Amsterdam

When I was in fourth grade for our Around the World celebration I was "Holland", soon to be understood as The Netherlands.  I recall being so intrigued by the fact that they had a city named Haarlem - with two A's!  So, when a friend of mine said she really wanted to go see the tulips in bloom I couldn't pass.  Last minute flight tickets and an unusually lucky score on a room at a B&B and we were on our way!

After arriving late Friday night, browsing an outdoor book fair, grabbing a couple of Amstels and some dinner we were back to the flat to get rested up.  Great room, fraction of the price of a hotel, and awesome location - close, but not too close and no riff raff.

Saturday we had to pack in as much of what Amsterdam had to offer in as little as time as possible (well, not quite everything).  In the morning we browsed a food and craft market, saw the Anne Frank house (from the outside), and found our way through old squares and the tulip market - Bloemenmarkt.  So fun!  Bulbs upon bulbs, wild varieties, beautiful colors.  One musn't forget that the town of Gouda is just outside Amsterdam, so brightly colored rounds of pungent cheese were on offer as well.

I bought my handy travel guide earlier in the week and I was surprised to learn that Amsterdam is nearly all canals.  In parts of town, every other what would be a street is in fact a waterway.  This makes for infinite picturesque views - with boats and bridges and the classic thin, brick row housing along the channels.

I would not be one bit surprised if someone told me that there were more bicycles in Amsterdam than people - including tourists.  One has to witness the mass quantities of bikes hanging on every post/fence/tree and just crammed into any open spot forming mass jungles of bike parts to truly understand this (for the Amazing Race fans one of the legs was in fact trying to find a couple bikes at the Central Station bike parking lots, which is several stories high).

So  ... when in Rome  ...we did in fact spend the afternoon on a canal boat cruise and rented a couple bikes to do it like the locals.  Stopped for a snack of fondue (whoa delicious)!  After some recuperation time, we were back on the town for some people watching and a spectacular dinner and bottle of wine.

Sunday was all about going out to see the tulip fields.  We had rented a car, and to avoid going into a fit of rage I will summarize it to:  we ended up with a manual, Amy ended up with an ego boost.  Kuekenhof is a park south of Haarlem devoted to showcasing the bulbs - truly stunning.  The colors and size of some varietals was certainly beyond what we see in the States.  They even had twins!  Though we had to see the fields as we bounced our way back to the airport, the color palette was nonetheless breathtaking.

I will be spending time trying to figure out how to make quitting my job and living (not working) in Amsterdam for a while seem like a respectable thing to do.

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