Amsterdam Day 1

Ben and I were pretty excited to do some traveling outside of Spain again. We got into Amsterdam early in the morning on Friday. We had been told that the Amsterdam airport is huge. We had definitely heard correct. It took us 20 minutes and three attempts at exiting before we figured out how to get out of there.

Once we checked into our hotel, we headed into the center to do some exploring. For lunch, we went to Febo de lekkerste. It is a fast food restaurant but vending machine style. Eventually we headed back to hotel to rest and get warm again. Amsterdam was very chilly!

That evening we walked through the Jordaan neighborhood. It was a nice neighborhood to walk through. For dinner we went to de Strusivogel. Very yummy food! It is a tiny restaurant that is below street level. After dinner we walked around for a bit and even caught a Chinese dragon show before going back to the hotel.

Apollofirst Hotel

Biking is super popular in Amsterdam. It is estimated that there is a 1:1 ratio of bike to person. That means there is about 900,000 bikes in Amsterdam! To promote biking, they have free bike parking garages throughout the city.

Central Train Station

Dam Square

Koninklijk Paleis - The royal palace

Catholicism used to be illegal in The Netherlands. Because of this, Catholics had to worship in secret. They had all these tiny churches throughout the city for people to secretly worship. This is one of them.

The Begijnhof: this is a courtyard from the 14th century. It was housing for a Catholic sisterhood who lived like nuns. They did not take monastic vows though. To this day it is a private residence for single women.

The English church in Begijnhof where the pilgrims prayed before sailing to the Americas.

The oldest house in Amsterdam and one of the few that is made of wood is in Begijnhof.

The Bloemarkt

Ben tried a local favorite, a pickled herring sandwich with pickles and onions.

Febo de lekkerste

Another local favorite: A cone of fries with mayonnaise. We couldn't bring ourselves to get mayonnaise though so we ordered it with ketchup.

The Rijkmuseum

The Rijkmuseum

Nieuwe Kerk (New Church)

The Jordann neighborhood

Westerkerk

Anne Frank: This statue was put here outside the Westerkerk in honor of Anne Frank. If you read her diary, she talks about the bells at Westerkerk and how they are a comfort to her. The Secret Annex, where she hid is right around the corner.

de Struisvogel