We had to be up and out by 4 am the next day to head to Amsterdam! It was an early day but worth it to go to see another place.

Getting to Amsterdam just as it was getting light.

Had to get Stroopwallels out of the vending machine since we were in Holland.

Jaelee wanted chips instead.

We took the train/metro to our hotel. We were there really early and we were hoping they would at least hold our bags until check in time but even better our rooms were ready! We were able to go up and put our stuff away before venturing out.

The rooms were very small with 4 twin beds and bunk beds. Downstairs in the lobby was a lot of tables, a kitchen, bar and small restaurant area. Seemed like most people hung out down here rather than in their rooms.

When you walk out of the metro this is the building you come out of, isn’t it beautiful?

We were lucky to get some sun while we were in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam reminded me so much of Venice and on one of our tours they even said it’s called Venice of the North. I had never realized that before. It is built on water with many canals just like Venice.

We made our way to Anne Frank’s house. Sadly we did not book the museum in enough time and it was sold out. We got to see the house though. After that Greg, Jaelee and I decided to go on a boat tour through the canals and the rest of the group went to a pub.

Our captain on the tour was amazing! He gave us such great information about Amsterdam and afterwards he offered a map he and his girlfriend had personally made with his favorite bar and restuarants.

He told us that the houses that are black are the oldest. They used to put tar on them to help preserve them until they realized how bad tar was so now they use something else.

Jaelee loves all the little cars there. She wants one really bad.

Magere Brug (Skinny Bridge)

This is a bar, it is very crooked.

A large 3 story Chinese restaurant. Our guide said there was better Chinese in the Red Light district.

Our guide told us that in order to park a boat here it has to be over 100 years old!

This ship is a replica of a dutch boat used. You can actually go in it on a tour. If we had more time I would of loved to do that.

The marine museum you can tour along with the ship.

At the top of this very tall building you can go on this swing! Yikes I’m too old for that kinda stuff now.

We met back up with the rest of the group, Brandi got this picture of us on the boat.

When we got off the boat, Anne Frank’s house was less busy so we could get a picture of Jaelee in front of the door.

When in Amsterdam….

We decided to go check out the Red Light district. It was very tame, we saw a few ladies in the window with lingerie. Like Jayse said most of the what goes on is on the buildings 🙂 You are not supposed to take pictures in the Red Light district to protect the privacy of the people that work there. I only got a few.

We decided to try one of the places our guide had suggested for dinner. We ended up at a Chinese restaurant. It was very good. Greg had been sick off and on all day from the salad the night before. My sister had been up in the bathroom a lot the night before but luckily she was ok during the day. At the restaurant Greg didn’t eat and ended up having to get to the bathroom there. Such a bummer for him.

That night we had a boat tour schedule to see the Festival of Lights. I gotta say the crew was great but this was a big disappointment. The festival of lights was a few large light art pieces. I was hoping to go through just a bunch of lights all over. They seemed to be few and far between.