Cash and Carried in the City

So we're back...
It was a long weekend and we packed our bags and headed to Amsterdam to celebrate the Easter Holidays. Its different celebrating holidays here because we're so used to having family around and everyone gathering over good food, easter hunts, and more food. It more or less usually just ends up being an opportunity to get out of the city and experience something new.

So we left Friday afternoon and due to a couple of maintenance rail works we ended up taking about 1.5 hours just to get to the airport...only for our flight to be delayed another hour. The flight itself was only an hour so now I understand why people just take the train...of course that wasn't the cheapest option at the time. Anyway, we arrived safe and found our bed & breakfast not too far from the city center. It was close enough to not be an issue, but far enough away to be away from all the madness!

We spent that evening walking around the area around the station and then had chinesse on a floating boat..which served great food but too big of servings. The clouds began to roll in and we were exhausted from the walking, so we ventured back to our room and settled in. It was great having the windows open listening and smelling the rain and thunder (which we get plenty of rain in the UK, but very little thunder!) throughout the evening was really nice.

Saturday we woke up early to get our 8:30am Danish breakfast. Our hosts were very pleasant and gave us the 411 of some of the area and mentioned all the great architecture there was in the city. We then packed our backpack and headed to Keukenhof Tulip Exhibit outside of Lisse. There were soooo many people from all over the place and sooo many flowers planted and in pots and on exhibit and sculptures to go with it. It was alot of fun and a little relaxing, but after 2+ hours of it we were both ready to move on and get back to the city. We took the train back and walked around a bit, then took a canal tour. Unfortunately by this time my battery had run out on my camera and I had to resort to my cell phone to take a couple of shots. We then had dinner and headed back to our room for some much needed rest.


Sunday we got up and had a breakfast and then rushed off to the Rijksmuseum to see Danish artwork on exhibit. Mostly old classical paintings, but I did recognize quite a few and its always interesting to read about the time period and the influences behind the art. The crowds were ridiculous (it being a Bank Holiday weekend) so after that we drifted towards the Van Gough Museum and opted out of waiting...but did stop by the museum shop for a look around. We then had a nice little coffee break at Vondel Park and headed back into the city center for some more walking and in search of some architecture. Later that afternoon we headed back to the room and had some much needed relaxation and rest for our feet. We got out for dinner and went to an 'interesting' Mexican Restaurant...which was edible but not worth the price!


Monday we were eating breakfast and our hosts asked us if we'd like to go with them driving around the city to have a look at some architecturally appealing developments of residential and commercial buildings. Of course we couldn't pass up the opportunity and packed up our camera and hopped in! They took us to an amazing development on man-made islands of all these modern houses individually designed. I'd LOVE to do something so cool in our future home but the idea on how much money it'd all cost is daunting at this point! Anyway, then we went to the business center which was completely deserted because of the holiday. There are some amazing buildings with a wide range of materials and details that would make anyone envious. We then headed back to our room to pack up and shuffle off to the airport to catch our flight. We got back to another 1.5 hr trip home and basically dropped our bags and didn't do a thing.


Please feel free to check out the photos and hopefully I'll get more posted...I've got to sort through the 700+ pictures we took and grab the good ones! Hope everyone else had a wonderful holiday as well and we look forward to sharing further experiences that are sure to come up.