September - Amsterdam!

September 16

Our 35th wedding anniversary, and we are off to Amsterdam for the week. It's an expensive city to visit but the Van Gogh museum is on my 'bucket list', so this was the perfect occasion for a splurge!

 

We purchased an annual train card, and this is our first use.  It will be a 7hr train ride with two transfers in Nuremberg and Dusseldorf.  It's a high-speed train with only a few stops, so we get to sit back, relax, drink wine, and watch the lovely scenery flow by.  I love trains!

 

Our hotel. Small but right in city center.

 

 

Amsterdam did not disappoint!

 

The city is ringed in a series of canals which makes it easy to get lost or take a really long route to cover a short distance!  It's a busy city, but the pace is so relaxed b/c people are travelling either by tram, on foot, on bike or on the water.  After work, you'd see all these pretty ladies in their pretty dresses, coats and high heels, hop on their bikes to ride home.  Very cool. 

 

 

 

We had heard that you needed to carry an umbrella with you every day in Amsterdam because the rain will come and go in a short period of time.  Very true.  Rain, sun, rain, sun, and repeat.  Most of the time it was a light drizzle, so a rain jacket was enough; other times, we retreated to a café to wait for the deluge to pass. Between the many museums and cafes, we always had a place nearby to duck into.

 

 

And here's a list of how easy it was to go 500euro over budget!

 

The Rijksmuseum

The Rembrandt House

Anne Frank House

Amsterdam Museum

Canal boat rides

Tulip Museum

Van Gogh Museum

So very glad I finally got to visit here.

I bought a scarf with this design.  In fact, this was the best museum gift shop we've ever seen.

Irises. My favorite. 

This painting looks equally amazing up close or across the room.

 

The Tulip Museum!

Another amazing gift shop that we visited twice! Lots of bulbs to plant in Michelle's yard!

 

Amsterdam has a reputation of being a very tolerant city, and if that attitude comes from legalizing and regulating the sale of pot, then I'm all for it!  The coffee shops were hardly noticeable, tucked away on side streets, where you can occasionally smell them but seldom see them.  The city was clean, the people polite, the food was great, the history incredible, and everyone speaks English!  Even the museums have signs in Dutch, German and English.

 

Yes, it's an expensive city. Yes, we blew our budget in one short week. Yes, we are coming back!

We plan to return in April to tour the extensive tulip fields.

 

Up next:  Why, Oktoberfest in Munich, of course!