Amsterwhatt

Hi Everyone,

Sorry its been a little while since my last update.  Things have started to really pick up on our trip and we've been having an amazing time.  Amsterdam has come and gone.  We absolutely LOVED it!!  The city itself is beautiful and very "green."  The majority ride bikes everywhere so you have to be very careful not to get hit by a bike :)  It reminded me a lot of Belgium; straight out of a storybook.  Canals everywhere, houseboats all over the place (which by the way you can rent rooms in, interesting way to stay while in the city) and the nicest people you will ever meet in your life.  The city and the people are all very warm and welcoming and I can't praise it enough.  Vic and I spent 2 days seeing and doing as much as we could.  We went to the Anne Frank Museum - probably one of the only museums that could ever make you cry and I HIGHLY recommend; the Van Gogh Museum, Rijksmuseum, Rembrandt and the Red Light District.  We also learned that Amsterdam is an extremely safe city; when we first arrived it was late night and we were loaded down with luggage, we asked a police officer if we should take a taxi because we were afraid it might be dangerous to walk to the hotel, his response was confusion as to why we would ever feel unsafe in the city!!  For those of you that have never been to Amsterdam they are extremely laid back, especially in terms of recreational activities; they refer to a regular coffee shop as a 'cafe' and the other shops that sell paraphernalia as 'coffee shops' - they are everywhere.

All in all Amsterdam was an amazing city and we loved every second of it, enough so to extend our stay there a bit longer than originally anticipated.  We were sad to leave but yet so excited for the next leg of our trip....Paris!!