June 16 and 17, Amsterdam

After an exhausting day of travel and a rather sleepless trans-Atlantic flight, we landed safely and soundly at Amsterdam's Schipol Airport. After wandering around for nearly an hour, we finally had our railpass validated and took the train into the city. After wandering around some more at Central Station, we purchased 48 hour public transit tickets, took the tram to the Leidesplein, and then walked to our B&B from there.

Needless to say, we were both quite tired --- but after dropping our bags off, we went back to Central and hopped a train for Haarlem. Yesterday was a little rainy, but we made the best of it by visiting St. Bavo church (where we saw a massive organ once played by Mozart) and also taking an abbreviated tour of Corrie Ten Boom's house (if you haven't read The Hiding Place, I strongly suggest it!). We sampled some frittes and decided we should have had them with mayo (like the locals) and not ketchup (like the Yankees back home!). At this point we were both wet and cold and TIRED, so we headed back to the city. We changed into dry clothes, slept-walked to a restaurant around the corner from Boogaards, ate in a dream, went home and fell into bed.

Side note: the streets here are CRAZY for pedestrians. You have to constantly be on the lookout for either trams (silent) or bicyclists (silent until they ring their little bells). We were almost ambushed by a little moped, but Jason saved the day and got us out of the path.

Today has been much more relaxing, as we know the layout of the city and have refreshed our bodies and minds with sleep. We've visited Amsterdam's two great museums --- Van Gogh and Rijksmuseum. We were able to send my family a video message from Van Gogh so that was fun. We have more to see, and our time is running out. More to come!