Prostitutes, Marijuana, and Beautiful Scenery, Amsterdam Oh My!!

Amsterdam, where do we begin??  With the amazing food?? The beautiful scenery???  The abundance of sinful outlets (marijuana cafes, and prostitues to name a few)?  Or all the fun little quirky things we discovered that were vastly different than you see in the states??

First off, Amsterdam was a lovely place and all of you should try to visit it once in your life.  The atmosphere is so laid back.  Many of the streets were small and lined with canals, trees, people riding their bikes, and shops selling you delicious dutch food and espresso.  Some of our fondest memories of this place include strolling along the canals, stopping off at a restaurant to grab a coffee and some Dutch Pancakes, and riding through the Dutch countryside on our bikes.

Pretty canals

Dutch Pancakes, yum

One of the most memorable and informative sights we saw was the Anne Frank House.  The museum provided such a good context of Anne Frank and her family's life during and after the war, and what has been done since the house opened to help promote human rights, tolerance, and understanding of others throughout the world.

The food as well was quite scrumptous.  The Dutch sure are onto something with their cuisine, or at least what we tried.  For instance, Dutch Pancakes with bacon or apples in them, good.  French fries with mayo.....good!!!  

Gotta love that mayo on your fries

These prepackged Dutch Pancakes tasted like sugar, bread and bugspray, gross

After we got sick of strolling the canals and sampling the food, we decided a trip to the countryside was needed.  So what not a better way to do this than by bike.  Everyone else rode their bikes, and as they say, when in Rome.  Weird here though that no one cares to use helmets, maybe because they all ride so slow everywhere none are needed.  Jessie looked all over the place and could not find one.  Our excursion into rural Holland took us past some random farms, and of course lots of windmills and canals.  Perfecto.

Dutch countryside

Came across these little guys on our ride

Look at that windmill

Combining all this lovely stuff with the random things we found: urinals at canal corners, itsy bitsy little cars, tiny water bottles, and shopping carts you can pull behind you, and Amsterdam is one great city.  However, add in to this mix sex shows, cafes that sell all the marijuana you can buy, and hundreds of legal prostitutes and it becomes the most unique city we have ever been to.  Like mentioned earlier, you all need to experience this place for yourself at least once.

Cute waterbottle 

Cute car

Convenient urinal

Yes, this is the Red Light District

And thats the way the cookie crumbles,

Jessie and Nathan

P.S. For a further breakdown and discussion of our opinions of Amsterdam´s more sinful things, talk with us in person.

P.P.S  Tomorrow, Sunday, is our last day in Barcelona.  It is supposed to be sunny and in the high 70´s.  Don´t worry, we will bask in the sun and swim in the sea extra long for all of you stuck back in gray and rain of Seattle (heard the weather is turning back to sucky as usual for the next eight months).