Amsterdam(n), What Fun!

Dan, Heidi and I left for Amsterdam at 6:30 in the morning (I was working night shift; Heidi met me at the office, Dan picked us up there).  We hit the road after a nice breakfast of pastries and coffee/orange juice, and I quickly settled down with the pillow and blanket Dan had brought along.  It didn't take long for me to fall asleep, and about four hours later I awoke as we were navigating the streets of Amsterdam, searching for a park-and-ride lot to leave the car in (at a cost of six euro a day, as opposed to the 34 euro a day fee imposed deeper within the city) and board the train that would take us nearer to our destination.

After purchasing a 48-hour tram pass and finding our hotel (thanks in part to a friendly Dutch gentleman, who spoke impeccable English) we headed over to the Anne Frank house, which was a block away.  The museum was, predictably, sober yet inspiring, and we spent a while touring the annex and peering into the handwritten diaries, which were kept under a protective screen of glass.
I found the Anne Frank house to be much more interesting than the Van Gogh museum, which we visited later during our trip, but that may have been because I am not a particularly big fan of art museums. 

Afterwards, we walked around for a bit.  I noticed that many of the homes did not have any curtains; from the window of our hotel room I could see right into the rooms of the house next to us (first floor:  dining area, second floor:  living space, third floor:  bedroom).
When we got hungry, we found a nice little restaurant that served various pancake dishes.  We each ordered a meal (mine was a thin pancake filled with ham and cheese), and agreed the food was tasty but extremely greasy and, in my opinion, a bit salty.  In other words, a perfect drunken snack.  Unfortunately, we were completely sober at the time. 

As we were walking to the tram stop, making our eventual way towards the Red Light district, we were introduced, in a roundabout way, to Elvis the dog.  He strode ahead of us for a while on the wide sidewalk before being called back to a pottery shop by his owner, an older woman.

Elvis the Dog

THE DAM SQUARE

We eventually ended up in a clearing not far from the Red Light district, called the Dam Square.  It was surrounded by fabulous structures (the Royal Palace, the Nieuwe Kerk, and the National Monument, to name a few) and featured performers such as:  aspiring musicians, including a guitarist singing covers of various songs and also promoting his CD and YouTube page; a "wizard" and ax-wielding Freddy Krueger impersonator; and what I assumed were local celebrities involved in a television shoot, which I happened to be featured in when they panned the camera over the audience. 

ADVENTURES IN THE RED LIGHT DISTRICT

We couldn't take pictures upon entering the district, but it was not as risque as I had anticipated (RLD-related book recommendation:  A Widow for One Year, by John Irving).  We saw the red lights as soon as we approached the area; they were in  the windows of various shops, as well as some of the streetlamps.  The two sides of the street were divided by a canal, and on each side of the road were the windows in which the girls advertised themselves (they wore bikinis and sat around casually).
Of course there were several "theme" shops and bars, but there were also numerous policemen on every corner.  In fact, the first thing I noticed was a gaggle of police officers standing at the corner of one of the streets, watching intently as we all passed by.

The lights in the District

Windows for advertising one's goodies

A memento of our adventures in the District (!)

INTERESTING...

I was amazed at the amount of English that we heard during our stay, and the fluency with which it was spoken.  Even at local institutions (at a bar or coffeehouse, for example), we heard English used more frequently than Dutch, a common language that everyone could understand.  In our case, there was absolutely no communication barrier.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Dan and I recently made the final arrangements for our anniversary/departure-from-Europe cruise to Egypt and Greece!  The ship will leave from Venice, and includes port calls to Greece and Egypt (of course) and Croatia.  Needless to say, we are very excited!