Sunday, September 6
We arrived at the Amsterdam airport, jetlagged but excited, before 8:00 am. We collected our bags and took a bus to our hotel, the Neighbour’s Magnolia, near Vondelpark. After dumping our things in a closet at the hotel (our room was nowhere near ready, of course), we wandered around the city for a bit–through the flower market and past the opera house. We had no set agenda for the day, expecting to be in a haze of an eight hour time difference. I ate a Nutella pancake, then we headed back to check into our room.
After a quick nap, we took the tram to the dam. The weather was drizzly, and we quickly got our money’s worth on the rain jackets we had purchased in anticipation of the trip. We dodged several bicycles as they whizzed by us, seemingly more dangerous to pedestrians than the car traffic. We ended up in the Jordaan district near the Anne Frank House. We were hungry by this point, so we found a place to grab a bite, Restaurant de Reiger, where I had ravioli with asparagus. We later found out this restaurant was recommended in our Rick Steves’ guide, but we just happened upon it by accident.
Afterwards, we went to Siberie and then toured the sex museum before returning to the hotel for the night.
Monday, September 7
We woke early and went for a three mile run in Vondelpark. It began to rain, however, so we ran back to the hotel to shower and change into dry clothes. By the time we were dressed, the sun had made its first appearance. We wandered down the shopping areas of the city, and ate sandwiches at a bakery/cafe that had very slow service, even for European standards.
We took an open boat canal cruise through the older part of the city–highly recommended! We shared a boat with a group of guys from Portland while the live tour guide told us about the massive number of bicycles that are pulled from the canals every year.
Eventually, we went to Spui for some drinks and people watching. Our night culminated in a brief stop at Abraxas before wandering through the Red Light District, which was quite surreal.
Tuesday, September 8
Our last day in Amsterdam, we woke with a plan to try to make it to the Anne Frank House. However, the line was too long, so we went to Spui for croissants and stroopwafels at Lanskraoon and then grabbed a cookie to go at Van Stapele. We returned to the hotel and packed before grabbing a train to our next destination, Cologne.
