Amsterdam!

Yes, I have a lot of catching up to do in-between my last post and this post.  (And even since we went to Amsterdam there's a lot to catch up with).

Any ways, during the summer we made a few trips, one for each kid (Disney Land Paris and Lego Land), this trip was mostly for me.

Jimmy took us to Amsterdam and let me tell you we loved this charming little town.  We got into Amsterdam on a Thursday and parked our car at the train station and left it for the whole weekend.  We took a train to find our apartment, checked in but we couldn't go in right away. So we took a train to down town and went to the Van Gogh museum.  The line was pretty big and it was raining a bit, but we stuck it out.  The museum was small and quaint but it was fun to see such a huge collection of Van Gogh's.  The kids enjoyed this history of Van Gogh especially about him cutting his ear off.   We finally got to our apartment it was a company called  Amsterdam Holiday Apartments ( http://www.amsterdamholidayapartments.com/?utm_source=cs&utm_medium=cs&utm_campaign=csit ) was a beautiful apartment right on the canal.  We really enjoy our stay there.  That night we got sushi and had a movie night in.  We people watched out the windows and noticed a duck in a canoe outside the apartment. We all had a good laugh on that. 

A train ride in Amsterdam.

A beautiful shot at a canal near our apartment.

A stroll through a cheese store.

Next morning we woke up early and made our way down to the Anne Frank house.  Once getting inside you really get the feel of what life was like for the Franks.  Anne's father Otto came home from being in a concentration camp and when he found out the rest of his family didn't make it he had all the furniture taken out of the home, and then left it empty.  When they decieded to turn it into a museum he requested it to be left empty.  They granted his request.  The house remains empty, but it also has pictures that Anne had pasted on the walls herself.  It's a very humbling experience to think that they were cooped up in this small upstairs apartment, not being able to even peak outside the windows, all to have a tragic end.  The kids felt the emotions in there as well.  Landon's learned a lot about WWII in school already and a little about Anne Frank.  I think he was the most affected by this tour.

Walking to Anne Franks House.

This was one of the only views Anne was able to see from a window way up high, the church bell tower right next to her house.  She often kept the time by listening to the church bells.

Next we walked across the street to the Cheese Museum, the store was much more impressive than the museum. (Thank goodness it was cheap). The kids really enjoyed sampling all sorts of different cheeses, one of my favorites was a Wasabi Cheese, everyone really liked the Smoked Gouda. We found lunch and stopped at the IAmsterdam sign and the park before making our way to the Rijks Museum.  What an amazing museum!  They have a bunch of Rembrandts that are great to see in person. It's incredible how large the paintings are.  Vermeer has a large collection there as well, Jimmy really enjoyed his collection.  The collection of paintings at the Rijks is a good majority of Renaissance, Gothic, and Romanesque. I loved their collections.  In the basement their was an fantastic collection of guns, military stuff, dishes, and locks. We had a fun day and made our way back to the apartment.  Jimmy found a Mexican take out and we watched Toy Story 2 for a movie night. 

Our little Dutch girls.

This is the most expensive cheese peeler you've ever seen over 25,000 euros to make this diamond encrusted peeler.

IAmsterdam sign, I couldn't get the right angle to get the whole sign.  

Rembrandt's Night Watch

I loved this display of guns with the handles carved out of bone.

Saturday we woke up and got ready early to head out to the Nemo Science Museum.  This is a great children's museum. It was perfect for Landon and Emma's ages, Clara had a lot of fun too.  They had a bubble making area, you could make giant bubbles that you could stand inside.  An area that you could learn how things work, sound, movement, electricity...all with hands on experiments.  The next section is where we spent a lot of time.  They had wind tunnels that you could make parachutes to send up the tunnel, a Lego building area, tubes on a wall with marbles to drop through them, and the kids favorite was a marble avalanche table.  This marble table was automated, there was a little escalator that took the marbles to the top where they would go down their own paths.  They could go three or four different ways.  Some of the paths just took the marbles through a series of obstacles, others went to a collecting area waiting for enough weight to make it drop the marbles it had collected.  One of the areas took close to an hour to collect enough marbles, but when it dropped it was pretty fun to watch the marbles move through series of obstacles.  We also go to see a show on cause and effect, a big domino's effect show. They also had a water room where the kids could learn how water was recycled and cleaned.  There was a lot more stuff too, but I can't bore you with everything.  After the museum we had worn out the kids, so back to the apartment for a rest.  We enjoyed a quiet evening and another walk around a bit of the town.

Bubbles.

Marble Avalanche, it was cooler in person than the pictures make it look.

Water works.

Electric screen.

Sunday we had a slow morning and made our way back home.  We love Amsterdam. I had a hard time taking in enough of the charming atmosphere that looms in this city.  I can't wait to go back some day.

I hope you enjoyed Amsterdam through our eyes.