July 8, 2024 – Starting in Amsterdam

Back on the road! In the skies? Out of the country?

Either way, I’m not home, and this time, I have my main squeeze with me. Unclear why my hair looks so greasy in the title photo, but I cannot go back and wash it. Lol.

Sean has time off between jobs, and half my team was taking big chunks of vacation time this summer, so I decided a two-week trip was in order.

We’ve been loosely planning this for nearly a year, and that is the longest I’ve ever thought about a trip. It all started last August when I booked tickets to see Taylor Swift in Munich at the end of July. It was silly and expensive, but I later lucked out with tickets to Vancouver, BC for a quarter of the price. Once that was all in order, I decided I would re-sell the Munich tickets. Sean’s never been to Europe, though, so I still wanted to do the trip anyway.

Ridiculously, even with eleven months to plan, we didn’t book our main flight until a week or two ago, and I booked everything else last week. Not my best performance, but we made it here!

After a week with Sean’s family in Idaho, we flew from Spokane to Minneapolis for a layover before continuing on to Amsterdam. Delta’s basic economy was playing major mind games with us, and they booked us purposefully separated from each other on both legs. Luckily, on the first leg, we both got window seats. Mine was directly in front of his, but it was oddly attached to an emergency exit, so there was no chair in front of me. That meant no space to store my bag and no movie screen, which for some reason sent me into a mild panic.

After lots of discussion, Sean and I decided to switch seats. (Okay, I decided, haha.) But he wasn’t planning on using the TV screen, and that way he got a bunch of extra leg room! Seems like a win-win.

I watched the Odd Life of Timothy Green before reading a bit, but I was uber stressed about our 50 minute layover in an unfamiliar airport. Then, to add misery to madness, there were some weather delays that meant our plane landed twenty minutes late.

Sean was not pleased with my insistence on skipping a bathroom break, but we made it onto the plane and were able to pee before boarding closed.

Once boarding closed, there were plenty of empty seats around us. So, despite our terrible seat assignments, so we were able to rearrange and sit next to each other near the aisle. I was VERY happy and relieved.

I treated myself to a rum and coke (for free!) and read for many hours on this flight, so the time just flew by. I did regret pushing through one serious pull of sleep because I was hooked on my book. By the time I put the book down and tried to sleep a bit, the window had passed. I didn’t manage to fall asleep until about thirty minutes before breakfast service. Bummer.

We landed in Amsterdam at 11am, weary and woozy, and made our way straight for the Rijksmuseum. I can’t remember if I’ve been here before, but it was a treat, nonetheless. We were able to store our bags in the coat check and wander unencumbered.

Delirious with fatigue, we slodged through the first wing and a fun stop-motion exhibition before beelining for the cafe. I needed food and Sean needed caffeine, stat!

Sean’s hazelnut iced latte did not disappoint, nor did my lemongrass lemonade, spring vegetable curry, or Sean’s chicken sandwich. Museum cafes are one of my favorite indulgences!

Mildly invigorated (or maybe we were just fooling ourselves), we soldiered on. Please enjoy this barrage of model ships and art.

I took a nice long pause in the library. I love me a good library.

For some reason, I was also very intrigued by these ink drawings of major naval battles. I mean, there have to be a hundred ships out there. Is that really possible? Was that possible? In that kind of proximity to each other and in those numbers? My mind was boggled.

The great hall had some fun paintings by Rembrandt and others, but the architecture of the space (and the benches to rest on) were my favorite parts.

By this point, Sean had essentially given up fighting his body’s insistent desire to sleep, so I ran through the last floor (and possibly my favorite floor) by myself.

I’m not gonna lie – my body felt it too. It’s a very specific and unpleasant feeling, the certainty that a night of sleep has been squandered or missed entirely. I’ve felt it on many travel days and after many exams. It’s not fun!

We boarded a tram, unwilling or unable to walk the twenty minutes to our Airbnb, and then spent a few minutes enjoying the canals in the area.

We were thoroughly underwhelmed by our lodgings (small room, shared bathroom, nowhere to hang our towels, mild smell of sewage), but our bodies were indifferent. I’m not proud of this, but I decided to let Sean take the wheel, so it was decided that we would go to bed then and there, at 5 o’clock in the evening.

There was plenty of tossing and turning. I woke up around 6:30, then again at 9, and then we both woke up for a while at 2. But all said and done, we finally woke for real at 7, and I guess we probably deserved it.

As much as I have never been and probably never will be a morning person, I sure do love early mornings when my body allows it. The sun was bright, the air was crisp, and the streets were quiet.

Let it be known that Amsterdam is not an early-rise town! It was actually quite challenging to find a place open for breakfast at 8! But we managed, and I had my first fresh OJ of the trip. Spilled half of it on myself, too, haha.

Sean and I got into a small squabble because I didn’t want to stop reading, but I eventually pried myself away long enough to continue our adventure.

I delighted in the spring and summer flowers lining the streets and canals. So many varieties and colors! We acknowledged how impressive it is that the city has so much green since it’s mostly made of bricks and concrete. They really put a lot of effort into stocking the streets with pots and planters.

I hope you enjoy this tiny car as much as I did:

We visited Centraal Station and passed the Anne Frank House on our way.

And then we walked along the water to Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder, a Catholic church hidden in the top floors of a home from a time when non-protestant religions were banned from public practice.

