Europe Trip: Amsterdam

Our Fourth and final stop was Amsterdam in The Netherlands.

Sorry, my dear readers, that it took me SO long to finish posting these!

We arrived around 8 or 9, so it was dark outside.

We had quite the experience trying to get to our hotel!

So, in Amsterdam they have several regular modes of transportation:

Car, Bike, Tram, and Bus.

The directions to our hotel told us to take the tram to a certain stop and then walk a few blocks.

So, we got our tram tickets with little trouble and got on the tram.

We watched how other people got on and off because everything is in Dutch and we don't understand Dutch.

You have to scan your ticket when you get on the tram and when you get off the tram.

But you also have to press a button for the doors to open when you scan your ticket to leave, or they don't open.

So, we get to our stop. I go to the exiting doors (they have different ones to get on and off) and scan my ticket, press the button, and get off.

I turn around to find my sweet husband and he is still on the tram,

the doors are closing,

and he's FRANTICALLY pressing the button but it's not doing anything.

I'm praying, Please Heavenly Father, let him get off! I don't want to be alone! I have no idea where our hotel is, PLEASE let him get off!

I can see that he is talking to the guy next to the door,

he looks concerned,

then he walks to the back (the trams have a driver and a conductor, the conductor is at the back and collects your money for tickets or whatnot),

the tram starts to move. 

I'm still praying.

And thinking, I have no idea where our hotel is! All I know about Amsterdam is that it has the crazy red light district, I have no idea how far we are from there, I hope no one stills me and sells me there or something! Obviously, I was keeping my cool quite nicely, don't you think?

It goes about 3 feet.

AND STOPS!

And my sweet husband was able to get off!

He told me that the guy next to the door was saying, "It won't open, you'll have to go to the next stop."

But thankfully, some other NICE person told him to talk to the conductor and they would stop the tram. So that's what he did, PHWEW!

When we finally got to the hotel, we crashed for the night.

In the morning, we went straight for the Anne Frank Annex!

 Our guide book recommended making a reservation, but we weren't able to, so it's advice was to get there first thing because the line isn't as long first thing.

So that's what we did and it wasn't bad at all. Thankfully we went then because it rained later and it wouldn't have been fun to stand in in the super cold rain while we waited.

The annex was very humbling! It was preserved SO well. We weren't allowed to take pictures in there, so I don't have any of the inside, but it was really neat. They still have pictures that Anne pasted to the walls to make it feel a little more like home. I can't imagine having to sit on my bed all day so that I don't make a sound! And living in fear all the time. It was truly humbling!

This is a statue of Anne Frank

Then we went on a walking tour of this beautiful city!

I loved all the canals!

 Amsterdam is built like New Orleans, or I should say, New Orleans is built like Amsterdam, built up so people can live there. Because of this the ground adjusts so A LOT of the houses and buildings are not straight! Also, their houses and things lean out to make them look bigger!

 Since it is a canal town, most of the houses and buildings have these pulleys that they used to load and unload cargo. Now people use them to decorate with I guess.. 

 Actually, it was a lamp store, check out this light saber one!

 As you probably know, EVERYONE rides bikes in Amsterdam,

apparently someone wanted to be able to take four friends with them! 

 The sign on the left is my all time favorite European sign, I'm thinking about making one for my yard.. ;) 

 Our walking tour of the city ended in this little garden in the middle of a group of townhouses, 

they have them all over the city, according to our guidebook. You walk through a door to get to the garden, so it looks like you are just walking into a townhouse, but in reality it's a little walkway to the garden.

And the public is welcome,

as long as you can find the door.. lol!

 The doors to the townhouses in the garden area really made us feel better about our carpentry skills! 

 We took the bike ferry to the other side of Amsterdam.

It's a free service for walkers or bikers

 Here is a picture of the parking lot next to the ferry dock.

And apparently on the other side there is a multilevel bike parking garage!

That's a lot of parked bikes!

 Apparently, if your car is super small, it can also go on the bike ferry! Lol!

It was hilarious to watch this guy drive his car onto it!

 We just walked around that side for a bit, then got this delicious deep fried apple thing, it was SO GOOD!

 One thing I think is neat is that people decorate their bikes, so you'd see decorated bikes all over.

Also, most people have two bikes, a nice one to use on the weekends or to go on rides to work out and a junky one to ride to work to ensure that someone won't steal it!

 Our walking tour led us to this outdoor chess game,

complete with hippies smoking marijuana, since it's totally legal there!

 Lol, here's another one of those little cars, parked in the bike parking area.

 Part of our "walking tour" was our search for a delicious stroopwafel.

I really wanted a legitimate one from a little vendor, it took most of the day,

but we finally found one and it was SO worth it!

Delicious!

Thank you The Best Two Years for introducing us to them! 

 I also loved seeing families riding on their bikes.

I actually think this was a babysitter with the kids she was babysitting because she did NOT look old enough to have four kids (there was a baby in the little basket thing in the front).

 Here is a different view of the basket things on the front of their bikes.

We saw a variety of things in them: babies, animals, stuff, etc.

 We went on a night cruise of the canals,

it was really pretty, but the pictures didn't turn out.

One thing about the night tour that I wouldn't recommend is that the canal tours take you through the red light district... yeah at night, that was't the wisest thing we've ever done!

 Then next day we went to the Dutch Resistance Museum.

It was a museum all about the Dutch people that resisted the Nazis and helped hide or aide the Jews in any way they could during WWII.

It was SUPER interesting! And really well done!

I didn't realize how many people helped the Jews. It was really amazing!

They are good people!

It POURED rain that day!

So we didn't see a whole lot more, and we had to catch our train back to Paris to fly home the next day.

We took refuge in this restaurant to warm up and eat some yummy warm food.

It's hard to tell, but we are SOAKED in these pictures.

We flew out of Paris the next day, thankfully we were able to get my sweet husband's ticket situation all worked out. Since he had gone for business, work was flying him home, but the nice people that schedule his flights forgot to actually BOOK his ticket. Thankfully he was able to get it all straightened out and we were able to fly home together. One transatlantic flight by myself was enough, I didn't want to do it a second time!

It was a great trip! I'm SO glad we were able to go!

Thanks for indulging me with all my pictures!

I hope you enjoyed them too!