We ended up spending two days in Amsterdam. We had originally only planned to do one day....
On Saturday, we met up bright and early with the Henson's and grazed for breakfast in the market on the square in Haarlem before catching our quick train into Amsterdam. The weather wasn't looking that great or feeling that great either. It was chilly! So chilly that we ducked into the Hema (mini Target) on the way to the train station to see if they had any winter gear on clearance. We walked out with some gardening gloves for me and Matt, and some scarves for the girls.....and some of those bath gloves, too.... but Grace wouldn't wear them! But I'm not too proud for warm hands!!!
The train into and out of Amsterdam is sooooo easy! I highly recommend staying in Haarlem and just dealing with the train.
Exiting the train station, we were greeted with this sight:
I guess THAT many people ride their bike to the train station every day!?
We decided to start our day off with a canal cruise. It really was a wonderful way to see the city and get acclimated. I have NO pictures, except this random one because it is too hard to manage two kids on a fully packed canal boat. For awhile, we didn't even have seats..... I guess everyone else had the same idea.
The sun did intermittently peek out. So that was nice. My friend Maureen did capture some pictures, so jump over to her blog, and check out some of her pictures, too: Maureen's Blog
After our canal cruise and some lunch, we started our walking tour. I don't think any of us really enjoyed ourselves too much on Saturday. It was crowded, dreary and cold. But we trudged through... and saw some amazing things. We discovered a small, hidden community that is a housing project, but nothing like any housing project I would have ever imagined. It was beautiful and serene. And had two churches. We ended up going to one, The Church of Scotland on Sunday for Easter services. We also saw beautiful canals, and teeny, tiny houses. Taxes were factored by how much canal front property you had!
We started Sunday off pretty early, too. And headed straight into Amsterdam to make the 10:30 service at the Church of Scotland. We got there just in time to grab one of the last pews in a standing room only packed church. What a blessing, too. The service lasted 2 hours! With 3 toddlers in tow, that was a lot to ask.... one snoozed (and won best behaved!) and the other two were 'managed' by their parents as best they could. It was a nice service, and I'm glad we didn't miss the opportunity.
Sunday was a much more relaxed day. We got off the beaten path a bit, away from the throngs of tourists and just meandered some. We also enjoyed browsing the MANY English language bookstores. We don't have many in Brussels.... Matt and I are both using Kindle's now, but it's nice to have new books for the girls. We all enjoyed our "Best in Amsterdam" Apple Pie snack. Who knew! But we saw many cafes touting their apple pie as being the best. We picked a good one to try!
Here is a link to all of my Amsterdam pictures: Amsterdam April 2012
It is definitely one of those place you have to visit and experience. But I'd definitely recommend getting away from the most touristy areas. Much more enjoyable and beautiful.
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