My luggage arrived about 3pm yesterday, so we got a late start to Amsterdam. Matt lives about 45 minutes away from there via train. We got to AMS and decided to make our way through town and go find the Ann Frank house. We walked all around and i loved all the canals and architecture. What I soon learned was that Matt has no inner compass...and lets just say we walked all around AMS before I took over and got us to the Ann Frank house... Ironically we sat outside and ate about a block from it, but didn't know it. We did laugh pretty hard at this once we realized it. Sadly the line to go in wrapped around the block, and after checking with people at the front of the line, we knew we would be waiting over an hour and probably not get in before close. So we walked some more....and can I add we always ended up in Dam Square every time we walked some place.One of the funniest things I saw while in AMS were the urinals in the streets (yes this is Matt using one)
Hilarious! Men just walk up and in a cylinder shaped thingie, divided by 4 and there you could have 4 men urinating in front of everyone...it is actually quite genius if you ask me. Keeps them from peeing in alleys...and since that is where the prostitutes are in the red light district...that is good.
We made it to the red light district and i actually thought the majority of it was tame, when we did walk down a side street/alley and i finally saw the girls in the windows, well that was odd and uncomfortable as they were in their bra and underwear and negotiating with men...odd.
We made out way to get a canal tour and ended up on a candle lit one that also included wine and a cheese plate. (err, you had me there). We thought it was going to be an hour but turned out it was 2 hours. We had a really good time, got to see a ton of things we would not have from the streets. Houseboats are a big deal there, they even had 3 boats connected that made for a little kids playground...it was cool. We also learned that the windows with big shutters on them are old warehouses, they are the only windows with shutters....and my favorites.
Once the boat ride was over we wandered a bit more, got some frites (fries) as you are suppose to while there....and we hardly ate any...not that good.
Headed back on train to Den Haag and got home very very late, allowing us about 2.5hrs sleep....hence we have been sleeping on train :)
I am very excited to spend the night in Paris...I cant wait to see the Eiffel tower :)
Till tomorrow
Bon Jour,
KK
