Amsterdam!

Amsterdam was our hub while traveling around the Netherlands from the 9th of April until the 12th.  We would come back each night to sleep and have dinner.  I had heard Amsterdam is a dirty city, but people must be talking about the Red Light district.  If you've read at all about the Red Light, you know some crazy stuff goes on there, and it's all legal.  The areas we walked around were nice though!  Clean and felt safe.  It was fun just walking around.  Most people spoke great English, too.  It took us a few times to get used to riding the trams, but by the time we left we were pros!  We would park at Olympic Stadium and take the tram to the hostel we were staying at... Stayokay Vondelpark.  It's a dorm-style place but by far the best deal to sleep a family.

I think I have a thing for street signs.

I love all the canals and that everyone rides bikes.  While Abby was with us we had to take advantage of getting lots of pictures of the fam!  haha.  Usually I'm taking them of everyone else when we go on trips.

Some downtown Amsterdam.  This area had tons of restaurants.  All super overpriced, too.  We weren't blown away by food we had in Amsterdam, but I loved some of the restaurants we tried in the surrounding towns!

I was really looking forward to seeing the Anne Frank House.  All things holocaust have always interested me.  Usually there is a long line to get in this time of year, but since it was raining and later in the day, we got in pretty quickly.  Pictures aren't allowed inside.  Kind of a bummer!  You get to walk through the first floor which used to be home to Otto's spices/pectin business, and then above that you walk through what were business offices.  After going through those, you get to walk up some more stairs and through the secret bookcase up to where Anne and  7 others hid for 25 months.  Those rooms seemed so little.. and they are no longer furnished.  It would have been so crammed full of furniture and belongings.  It was really interesting to walk through all the rooms.  In Anne's room, you can see on the wall the pencil marks and writing where Otto kept track of Anne's and Margot's growth while in hiding.  Anne's pictures that she glued on the wall are still there, too.  So sad to think that they hid for so long only to be found and sent to concentration camps.
Luke at the entrance to the house.  I think this place made an impression on him.  Yesterday I made some baked potatoes and he asked me if they're good for us because, "Anne Frank ate potatoes when she was hiding, and she died."  Cutie thing to remember.  I didn't remember the museum giving much info about what they ate, but I guess he caught on that they had potatoes.      

It was dark  and rainy when we finished touring the house.  Here it is from the outside.

I got another picture of it in daylight when we did the canal tour.  It's the building in the middle.

Some other pictures from the canal tour I liked...

There are big houseboats tied up all over along the river.  Some people live on them all the time.  

Cutie tiny car above the bridge.  Ella told me I wouldn't fit in it.  

 In the boat!

And more canal tour pictures..

Looking up where to eat after the tour... :)

Abs!

In front of the Rijksmuseum...

Ella and Luke found some sticks the night before in Vondelpark and didn't want to part with them.

I amsterdam :)

At Vondelpark!   It was right next to the place we stayed.

I think we all had a close call or two of being run over by a biker!  There are bike lanes everywhere along the pedestrian walks and the bikes don't slow down at all for people.  It took a little while to realize which places were strictly for bikers.  haha.  

Olympic Stadium... main site of the 1928 summer olympics.  It was the cheapest place to park overnight.

 Every time we'd go back to the car we'd pass this gross ad.  Sick.

Cool place!