London, Paris & Amsterdam-Oh My! Part 3

Hi everyone,

        This is the final post recapping my 2016 spring break trip! After our time in England and France we went to Amsterdam for a couple days. I had never been to the Netherlands before and so I was extra excited for this portion of the trip. We traveled by train from Paris to Amsterdam and I think it took about 5 hours. The time went by pretty quickly though so it wasn't that bad even though the journey seems long at first. It did take us forever to get to the right car of the train when we were trying to board though, the train was very long and our group of thirty Americans lugging our suitcases and rushing down the platform must have looked pretty funny! Also it was a bit of a struggle lifting suitcases onto the train and then on the racks once inside the train, I managed though and we were lucky that there were some very strong people in our group to assist those who needed it. 
          Once we got to Amsterdam and left the train station we were immediately almost run over by a tram and then by people riding bikes. We had thought we were on a sidewalk/pedestrian area but boy were we wrong. And if you need to know one thing about Amsterdam apart from it's lovely canals, tulips, and wooden shoes it is that they have some very serious bikers there (and I'm talking bikers as in bicyclists, not motorcyclist bikers although they are just as tough). 

Picture of me (in the yellow coat) at the letters feat. random people

Took this while on the bus

       We met our coach near the train station and it brought us to our hotel a little ways away from the city. We were to have a bit of time to unwind, settle into our rooms, and get ready before heading into the city. Not all of the rooms for our tour group were ready once we got to the hotel though. All of the boys' and adults' rooms were ready but not all of the girls' yet. Some people were able to bring their luggage up to their rooms and chill for a little while the rest of us waited in the lobby. Our only entertainment was watching people trying to take the temperamental elevators which would sometimes bring them to their floor and other times just open the door again on the bottom floor. So at least we knew which one not to use when we finally had a room. My friends and I of course ended up being the very last ones to be given a room after waiting over an hour. The majority of our group had been done doing what they had to in their rooms and were coming back down to the lobby when we were just bringing our luggage upstairs. At least not everyone was ready yet and we had a little time before we had to leave.  

       Our coach brought us into the city and our guide met our bus to begin our tour. Our driver was named Daniel and we thought that was funny so people started saying Amsterdam Daniel ( I'm sure you get the reference but it was because of "Damn Daniel, back at it again with the white Vans" vine). On our coach tour we traveled through the newer part of the city and saw all of the developments that were happening and how the city was expanding. The tour around the older part of the city was very round about and I mean that literally also because many of the streets are semicircular since they followed the shape of the canals and that is how the city is set up. As well as it being much more of a pedestrian and bike friendly city rather than one made for cars and other vehicles. Due to this, our bus could not drive directly from point A to point B but did have to go around quite a bit. It is not much of a driving city but that is not a problem at all since it is so walk-able. I much more prefer exploring new cities and places by walking rather than driving anyway so it worked out great for me! You have so much more freedom and can just go where you please, maybe turn down that cute street there, pop in to that shop right there, or wander in to a park. You can't really do that if you're in a car. Also parking in Amsterdam does not seem fun, we were amazed by how close to the edge people have to park and there was not always even a fence along the canals. 

      After our bus tour was done, as a group we had a little walking tour around the older part of the

city and the Red Light District. Many of you probably know what this is known for but it was the afternoon so it was not awkward to be walking around that area with faculty and professors from my school. Just do beware that coffee shops are not where you go to buy a cup of coffee, go to a cafe if you want some caffeine. We had some free time after our tour before we were to meet up with the whole group to have dinner at a well known restaurant. It was a nice restaurant and I liked the atmosphere, very old fashioned and quaint, I am not a fan of sausage so I can not comment about the main part of the meal but I liked the mashed potatoes and the desserts (yes, you read that right, desserts-plural, we were given multiple so that was very cool!)

One of the desserts, it was soooo good!

         My friends and I wanted to get souvenirs and found some very nice shops right in Dam Square. We ended up going to the same shop at least 3 times in the 2 days that we were in Amsterdam, we kept thinking of other things to by for our friends and family. We found another nice gift shop and I bought this towel for my mom. I thought it was very cute and a useful gift that also represented the city. (My mom is hard to buy gifts for, she doesn't really wear jewelry that often, or makeup, doesn't use perfume or lotion much or really wear accessories in general actually, she doesn't use candles etc. so I think you get the picture. I was very happy when I saw the towel and I thought it would be perfect to give to her). 

 

These are a well known Dutch sweet called Stroopwafels, they are super sweet and I also like the tin they came in

Key chains I got for my mom and sister

 

The towel I got for my mom (this is not the best lighting though)

I also liked picking up some magnets and postcards from different places throughout the trip as mementos.

