Sunday - April 28, 2019 through Monday - May 6, 2019 Alexandria, Virginia
We flew from Northwest Arkansas to Reagan Airport. We spent 10 days at Scott's house in Alexandria, Virginia. Most days we didn't do much, just took walks in the neighborhood while Scott worked and Elli and Oscar were in school. We spent a lot of time hanging out in the back yard.
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| Oscar and Elli playing on the swing set. The azaleas in Scott's yard were beautiful |
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| Oscar, Scott, and Elli |
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| Elli, Mammy, and Oscar made cookies one day |
On Tuesday, April 30, Mike and I hired a ride on Lyft to Old Town Alexandria. We walked around a while and had lunch at Chadwicks.
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| Founders Park in Old Town Alexandria |
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| Mike at park in Old Town |
Mike and Scott went fishing one day but didn't have any luck. While they were fishing I washed clothes and repacked to get ready for our trip to Amsterdam. I also walked about 3 miles in the neighborhood.
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| Some pretty flowers in the neighborhood |
We enjoyed hanging out and having a good visit before flying to Amsterdam.
Tuesday - May 7, 2019 Flight to Amsterdam
After Scott left for work this morning and Mike and I packed for our trip to Amsterdam. We got a ride with Lyft to Dulles International Airport at 2:00 pm. We ate a burger at the airport for a late lunch. Check in at Dulles was easy because I had checked in on line. The plane left on time at 5:30 pm. This was an 8 hour flight with dinner and drinks provided. The in flight entertainment was not working so we were given a $100 credit for the next flight that we book with United. We were both able to sleep on the flight some so we weren't quite so tired when we arrived in Amsterdam.
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| On plane ready for take off |
Wednesday - May 8, 2019 Amsterdam - Day 1
Our plane arrived at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam at 8:00 am. Getting our luggage and getting through customs only took about 30 minutes. We took a taxi to the Best Western Dam Square Inn because we were too tired to try and figure out the train system. The taxi cost $80 Euro. We had to walk the last block because the hotel is on a pedestrian only street.
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| A view of the Best Western |
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| Another shot of the hotel |
It was too early to get into our room, so we checked our luggage at the hotel and walked to the Cafe Corner House for breakfast. We both had an omelet and coffee. After breakfast we walked about 1/2 mile to Amsterdam Central Station to the tourist information center to get maps and information about the city.
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| Amsterdam Central Station |
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| Typical houses by a canal |
We walked back to the hotel and were able to get into our room at about 1:00 pm. After settling in we both took a 2 hour nap then walked around close to the hotel for a while. When we got back to Dam Square we noticed a large number of police and a crowd yelling and singing loudly by the World War II memorial. We found out later that it was the 'hooligans' celebrating before the football game which was at 9:00 that night. It was raining while we were walking, but this was the only day that it rained while we were in Amsterdam. We had dinner at St. Paul's Eatery at about 4:00 pm. I had chicken tortellini and wine; Mike had chicken with vegetables and a beer. Both dinners were pretty good. Something that we learned about eating out here is that you have to ask for the check. The servers don't want to make the diners feel rushed. That is a lot different than in the U.S. where they try to make you hurry to leave. Also, you cannot leave a tip on the credit card. If you want to tip you have to use cash.
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| Walkway in Singel area, the ceiling was done in tiles. |
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De Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) next to the hotel.
Construction began on it in 1385.
It's over 600 years old! Not exactly new. |
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Entrance to Gravenstraat from Dam Square
Our hotel was on Gravenstraat |
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| Mary looking at a canal on Singel |
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| Mike enjoying the view |
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| Houses on the canal |
We went back to the hotel by 5:00 pm and were both asleep by 6:30 pm. We were pretty tired from the last 2 days.
Thursday - May 9, 2019 Amsterdam - Day 2
We both slept about 12 hours. I got up first to take a shower and discovered that there was no hot water. UGH! I took a quick cold shower and got ready for breakfast. Mike and I went down to breakfast which was included with the room. It was a typical Netherlands breakfast with deli style meat and cheeses, yogurt, fruit, hard boiled eggs, bread, and pastries. It was pretty good and we had enough to last us until lunch time. We walked around the Dam Square area for a little while so that we could orientate ourselves to that part of the city.
