Amsterdam I loved and would definitely live there! The city is incredible. It's clean and beautiful with the canals and very lively. We arrived in Amsterdam at 8am from our crazy early Madrid flight. Once we got to Amsterdam we took a high speed train downtown to the main terminal. From there we first walked to get a real Pannekoeken. They are very different than the ones we have here in the states, however they are equally delicious! Adam and I shared an Apple one. They are very thin and almost reminded me of a mixture between a crepe and one of my Dads famously thin and delicious pancakes.
After there we walked to our hotel which was in a great location of downtown. We stayed at a couple of NH Hotels on this trip and would definitely recommend them to anyone traveling over in Europe. After checking in we headed out to explore and first ran into THE donut stand. I say "the" because I'm telling you this is the best donut I have ever had in my life. They are a plain ball of fried dough that they drop in powdered sugar and then hand to you in a napkin. After the powdered sugar went all over me while I scarfed it down I looked like a cocaine addict...but it was totally worth it. Haha After walking through the streets for awhile we got tickets for one of the hop on hop off buses. Once again it is a great way to see a large area of the city quickly, especially when it was as chilly as it was in mid November! However, the Amsterdam city center actually is quite compact and next time I would definitely recommend a walking or biking tour. Speaking of bikes...little did I know that Amsterdam is definitely the city where it seems more people bike than drive a vehicle. I swear. I thought a lot of people biked in Minneapolis...well Amsterdam blows it out of the water. They have a separated bike lane everywhere, it's awesome.
Next, Adam and I hopped off the bus at the Anne Frank house. I had heard that it was a very moving thing to see and it definitely hit where we expected it to. I learned a lot about what she had gone through and it was really crazy to walk through the house where her and her family had been in hiding. Despite the story being very sad, I'm so glad that we went. Afterwards Adam introduced me to the best frites (French fries) that I have ever had. Apparently they double fry them and then put them in a cone and put curry sauce on them. Absolutely delicious. After doing some window shopping (darn backpack and lack of space) and taking a break at the hotel we went to a place for dinner called Eden and Drunken. It was also recommended by our friends at trip advisor and once again they hit a home run! They sure do know how to do some meat in the Netherlands as Adam got Ribs and I got some kind of Chicken Satay peanut/curry dish. Both were delicious! We also sampled some cheese fondue and delicious beer.
Today we left Amsterdam at 1045am and arrived in Minneapolis at 1230pm. Not too shabby with the 7 hour time change. :). When going through customs the officer asked me where I was coming from and I just stood there looking at him blankly. After he looked at my form and saw that we had been in 7 Countries he laughed and said he understood the confusion. Haha
It's great to be back in the States. It's still our favorite country to live in. :) We feel so grateful as we feel that we truly had the trip of a lifetime. We loved every city that we went to and look forward to exploring Europe further someday in the future!
Cheers!
Shelby
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