European Adventure: Here's Amsterdam

Amsterdam. There's more than meets the eye. It's more that what you think. What ARE you thinking... The Red Light district, Coffee(Pot)Shops, and bikes. True, those things are present and many of them in abundance but in the week that we wandered and wandered and walked and walked and walked the city... We were impressed by the amazing architecture, the over 1000 bridges, the overwhelming amount of museums, the variety of cultures, languages, and food, the quality of the chocolate, the bikers toting children, groceries, giant instruments and so much more all without a helmet, while smoking and texting on their phones... Seriously. 

There seemed to be a general feeling of satisfaction, call it contentment but it was noticeable.

Rock Steady doing work for Physio Control is what brought us to Amsterdam. (Um but if Customs asks, we were just on Holiday). We have done several events for them and the kids and I have gotten to come along and explore new places while Mr. B is generally stuck in a hotel. They love it and always ask where we're going to the next Physio Control... (Last year we went to Seattle and the year before we spent time in Tuscon). We only ventured down to the ballroom to visit Dad at work once, much to the disappointment of the small ones, they love running through the ballroom as the team loads in but we were in a foreign venue with foreign equipment belonging to a foreign AV company. I just wasn't sure if they'd find my two playing in the ballroom as endearing as our own guys.

Thank you YELP! for gastronomic satisfaction. Thank you English speakers for posting your English reviews of Amsterdam based businesses. Thank you iPhone... I love you. These yummy eats above are from a place called Little Collins. A couple from Melbourne, AUS had a great spot I read about. Following rave suggestions from Yelpers, I ordered (top left) the Corn Fritters with salsa and cilantro. Um WOW. I wish I'd gone back to try the coconut french toast with lemon curd. Sounds amazing right? And the bikes... Well I learned/heard from more than one source that there are more bikes in Amsterdam than people. It is the surest way to get around and folks ride them in all sorts of weather. While it's most efficient for getting around, we chose to explore Amsterdam on foot. To truly take in everything around us. Plus, me on a bike with two independent kids was a recipe for more that I really wanted to deal with. LOL.

Like all of our Amsterdam Adventures, we headed to Little Collins on foot (Praise you Google Maps!... and Very Nice Random Man outside our hotel that saw us looking at the iPhone map and offered to point us in the right direction). This was about 3/4 mile from our hotel and took us through a great little park. We were lucky to get to spend the morning with Andrew and John as well, much to the delight of the whole Booth Fam (but especially the little B's). Families and children dotted the playground since it was only 10:30 which is apparently incredibly early for the Dutch. Things don't open til 10 or 11 and then they close at 6!
Brunch is also another "thing" that has yet to catch on in Amsterdam. Not too popular a meal. I don't know why. Brunch is my favoritist meal ever.
ever.

I think I'll invest in some hotel blackout curtains. We were all wonky from the time difference but on this particular morning, those kiddos slept until 11am! They slept through a breakfast delivery from room service, through my typing away on my computer... I was so glad that they were getting rest though. I still haven't fully recovered from the jet lag that came with the trip home.

The weather was in the 30's and 40's Fahrenheit. There was  a drizzle as we adventured around. One morning we woke up to full on rain. One look out the window and I knew we'd be staying in for the day. Lucky for us we ordered room service (Belgian Waffles, Pancakes with banana compote and a cheese tray), snacked on that all day and read all of Stuart Little.

The rain didn't defeat us, we were out and about the very next day. We toured the Rijksmuseum which is home to many amazing original paintings including Rembrandts The Night Watch. JT was very good about completing the Kid's Trail through the museum as I required him to to educational work since he was missing a week of school.

These Iamsterdam letters are giant! What fun climbing all over them. This area is called Museumplein and got very cold as there is quite the large open space without any tall buildings to block the wind!

Fun playgrounds (that you'd never see here in the states... you want my kids to climb on some logs?! hang from a rope?! madness... right lol) were the perfect outlet for pent up energy.

We had a fun experience taking a canal cruise. There was audio commentary in 17 different languages and it gave me my bearings in the city. Once I figured out the main canals, I felt pretty comfortable navigating where we were headed. Plus accompanied by Mr. B who is a compass all his own, lost was never even a thought that entered my mind.

