Holland: Part 1, Amsterdam

I am finally getting around to writing about our trip to Holland near the end of August.

We had such a nice time.  We were mostly disconnected from social media for the week (thanks to bad connection at both of our airbnb places), which ended up being quite nice.  I think it feels much more like a vacation when you are forced to disconnect.

We drove there (about 9 hours) and it wasn't as bad as I had anticipated.  We spent the first half of the week in Amsterdam.  We stayed in Amsterdam Noord (north) and took the bus into the center each of the three days that we were there.

As usual, we (I) had to adjust our expectations for the trip on how much we would see, how many cool restaurants we could check out, and what sights we could experience.  Usually, it's about one or two things a day, generally not museums, mainly just staying outside and "experiencing" the place by walking around.

It wasn't nice weather when we were in Amsterdam for those first 3 days-rainy, cool (50s/60s), and overcast when it wasn't raining.  The second half of the week was beautiful.

[Get ready for LOTS of pictures!]

The first day, we got there in the evening, so we got take away pizza down the street from our rental and went to bed early.

This was the front of our Airbnb rental in Amsterdam Noord.  It was a historical area and all the homes looked the same-little townhomes with a small fence backyard with little side alley ways, clay roof, and very steep stairs.  It was small but functional and cute.

We went shopping for his first pair of real shoes while there.  Here he is looking all big boy-ish in his new Adidas.

The second day, we took the bus into the city and rented bikes at the main train station.  We rode bikes around the city from about 10am-3pm.  It was exciting, fun, scary, and tense all at the same time.  Motor bikes and mopeds share the bike lanes.  Plus, not knowing all the one ways or rules of the road for bikers was difficult.  I think I may have enjoyed it more than Bryce.  He was tense the entire day and concluded that you "take in" more of the city when you're not on a bike.  Both kids were incredible in the bikes, switching seats, singing songs, eating snacks, and BOTH fell asleep sitting up (with bobbing helmet heads!) in the bikes.  We quickly stopped at a park and sat next to a fountain each holding a kid while they slept for about an hour.  We ate a late lunch at an American style BBQ place called Graceland.  You know, very Dutch (not).

Dutch is really funny looking and funny sounding.  It's like a mix between English and German with a weird twang.

FREE riding horse at the restaurant.  Two thumbs up from tired parents.

The third day, Bryce gave me one of the best gifts that I'll never forget.  The Anne Frank House was at the top of my list of things to do in Amsterdam.  Well there was no way we were going to go with the kids.  The line alone can take up to 5 hours in July and August.  Then it takes about an hour to walk through with steep stairs.  As you can imagine, it's a very quiet museum with few kids roaming around.  So Bryce let me go BY MYSELF to the museum that morning.  In high school, I was really into Anne Frank and learning about her story and the Holocaust.  I spent 2 hours in the freezing pouring rain waiting in the line that wrapped around the block, walked through the museum/house, then grabbed lunch on the way home.  I came back to the rental to find Bryce sitting on the couch and both kids napping.  It was worth every minute of waiting to be able to walk through Anne Frank's actual house and experience it for myself.  In the evening, we went back into Amsterdam to walk around for a little bit in the afternoon.  That evening, we ate at an amazing Indonesian restaurant down the street from our rental.

Miss "I don't want to nap" fast asleep on Daddy's shoulders

More on the rest of our trip soon!