Cindy and Mike Do the World!: Amsterdam, Netherlands

We only had 2 nights in Amsterdam (and we did spend a large portion of the first day sleeping due to jet lag) but we really liked what we saw. It’s not the best time of the year to visit since it was fairly cold and windy. I can only imagine what it’s like in the spring and summer, with the tulips out in bloom and everyone on their boats in the canals. I was surprised by the number of canals! I think I read somewhere that there are more in Amsterdam than Venice. Everyone we encountered was really friendly and knew English, which was a bonus. Many times, we noticed that local people would switch back and forth between Dutch and then English and then Dutch again, when speaking to each other.

We walked around the city centre, went to the van Gogh museum (and looked for Starry Night, before remembering that we had seen it at the MoMA), had Dutch pancakes and saw the Anne Frank Huis, which was a bit surreal. They’ve actually put a glass façade around the house to protect it. We stayed tame in Amsterdam considering all of the things it’s known for…we did walk through the red light district but didn’t go to any coffee shops! I had to do some reading about the red light district after since I was curious and I was surprised to find out that all of the girls charge the same (about 50 euros)…and how regulated the industry really is. Apparently, the economic slowdown in 2009 has really affected the industry (okay, I quite a few articles). Anyway, I won’t bore you with all of the other interesting tidbits that I discovered but feel free to ask me!

As expected, we saw lots of cyclists in Amsterdam. I love the way they have the bike lanes there...separate from the cars so it feels very leisurely and not at all like you’re riding in traffic. If the weather was warmer and we weren’t saving our legs for Kili, we would’ve rented bikes. Next time!

We were wondering where the art was (there was some in the lobby though) considering this hotel was called the "Art Hotel." We only noticed this painting behind the bed when we looked at our pictures! Guess we really had jet lag!