Lucky for us Steve was scheduled to work in Amsterdam shortly after the New Year, so I was able to tag along for a few days to explore the city. Amsterdam was not originally on either of our "must visit" lists, but we are glad we had the opportunity to visit the land of canals, wooden clogs, windmills, crazy bike riders, and legal marijuana (which to all of your disappointment we did not sample).
We were able to hit several of the big name museums including the Anne Frank House and the Van Gogh Museum on the New Year's weekend while avoiding the firecrackers and fireworks being lit on small, busy side streets. We were glad we did our homework before visiting on New Year's Eve and prepared ourselves to stay out of the way of the people shooting these off while having complete disregard for everyone else around them! We have since heard that Amsterdam has some of the busiest emergency rooms in all of Europe on New Year's Eve... now we fully understand why.
Unfortunately during our trip the weather was less than ideal with some fierce wind and rain (yet evidently 30 and 40 mph wind is still not enough to stop the Dutch from getting on their bikes around town), but we still managed to get in a boat ride on the canals, visit the flower markets, and see some beautiful architecture.
However, perhaps our favorite memory from the trip is the time we spent outside of Amsterdam in the Dutch countryside. We took a day tour that included visiting a wooden clog maker, an old fishermens' village, several authentic windmills, and a cheese factory (good, but not as good as the Swiss). Here are a few photos from the tour...
A pair of Dutch wedding shoes - pretty cool, but not as cool as the thieves' wooden shoes that were made so your footprints looked like they were going in the opposite direction!
Around the fishing villages and windmills...
Inside a windmill on a very windy day...
And of course no trip would be complete without trying new food and Steve's sampling of new beers... I think the highlight (maybe to Steve's surprise) was the Indonesian Rijsttafel. If you are unfamiliar with it, a rijsttafel is a combination of many different side dishes that are a mixture of rice, meat, and vegetable based. We choose 11 different dishes, but many rijsttafel's for large groups can me upwards of 40 or 50 different dishes. It is truly a small feast of many flavors!
However, as with everywhere we visit, there is always a takeaway lesson for us. There were two for us in Amsterdam... first, always buy wooden clogs that fit.
And second, watch out for pickpocketers (or as we decided, just watch out for anyone that is reaching for your rear end)!
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