Crooked houses along an Amsterdam canal

On our arrival to Amsterdam, we first bought our train tickets to Paris and then headed to the city center. Genevieve, myself, and KC walked to the Hotel Toren from the train station through the beautiful Amsterdam canals. We were met by Robert, the concierge at the hotel, who invited us for a drink in the hotel bar after we were settled. We met Robert around 5pm -- Robert was actually from Indonesia and is considering moving to the Caribbean to live with his family. It was incredible -- Robert was super friendly, and he gave us several free drinks (Heineken and white wine) while we talked.

That night we went to De Belhamel which was amazing -- the restaurant was classified as Dutch which, I admit was unknown to me, but it was delicious! I had the fried veal and potatoes while Gen had the monk fish and risotto.

Amsterdam flower market

The next day Gen, KC and I did the Amsterdam City Walk from the Rick Steve's guidebook. It was a great walk as we got to see a lot of the big sights. Dam Square was impressive. It was especially fun watching the dressed up street mimes (that you have to pay to take their pictures). Although one wasn't so nice -- KC gave him a euro but apparently that wasn't enough. He kept turning away when she took the picture.

After lunch (an Irish pub -- we couldn't help it since we visited Ireland last year), we headed for the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum. Both museums were interesting although some of Van Gogh's earlier works weren't that impressive -- even so, we were able to experience it for ourselves in Amsterdam which is pretty neat.

After all that walking (the museums are within walking distance but it still makes for a long day), we had a quick rest back at the hotel.

The remainder of the day was spent strolling the canals and dinner at De Luwte (again, excellent!).

The following day was a bit chilly but sunny! We decided to take a canal boat tour with Rondvaart Kooij. The scenery was spectacular and it covered more sights that we could have possibly walked all day. Later that afternoon Gen and I toured the Red Light District -- which was a fascinating tour of the differences between Amsterdam's and America's view of sex. I received several winks from the ladies in the windows (and in some cases the ladies with the doors open and hanging out in the alleyway). Good clean fun!

Dam Square

There really are bikes everywhere in Amsterdam!

A delivery -- with the narrow houses and staircases, this is how things are lifted to the upper stories.

Heineken being delivered by horse and carriage. That's cool.

Its a good thing my wife and I were on a canal tour -- otherwise, she would have gone in and stayed the whole day!