue to experience. I don't have an issue if you smoke, just the mass amounts of people back to back makes walking the streets difficult.

There are many interesting characters that you see on the streets. People dressed up in many different outfits, ranging from a ballerina, beer bottle, panda, to a skin coloured morph suite with a banana hammock overtop. You could plop yourself down at a cafe and watch these people for hours. When someone leaves more entertainment will be close by, if not already present. At a cafe we stopped at today they actually had strong bow. This was great as we finally came to find Magners again in the Netherlands, as apples to the fancy cidre that Spain and France seemed to have. But strong bow was a great change, and a surprising one. There doesn't seem to be much consistency in that area.

Many of the old buildings on the streets seem to be slanted slightly and be almost separating. It it pretty funny as there will be a slanted building in the middle of two very straight buildings. Many of the restaurants and cafes seem to be on many of the floors of the buildings that they occupy. 

Again I mention the bikes. SO MANY! And the bikes parades are crazy! So many levels, so many bikes, and so many people. It is really crazy to see. Picture certainly do not do it justice. Bikes upon bikes upon bikes. Not sure I would want to be riding a bike in a city like this but if I lived here it would certainly be my preferred method of transportation. Driving a car would not be an option.

We have seemed to come across many, many hair salons. Surprisingly, when we look inside as we walk by, there is more often then not a male stylist. Now, don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong with that, you just don't often see so many male stylists working at a salon. Keep in mind I mean salon, not a barber shop yes they are different things.

 

So I must draw attention to a few things in the picture above. First off look at the derpy duck! Sticking his tongue out! He is hilariously awesome! Ducks and I can co-exist; not certain why except that they aren't what attacked me when I was younger, and they are much less scary till they fly. Secondly, this is the subway that we ate at for lunch today, notice the hook at the top of the building. The picture below the subway picture is in fact a male and female couple. They have matching hair, and the guy clearly gets his hair bleached, they like to wear matching buns and I think it is funny. The bottom right picture is of the Amsterdam cheese company store, in a perfect European building that I have mentioned many a time that I love. This toilet sign was seem on the way down the stairs to use the free toilet. Thankfully, in was a single room toilet so there was no chance that anyone would be peeking. Finally, the Dutch duck. The story behind this dates back many years but stays true. If you do not know the story of Luke and duck feel free to ask either myself or Mitch, as it has only grown in meaning, especially after seeing this duck. 

After our day we found a place to have Indonesian food, even I could eat and headed back to home base. We picked up a few things at the grocery store for breakfast in the morning, and GUESS WHAT!! Gluten free STROOPWAFFLES! For real ones!! A stroopwaffle is like a soft waffle cookie but with a  syrup centre. Mine has caramel! And I am so very excited to devour them. We got some ice cream bars as well and headed to enjoy them on the patio. They were quite delicious, as we had expected. Also, have no fear I won my one game of monopoly tonight, and no one let me win either. Granted I lost horribly the other times but I got my chance. 

Vacation time is good time. We are enjoying not having a set time table for the day. Every evening we look forward to what the next day holds.

And so the adventure continues...