In a courtyard that we passed there was a Chess Game going on with pieces that were 2' and 3' tall. We saw a replica of The Amsterdam, a cargo ship of the East India Trading Company (hmmm why does that name sound familiar? Pirates of the Caribbean... That's what JT said) that was shipwrecked on it's maiden voyage. We visited Begijnhof, an inner courtyard of Amsterdam once inhabited by nuns, now is home to only women who are single and over 30 years of age. And on the bottom right, it may be hard to see but this is the only spot to see the 6 arched bridges in a row. If you were to look the other way there would be 6 more non arched bridges, to the right there are two more and the man is standing on "The Bridge of 15 Bridges"

The kids and I took Sandeman's New Amsterdam tour which was a free 3 hour walking tour. The guides work for gratuity only so they generally do as much as they can to earn it. We were entertained with history stories and anecdotes. As we walked up to the tour (10 minutes late since we were navigating to Dam Square on foot) I could almost feel the collective sigh of the lady who's bringing her young children on a walking tour of the city. Fortunately, the Little B's brought their charming personalities that day and had won over the crowd and our guide by the end of the tour. Of course, the first stop on the tour was through the Red Light District. I whispered fiercely into their ears that on our walk we may see mannequins in the window wearing not much clothes and that those mannequins may in fact be real people but that's what they chose to do for their job so they should be as respectful as possible and to NOT SAY ANYTHING and I would gladly answer any questions they might have when we were going back to the hotel and if they felt uncomfortable they could just put their heads on my jacket and I'd guide them through the area if they didn't want to look up. Fortunately, we only say 3 ladies. JT happened to be looking the opposite direction as we passed each one and HeaBug only made one comment later about the ladies not wearing much clothes and that was that. phew!

The Hotel Okura. Fancy Schmance. Perfect for those traveling for business. It wasn't so much Kid Friendly... more Kid Tolerant. But my two were very well behaved for the most part, minded their manners, said please and thank you. On our last night, we walked into the lobby returning from dinner and there were several children running, loudly, and yelling through the main entrance and into the high end Japanese restaurant (where an army of chefs intricately hand carve vegetables into amazing shapes and designs). One of the Front Desk ladies went marching off after them and I couldn't help but nod a little "Bet you all don't mind my two small people right about now" look in their direction.

As JT was missing school, I assigned him spelling words and homework in addition to his journal entry requirement. He did a WONDERFUL job completing the work and I was super proud of him.

One of the days we headed back to the Museumplein to go ice skating at the rink. It was terrific fun and they had special training skates that went on over HeaBug's boots. They had two blades instead of one so she was able to keep her balance and skate on her own!

After skating we warmed up with cocoa and Poffertjes, small dutch pancakes. They are so super tasty. The hot chocolate was delicious and felt great in the cold. Our Poffertjes on the right are served with Nutella and powdered sugar and the ones on the left were butter and powdered sugar. Oh my.

Museum Van Loon is a 17th century home/mansion along the Keizerrgracht Canal. The home has been well preserved, the large garden still maintained and the coach house at the other end of the garden houses a barouche and was once where the horses and coaches were kept. The property stretches from one side of the block to the other and a viewable, intact, house, garden, and coach house is nowhere else to be found.

The current owners of the house have mixed their eclectic art pieces (see random Juliet Lewis picture as an example). The house has remained largely intact and still has a very Golden Age feel.

Here, JT and HeaBug are tagging along all over the city. We are in front of the Rijksmuseum and on the street in the bottom right of the above collage, they are standing in a street filled with Antique Shops and Art Galleries.

There was a day the Mr. B got to come out with us. Our phones weren't operating properly so we weren't able to find directions to things but we were able to view a map. So with no 3G service we managed to still find our way back to the Begijnhof, Dam Square, The Anne Frank house and other sites we'd discovered in the days before. Felt pretty proud of our sense of direction!

There was an outdoor street market called Albert Cuypmarkt. There was everything from fresh produce, fish, cheese, clothing, handbags and more. The market is in a neighborhood of Amsterdam called De Pijp, which is where our hotel was. My friend Mrs. Worden had given me an "Amsterdam with kids 101" crash course just before we left, she having spent 3 weeks there in January/February 2012. She had me sample a Stroopwafel. Uhhhhmazing. I knew I'd have to find some to bring home. While walking through the market, we came across a man making them fresh. HeaBug and I had to try. They were a delight!!

We experienced a lot of different foods, returning to only one restaurant twice. We found that Europeans enjoy their fried potatoes/chip (aka french fries) with mayo. Even McDonalds gives you mayo. We saw a McD and I let the kids try. Crack Fries=same. They did have fried shrimp on the menu though. Produce and fish are available in abundance. The best tasting food we had was Mediterranean. The "white hair" topping the baklava above is actually spun sugar. Like cotton candy. I had to ask because it looks like a wig.

The Dutch know their wine and beer (neither of which we sampled), their chocolate (which we sampled abundantly) and their cheese (I brought home 7+ pounds!). Sounds like a combo that would make any nation worthy of the 10 ten happiest places to live.

A little story: As we walked to De Carousel Pannenkoeken (The Carousel Pancake House) we witnessed a moped and bike get into an accident. As we walked by, we heard NOTHING. Because nothing was said. The riders looked at each other, no one was hurt, not too much damage, and they WENT ON THEIR WAY. No yelling, no exchange of information, no blame.

With narrow roads that aren't very car friendly, biking and walking have given busy people in a busier world time to stop and stare. There is so much that Amsterdam has to offer and it was wonderful to be a part of it for the week.

We definitely feel a little more globally minded as we prepared for our journey home.