Amsterdam 18-23 July 2007
Wed July 18th
We arrived in Amsterdam early in the morning after a pleasant, uneventful flight. Amsterdam surprised us with a perfect cool, sunny day with our Granddaughters, Meg (17) and Amanda (16). Our pre-arranged pick up worked as planned and we arrived at our exchange home at about 8 AM. We found that our exchange home is really cute and comfortable with bright cheerful rooms and a wonderful secluded garden with lots of trees and flowers. We are right in town, in a lovely residential neighborhood, within a few minutes walk from the heart of the city and museum square. There is a very steep flight of stairs leading from the living area to the 2nd floor bedroom area. We are finding that this is a very typical thing in Amsterdam, as a way of minimize the footprint of the stairways. After a few hours of needed sleep we hit the town to get the lay of the land. Amsterdam is really charming, and the more we see of it the more we all like it. Meg remarked that it has a sense of a cheerful college town. Young and old were enjoying the sun in the beautiful Vondelpark, the first sunny day in quite a while. It seems that everyone is getting around on bikes, adapted beautifully to carrying kids around as well. Life revolves around the water and the canals. There are lots of beautiful old boats, house boats and, mostly row houses along narrow cobblestone streets with beautifully decorated facades and gables and lots of flowers and greenery. People are very pleasant and helpful and most understand and speak English. There are lots of cafes and restaurants along the canals, on squares and everywhere. We ended the first day with a relaxing canal boat tour.
Meg’s 1st day impressions:
Hello Friends and Family! Today we arrived in Amsterdam. My first impression was that it was not as different from America as I expected it to be. We got to our cute house and crashed. All of us were exhausted. After we woke up we decided to explore the city. We ate at a local café, walked through a beautiful park and too a canal boat ride. After the day was over I could see the differences between America and Amsterdam. Amsterdam is this quaint city, filled with great people. Everyone we met was really nice laidback and friendly. I already love Amsterdam and it has only been one day. I look forward to see more differences between these two countries.
Thu July 19th
We got a late start this morning and didn’t venture out till almost 2PM because of jet lag. We walked across town to one of Amsterdam’s largest flea market and concluded that they are same no matter where you go. Had lunch at a cute sidewalk café and continued shopping for souvenirs through the Blumenmarkt (flower market) with seemingly endless varieties of tulips and delftware souvenirs. From here to we walked to Anne Frank’s house which was really very moving. We ended the day gorging ourselves on giant crepes loaded with whipped cream at the Leidesplein, a tourist area with jugglers, entertainers and restaurants, and walked home.
Friday July 20th
Today was a rainy day and we decided to visit the Van Gogh museum which was quite wonderful. The girls had enough after a short time. Still jet lagged.
Sat July 21st
We drove to Rotterdam to purchase a replacement GPS (we think left the old one on the airplane) and then on to Delft. We had lunch on a terrace, which was really a boat platform docked in the canal, in front of the restaurant and had the best pancakes. We proceeded to the market and got some wonderful cheese, walked around the quaint old town and loved it. On the way home we saw and old windmill and pulled off the highway in search of it. We went through a beautiful little village and noticed sail boats passing behind the mill, seemingly in the middle of a green field. The windmill was on a canal, has been restored and is now used as a sailing summer camp for kids and as a social club. We chatted with one of the cute camp counselors and got to climb inside the mill to the top. (The mill dated back to 1700s and was a great little diversion.)
Sun July 22nd
We decided to take a drive to Cologne, Germany, a 2.5 hour drive away, so the girls can say they’ve been there and Amanda will have a chance to practice her German. It started seriously raining just as we arrived, so we ducked into the first open restaurant for lunch. Unfortunately we happened on a grumpy waitress, and we ordered sauerbraten and sausages but the food was only ho-hum. We briefly toured the impressive Cologne Cathedral and walked around a bit, did souvenir shopping and had some ice-cream on the square. Unfortunately most of the great shops were closed on Sunday. We Headed back to Amsterdam and filled with gas along the way and got a shock! It cost close to $100 for a ¾ tank of gas and was almost as expensive as gas in our RV! We can consider ourselves luck to be paying $3.20 per gallon back home.
Mon July 23rd
We drove 20 min. to Haarlem, a cute old town, dating back 700 years, and walked all over along delightful picturesque alleys, shopped in the market for a while, but unfortunately missed the Franz Halls museum which was closed on Monday. It started to rain and we were back early for a quite evening at home.
