We all made it and we were super excited to ride on into the lovely Amsterdam!
We only had about 24 hours in Amsterdam so we had to pack a lot into our day...
We started by visiting this huge I Am Sterdam sign...which is Amsterdams little slogan...It was fun to see...
After walking around the Van Gogh museum it was lunch time and Courtney was super excited to show us her favorite place to eat in Amsterdam!
It was a delish!!
After lunch we hopped on a boat and took a nice canal tour....We learned that many vehicles each week fall into the canal because all they have to stop them from going over is that little tiny metal bar....They even have a special branch of their police and fire departments that handles getting cars out of the canal!
We also learned that the homes in Amsterdam had pulley systems attached to the top of house. This was used because with the homes being so narrow it was difficult to get furniture up stairs. You could then attach it to the pulley and hoist it right on up! See the pulley's at the top of the houses???
They also have a lot of houseboats along the canal...
Some of the other landmarks of Amsterdam were a cool looking watch tower, Anne Franks house, houses with cool shutters, and even a bike parking garage!!
Farther on in the tour we went out to bigger waters and got to see a pirate ship, cool chapels, and a drawbridge...
After the canal tour we realized that Holland won their World Cup game that day so everyone was in this little square celebrating! It was like Hiney Gate but orange! We even bought some orange leis from some guy for a Euro!
We wandered around the city a bit after that taking in the sights...including the amazing tulip market they have! I wanted to bring back a wooden shoe full of tulip bulbs but I was assured that it would not make it through customs....stupid...
We even got to sit in a wooden shoe outside of a souvenir shop!
Courtney told us she had a big surprise for us after the big shoe. She said it was a fantastic place...and this is where she took us to...
A condom shop! It was nutso!
Steph and I broke off from Courtney here and went to tour Anne Franks house...outside of the house is a statue of her...Steph and I took our pics in front of her...I felt weird smiling but Steph didn't!
The house was incredible to see...I can't believe it's all still there...it was pretty eerie to walk through...
Steph and I hung out by the canal to wait for Courtney after we were done...we got to see a tulip museum house boat, and a party boat floating down the canal complete with a generator, TV, and stereo!
The night ended hanging out, having some drinks...across the street from a "special" coffee shop, and wandering around taking in the night life...including the infamous Red Light district...which I will say was quite the experience!
We found a fun bar to go into...all in all it was a great night in Amsterdam!
We rounded out our trip the next morning by going to a pancake place across the street from our hotel...We got pancakes with bacon and they baked the bacon into the pancakes! It was DELICIOUS!!! Completely amazing...I should have taken a picture!
I think Amsterdam was my favorite stop on our adventure...I wish we could have spent a little more time there. We has the most amazing weather, the people were super nice, and it was just all around lovely!
Next up...rolling on into Berlin!!
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