<Catching up bit> - While I was in Amsterdam, right after Tim left for the US, I heard news that my grandpa's cancer had taken a turn for the worse. My mom took an emergency trip back to Vietnam and spent the last few days of his life with him. I spent half of each day on the phone with mom. He passed away a couple days later. So I was in a strange mood while in Amsterdam. Didn't really feel like blogging.
It's been two weeks since I've been back. My weekdays have been filled with working, driving and cleaning. My weekends have been filled up with laundry and cleaning. We had to hire cleaners to help us out, but just to keep the house up is an enormous task. Whoever knew we're such messy people. HAHAHAHA, we do. Anyways, the blogging steam had ran out, but I am determined to finish the series.
So here goes... I hope I haven't lost my readers' interest - the 3-4 of them :)
... 12:30am April 12th, we arrived at our hotel lobby, stepping out of the nicely decked out taxi cab. This is not a minor point, the baby was sssuh-weet. brown soft leather interior with all of the gadgets...
Anyways, we were glad someone at the hotel waited up for us. As we were waiting for the bookkeeping stuff to get done, Tim and I diverted our attention to the TV. Some of commercial was going on, in Dutch of course... Then all the sudden, non-censored, naked people starting to come out of no where (on the TV, not in real life) ran all over the place. I can't tell you what the commercial was about, I was too busy making sure I was seeing what I thought I was seeing. Then I looked over to Tim "We're in Amsterdam!"
When we were done with checking in, we walked across the street to where our room would be, in a different building. Our room was on the 2nd floor. And this was the set of stairs we had to conquer to get up there. It MIGHT have been 3ft wide, but I doubt it.
Tim arrived at the 2nd floor first and hollered down at me, "I'm glad we dont have the 3rd floor" - grinned. After huffing and buffing for about 5 mins, I too arrived on the 2nd floor to find out the basis of Tim's statement. These babies here are even STEEPER, it that was possible. They were VERY close to being vertical.
We hurried into the room and to bed. We had been up and moving for close to 24hrs at this point.
....zzzz....
The next morning, we peeled ourselves off the bed. and head toward to the center of the city (our hotel was on the most outer canal, nice and quite). We stopped at a square to have breakfast. Tim had some omelet and I was hooked on English breakfast, so I knew what I was getting.
One of my first photos in Amsterdam
Then we walked by a few stalls of flowers shops!!! WEEEHEEEE!!!!!! I'd die to have these flowers shop around here in Baltimore. That's ONLY HALF joking. They were so fresh, so beautiful, so affordable, so dreammy. I can't count the number of times I walked to and stopped by the flowers shops just to stand and stare at them. I showed GREAT self-restraint not to buy them, for I knew I didn't have the time or the vase to house and enjoy them.
Oh.... what would I do to have these flowers closer to where I live.
Amsterdam is full of these little gathering of food/merchandise/etc vendors gathering around different squares in the city. I loved the idea. It seemed like the tourists AREN"T the only people shopping at these stalls. Locals too. And that's somehow refreshing.
The architectures details here are very attractive. Large sunny bright window. Crisp white trims and moldings contrast elegantly against the dark, rustic bricks and walls.
I was mildly surprised to stumbled across a Vietnamese restaurant on our walk. I was going for a comical, animated, dramatic effect in this picture. But I do admit, my fake reaction here is quite an over-kill.
Amsterdam Centraal in day light. We arrived here late last night.
Waiting to get our bikes from MacBike Centraal station.
Look how happy Tim is getting his bike.
The tour guide. No... Not me. the dude behind me.
Tailing him closely
What I saw as I pedaled along.
House boat on the lower right corner. They are said to cost as much as traditional housing, around $300K-$400K. They are equipped with pluming, electric and other stuff.
Underneath of that windmill, there said to be the best micro brewery in town, which we did not check out due to the lack of Tim's time.
Naturally, i zoned out and occupied myself with something more interesting once the tour guide talked pass 30 seconds.
Outside of the Heineken Experience museum. which I heard was lame. BUT right around the corner there was the best pancake house in town called the Carousel. Order Apple Bacon Butter pancake next time you're there. You can thank me later. Tim's in love with that dish.
Forgot what museum it is. I'm not too much of a museum person. More of a nature person.
We didn't noticed it then, but now that the picture is up, seeing those fluid drip marks, i'm fairly certain that's not the more sanitary thing to do. AMsterdam has a lot of drunk people. and we know what drunk people do.
Biking through a park.
We loved biking around. the park was so refreshing, it was breath taking to me to see that much green and water and open space inside of a hustle, bustle city.
Could you imagine having a park like this near by your neighborhood, where you can bike to? Gosh I'm so jealous.
Tim and his touristy bike.
I really enjoyed biking in Amsterdam. It's been years since I biked a cruiser that much. I grew up biking to school for years. It was nice to do something that was both familiar and brand new.
The nice church in town.
Line to Ann Frank's house.
The front of Ann Frank's house. I"d visit it on the last day in Amsterdam.
Entrance to one of Amsterdam's "secret" garden.
Inside the so called "secret" gardan.
A bucket bike. One of my favourite things in Amsterdam is the sights of kids-in-the-bucket. I went hunting for pictures of those sights later in the week.
One of the many feels-good coffeeshop.
We checked out a groceries store in the middle of town.
The Netherlands is known for its cheese and other dairy products. We saw these cheese wheels EVERYWHERE!
LOOK! octopus! Why can't we have this much fresh seafood in our groceries? We are right ON THE OCEAN.
Remember I said the taxi cabs are nice. Here's the proof.
Tim's devouring his Kangaroo steak at a restaurant with the huge sign "lousy food, warm beer" out side its door. The sign wasn't lying. :P
Off ALL of those wooden shoes, there weren't a pair that fit my feet AND are colorful. :(
I was hoping that the cable on which these wooden shoes was hung was sturdy
Yummy sweets
We had to share one piece of cake because they were a cash only place.
Back to the hotel after a night walking around. across from our hotel window were an apartment of some guy, that fish store, a restaurant.and some other store. Neat to sit and watch.
That marked the end of the first day in Amsterdam with Tim. He's heading back to the States the next day :( I'll have to fend for myself in this beautiful yet unfamiliar city.
So who's interested in going to Amsterdam with me? I know, my blogging skill leave much to be desired and I suck as a travel writer, but trust me, this city is awesome. More proof to come later :). Have a great week!
