Farewell Amsterdam

 This afternoon Mr. Stannix finished up with his course and we spent our last bit of time here exploring a few more areas in the city. I've pretty much walked all over this place and it was fun to point things out to Mike that I had seen the previous two days. It's nice to become familiar with a place and to know where you are as we explored the different streets and many many canals. We tried the famous fries and mayo that is pretty popular here, and stayed out fairly late. As we walked back to centraal station I turned around to soak in the scene one last time. I will not miss running away from bikes everywhere we go, but I will miss the architecture and the history! Farewell Amsterdam, it's been a slice!

The Dutch Countryside

One of the things on my list for Holland was to see the windmills and explore the country outside of the vast city of Amsterdam. With some encouragement from Mr. Stannix and a few other people I went ahead and booked myself on a tour with loads of other people and I fell in love with Holland. Our tour guide spoke Dutch, English, and Spanish! And almost every other presenter we met on our tour also spoke three languages.

We started out visiting the windmills of Zaanse Schans, which is a pretty town situation on the Zaan River. The windmills are well preserved and date back all the way to the 17th century. We were able to tour one of the windmills that made peanut oil and see the process work and learn how they turn the sails throughout the day to follow the wind. The windmills help grind wheat, nuts, spices and coloring for paints. I found it super interesting!!

As the windmill turns, these millstones turn relentlessly to crush seeds or nuts under their weight (which is about 5000 kilograms). The heavy millstones are driven by a mechanism of the mill powered only by the wind. The kind miller showed us the whole process start to finish.

 

The end result of this mill is gorgeous bottles of peanut oil shipped and sold all over.

The second place we went to was a small fishing village, just a short drive away named Voldendam. We began our tour with a walk down De Dijk (the main harbour strip) which is full of little shops and lots of people biking! One thing I learned there was to walk near the side of the cobblestone streets and run when you hear a bike bell. Ha! It seems that everywhere we went, the bikers had the right-of-way and were never pleased with crowds of tourists blocking their streets. 

 On the one side of the strip was traditional buildings and homes, and on the other side were working trawlers and fishing boats. Many of the food places mainly sold fresh sea food or fish and chips.

 We had the opportunity to go into the basement of a cheese factory/shop and learn how cheese is made right from the fresh cows milk to the finish. After four weeks it's ready to eat. We were able to sample a whole bunch of different kinds of cheese and purchase our favorites.

 

While everybody else ate sea food for dinner, I went and bought myself a Stroop Waffle. I have been craving one ever since I learned about them! We had a chance to hang out on the docks before jumping on a ferry across the lake to Marken.

 The ferry ride was about twenty minutes, and I had to pee so bad! Thankfully the bathrooms on the ferry were free! Most bathrooms here cost up to 1 Euro per person to use, so I got good at timing pit stops to restaurants where we ate or our hotel. 

We arrived in Marken at the golden hour which made for perfect lighting to capture the harbor. The little village was quiet and most of the shops were closed for the day. Marken is a former island in the Markermeer. The peninsula is a popular seaside getaway that's reachable by a long causeway or frequent ferries.

It was so quaint, and lovely, and quiet. 

We walked from one side of the village to the other where we were able to go inside a small shoe making factory and learn how clogs were made. Another process that's so intriguing. While they used to be hand made, they have now developed special machines which are fast and effective. 

They were all so beautiful! There were bundles of them hanging across the ceiling in every direction and a nice display for purchase in the main store. 

Visiting Marken was such a lovely end to the day! It was so peaceful and wonderful.

As we walked to the bus we listened to the birds, the sheep, and bike bells in the distance. It was just a short jaunt across the causeway and back to Amsterdam. We arrived back late in the evening just as the sun dipped behind the tall rows of houses. I caught the train back to our hotel and met up with a very sleepy Mr. Stannix who listened as I told him all about my adventures. This place will always have a piece of my heart!

Amsterdam: Flower Market

 Today was my first day exploring the city solo. Mr. Stannix is in his course for the next couple of days which means he leaves the hotel early in the morning and doesn't get back until late in the evening. It was overcast and foggy this morning, so I ate breakfast at the hotel (drank icky carbonated water for the first time) and then snuck in a morning nap. By the time I woke up the skies were blue and the fog had cleared. I bought another two day train pass and hopped the tram into the city to go exploring. 

 I checked our trusty map and grabbed a connecting tram that brought me to the famous flower market. Apparently this is where everybody in Amsterdam buys their flowers from. It smelled incredible as I walked through the market. 

 They had flowers of every kind, bulbs, seeds, plants, and souvenirs. I stumbled upon a Christmas store filled with Dutch hand painted ornaments and spent some time wandering around inside. 

