Amsterdam

 Jared and I went to Amsterdam for the first time six months after we got to the Netherlands, but better late than never.  We loved it.  The city is very busy and there are tons of people.  We stayed in a hotel just outside the city and our hotel was amazing. We had a comfy bed, nice bathroom with a tub even Jared could fit in, cheap parking, and just a quick ride into the city on the tram.  Once we dropped off our bags we met up with some friends that lived in the area.  We met up with them at Leidseplein, a nice square at the top of all the shopping streets. 

Our friends, Gideon and Minke, showed us around the city bringing us to see the canals, shopping streets, and even the red light district.  The canals were beautiful with lots of nice bridges and there were a few big open squares with thousands of people.  There were so many boats and the weather was beautiful, sunny and warm.  Walking through the red light district was quite a bit different than I expected.  I was told all about it before we went.  They told me all about the girls standing in the windows trying to get men walking by to come in for a quickie.  Now my thought was the windows were like old broken down shop windows that the girls stood in and lured in men and then I don’t know what.  But in reality I was so wrong.  There are doors specifically made for these girls with red canopies above them.  There were rooms with beds behind them or up a set of stairs or right behind a door in their room.  The girls wore skimpy bathing suits that didn’t leave much to the imagination and danced and showed off in their doors. When men came up they told them how much and they did their business right in that room and there’s a sink to wash up and everything.  I couldn’t believe it.  You obviously are not supposed to take pictures of the girls and all that but I did snap this one below to show you all the actual doors. 

Red Light District doors

Jared and I read up a little about what the red light district before we went and we found out some interesting things.  Here are some of the things we read:

It was legalized in 1810 in the Netherlands.

The prostitutes can pay anywhere from €75 - €150 per every eight hour shift for their spot, depending on the location.  One thing Jared and I found was that the “prime real-estate” which must cost more money was where all the pretty and young girls were and the windows that were farther outside the center had the older and much less attractive women. 

The typical cost for a quickie is about €50.

The duration of a typical encounter with a prostitute is about 15 minutes.

Most clients come from Great Britain.

The prostitutes pay taxes, have a union, and it would be rare to find a prostitute that doesn’t use condoms although it is not the law to wear them.  

They are not required to have a medical check-up, and it is illegal to pimp or traffic prostitutes.

If a patron gets violent, the prostitutes quarters are equipped with a button that activates a light outside and if the police get there before the Hells Angels do, I would say they're pretty lucky.   

Lastly, the red light came from women carrying them to the ports where the sailors came in, in the early 1300’s.  The red light is flattering - makes your skin and teeth sparkle.

 

Anyway, after walking through the red light district we went through Amsterdam’s Chinatown and walked around a bit more and stopped at a cute café for a drink.  When we sat down, Gideon sat right next to a cat that what on his bench sleeping and he didn’t say anything - like it was normal.  About 10 minutes later I noticed it and he said it had been there the whole time.  Crazy.  Gideon and Minke had plans that night so we walked them back to the Leidseplein square and said goodbye. 

 

We walked around a bit more and then headed for the Heineken Brewery.  We got to see how they brewed the beer, how it has changed over the years, how they bottled it and how to properly drink a beer.  We saw a bunch of the movies where they had used Heineken  and a bunch of the commercials. 

Their different labels

The bottling process.

The tasting room.

Made from bottles with lights behind them.

With our free beers we get at the end.

 

After the Brewery we met up with another friend, Kawin, and we headed back to Chinatown to a Thai place for dinner.  It was very good. We headed to a comedy show at a place called Boom Chicago where they did all improv.  It was very similar to the tv show "Whose Line is it Anyways".  They have specific skits that they do probably every time but they use everything the audience gives them.  So they asked for occupations, hobbies, places and a bunch of other things and you yelled out things.  If you gave a great answer, they gave you a shot and then they used your topic in their skit and it was hilarious.  I hope that before we leave, we get to go again.  Jared sometimes was laughing so hard he was crying.  It was great!

At Dinner at a place called Bird

 

Because of the great weather and our friends we ended up having a great time. 

The next day the weather was not as good.  It rained and was a bit cooler but we walked all over the city.  We took a canal cruise which ended up being better than expected.  You get to see all the pretty bridges, other boats, house boats, and even the floating Dutchman which was a real bus floating in the water.  It was incredible.  You get to see everything in a different perspective from the water as well.  We also saw the skinniest apartment which was about 2 meters wide or 6 ft wide… what can you even put in that! After that we walked in circles all around and then headed back for our drive back.  We had a great time!! 

Facts are thanks to our Lonely Planet Amsterdam City Guide.   

Lovers was the canal we went on... how cute!

The floating bus... The floating Dutchman

 

The smallest apartment was 2 meters wide... crazy!

Kris and Dave's Visit

We have been having some trouble with the program and our mouse so the pictures might be in funny places but I did the best I could do.

Kristina and Dave came to visit us in May for a week and we had a really great time.  After a grueling trip to get here with delays and mix ups, we finally found each other.  I went to meet them in the train station that was a little closer to the airport from Maastricht, but because their plane was delayed they weren’t sure if I would be there.  They hopped on the train to Maastricht as soon as they got to the station and come to find out we were in the station at the same time.  I must have just missed them and I waited for 2 hours and they never came through so I headed back and there they were in Maastricht waiting for me.  I really just don’t know how people got on without cell phones.  FOR REAL!!