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| Royal Palace on Dam Square |
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| Mike looking at boats on the canal |
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| Canal View |
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| Large building on the canal |
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| A different view of the Nieuw Kerk |
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Mike and Mary in front of a food and shopping mall next to Dam Square
This building was originally a post office, built in the 1800s |
After walking a while close to the hotel, we walked toward Amsterdam Central Station and purchased a combination canal boat and bus hop on hop off ticket for 24 hours. It was good for us getting on until noon on Friday. We got on the blue canal boat and did a canal tour for about 2 hours. It was a really good way to see a large part of the old town.
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| On the blue line canal cruise |
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| Some typical houses with a house boat in the foreground |
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| View through a canal bridge |
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| Another canal bridge view |
We got off the boat about 1/2 mile from Dam Square and walked back to the room for a while. After that we went back toward the waterfront area so that we could catch the green canal boat. On our way we stopped at a restaurant to get pizza. The pizza was very good, but the service was horrible. We got to the starting point for the green canal boat at about 2:00 pm. We mainly rode through some different canal areas and got off at the Brouwerij 't IJ brewery which is connected to an old windmill. This is the only windmill that we saw in the Netherlands. We got a flight of 5 samples to share. We sat outside on their patio and had an interesting conversation with 2 women from New York.
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| Typical houses in the Jewish Quarter |
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| Montelbaanstoren - a defensive tower built in 1517 |
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Skinny Bridge over the Amstel River
Hand operated draw bridge built in 1934 |
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| Canal view - lots of tour boats |
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| Gassan Diamonds Factory |
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| Brouwerij 't IJ Brewery and windmill |
After finishing our beer we walked back to the hotel. It was about a 2 mile walk, but we tried to cut through without staying on the main, very busy, street and got a little turned around. We ended up walking through the Red Light District and for a while had no idea exactly where we were. We finally spotted the Royal Palace which is on one side of Dam Square close to our hotel. We headed toward that and got back to Gravenstraat and decided to eat dinner at a restaurant 2 doors down from the hotel called Bar Bistro De Pilserij. We had bitterballen for an appetizer (a typical Netherlands food) and shared a hamburger and french fries for our meal. Bitterballen is essentially meat gravy that is breaded and deep fried. All of our food was very good. I had a glass of wine and Mike had some beer with dinner.
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| Bitterballen |
We got back to our room around 8:30 pm. We were pretty tired because we walked around 6 miles. This was a very nice day. The weather was perfect in the 60s and partly cloudy.
Friday - May 10, 2019 Amsterdam - Day 3
We slept in this morning, had breakfast at the hotel, and walked to Central Station about 10:30 to catch the Hop On Hop Off bus. We rode to Vondelpark before getting off. This route took us a little further on the outside of the canal loop. We saw the Heineken Experience building and the Rijksmuseum, but had decided to not tour either.
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| On the bus tour |
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| Amsterdam cruise passenger terminal |
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| Heineken Experience |
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| Rijksmuseum |
We walked a while in Vondelpark before going to the Hard Rock Cafe in Amsterdam to get lunch. It was handy and we had never eaten at a Hard Rock Cafe. We shared a chicken club sandwich and fries. It was good but kind of pricey.
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| Mike at the entrance to Vondelpark |
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| Mary by flower garden in Vondelpark |
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| Hard Rock Cafe Amsterdam |
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| Lunch View |
When we were finished with lunch we walked to the Bloemenmarkt (Flower Market) which has stalls of shops on the canal. We went into a few of them, bought a magnet souvenir, then walked back to the hotel. This was about a 2 1/2 mile walk.
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| Tulips in a Bloemenmarkt shop - the only tulips we saw were in shops |
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| Bloemenmarkt |
We rested at the hotel then walked back to the Singel area. Mike found a place to get ice cream and I found a place that had nut free facilities so that I could get a dessert. I got an apple tart with cream. It was very good.
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| National Monument in Dam Square |
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| Inside of the Mall Plaza - a very pretty building |
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| Apple tart with cream |
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| Canal view - the narrowest house we saw is in the middle |
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| Mary in front of typical Amsterdam house |
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| View of Nieuw Kerk from hotel room window |
We went back to the room for a while to get everything ready for getting on the cruise ship the next day. We both called our Moms to wish them happy Mother's Day then went to dinner. We ate at the same place as the night before because it was so good and convenient. We got bitterballen again and shared an order of veal spareribs. They were very good. We were back in the room by 8:30 again. We had another good day with very good weather in the 60s. We enjoyed Amsterdam and were ready for the next part of our trip.
