Holland

I still have to post about our trip to Paris, but I was a big doofus and forgot my camera. I had to buy a disposable one. I just sent it off to get developed and will post as soon as I get the pictures back. But in the meantime......Holland!

Last weekend Brice and I celebrated our 11 year anniversary. To celebrate, we went on a quick overnighter to Holland.

One of the things on our to do list while living in Europe was to visit the tulips in Holland. Keukenhof Flower Gardens in a small town just outside of Amsterdam called Lisse. Keukenhof boasts of being "the most photographed place on earth". I don't know if it's true or not, but by the gazillion people that were there, it just might be so. We hit the gardens just at the peak season and enjoyed several hours of beautiful blossoms. We could have stayed longer and seen more, but when you have looked at flowers for several hours, they all start to look the same.

Our hotel was in Amsterdam. We had a great time touring the city on a really cool canal boat. And while we really enjoyed seeing the city and it's sites, the most entertaining part was people watching. "Anything Goes" is the creed I give to Amsterdam. You could never be the weirdest person there, because no matter how weird or "unique" you are, there is bound to be someone just a little weirder. You can wear just about every color scheme and pattern all in the same outfit and no one would blink an eye. You want to walk around bare foot......ok, not problem, you'll fit right in. You want to cross dress, have blue hair, dress like a movie star, dress like a slob...ok, "anything goes". It was awesome. But of course in a city where both prostitution and marijuana are legal, what do you expect?

Because of all the canals and small bridges the city has, the roads are very crowed and narrow. There really aren't a lot of cars there because most people get around on bikes. You can imagine what driving our big of minivan was like on the crowed streets. The bikers are right there in front of, beside and almost on top of you.

Crowed city corner

Old church

Inside the diamond museum

Rijks museum

Taste of home

(notice the silver angel buying a hot dog?)

Line to visit the Ann Frank house

In front of the Ann Frank house

We toured the secret annex Ann Frank and her family hid in for 2 years as she kept her famous diary. I re-read the diary before we left and had a really powerful experience visiting this house.

Some of the unique architecture found in Amsterdam

Bike garage. There were thousands and thousands of bikes everywhere.

View of one of the many bridges

House boat

View from the canal

We were only in Amsterdam for 2 days, but it was long enough to get a good feel for the city. I know there are outskirts of the city with houses, normal streets and families. However the city center is just as you would image...the good and the bad. It was really nice to see the beautiful buildings, historic museums and unique people. A "must do" when visiting Europe.