Amsterdam, The Netherlands

We visited Amsterdam very briefly as the second stop on our express-paced Eurotrip.  We went with two friends, and the trip was four days, part of it was spent in Brussels and part in Amsterdam. Yep, you guessed it, we found some crazy cheap online flight deal and decided to go for it.  Even if we did have to drive to NYC, just to fly back to Boston for a multi-hour layover, before finally making it to Europe, it was still a good deal! I was absolutely floored by how much I loved Amsterdam.  All I had ever heard about the city is that weed is legal and, of course, the red light district.  I was skeptical at best about visiting.  But, wow, Amsterdam showed me!  It is beautiful - the canals! the bikes! the flowers!  I seriously could not get enough and loved walking around all the different neighborhoods. The city stole my heart and I can't wait to visit again, someday.

-Amanda

One of our favorite things about Amsterdam was visiting the Van Gogh Museum. This museum is easily one of the best I've ever visted.

Still unsure if this is, in fact, a public urinal.  There was a man peeing in it moments before this picture, but maybe that's not the intent?

We got a good giggle out of this notice posted in our apartment rental:

Canal Ride | Amsterdam

It might be the most stereotypical thing for tourists to do, but we just couldn't resist going on a canal ride. After all, Amsterdam is often called the Venice of the North because of the more than 100 kilometres of canals, and many islands and bridges.  (Fun fact, Taras's hometown of St. Petersburg, Russia is also called Venice of the North!) After a particularly late night, the tour was very relaxing.  I could have sat on that boat all day, looking down the beautiful canals and admiring the quirky house boats.  Taras especially enjoyed riding through the port area and seeing all the industrial ships.

-Amanda

We loved learning that furniture is hoisted into the homes using these specially purposed hooks.

Bloemenmarkt | Amsterdam

One of things I was most excited to see in Amsterdam was the Bloemenmarkt.  It is the world's only floating flower market, located in the Singel canal.  And I just loved all the tulips! They were even selling bulbs of the world-famous Dutch tulips, prepackaged in sealed containers, so they could easily be taken through customs when returning home. It was a fun afternoon of walking through each shop, and, dare I say, taking the time to stop and smell the roses.  

-Amanda

We came home with an array of wooden tulips:

There is a little cheese shop across from the market. We lost Taras in there for a while!

Bicycles | Amsterdam

It's impossible to post about Amsterdam and not give a shout out to bicycles.  Amsterdam is one of the most bicyle-friendly large cities in the world, and bikes are everywhere.  Big bikes, little bikes, bikes with three seats, bikes with buckets... all sorts of bikes!  We considered renting bikes but were ultimately a little worried that we didn't know the roads well enough for it to be safe.  Our visit was before we were biking regularly around Boston, and now I'd love to go back to Amsterdam and bike around that beautiful city.

-Amanda