A Little Bit of Amsterdam

We popped in to Amsterdam for a fast visit between Germany and the UK. (We visited in a quick way.) Knowing things would be very expensive and mostly geared toward a more mature visitor, we tried to adjust our expectations to an abbreviated schedule. And actually we left very satisfied with our time spent. Here’s what we did:

We popped off the train and walked zig-zaggy through streets and canals to the museum district. The van Gogh museum is particularly well-suited to keeping kids entertained. There was a fabulous scavenger hunt for Maggie and Tessa (that I thoroughly enjoyed and learned a lot through) while Bill lurked around the tour guides soaking up all their knowledge. 4 floors of amazing art — he was quite a prolific artist — and biographical information later, we are all van Gogh specialists (it says so on my, I mean Tessa’s, scavenger hunt).

The next morning we headed out early to the flower auction house, the world’s second largest building (by footprint). A huge number of flowers and plants are moved through this facility every day, being shipped in, purchased, packaged, and shipped out in a matter of hours. Little tractors buzz around tugging little carts full of flowers while lights blink on and off, horns beep, conveyer belts click along, and colors flash by. It is such a busy place — 5 lanes of tractor traffic — with seeming chaos melding into a semblance of order once you slow down to watch. And huge! We walked for 15 minutes just to get down the end of one warehouse! It smells lovely, everyone is friendly (when they can spare a glance up from traffic to wave), and so many shapes and colors make for a pleasant and fascinating visit.

Afterward we bussed into the old city to wander, as we do. Crossing canals, waving to boats, getting delightfully lost, giggling at the Dutch language, choosing houseboats to call, searching for the crookedest buildings — it was a full and fun afternoon!

Although it doesn’t seem like we did a whole bunch of activities, it felt like the right amount for us. We got a good taste. And it was a nice send-off for the Continental Europe portion of our year.

We are off to Ireland!