This is the outside of the expensive (and very nice) department store

      During our trip I was on the lookout for a new handbag and one of my friends wanted to get a Starbucks city mug from each of the places we traveled to. This meant that we located and visited many Starbucks over the course of our journey and quite a few stores as well. As part of the quest for a bag my friends and I wanted to check out a local mall. We though it would be like what a regular mall was to us but we were wrong. First of all, for the life of us we could not find it! We kept walking around and although we knew it should be right near Dam Square we couldn't get there. Then finally we found it and yup it was right there. It was in a gorgeous old building but had been mostly hidden by another large old building so we didn't feel too bad that it was such a struggle to find since it was covered by that other building. It was a pretty nice shopping center but was much smaller than we initially though it would be. I did not find a bag that I liked but we bought some chocolate so in my eyes I'd say it was still a successful shopping excursion! We also checked out a famous department store and looked for more Starbucks. I loved all of the visual merchandising I was seeing in the windows.  It was too bad that most of the shops were closing so early though, and I'm talking 7 or 8pm. 

Visual merchandising I thought was cool

This one says "Too much of a good thing is a better thing"

This is the Rijksmuseum

      My friends and I were not able to take a canal ride although we had wanted to, (and my mom really wanted me to as well) we just didn't have the time. We weren't able to go in the Van Gogh museum or the Rijksmuseum either. We were also disappointed that we missed out on a market going on. It only happens once a month and we happened to be there on the right day but hadn't known about it. We found out later once we met up with other people from our group who had stumbled upon it. 

             We did visit the Anne Frank house and it was such an experience. Only a certain number of people can go in at a time and while we were waiting outside it started to rain, this time I did have my umbrella in my big bag and I was glad I did, if you read the part one post you'd know why this was significant lol. (My bag was a large nylon one that I had my purse inside, I had a sweater, umbrella, water bottle, snacks, regular items like my wallet etc. and having it all in that big nylon one protected my things from the elements and made me less worried about being pick pocketed).  Once we were in the building there was a bit of a lobby area, going in though the most surreal part was stepping through the hidden doorway in to where the Frank family lived. We were not allowed to take pictures and the pace going through the house was pretty slow. There were photographs and books to look at at well as a few short videos and also plaques to read. One of the videos was of Otto Frank, Anne's father and in it he was talking about Anne's diary. There was one thing he said that stood out to me the most, I can't remember it word for word but it was about him reading the for the first time and how he learned so much about Anne from it, how even though you live with your child/family members and see them everyday there are still things you don't know about them and you will never know everything about them. This resonated with me because it really is true, in some ways that is very sad but it also means that you can be surprised when you discover new facets of a person and keep learning about them.

    As a side trip our coach drove a little bit out of the city so we could visit a cheese farm. Part of the road we were  on had been blocked off due to a race on the river we were driving along but the cop, seeing our tour bus and knowing where we were headed let us by. On the way to the farm we also stopped at windmill. This was a great photo opp, we didn't have too long though (we had to get to the farm at a certain time) and the people that took care of the windmill actually lived in it and we didn't want to be too disruptive although I'm sure they're used to the tourists.

          At the cheese farm we learned how they made Gouda cheese. The person showing us how was very animated and funny and our guide had warned us beforehand about the crazy cheese man and she was not wrong. And of course we were able to taste the cheese and it was very, very good. At the same farm they also make wooden shoes and we were told about that process as well and this time by an even crazier guy. He saw someone from our group taking a picture and then went over to them, took them by the shoulders and instructed someone else how to take the picture of them. Then he proceeded to say how he took the same picture with Whoopi Goldberg and once we were all in the gift shop, showed us said picture with Whoopi. 

         We went back into the city when our time at the farm came to an end and had some free time. After walking around for some time my friends and I were hungry, we found a little sweet shop that sold ice cream and other treats and I had a waffle with Nutella and it was amazing!

        Our coach picked us up at a meeting spot each night to bring the whole group back to the hotel. If people wanted to stay in the city longer they could have but they would have needed to take a tram. No one was feeling that adventurous and so both nights we were in Amsterdam everyone was diligent about meeting on time where the coach would pick us up.         

            This trip was so fun, it was the second time I had left the U.S. And I feel much more comfortable exploring and navigating cities now, (when we had free time my friends had put me in charge of getting us places such as to a certain part of the city or a sight we wanted to see and I also had to get us back to the hotel or meeting spot each day). I love traveling and certainly want to do more in the future. I really encourage you to travel and if you never have before don't be scared to try it. There's a great big world out there to see.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed my recap
-Emily

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