Amsterdam, Netherlands - November 6-8, 2018

THIS IS IT.....the final European destination!!



We arrived in Amsterdam after a quick and relatively painless flight from Berlin. The boys actually did really well and there were no major malfunctions. We had to kill quite a bit of time before check in, so we nestled in with some overpriced coffee. 

After that we hit up the Foodhallen, which actually had a great market in the street. After purchasing some necessities, cheese, meat and a couple of beers, we sauntered back to our hotel to check in.



(Warning: Rant)  This is where Amsterdam was ruined, at least for me. We booked our hotel on Priceline (no easy feat considering it is hard to find a hotel room for 3 adults and 2 infants). We were on the cusp of going to our triple room when out of no where, a hotel employee emerges and informs us that we will need to purchase a second room for an adult and an infant. Citing fire safety laws and some BS about each child requiring a provided cot, she offers us a room for 200 and some euros. This is where I try to remain calm, but slightly lose it. In the end she contradicts herself by stating that we can stay in the triple room with the boys (one of them is now allowed to sleep in the extra single bed), but that one of the adults will need a separate accommodation. Long story short we opt to send Isabel to a hostel for 9 euros a night, she comes and stays in the room with us anyways, customer service is useless and no one should ever stay at the Conscious Hotel Vondelpark.

In the end we ate some pizza, walked down to the center of town, watched some T.V, got some sleep and were a little less cranky the next morning.

The next day we retraced our steps and sauntered back to the inner canal system. We had all already been to Amsterdam and seen the tourist sights, so we were happy just wandering around aimlessly. 



Rijksmuseum


In the afternoon Isa and I set out to visit the Van Gogh museum, since it was raining anyways. We never made it, we got side tracked and spent the afternoon at a tattoo parlour instead.

Van
Arch


That evening we indulged in our final European dinner and opted for Ethiopian. I think I was still secretly upset with the hotel fiasco and wanted nothing to do with Dutch anything...
The food was delicious and the couple who own and operate the restaurant were absolutely lovely.


The next morning Luke and I snuck in a quick run in Vondelpark. Amsterdam is a really beautiful city. They also seem to be slowly doing away with currency. Many of the restaurants and shops operate on a "cards only" basis, although we did encounter a few that were "cash only" (rebels?). It also always amazes me how they embrace cycling. It's truly a very progressive city.

Now we head home for a much needed vacation. Hope to see many of you soon!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Valparaiso, Chile

Image
The bus ride to Valparaiso was amazing. Yes, 8 hours in a bus was amazing. We each had VIP seats, which were giant/cushioned recliners, got served snacks and lunch and the boys were a little under the weather and slept almost the entire trip in their own seat. MAGICAL! When you walk out of the bus terminal in Valpo, there are food carts dishing up empanadas, stuffed bread, meat skewers amd other tasty treats. We were very pumped to see street food.  Argentina really lacks street food, but they have steak. We loved Valparaiso almost instantly and are very happy with our decision to stay here a bit longer than Santiago. Our apartment is on the waterfront and has a pool on the 5th floor terrace as well as a rooftop terrace. We will have a great view for the New Years fireworks. We set out to explore and get some dinner. We ended up at a Mexican joint that was pricy but tasty and afforded us out first views of the incredible street art here in Valparaiso. (Just kn...
Read more

Mauritius part 2

Image
Island life is treating us very well. After our busy week of exploring, we've spent the last couple of days relaxing on the patio, visiting the beach, running and diving. Not a bad life really! Saturday, we decided to take a vacation from our vacation and drive to the southwest side of the island and stay a night or two. We piled into the car and made a couple of pit stops at some of the sights in Chamarel on the way to our weekend digs in Flic-En-Flac on the south west coast. Chamarel is nown for it's large waterfall and seven colored earth. We'd already been told not to expect much from the seven colored earth, but we had to see it anyways (we'd been to Rainbow Mountain and were on a multi-colored earth tour). Both sights were within a National Reserve. The drive was up through some elevation, so naturally, Isa was car sick haha. We saw monkeys on way to the park as well. The waterfall was lovely, but we were at quite a distance. The seven colored earth was int...
Read more

Adventurous Ecuador - Olon, Equador August 2018

Image
Luke blogging... Our life in Olon continues to be full of activities and new adventures.  The boys have discovered the beach and the many possible things to do there.  Vander runs into the surf as soon as we arrive.   Archie having a little less insulation plays in the sand and warms up in the sun before entering the water.  Arch has made much progress already though,  he will laugh and play in the waves now when before getting his feet wet was an ordeal. Saturday nights seem to be the night to really party hard here.  They had music pumping until 3 am.  We are thinking of joining the fun this Saturday night after the boys go to bed.  Despite the raucous Saturdays Olon is normally  a sleepy beach town.  Full of great people and tourists alike.  One thing we've found in Equador is that you do not get taken advantage of as a tourist as often as in other countries. Cab drivers are honest, the same fare applies to ...
Read more