the trip: amsterdam

pretty much as soon as we got to amsterdam, i realized i had picked up "the creeping crud" that poor dr. steele had been fighting for days. congestion, wooziness, sore throat, the whole bit. despite that, we resolved to have fun anyway, and off we went. we spent our first afternoon on a city tour. the buildings are mostly tall, narrow, and so old that "paul revere weren't born yet when that was built". most of downtown was built up in the 16 and 1700s. i can barely comprehend that people still live and work and go about their daily lives amid that kind of history. there are canals every which way and boats and houseboats that remind me of trailers at a trailer park. and there are bicycles everywhere. i thought i saw a lot in japan, but those were nothing compared to this! the bicycles rival cars for numbers on the streets, and people use them as a regular, daily means of transportation. they ride 'em in their work clothes, and with their kids. people talk on their phones and text on their bikes. they attach little trailers to haul stuff in. we even saw a multi-level bicycle parking garage at the train station. i'd have to say that the immense weight of history and the bicycles were the biggest culture shocks.
the tour included a stop at a diamond factory. grrrrr. don't get me started on the whole blood diamond thing. i have not, nor will i ever voluntarily wear one of those rocks. still, now i've seen how they cut and polish the things.
then we got back on the bus. each passenger was given a little headset, which we plugged in to the side of the bus, and then selected our language of choice. the tour was set up via gps, so the descriptions supposedly matched what we were seeing. some of the time, it did.
after the tour, we got all set up in our hotel room and then went out to find food. we found a mcdonalds, some italian places, and about five different falafel houses. so i ate falafel. then we called it a day.
day two started with breakfast at the hotel (they gave us non name-brand nutella!! among other things). then, after a quick stop at a pharmacy for some creeping crud killer, we set out to explore the city on foot. we went through several markets and shops and were horrified at the prices of things. we perused the flower market and walked up to a giant windmill - one of the few working windmills left in the area. we decided that since food was so expensive, we'd just get bread and vegetables at a market and make sandwiches. and then we found avocadoes. really cheap, good avocadoes. and some rich, nutty bread. so that was dinner for a few nights. om nom nom. the next day, we set out for the anne frank house first thing. it was depressing and inspiring at the same time. i'd read the book, and even been anne in a play, but it was very sobering to stand in her room and look at the movie star photos and news clippings she'd hung on the walls and written about.
and then, to counteract the melancholy, we met a young american guy who was passing out flyers for a comedy show that evening, not far from our hotel. interested? yes i was. the club (and the group) are called boom chicago, and they were quite good. most of the show was improv, with just a few pre-rehearsed bits or clips. i enjoyed myself and some nummy hot cocoa.
day three we visited rembrandt's house (that was foreclosed on, and has been restored to the level of fancy he thought he could afford). it was ornate, and fascinating. some historians had assembled a collection of natural artifacts that resemble rembrandt's collection he used for artistic inspiration. he had some really weird stuff, like lizards and dried armadillos. after rembrandt's house, we went to the historical museum and learned about amsterdam. there was a fashion exhibit at the museum, so we saw lots of clothes in addition to bits of amsterdam history. towards the end of the museum, there were a series of scenes/stories depicting the lives of children through different times and socio-economic classes of the city. it turns out that amsterdam has always been very progressive in caring for the poor and needy. they had a huge old-folks home downtown, and fed homeless people and orphans. there were work programs for poor people there a couple of hundred years ago, where instead of being just given money, people were given jobs building infrastructure and such. so the new deal turns out to have not been such a novel idea after all. i guess you learn something new every day.
after the museum, we took a canal boat tour in the dark. so we got to ride around the canals for about an hour and see what amsterdam looks like all lit up for the evening.
then on our last day we visited the van loon museum - a ridiculously expensive canal house that has been restored to what it looked like a few hundred years ago. the van loon family still owns the house, and they let people come in and wander around (for a fee, of course) to see what it looked like back in the day. and what it looked like was very nice.
after that it was off to the famous sara's pancake house for some ravioli.... heehee no. apple pancakes and boy was it yum! pricey though, like everything else. so then we went down to the market by the hotel to spend the last of our euros. and then colleen showed us a confectionery so i wished i had a few more euros left. then when we were packing up our stuff at the hotel, my wish was granted because i did have a few more euros in my bag. so then i ran back down to the confectionery. i told the lady behind the counter that i wanted to spend the last of my euros there, and she helped me pick out some awesome sweets. then she winked and stuffed a few extras in the bag. nice! we had a chocolate party back up at the hotel room. after the avocado sandwiches and some of the most amazing garlic olives i have ever experienced.
then i drugged myself up with dutch creeping crud remedy and went to bed.
the flight back home was awful - ten hours of congested misery. then the three hour drive from the airport was a lot less miserable. then i got home to find out that my pet sitter (who is freaking amazing) had already walked my dogs and left me a crock pot of veggie soup. ahhhhhhhh. and a day off on sunday before the drama began again.