 When I had seen all that I came to see I turned and walked down another street past bakeries, and bikes, and bridges.

 The architecture here is so unique and wonderful! I could stare at the buildings all day. Many of them have date stamps back to the 1600's. It's remarkable!

 Before I knew it, I had found myself back in the museum quarter. This time it was filled with locals wading in the water and jumping in and out of the fountains. Tourists climbed all over the sign and the place was filled with photographers. I didn't realize how far I had actually walked until I ended up here. My feet were hot and achy, so I slipped off my shoes and soaked my feet in the cold water for quite a while. It was so nice not having anywhere to be.

 Once my feet had recovered I put my shoes back on and wandered up another street towards centraal station. I made sure to stick to well peopled areas and kept a close eye out for crazies. At one point, in a busy courtyard full of eateries and tourists, I was approached by a tall pepper-haired man. I stopped abruptly and took a step back as he reached his hand out to touch my shoulder. "Don't worry, you are not my next victim," he said with a thick accent. "We are just a couple of Scandinavian guys looking for someone to share a drink and a meal with us," he added as he pointed to his buddy at the table. I, in no uncertain terms, told him no, and walked away as fast as I could.

 I kept to the streets with trams and bikes for the rest of my walk back. Walking almost seems dangerous here and I have had a few close encounters with bikes. Sometimes I have to close my eyes at busy corners as bikers are turning, cars are honking and trains are dinging. One biker rain his bell and then shouted at the elderly couple in front of me, "Are you DEAF!" It's crazy here. I am surprised there aren't more accidents honestly, but somehow the chaos works for them. 

 I found myself wondering how big the families are here, and then saw a mom bike by me with three kids in the bucket on the front of her bike and her daughter sitting behind with her arms wrapped around her. They use bikes to get everywhere here! It's no neat!

 I also admired these delicacies from the street. 

 I made it back to my hotel by early evening, and my feet were tingling. With no sign of Mike, I decided to have a late nap. 

I was able to chat with the littles back home who had just finished lunch and slept pretty well after all the fresh air and exercise!

Amsterdam: Museum Quarter

This morning started early! We can't seem to sleep past 5:00am here. It's so strange to think that our littles have been sleeping soundly in their beds for an hour or two when we are just waking up to start the day.

 After getting dressed and ready we searched out a good spot for breakfast. The pancake bakery had rave reviews and did not disappoint! It's in the same neighborhood as the Anne Frank house, so we knew how to get there and enjoyed a quiet morning walk. We started out by ordering orange juice and my taste buds were blown away when I took my first sip. It was FRESH SQUEEZED and AH-mazing! They use a special machine with a rotating basket of oranges on top. It's pretty neat!

The dutch pancakes are similar to crepes, but a little bit thicker and full of flavor! I got a Dutch style with Stroop Wafel mixed into the batter, cinnamon ice cream and chocolate chunks. Mike got an American pancake with pears, vanilla ice cream, and whip cream. They were so filling and so delicious!
 

 

 

 

 (The Anne Frank House, less crowded than yesterday evening, a bit overexposed, but you get the idea)

After breakfast we took the train over to the Museum Quarter. There were hardly any people out and about still and it was so nice and quiet! We grabbed a quick picture in front of the famous Iamsterdam sign and then hit up the Rijksmuseum for the morning. It worked out so perfect because it had just started sprinkling rain moments before we went in, and it was a chilly day to be out and about.

We enjoyed the history on the four floors (minus all of the nakey pictures) and the architecture was super cool too! I was glad that we went early though because by the late morning the museum had gotten pretty crowded and it got harder to move around and see the things we wanted to. By the end of the morning our feet ached from all of the extra walking.

When we finished, the rain had stopped. We wandered around the gardens and pretended to play a game of chess. Then we sat on a bench for a bit to rest our feet before exploring some more.

When we were finally feeling up to it we walked a few blocks towards central station and hopped on a canal cruise! They gave us headphones and we got to learn more about the history of Amsterdam and how it's built on reclaimed land. It's pretty neat how they learned to manipulate the tides and built multiple canals all through the city. There's thousands of bridges and over half a million bikes! 

As we looped around near the ferry station it was crazy to see bikes stacked two high all across the docks. This really is the bike capital of the world! After our cruise we grabbed lunch at a delicious italian restaraunt we stumbled on in a secluded alley way. Mike devoured a whole pizza and I enjoyed oven baked pasta. We were too full and tired after to hit up the second museum we had planned on, and made our way back to the hotel for a nap. I ended up sleeping until Mike got back from his course late in the evening. We finished off the day with a plate of nachos just down the street and then slept all night.