Amsterdam, Some catching up to do

Well, I've finally been able to steal someone's wireless connection long enough to upload some photos. So, here's what you've missed.

First, I was able to get everything cleaned up before I left...so Grandma, this is for you...


So, the flight over wasn't so bad. The itinerary said 7 hours, 55 minutes, but really it was just a 6 hour flight. Same as flying to California. I had a window seat, which was nice. I also ended up sitting next to a baby who, for the first two hours, kept handing me his seat belt and wanting to hold my hand. Eventually the little bugger passed out, but then I felt bad getting up and possibly waking him up, so I sat still for 6 hours. I watched Robots, which is pretty funny, and The Bucket List, whcih my pop-pop highly recommended. It was good.

I didn't sleep much, maybe just two hours. It was cool though flying into the daylight. By the time we landed, it was 6:30 am here in Amsterdam. I got a couple of shots from the plane.





Here we are in the airport trying to figure out the ticket booth. The instructions were mostly in Dutch.


Once we got to the hostel, it was 8:00-ish. We were told the room wouldn't be ready until 12, so we wandered a bit and went to the Anne Frank house.

It's hard to see, but it's the building everyone's walking into. From the outside it doesn't look like much, but they have exhibits and videos playing on the inside.

We got back to the hostel around 12, and were told the room wouldnt be ready until 2, so we went wandering again. Amsterdam is actually not a huge city. We've been able to cover the entire west side by foot. We've taken a couple of the trams here, costs about $1.60 Euros per ride, but I've really enjoyed walking around. It hasn't been that hard either- the street signs are posted on the actual building on each corner. Some of the streets have similar names, and we've been confused once or twice, but for the most part we've found everything we've looked for.



After we finally got to our room, I napped for a few hours. Then, I met up with some other kids and we headed to the redlight district. On the way there, we passed a lot of stores. I saw a shoe store and just had to stop and take a look.



Once we got to the redlight, we just walked around to see what it was about. It was pretty fun, and totally not what I expected. The entire place was extraordinarily clean. All sorts of stores- souvenirs, head shops, and of course girls in windows.



I snapped a picture of the red lanterns, too... the Thai Massage was just a coincidence...



See how light out it is? These pictures are from about 9:30-10pm. I can't believe how long it stays light here- which totally doesn't help with the jet lag.

I stayed out pretty late- probably didn't head back until 3 am here. The bars are pretty cool. And they serve Heineken everywhere!.



The entire city is very nice. Here's a park that's by our hostel.

There are lizard sculptures throughout the park- not sure why...

Here's the canal by our hostel, too.



That's it for now...will post more pictures soon!