Amsterdam

At the end of February Katie, Claudio, Emily, and myself headed out of town to Amsterdam to celebrate Katie's 25th birthday.  Claudio and Emily had been before, but this was the first time for Katie and I.

The Alps from the plane window.  I was passed out sleeping (and most likely drooling), but was awoken by Katie to see this gorgeous view.  The mountains absolutely went on forever, in every direction.

First glimpse of the canals.  Unlike those in Venice, the canals here are man-made, and thus very straight and orderly.

Dutch architecture!  I felt like I was in the Merode altarpiece.  (Art history joke.)

This beautiful building is actually a shopping mall.  Notice the letters for the store Mango on the bottom left?  Europe has such an abundance of breathtaking buildings that they can use them for whatever they want.  It's not fair!  I'd love just one like this somewhere on the west coast.

The four of us.

Our hostel was a great find, and was in a fabulous location.  No elevator of course.

Church in the middle of the red light district.  We lovingly referred to it as the hooker church, and whenever the bells would toll we said that they signaled a shift change.

Many of the buildings are completely crooked or lopsided, esp. those on the canals.  I believe this is because Amsterdam is actually built upon a marsh or other similar unstable foundations, but I could be totally wrong.

The carnage of this poor umbrella pretty much sums up the weather during our stay.  In fact, we had planned to take a day-trip to Utrecht, to see a different part of Holland, but the weather was so miserable, and we had planned mainly to walk around while there, that we decided to skip it.  Next time!

Like Ferrara, Amsterdam is a very big bike city.  Something that I've never seen before, and unfortunately didn't manage to capture a picture of, was how people would ride with their friends.  One person would be pedaling the bike like normal, and the other would sit on the back of the bike, sideways, and enjoy the ride.  Even in the miserable weather they were doing this.  The people are in such contrast to those Rome: if it is raining even the slightest bit, the Romans layer up and whip out their huge umbrellas, or will simply stay inside.  The Dutch, on the other hand, went about their daily business, and I think the only umbrellas we ever saw were those of other tourists.

Another common type of bike, convenient for when you have lots of things to carry and/or children.

Clogs everywhere!

Really cute, until you get up to my size and they are absolutely gargantuan.  Look at them in comparison to my hand!  Curse my big feet.

Wheels and wheels of delicious cheese.  We were absolutely in heaven!  These are wheels of gouda, which apparently is actually pronounce "how-duh".  The cheese shop we were in had loads of free samples and we may have tried every option.  Twice.  (Maybe three times...)

Beautiful tulips.  We would loved to have gone out of the city and seen the tulip fields, but it wasn't the right time of year.

We found this restaurant in Lonely Planet and looked it up online before our trip and studied the menu.  Let me just say that the name of the restaurant indeed deserves its exclamation point-- the pancakes were out of this world.

Katie and Claudio eagerly awaiting our food.

Pancake heaven.  I'm not sure exactly how to describe them-- perhaps a bit between a crepe and an American pancake in texture.  And rather than plain with butter and syrup (although those "American style" pancakes were offered on the menu) these were filled and topped with savory fillings.  Mine, on the far right, was filled with cheese and topped with bacon.  DELICIOUS!

The canals by night.

Emily and I stopped in a coffee shop for some hot chocolate while Katie and Claudio went to the Anne Frank house.

View from our hostel window of the canals and the Live Sex Show, if you can see the sign on the left.

Fantastic condom shop in the middle of town.

Street art.

The red light district.  Claudio warned us not to take photos of the actual windows themselves, as the workers get quite mad and will slur at you and try to take your camera.  Understandable.  If I were advertising myself in a window I wouldn't really want to be photographed either.

A huge flock of swans in the middle of the red light district.  Completely surreal.

We thought that this crane was fake because of how still he stood.  But no, and in fact he walked across the street a few times variously to the sex shop and the fried chicken place.  Food and porn!  What else does one need?

On our first day we visited the wax museum and hung out with Pavarotti.  I said, "let's pretend we're singing for the picture!".  Apparently I was the only one who thought that was a good idea. :(

With JPII.  I said, "Let's pretend to pray!"  Nobody likes my picture-taking ideas very much.

With Rembrandt.

Look how proportional I am!  Vitruvius and Leonardo would be proud!!