May I Take Your Order?

Okay....Tell me....What the Hell would you order? Go ahead...click on the picture of the menu to enlarge it....recognize anything? Maybe a few words here and there right?

Well....this is about all we saw....but I can tell you that we didn't have one bad experience....maybe it was luck...or maybe they just have excellent food in Amsterdam...

I did discover mint tea while I was here....I know I know....maybe I should have discovered it before now in my life...I am 40 after all.....but I did discover it and absolutely love it....I have planted some mint in my herb garden at The Poggiolo....can't wait to drink my own mint tea!

I'll make you some when you get here!

Ah...and finally..The Red Light District

Okay...it's not as scary as you were thinking right?

Well...of course we visited during the day...wasn't sure I wanted to be there at night...so we braved it during the day....
You see the little red lights outside the buildings...well at night these glow red of course ...hence the name "Red Light District"....
It is open all day and night....day time...wasn't very busy....mostly tourists I think wanting to see the infamous Red Light District....
But we can say we were here!

What About Bob

Seems everywhere we went...they were talking about Bob......these are just a couple of pictures that I took....I usually didn't think about taking a picture....

Bob is very famous here..... :)

The truck says something like: "Our Bob Drives Already Your Empty Bottles"....of course this is loosely translated...I just put it into my translator and this is what popped out....what it actually means is anyone's guess......

I'm guessing Bob is the guy who picks up your recyclable bottles? ???????????

City of Bicycles

Bicycles are a way of life here.....I have about 47 thousand pictures...but once again...Piddle wouldn't let me post them all.......but I have put a few of the best ones depicting the atmosphere....

You know how we have "2-car families" in the States...well here most families have at least 2 bikes....

You don't see too many vehicles....not a lot of places to park...streets are very narrow....and just busy busy busy...parking for vehicles in the city is about $5 an hour to park.....

We loved sitting and just watching all walks of life whiz by on their bikes...businessmen, moms with kids, grandmas...you name it....we saw it......

We LOVED it!

Rembrandt, Van Gogh and a Little Culture

Although I am more fond of Van Gogh....most of these pictures are around the Rembrandt Corner....no matter where we went...we usually migrated back to this corner...it was our favorite for people watching, culture, history...bicycles...and everything else it seemed......

You'll also see the museum behind us....in Amsterdam there is a Van Gogh and a Rembrandt Museum as well as many others.....

You see the artist painting on the bridge...you see this kind of stuff all over the city...there is definitely a huge eclectic population here...... we loved it!!!!

Everywhere we went....there was culture................

Cool Buildings and Monuments

Okay, I know these aren't the best photos....but they are of some awesome cathedrals and monuments around town....of course, we haven't figured out what all of them are about....

The last building you see is on the west side of town in the Jordaan area....We stayed just down the canal and around the corner from this building....

This is the building that Ann Frank could see from her house....you remember in school....when you read The Diary of Ann Frank....she stayed with her family and several other jews in the attic of a house for 2 years during the Nazi occupation...until they were finally caught and sent to concentration camps......we stayed just around the corner from the Ann Frank House.....(not sure I have all my facts straight on the history of Ann Frank...just wanted to jog your memory!!) :)

Didn't I tell you ......so much history.......

Crooked Houses

Okay.....I have tons of pictures like these......but Piddle wouldn't let me post all of them....I hate the word "cull" now.....

These crooked houses are everywhere.......because this town is built on ground below sea level (sound familiar).....the pilings that the houses and buildings are built upon...are sinking....thus making the houses crooked.....the city won't let the owners fix them however because they claim it is the "character of Amsterdam" and they don't want that destroyed....

You'll also notice how skinny and tall the houses are.....this is because when building the town...the land was at such a premium that the city would only allow you to build your house a few feet wide....the cost of the building permit was based on the width of the structure....thus very skinny and 4 to 5 stories tall was the typical structure of houses...

The second place we stayed was on the west side of town....and this was the "upper crust" area of town and the houses are about twice as wide....because they could afford the permit...I'm not sure I have any pictures from there...but you may see some.....