Friday, October 4, 2013

Amsterdam, a canal city we actually liked


If you've been paying attention to these posts, I bet you can guess how our visit to Amsterdam began. If you guessed "wild party" then it's back to listening school for you. If you guessed "checked into hotel, then took a long nap to recover from the early flight" then congratulations, you win a cookie.

After our recovery nap, we headed for the center of the city to check out the canals and see if the city was as pretty as advertised. It was. Even under gray, ugly clouds, the water produced a relaxed, comfortable atmosphere.

It was especially lovely once the sun set. Naturally we headed back out to our hotel fairly early to get more of the wonderful sleep our room so admirably provided.

The next day we had the brilliant idea to visit a cheese and wine tasting event in the basement of a cheese store. Naturally the wine tasting part was optional. It was the cheese we were excited for. It didn't disappoint. The flavors were interesting without being overwhelming. We thoroughly enjoyed it!

We spent the next few hours wandering around letting the city itself act as an attraction. We picked up a souvenir or two. We had apple pie. We wondered down alleys in quiet neighborhoods. We took pictures of the nicest places we saw. In short we had a wonderfully, carefree, stress-free time.

Evening found us tired once again headed for an early bedtime.

The next day it was off to Belgium to meet some friends we made in the Philippines. Needless to say, we were excited.