Amsterdam, March 27-29

This weekend's travel was to Amsterdam, just a short one hour flight away from London. For those of you who know Amsterdam, you know it is not very conducive to extensive photo journalism. In fact, we have only one photo to share with the blog readers that is appropriate. Amy in front of the big Amsterdam sign.



Just kidding. We arrived Friday night and checked into the Hotel Amstel Intercontinental which is situated a little outside the main town along the Asmtel River. We changed quickly and went to dinner at De Kas which was a converted greenhouse who now uses vegetables grown on site for dinner. Amy looked very nice.



After dinner, we headed to the Red Light District to take in the atmosphere. Since it was World Cup qualifying matches, there were tons of Scottish people in kilts who were very loudly celebrating their upcoming match with the local team from The Netherlands. Walking along the cobble stone roads of the red light district was difficult for Amy in heels so we took in the sights quickly, got some coffee and then headed back to the hotel.

The next day we headed to the Van Gogh museum which is the largest collection of his work in the world, including his famour Starry Night. We didnt wait on line for the other famous museum - the Rijks - because it was very long. As we were talking around, we realized that we have never seen more bikes in our life. Everyone had one. There were very few motorcycles, in fact. And the bikes didnt stop for anyone!



After lunch, a little more walking around and we found an intensive chess game going on. Either the chess pieces are really big, OR the people are very small.



One of the more charming parts of Amsterdam was the canals which run through the city. We decided to take a boat cruise.



There were little bridges and canals as far as the eye could see.



In those canals were tons of house boats that looked like they hadnt sailed in ages.



After walking around, we headed back to the hotel for some relaxation and then went to a great dinner at the Dylan hotel restaurant. We were lame 30-something'ers afterwards as we went back to the hotel and went to sleep. All this travel is tiring.

The next day we battle the occasional drizzle and walked around town. The first stop was the Anne Frank museum which is where this holocaust victim (famous for her diary) was in hiding before her capture. It was an interesting visit and moving (Amy teared up at the end). We took a few final pictures, had lunch and then headed back to the airport.



All in all, Amsterdam was interesting. It probably wasnt on the top of the list for sights to see or cities we loved the most, but definetly different in its own way. After one more week of work in London, we are heading back to Boston and New York for a week of wedding activities - showers, bachlorette parties, invitation finalization and mailing, trip to Newport to go over some details and then back to London.