Slow days in Amsterdam

Shanda and the girls have been trying to get over jetlag, so we have taken it easy the first couple of days in Amsterdam.

July 13th--Mike, the kids and I went the grocery store this morning while Shanda and the girls got ready. After lunch, we all headed out and took our first tram ride since being here. We went to Vondelpark, the huge central park named after the poet Vondel. We walked around this beautiful nature park for a little while until finally asking someone if there was a playground around. Their answer was "no". Not exactly what we wanted to hear as the kids were hoping for a playground. Mike and I hadn't eaten lunch yet so Shanda offered to take the kids on a nature walk while we grabbed a quick sandwich. After finishing up lunch, and Shanda and the kids having not returned, Mike went looking for them. He found them at a playground not far from where we were. So much for asking someone if there was a playground! So, we all spent the remainder of the afternoon at the playground, which also had a restaurant connected to it. It was a great area, and I'm sure we'll be back. We headed back to the apartment just in time for dinner. We cooked tacos and just relaxed the rest of the evening.

July 14th--Today, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. The kids are really enjoying going to all the Hard Rocks throughout Europe and can actually point out the Hard Rock signs now. After lunch, we walked around Leidseplein,the lively square in southwest Amsterdam. Shanda bought all the kids wooden tulips. They are really cute! We walked up Leidsestraat looking for a Christmas Shop that I had found on the internet. Well, upon arriving at the address, it was no longer a Christmas Shop, but a coffee store now. The lady was nice enough to tell me where a Christmas store was though and it was located in the flower market. So, we hopped on a train this time (tired of walking) back to the flower market. I say back because we had already passed this particular market walking earlier. We found the Christmas Store and it was another successful Santa search for me. From here, we got ice cream for the kids and caught the tram over to the Anne Frank House. The line was a little long to get in so Mike decided to take Austin back to the apartment. The girls stayed to go inside the house. The line ended up not being that bad. We waited about 20 minutes and then walked through the house which took us about 45 minutes. It was very interesting and surreal to walk through the apartment that 8 people lived in for 2 years. We couldn't even possibly imagine ourselves doing that. At the end of the tour, there was a preserved copy of one of Anne Frank's diaries. I now want to go back and read the book again. We took the tram back to the apartment and arrived back a little after 7:00. It was definitely dinner time, bath time and bedtime before we knew it.