A good week

I'm wrapping up a great week in Amsterdam. Took some pictures but have to wait to get home to get them off the camera. In the meantime.. I "borrowed" some imagery so you can get the jist. Here are a few things that I did:

Canal tour of the city- yes it's touristy... but you can't beat the view from a canal. We wound through the city looking at the beautiful Dutch row houses and houseboats. Really sweet. Highly reco to anyone coming here for the first time.

Dam Square - the palace is huge and the square is buzzing with street performers and tons of tourists taking pictures. Bought some Delft Christmas ornaments and some fun slippers for my nieces.

Leidenplein - watched the skaters on the tiniest skating rink I have ever seen, ate some chocolate dipped waffles and ate at a restaurant that was good, but experienced possibly the worst service ever to date, including turning the light on over our table to give us the hint that dinner was over. Real Dutch hospitality.

First let me start off by saying that if you are into art/art history and like to take your time to see EVERY piece on display... GO ALONE. There's nothing better than taking your time if you want to really get down and check out the textures, brush strokes, watch exhibit videos, etc and nothing ruins it quicker than someone saying "hurry up."

Anne Frank Museum- A must-see for anyone. Made me want to go read the book all over again. Got to the see the chestnut tree that Anne wrote about in her journal before it's felled next week. Very sobering.


Rijksmuseum - Saw The Masterpieces exhibit and took the audio tour. I've always loved Dutch painting so it was pretty sweet to see Rembrandt, Steen and Vermeer up close and personal. One bummer was that one particular painting that I wanted to see "The Kitchen Maid" by Vermeer was on loan to another museum in Tokyo. Saw one piece in particular that I really liked- Winter Landscape with ice Skaters by Hendrick Avercamp.



It's so detailed- you can sit and look at all of the little different scenarios going on in the painting. These types of paintings used to be my favorite in college...

Van Gogh museum - AMAZING. The one museum contains the largest collection of his work in the world. They've curated the pieces in a way that you can track his progression as an artist. Have been pronouncing it incorrectly apparently. So awesome. Took the audio tour. Had to navigate through a bunch of school kids, but it made me happy to see them there and most of the actually looked like they were enjoying it.

Cruised around the Museumplein and checked out the dog park. Really made me homesick for my furry babies. Happy to see that the ChuckIt is alive and well in AMS.

Did alot of walking in general, rode the tram around. One thing that I didn't do is go through the main Red Light District. We went out to dinner one night and walked by one of the small Red Light Districts. I found it to be a little depressing, even though they are choosing to do it. But just sitting there on display, trying to look sexy when the women that I saw just had a dead look in their eyes. Just thought it was sad.

The Euro headquarters for Nike are interesting. Very small in comparison to WHQ in Beavertron. Also people don't really walk around much in contrast. But everyone was very friendly and it was great to meet people in person - see the whites of their eyes - instead of always just having conference calls.

All in all - a good week. Looking forward to getting back to home, the dogs, but most of all Vin.