Amsterdam, Part 1

Gretchen on our neighbor's bike, just for fun (we didn't steal it or anything)

so very, very many bulbs. (I'm reading a book about the tulip craze in Amsterdam in the 1600s...some bulbs went for the price of a canal-side house!)

there were beautiful hollyhocks everywhere...

G made us stop and take this picture in front of some little travel agency. I admit that now I'm glad we did.

Hallo, all!

We've been in lovely (but quite hot) Amsterdam for two days now...

Here are some random thoughts and moments from the trip so far, beginning at the beginning:

*magazines Gretchen and Erin bought for the plane: G - O! magazine and People. E - The Economist and The New Yorker. Gretchen is such a nerd.
*number of hours of traveling time, from my door to the Hotel New Amsterdam: 19
*most interesting and touching thing (to me) about the Anne Frank House: Since most if not all of you are pretty familiar with her story, i'll just say one small thing. After you go through the infamous bookcase that hid their hiding place, you climb incredibly steep stairs to get through to Anne's parent's room and then her small bedroom. On the wall are several picture postcards and magazine cutouts that she pasted there to brighten her days. I noticed a very small picture called "The Chimpanzee Tea Party" that is just what it sounds like...three chimps dressed up and having tea. I thought it was charming and also was delighted to note that Anne and I both like the primates/humans connection.
*best way to get around Amsterdam: BIKES! G & I have rented some old beater cruisers that are just like the ones the locals use to get around. This city is absolutely the most bike friendly you could imagine...even the busiest intersections have large and safe bike lanes all through them, and we've been cycling all over town today. We've got little bells to announce to poor toursits who don't know any better to hop out of our way in the bike lane, and we're not afraid to use them. :)
*biggest disappointment so far: the Dutch don't seem to care much about the World Cup. In the words of our hotel guy, "Once Holland was out, I don't care anymore who wins." Sure, there are bars and places that show the games, but it's hardly the mania I expected. I sleepily watched the Germany v. Italy game last night in our hotel room. (Thankfully I was awake for the last two minute of overtime!)
*best food experience: it's a tie. both dinners so far have been great...we just finished having a huge Indonesian feast called a rijstaffel, which was various little dishes over coconut rice, but yesterday we had these huge crepe pancackes with tomatoes, bacon, and mushrooms topped with fried cheese. No lo cal meals here.
*quietest and most beautiful moment so far: around 4 o'clock this morning, I had a combo of headache and jet lag and couldn't sleep. I got up and sat in our 3rd story window seat, overlooking the Herengracht canal....just in time to see two huge swans gliding peacefully along. Combined with the beautiful old street lights and the many other lights strung along the canal, it was a very happy travel moment.

I think i'll leave it there for now...i just had to go through and edit out several gleeful quotation marks and don't want to go on and on. Suffice it to say that we're having a great time so far; in fact, i was thinking as we walked dazedly out of Amsterdam's Centraal Station yesterday that one of my favorite things about travel is the way that feeling of complete unfamiliarity with a place changes in just a few short days....at first you can barely find your hotel, but next thing you know, you're biking around, ringing your bell, and, when you successfully navigate through a strange city back to your hotel room, announcing, "This is our street, we're home!"

More tomorrow; we're going to try to hit the Red Light District, the Van Gogh Museum, AND do some shopping....it feels like we have over 400 things left to do or more!

Cheers,
E