Stop 2- Amsterdam

Hello family, friends, acquaintances and random strangers-

Thank you for continuing to put up with our delayed posts.  Hopefully, in the next 24 hours, we will be all caught up.

Amsterdam is wonderful.  It is L's favorite city so far (and, no, she didn't intake too much ''coffee'').  Amsterdam has three things going for it:
1.  Beautiful canals and canal houses
2.  Delicious fresh farmer's yogurt
3.  A refreshingly open environment

For all the things for which Amsterdam is known, safety doesn't necessarily come to mind.  But you always feel safe walking in Amsterdam, whether you're heading to the Anne Frank House or walking the Red Light District (RLD) at night.  The whole ''live and let live'' attitude of the city is actually quite freeing. 

On to what M and L DID do in Amsterdam...

Day 1- Travel days are rough.  This one was especially rough because we had taken an overnight train from Berlin.  We had tried to save some money by reserving reclining seats instead of couchettes, but our compartment was tiny, full, and M's seat didn't even recline.  To make matters worse, we decided to walk with Mack and Jack (L and M's backpacks, respectively) from our train station to the hostel, which looked reasonably close on a map, but took much longer to get to than expected (we hadn't yet learned how to maneover the canals effectively).  We got to the hostel, and ran some errands.  We found an internet cafe, a bookstore, and Dam Square.  We ate delicious pancakes with salty cheese melted on top and syrup.  Sounds weird...tastes great.  From there, we called it an early night and slept.

Day 2- Free walking tour.  Fresh farmer's yogurt for lunch.  Saw a lot of Amsterdam, and also enjoyed some classic Dutch weather: drizzle, sunshine, drizzle, and rain.

Day 3- We got up early with the idea of being the first people in line for the Anne Frank House.  While we did get there right when it opened, we still stood in line for an hour.  The museum was touching to say the least.  A must-see in both M and L's opinion.  After the museum, we decided to rent bikes to see a few more sights in Amsterdam.  Remember how we said that you always feel safe walking in Amsterdam?  The same CANNOT be said for bike riding.  We were both terrified out of our wits at first; Dutch bike riders are legit.  Don't mess with them.  As our tour guide said, ''when you hear that bell, run like hell.''  On the plus side, L did get to ring her bell at some pedestrians, which she found strangely satisfying.  Anyway, with the bikes, we found the largest library in the EU (after some navigational difficulties that L has yet to live down), a windmill-turned-brewery, and we searched for a spot where you can supposedly see 15 bridges at once.  We're not sure we found it, nor are we sure it actually exists.  We did get some lovely photographs, though.  We went back to the hostel for ''Hostel Night'' meaning free dinner and ice-breaker games.  Then, after dark, we went out to get some pictures of the canals lit up at night.  This ended up taking much longer than expected as we worked our way to the RLD and back...returning at about 1 am.

We left the next day, but had a wonderful side trip- details to follow.  Amsterdam gets an A++ from L and B+/A- from M. Not a bad report card.