We were so excited for our first getaway outside of Norway! Everyone kept asking us why we chose to travel to Amsterdam, but The Netherlands has always been on our list of places to visit while living here. PLUS, we had some great friends from home who were visiting Europe and this was their first stop. Flights are inexpensive and short from Norway so we decided to join them for the first leg of their journey. And it was so fun to travel with another couple! We decided to leave Lily with a family in our ward so we could have alone time, kind of a "babymoon" before our baby arrives, plus it's just easier to plan and do things without a toddler and stroller. We were so grateful for the family who watched her for 4 nights! It was the longest we've been away from her and the first time she's stayed somewhere that is not family. Anyway, on to the many many pictures I have of our vacation.
Our trip started out with a delayed flight because of the weather :(. Luckily, it was only a few hours, but we missed out on a couple areas we wanted to see because of it. But oh well, we made it without a terrible delay. Here we are waiting in some comfy chairs at the airport.
The first "I amsterdam" sign we saw just outside the airport.
We met our friends at the hotel and decided to go to the Anne Frank House for our first evening. We must have not been quite in the picture-taking vacation mode yet, because we didn't get any pictures. It was dark so maybe that was part of it. But the Anne Frank House is in a beautiful part of Amsterdam and a highlight of the trip. It's amazing to think that that was the actual house we read about in her diary. We also stopped at a restaurant just down the road and had some traditional dutch food at Bistro Bij ons. (We ate some great food on this trip, so that will be talked a lot about :)) For some reason my expectations weren't that high, but the mashed potatoes mixed with vegetables and meat had such a great flavor. And for us restaurant-starved Americans we were in heaven going out to eat again.
Emma and Levi had some major jet lag to get over, but we didn't have to adjust our time at all, so after they headed off to sleep we went to find icecream. As you can see from our faces, Ben & Jerry's was very enjoyable.
The next morning we headed to the Van Gogh Museum. Our first hotel was conveniently located by the museum district so we were able to just walk over there in the morning. I LOVED this museum. I haven't been to a museum focused solely on one artist and due to Van Gogh's detailed letter writing, analysis of his work, and his self-recorded progress as an artist it was like getting to know someone one step at a time. I usually get overwhelmed at museums but I really enjoyed getting to know the actual artist and to find out why he chose to paint a certain way, rather than just others' interpretations. To me, this is a must-see in Amsterdam.
After the museum we took a walk over to Vondelpark. This would have been a completely different trip if the weather had been nice, but it gives us a reason to go back someday and explore other outdoor areas. But here's a few pictures from our quick walk in the chill.
ALL the streets in the city look like this. It's what everyone thinks about when you hear about Amsterdam
Then we headed to Dam Square, where all the central buildings and monuments are. Their tram system is really efficient so it was very easy to travel to the different areas we wanted to go.
This is the Royal Palace of Amsterdam.
This is the Royal Palace of Amsterdam.
The National Monument.
On our way back from Dam Square we tried a traditional Dutch treat of fries with mayonnaise (and ketchup). See that little fork in the bottom left corner, that's how you eat the sauce covered fries in a cone. It was delicious! Even better than we hoped.
We met Levi and Emma back at our first hotel so we could move our bags to this cozy boathouse we found on Airbnb. It may not look like much on the outside, but wait until you see the inside.
Amazing isn't it? Emma and Levi were so gracious and let us sleep in this bed with the view while they crouched down stairs into the bow of the boat. (One advantage for being a month and a half more pregnant than Emma, ha ha) Thanks you guys!
This was our view across the river.
It was dark when we arrived, and our pictures are pretty blurry, but this was the lit-up bridge we could see out the window that split apart if a bigger boat came by.
Swans seem to follow us in Europe. This one was swimming outside our window for a long time when we arrived.
The boathouse was relaxing. It was really fun to talk and catch up with Emma and Levi in the little sitting area before going to bed each night.
The next day was a whirlwind as we took a daytrip to see 3 cities outside of Amsterdam.
We did a lot of this...
and this...
and this...
stared at this...
and even more of this :)
In fact, we found out later from Levi's pedometer that we trekked 10 miles that day.
This was our first scene as we got off the train in Delft. We should have taken pictures of the 3-level bike parking garage we passed while getting on the train. I mean you see bikes literally everywhere in Amsterdam, but seriously? That is a whole lotta bikes. I don't know how you would ever find yours.
This is a picture of bikes from Dam Square.
Anyway, on to Delft. Delft is known for the famous blue and white porcelain that you associate with The Netherlands. The beautiful neighborhoods and smaller feel of the village was probably my favorite of the three cities we went to.
We toured the Oude Kerk and Nieuwe Kerk here. (It seemed that every city had an oude and nieuwe kerk). It was interesting to see all the gravestones inside the churches. There's a lot of history behind being buried in the churches, but I won't go into that. The artist, Johannes Vermeer is even buried in one of them.
As you can see, we loved this picturesque town.
We stopped at a porcelain chop and then we were off to The Hague to see where their parliament is held.
Sadly, we couldn't go inside any of the buildings, but it really was a neat square surrounded by amazing buildings.
There was a lot of cool modern architecture here too that I don't have pictures of. We decided not to visit some of the paying sights they have here due to time, so we didn't explore this city too much.
Then we were off again to Leiden, which is considered the "college town". And I finally found a windmill to take a picture of! Sadly, it was closed the day we went so we couldn't see inside. Again, one of those things we would do if we visit again when it's warmer.
Just a few pictures of the town.
I was completely exhausted by the time we were on the train back to Amsterdam. I felt like I kept up pretty well for being 7 months pregnant, but man was I tired.
Until we found this amazing Italian restaurant which completely lifted my mood.
Not only was the food amazing, but the owner was so nice and talkative and totally made my day.
We saw a guitar hiding in the corner and convinced him to play for us. He found an "American song" for us. Here's a short clip. Probably one of my favorite parts of the trip.
If you happen to every be in Amsterdam COME HERE for a meal.
Our final day in Amsterdam.
We started the morning at the famous market that is open everyday called "Albert cuyp markt". There was a lot see here and it was fun to walk around.
We had been looking for legit stroopwafels since we arrived and it was worth the wait! It was amazing! We all wanted more, except that our food intake was limited so we could fit in our lunch restaurant, ha ha.
Another amazing must-try restaurant was The Butcher. The atmosphere was as amazing as the food.
Oh Barrett and I had waited 5 months for a burger and fries like this. We were in heaven.
Then we moved our stuff back to the original hotel and visited the Stedelijk museum of modern art. There was a lot to see there. I loved the Van Gogh museum as much as Barrett loved looking at all the modern design. That says a lot about our personalities right there :)
He took a lot more pictures, but here's a couple.
We then said goodbye to Emma and Levi, promising that we would plan another trip together again, and Barrett and I went on a 2-hour canal tour of Amsterdam. It was a nice, relaxing end to our busy trip and we got to see Amsterdam in a whole new view than we had up to that point. Plus, we drove right past the boathouse we stayed in which was fun.
We saw a lot of neat sights on the tour, but it was too hard to take pictures. Everything was blurry because we were moving. But I did manage to get this one picture of a light and water projection of a ship.
If you think we did a lot, you should see how much we cut out of our list, ha ha. But it was a perfect getaway and we loved traveling with friends we hadn't seen for along time. Tot de volgende keer, Amsterdam.
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