Amsterdam-day 3

I spent all morning in the hotel with Tyler.  He was in need of some rest and not running around.  It was Kevin's last day in the conference and he got back at 12:30  I met him at tour place so we could go on a tour of the Dutch countryside.  It was very windy outside so we decided it would be better to take a tour then to try and do it on our own.  

We first went to Maarken, an old town that used to be on an island until they built a dike with a road on it out to the town.  We walked through the little neighborhood and then went through a small shop where they showed us how they made cheese, and how the dutch wooden shoes were made.  The cheese was fantastic, but unfortunately only came in large, expensive, and more importantly, very heavy cheese wheels.  We did however buy some wooden shoes. 

 We then took a ferry over to Volendam.  A really charming little harbor town, where we had fish and chips, or in my case, calimari and chips for lunch.  It was average at best.  After walking through the little town, we got back on the bus and headed over Zaanse Schaans, the famous windmill town.

 Zaanse Schans--They have over 30 working windmills, and at least 5 which you are able to tour through that still run things like saw mills, paint mills, grinding spices in a spice mill etc.  Unfortunately, we got there after the mills had closed.  It was very windy.  At one point, I stopped to take a picture, and Tyler's stroller nearly blew into a canal.  Fortunately, we was not in it.  Kori caught it just before it went in.  It was a very pretty walk, and we finished it off at a cheese farm where we again got to sample all their delicious cheeses

Day 2 Amsterdam

Today I decided to walk around Amsterdam and just see what there was to see.

 This is the Dam monument

 Canals crisscrossed all over the city.

 I thought this was a cool building.

 Peoples's backyards.

 Tyler in front of the Rijksmuseum.  He was not very happy today.  He did not want to be in his stroller and thought I should hold him while I walked.  We went to an outdoor market and a floating flower market.  I bought some Frittes with mayo (how everyone here eats them) and I was being so careful and then my backpack fell and knocked most of them on the ground.  So I decided it was time to go back to the hotel.  This was one of the stops we made because he was getting heavy.  He really loves posing for the camera.  You say cheese and he just smiles so big.  On the way back to the hotel he did fall asleep in his stroller and I was able to just walk around the city and enjoy it.

 For lunch I stopped by McDonalds and got a Big and Tasty with bacon.  It was delicious.  Probably the best thing I ever had at McDonalds.  Their fries even came with a fritte sauce.

 That night we took a canal tour of the city.  It was raining outside which made it a little hard to see.

 Amsterdam is famous for its bikes.  Every one rides bikes and we saw some very interesting ones.  These are all the ones parked at the train station.  Our tour guide said Amsterdam had 800,000 (????) people and 700,000 bikes.  Bikes also have the right away .  They have their own lanes in the streets.  To cross the street you had to walk across the bike lane, the tram lanes, and the car lanes.  It was a little scary.

 The cars all parked on the edge of the canals.  We wondered how many people had driven home high or drunk and had ended up in the canal.

For dinner we were walking around and came across a hamburger place that was very crowded and as we passed by we heard several people not in the store talking about it, so we decided to give it a try, it was very good.

I also found a grocery store on my trip around town today and bought some pastries for breakfast and a smoothie.  I also bought a LARGE bottle of diet coke to take to the hotel and put on ice for later.  I had felt so dehydrated on this trip, since Europe doesn't believe in big drinks.