We arrived in Amsterdam early in the morning after a pleasant, uneventful flight. Amsterdam surprised us with a perfect cool, sunny day with our Granddaughters, Meg (17) and Amanda (16). Our pre-arranged pick up worked as planned and we arrived at our exchange home at about 8 AM. We found that our exchange home is really cute and comfortable with bright cheerful rooms and a wonderful secluded garden with lots of trees and flowers. We are right in town, in a lovely residential neighborhood, within a few minutes walk from the heart of the city and museum square. There is a very steep flight of stairs leading from the living area to the 2nd floor bedroom area. We are finding that this is a very typical thing in Amsterdam, as a way of minimize the footprint of the stairways. After a few hours of needed sleep we hit the town to get the lay of the land. Amsterdam is really charming, and the more we see of it the more we all like it. Meg remarked that it has a sense of a cheerful college town. Young and old were enjoying the sun in the beautiful Vondelpark, the first sunny day in quite a while. It seems that everyone is getting around on bikes, adapted beautifully to carrying kids around as well. Life revolves around the water and the canals. There are lots of beautiful old boats, house boats and, mostly row houses along narrow cobblestone streets with beautifully decorated facades and gables and lots of flowers and greenery. People are very pleasant and helpful and most understand and speak English. There are lots of cafes and restaurants along the canals, on squares and everywhere. We ended the first day with a relaxing canal boat tour.
Meg’s 1st day impressions:
Hello Friends and Family! Today we arrived in Amsterdam. My first impression was that it was not as different from America as I expected it to be. We got to our cute house and crashed. All of us were exhausted. After we woke up we decided to explore the city. We ate at a local café, walked through a beautiful park and too a canal boat ride. After the day was over I could see the differences between America and Amsterdam. Amsterdam is this quaint city, filled with great people. Everyone we met was really nice laidback and friendly. I already love Amsterdam and it has only been one day. I look forward to see more differences between these two countries.
Thu July 19th
We got a late start this morning and didn’t venture out till almost 2PM because of jet lag. We walked across town to one of Amsterdam’s largest flea market and concluded that they are same no matter where you go. Had lunch at a cute sidewalk café and continued shopping for souvenirs through the Blumenmarkt (flower market) with seemingly endless varieties of tulips and delftware souvenirs. From here to we walked to Anne Frank’s house which was really very moving. We ended the day gorging ourselves on giant crepes loaded with whipped cream at the Leidesplein, a tourist area with jugglers, entertainers and restaurants, and walked home.
Friday July 20th
Today was a rainy day and we decided to visit the Van Gogh museum which was quite wonderful. The girls had enough after a short time. Still jet lagged.
Sat July 21st
We drove to Rotterdam to purchase a replacement GPS (we think left the old one on the airplane) and then on to Delft. We had lunch on a terrace, which was really a boat platform docked in the canal, in front of the restaurant and had the best pancakes. We proceeded to the market and got some wonderful cheese, walked around the quaint old town and loved it. On the way home we saw and old windmill and pulled off the highway in search of it. We went through a beautiful little village and noticed sail boats passing behind the mill, seemingly in the middle of a green field. The windmill was on a canal, has been restored and is now used as a sailing summer camp for kids and as a social club. We chatted with one of the cute camp counselors and got to climb inside the mill to the top. (The mill dated back to 1700s and was a great little diversion.)
Sun July 22nd
We decided to take a drive to Cologne, Germany, a 2.5 hour drive away, so the girls can say they’ve been there and Amanda will have a chance to practice her German. It started seriously raining just as we arrived, so we ducked into the first open restaurant for lunch. Unfortunately we happened on a grumpy waitress, and we ordered sauerbraten and sausages but the food was only ho-hum. We briefly toured the impressive Cologne Cathedral and walked around a bit, did souvenir shopping and had some ice-cream on the square. Unfortunately most of the great shops were closed on Sunday. We Headed back to Amsterdam and filled with gas along the way and got a shock! It cost close to $100 for a ¾ tank of gas and was almost as expensive as gas in our RV! We can consider ourselves luck to be paying $3.20 per gallon back home.
Mon July 23rd
We drove 20 min. to Haarlem, a cute old town, dating back 700 years, and walked all over along delightful picturesque alleys, shopped in the market for a while, but unfortunately missed the Franz Halls museum which was closed on Monday. It started to rain and we were back early for a quite evening at home.
posted by Dahlia and Lance Riley @ 10:24 AM
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