Amsterdam

After Christmas, Ed, Shelly and Madison drove back to Hanau, as Shelly was on call over the next week. Mom and Dad stayed here so we could go to Amsterdam for a few days. Because this was the week between Christmas and New Years, finding a room for a reasonable price proved to be challenging. I finally found a bed and breakfast that sounded great...The Wooden Mill, just a block away from a trolley stop to get us downtown and very close to some cafes and restaurants.

Our two hour train ride from Sittard to Amsterdam was quite scenic with farms, canals and windmills peppering the landscape. We arrived at Amsterdam's Central Station in about two hours. There we bought our IAmsterdam passes and tickets to tour the Anne Frank House.

We finally found our bed and breakfast..which was neither a wooden mill or a bed and breakfast...just beds (and bathrooms, thankfully) and a 10% discount to eat at the cafe around the corner. While our family room was 'interesting,' it was spacious and nothing to gripe about after looking at Mom and Dad's futon-sized room. No kidding, when they opened the futon into a bed, there was no room to move about the room! We had the B&B to ourselves the first night. Night two we shared w/ some Italian fellows in town for the New Years Eve festivities.

Our first night, we walked around the area near our lodging (just can't keep saying B&B without cracking up!), and found a great tapas bar, Castro's, just around the corner.

Scenes from Amsterdam:

The train ride from Sittard to Amsterdam was quite an adventure














MMMMM....tapas. This restaurant was sooo good!














Outside the Rijksmuseum...no line this early in the morning!



















Our canal boat tour. This was a great way to see Amsterdam and get a feel for the canal structure throughout.




























The Anne Frank House from the canal



















De Poezenboot, the 'famous' cat houseboat, which serves as a sancuary for abandoned Amsterdam cats.


































Done with our canal tour and ready for some dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, Amsterdam!



















Outside a 'coffee shop' near the red light district














Beautiful flowers for sale



















The 'Just For Men' porta-potty






































Last stop...the Heineken brewery