Day 1: Once I met my friend, we chose to drop our heavy bags in a locker at Centraal Station. Feeling free from our heavy loads, we walked around Dam square and got some lunch at Foodism. I had a vegge sandwich on a baguette. It was yum. From our first step out of the station until we boarded the train to Berlin- we were dodging bikes, cars, and trams. We were informed that Amsterdam loses 1 tourist a year to a tram. Thankfully we navigated the streets without issue. Although, at a narrow street intersection my shoulder was grazed by a van's sideview mirror as it rolled to a stop! (don't worry mom I'm fine) We walked past a flower market saw many tulips and other beautiful flowers. We were staying with Cay's friend and needed to wait until she was home from work, so we milled around for a while and took in the sites of the city. In the early evening, we took the tram to her apartment and got settled in for the night. The next day we spent the morning at the Anne Frank House. It was larger than I had imagined when I was reading her diary. It was quite interesting and since we went in the morning there was no line, although inside was quite crowded of course. We saw more of the city and ate dinner at a horrible turkish run pancake house. I ordered dutch pea soup and cheese on a baguette. The food was edible but expensive and not too tasty. Cay's friend, met us there and grabbed a bite with us, before we headed to a nearby bar for a pub quiz. It was sponsered by her Irish football club and was quite fun, although we did not even come close to winning (36 correct out of 70!). Surprisingly we did better then half.
Day 2: We woke by 10 and went on a walking tour of the city. It was free and provided us with many interesting facts about the city and local architecture. An insteresting fact was that each home has a hooked arm extended from the top of the facade. It is used in a pulley system, offering an alternative from climbing very steep stairs when moving in. We saw the widest canal, the narrowest bridge and the skinniest house. We ate at La Place which was a fun food court with lots of good looking food. I decided on chicken soup, cheese stick and some seed covered brown bread. Best meal in Amsterdam! Later we went to the Van Gogh museum. It boasts of the largest collection of Van Gogh's work and more then 200 paintings, including artists that influenced him. As well as many paintings by other 19th century artists. It was interesting to see his progression but the collection seemed a bit small. We took our time and buzzed through in about an hour. At night we went on a canal cruise. We were fortunate that many dutch leave their curtain opens so we could see all the lovely homes and dutch decor.
Day 3: Travel day! We left Amsterdam at 1pm on a train to Berlin. We ate brown bread toast and we were off. The train took 6 hours. Our first train ride a success! woohoo.