There was some interesting detective work done on the paint so they could restore the church to its 1800’s style!

Some fun features besides the church included nice views of the city and rooms furnished like the 1800s, including some “box bed” bedrooms.

Sean noticed that all of the canal houses have hooks for pulley systems, and once we noticed, we couldn’t stop seeing it! Turns out it was (and probably still is) the only way to get large furniture to the top floors of the canal houses because the staircases are so steep and narrow!

We had another coffee in the museum cafe (did I mention the jet lag was hitting Sean?), and then we took a walk through the red light district. (Not too active during the day, but there were a couple of bored ladies sitting in their rooms on their phones, haha).

We also so a guy almost get hit by a motorcycle because he was walking in the middle of the street. The biker had to swerve and his bike fell on him. He was physically fine, but he was NOT happy and chased the pedestrian down yelling in Dutch that I don’t think the pedestrian understood. He just kept saying, “Sorry! Sorry!” Sean tried to help, but it was fruitless because the guy was so angry. Yikes!

At the Nieumarkt (New Market), we stopped at a juice stand. We asked the seller for his recommendation, and I opted for the beet and ginger juice that “makes his wife very happy.” Rather than mixing the juices together, though, he simply poured me a shot of ginger and handed it to me, saying, “I bet you are hard core, yes?”

Let’s just say my mouth burned and my tummy hurt for a while after that, hahahaha. I guess I wasn’t as hard core as he thought!

After another long walk along the water, we ended up at NEMO, a science museum recommended by my Dutch friend Bart.

Technically, he suggested we try out the rooftop restaurant and skip the museum, but Sean wanted the full experience, so I (somewhat reluctantly) relented.

The museum was definitely targeted for kids and families, but I’ll admit I had fun once I got into it. Basically everything was interactive. There was a giant Rube Goldberg machine and five levels of themed exhibitions all about electronics, the senses, building techniques, etc.

Several exhibits required a partner. One space had boxes filled with 3 device components, and you had to show your partner the pieces one at a time and see if they could guess what the device was. I was frustrated that I never guessed correctly before the final piece (which always gave it away), whereas Sean correctly guessed the electric toothbrush and one other device. Mine were a bike bell and a computer mouse. Some mechanical engineer, huh?

We tried to build a dam at one point using little silicone blocks, but we were also not very good at that and had to cheat by copying some kids farther upriver.

There was also a little laboratory where you did some kind of experiment with chemicals. We didn’t try it, but it was pretty cute that you had to wear a lab coat inside.

My favorite zone, by far, was the fifth floor. It was all about humans – our tendencies, our senses, our bodies. It was so fun! There was a small area about sex that was QUITE explicit – pretty surprising in a kids’ museum! (Does the g-spot exist, how big is the clitoris, etc…. lolol.)

One exhibit had some interesting cameras that allowed you to look directly at your own ear or to look closely at your own iris. Very cool.

Another had you walk in a straight line towards a Kinect and then had you try to guess which motion-detected skeleton was you. I was fascinated to learn that Sean has quite the swagger to his walk, which I’d never noticed before. His little skeleton head dramatically swung side to side with each step, whereas my head stays basically in one place the whole time.

Quite possibly the most hilarious experience was one where you took a picture of yourself, input information about your parents’ appearance, and then the computer spit out images of alternative versions of yourself based on genetic possibilities.

Why I decided to take the photo with this dumb look on my face is beyond me, but the results had us laughing out loud for a loooonnngg time, bahahahaha.

All-in-all, a pretty fun and hilarious experience. I kind of wish we’d just spent all of our time up on the fifth floor, though. I won’t explain every single exhibit, but I kind of want to, haha. The fact that I only took eight photos the entire time is evidence that I was having too much fun, I guess.

Hours later, we made it to the roof for a nice lunch with a view.

After we ate, I stood to watch the view and heard some loud clinking at our table behind me. I assumed it was a staff member cleaning our table, but when I turned around, I saw it was two pigeons going to TOWN on our scraps! Lol!

Sean humored me by allowing a visit to the library. I love me a good library, and this one had some nice water views.

We were both pretty exhausted at this point, so we had one more walk before breaking down and taking a bus back to our Airbnb for a nap.

Why did I stop putting my hand on my hip for photos? This straight-arm pose makes me look like a doofus! Haha.

Around eight, we rolled out of bed and forced ourselves to get some dinner.

One of the annoying things about Sean is that he never tells me when my hair is crazy. Either he thinks I’m always gorgeous or always insane-looking, but the result is the same.

Who in their right mind takes this picture without telling me to fix my hair or my face first? Bahahahah.

Oh, it was quite funny! We kept seeing people with Taylor Swift merch on, and it turns out she had just played Amsterdam the weekend before we arrived. This restaurant had a special that was, “I knew you were truffle when you walked in” omelette, “we are never ever getting back to cheddar” cheese, and “taters gonna tate tate tate” rosti, hahaha.

After dinner, we were treated with the most gorgeous sunset!

And then we braved the city one last time to visit the Red Light District by night. It’s not permitted to take photos in the area, for obvious reasons, but trust me that it was an interesting experience!

There were also several “live sex show” theaters and “sexy” public toilets, lol. We did chance the erotic museum, just for fun. There were surprisingly several original sketches by Picasso and John Lennon.

We finally made it back home for bed after a nice walk in the dark.