Mandy and Ed's Winter Break Trip--- Epsiode 2 Amsterdam

So the second leg of our journey meant taking a six hour train from Berlin to Amsterdam. Amsterdam, a city possibly more notorious then New Orleans, had something comepletely new to give us in our adventures. Ed and I arrived in the city late Saturday night and had a time finding the hostel we were staying in for one night. This place which we have affectionately nicknamed "Bob's Youth Palace" yielded the true hostel experience. We slept in a room of 16 people and it was pretty gross. For this reason Edward and I had something to eat and wandered the streets of Amsterdam for several hours without knowing where the heck we were going. We quickly found Dam Square with the royal palace and took a stroll down the Red Light District. We were so exhausted afterwards we had no qualms passing out in our bunk beds at "Bob's Youth Palace."



The remander of our trip was spent in a nice hotel in Vondell Park, a posh residential area. Our first full day in Amsterdam we caught another Free Tour. We saw the Old Kirk (oldest church) smack in the middle of Amsterdam's red light district. We wandered about to see the Old Jewesh Quarter, buildings which once housed the illustrious Dutch East Indian Trading Company, saw an old women's prison, the Gates to the city, and past many many canal ways. Amsterdam is infested with bicycles where thousands of them park along the streets, waterways, and even in the case of the Centraal station bicycle parking garages. We ended our tour in front of the Anne Frank house. So Ed and I went there right at the end of the tour to see the tiny rooms which once held the famous girl as her family hid from the Nazis. Incredibly to be walking in something you always read about in school. Ed and I ended the day by having traditional dutch pancakes!!! (Ed had brie, spinach, and cashews, while I had cherry).



Christmas Eve did not hinder our adventure what so ever. We went to the Rembrahnt house where the famous artisit lived and created his masterpieces. Edward was accosted my a house cat in a restuarant in Amsterdam's China town. The Torture museum, VERY disappointing and I would never recommend it. We made our way through the Van Gogh museum also before things closed down. The following day, Christmas, was really uneventful. We explored the park area which neighbored our hotel. It was a lovely time out, and we almost saw a bicycle colision. By some miracle we did find a restuarant to have Christmas dinner that evening... it was a seafood restuarant and I saw the lobster I was going to eat walking in the front door!!!



Our final day in Amsterdam we walked through the famous floating flower market. Thousands of tulips and so many beautiful orchids.. I wish I could've taken one back to Edinburgh with me. A very impressing museum we toured was the Dutch Resistance Museum which explains the various ways the Dutch people rebelled against Nazi occupation during WWII. We tried "Fritz" or french fries and I was adventurous enough to try them with this sweet peanut sauce. It was sweet!!! My highlight of this city was wandering the streets with Edward. We walked along the canals for hours just chatting and watching the beautiful city turn to twilight. That night we went to a cafe near our hotel where all the locals hung out carrying on their conversations.



Amsterdam is a fantastically cultural city. There is so much more than legal prostitution and weed. It houses some of the most famous collections of art in the world, is a place where people did not take occuaption lying down, and a beautiful city which retains it's maritime feel even into the twenty-first century.