Once they got to my place and got all settled in it was hours after they had originally planned. We had time to just grab something to eat.  We made them try frites with frite sauce (Dutch mayonnaise) and then headed off to quiz night and an Irish Pub near our place.  They were fairly tired but did much better than Jared and I did when we first got here. 

The next day we went walking around the city taking pictures, popping into shops, and trying some of my favorite foods they have around the city.   We also stopped at a pretty park that Jared and I didn’t know existed and now go to all the time.  We made dinner at home and then headed over to this mini carnival over on the Vrijthhof square.  They had quite a few rides for little kids and some that made my stomach turn just looking at them. For each ride you have to buy tickets at a stand right next to the ride and then wait by the side of the ride until it stops then when it stops there is no line or guards to wait behind, you just hop right on and hand the guy your ticket when he comes to check that you have your belt on.  The craziest thing about this ride was there were no barriers blocking people from getting too close or anything.  It was incredible.  Things would never be like that at home.  Someone would get sued for sure!!  Anyway, we tried a few rides and then headed back home to gear up for a bit of a drive the next day.   

See how the people are sitting on the inside and the ride is still moving.

We woke up a little early the next day and drove into Paris.  The ride takes about 4 1/2 hours if you don’t get lost.  We were able to park right outside the hotel and once we put our things in our rooms we headed right off for the Eiffel Tower.  We walked up the tower to the second level and took an elevator up to the top.  It was pretty chilly the higher we got but we could see a lot.    Once we climbed back down, we went to go get dinner at a place called Iolanda Paris and we all got pizzas.  After dinner we headed back to the tower to meet for a bike tour.  Jared and I had a great time on it last time so we wanted Kris and Dave to do it too.  We went to the Loveove Lock Bridge and Jared and I got to see our “Love Lock”.  It was a bit rusty and part of our keychain was broken but our pencil written names were still there so it was still neat to see it.  We got to see Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower the Conciergerie and some other neat buildings.  We also took the boat cruise where Jared and Dave got to enjoy some terrible -- and I’m sure very cheap -- red wine. 

 

 

 

The next day we went to see the Arc de Triomphe, and we walked down the Champs-Élysées.  We took pictures by the Eiffel Tower and on our way back saw this crazy guy all done up like he was made of gold and when you come close he would move.  Kinda neat.  We stopped at this sucky place to grab lunch with terrible service and just okay food and then we went to see the Cathedral of Notre Dame. Outside the Cathedral there was a huge line so we were not able to go inside this time.  There were these kids holding up food for the birds to come eat so Kris and I got some great pictures of the birds eating right out of their hands.   

After that we headed back to the Love Lock bridge where Jared and I put our lock so Kristina and Dave could put theirs up.  As part of Kristina’s birthday gift, I got her a lock for her and Dave and she used nail polish to paint it at the place we went for lunch.  Her code 445@C’ means I love you.  44 is her lucky number so that represents the "I", 5 is for the 5^th largest organ in the body, the heart, and C is Charotte (Shhh)

So Kristina and Dave locked up their love and threw in the keys into the river. 

We headed over to the Conciergerie where Marie Antoinette was kept and then headed back to the hotel to rest a little before we got dinner.  We went to an Irish pub where we got dinner and a few beers and just relaxed.  To end our trip we decided to go out and look for crepes and ice cream!  The last time Jared and I went, we got the best chocolate strawberry crepes.  So we got off at one stop on the metro and Kris and Dave got ice cream and while we were walking around we came across this guy making the coolest things.  He was using regular canned spray paint to make crazy pictures.  He made one while we watched and it was incredible.  Then we went to get my crepe!!  We took a few more pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower and headed back. 

 











The next day we drove to Champagne where we hoped to take a tour in the cellars where they show you how they make champagne.  We didn’t however make a reservation and we didn’t get to do this.  But the boys did buy a nice bottle of champagne.  We ended up seeing this Cathedral and hit up a few souvenir shops.  The Cathedral was huge and had tons of beautiful stained glass windows.   On the way back home we got very, very lost.  We went the wrong way so many times for so long it nearly took us twice as long to get home. 

Once we finally got back to Maastricht, we took them to get one of my favorite meals, cheese bacon puff steak.  It is this steak that has a thick brown bacon, onion and mushroom sauce and it’s delicious and tastes just like the cheese bacon puff hors d'oeuvres that we make back in Massachusetts.  One other thing they have is the best bread and herb butter.  Kristina loved the bread so much we ended up going back for just that before she left.  The next day we relaxed at home.  We cooked dinner and listened to music that was playing in the square for some dance concert thing.  It ended up being beautiful for a while so Kris and I sat on the deck and got tans. 

But what do you know, only a few hours later it down poured!

Beautiful weather getting a tan and then....

For their last day I took them to grab my favorite sandwich at a place down the street.  We took lots of pictures of the bridges and went into tons of shops.  We ended the afternoon with a fantastic waffle and ice cream from Pinkys and Jared, Dave and our friend Loek enjoyed cigars on the back porch after dinner.  We had a great time and I can’t wait for someone else to come and visit… Everyone’s welcome!!