We had a really good time, though I was so exhausted by the end of the days that I doubted I would remember much. But we saw and did a lot for only being there about 48 hours with two small children!
The train ride: It's always a relief to get from our house to the train station via public transportation (an hour or more) and then be able to sit down and just ride for a couple hours. The boys were good, the food was good, hanging out was good. Zach gets so excited about the train, saying "chugga chugga chugga chugga, choo choooooo!" and "monkey riding train tooooo!" It was adorable.
Our arrival: The first thing Amsterdam has going for it is the Starbucks at the train station! Luckily, Lisa is just as hooked on caffe mochas as I am on lattes, and Frank even joined us in the caffeine break. We found where to get 2-day passes for the trams, and it was nice to not have to worry about tickets each time we wanted to ride. Believe me, with the baby, the stroller, bags, etc we had enough to deal with. Then we were off to the hotel. Nice, near a park and museums, nice rooms, good breakfast buffet. Zach bunked with Lisa.
Museums: We saw two of the best museums in Amsterdam, the Anne Frank house and the Van Gogh museum. Couldn't take photos inside, of course. With the boys we were used to moving through quickly and not getting to take in every detail, but we enjoyed the time we spent.
Hard Rock: We ate at the cafe the first night (gotta love potato skins) and bought all the t-shirts we had promised people. Then, the second night, when Zach was uber-crabby and we just needed to go somewhere quickly, we headed straight back to the Hard Rock. It was so close to our hotel. There wasn't much of a wait, the music both distracted Zach and covered up any crying, and he got crayons. Do I feel like we missed out on a more traditional Dutch restaurant experience? Maybe a little, but I'm completely okay with it.
The Zoo: The photos probably say it better. The main attraction was monkeys, monkeys, monkeys. We had a heck of a time trying to get him to put his head in that cut-out board so we could take a picture. He does a great elephant impression; I'm still trying to get that one on video. I think he did enjoy seeing all the animals, and you'd think that it would be a place (maybe the only one!) where we could let him run free, but he kept either getting too far from us, or too close to a pond, or trying to climb under fences, etc. I'm finding that even places that are geared towards kids are not really Zach-proofed.
Other stuff: We walked around some, went to a big park the second evening. We only popped into a few souvenir shops. We didn't go into any "coffeeshops." We quickly passed by a woman in the window of a building in the red light district--it was both funny and a bit scary. The canals are very pretty, but it's a little confusing because all the streets look kinda the same. And we never saw so many bikes and cyclists before. Women in business skirts and heels and everything else you can imagine. As we walked around and crossed streets I was always standing in the bike lane--couldn't get used to it being there instead of a sidewalk. We fell into bed around 9 or 9:30.
I would like to go back to see some of the other museums (I know, never gonna happen with the kiddos), but I think we saw a little of everything. And now I can say I've been to the Netherlands!
