Our Travels in Amsterdam

After visiting Prague, we jumped on our first airplane trip since getting to Europe and flew into Amsterdam.  We managed to get through the airport and onto the public transportation with all of our luggage, then made it to Central Station in the city, then took the street trolly to our hotel.

Getting to the main area of our hotel was always pretty easy, but finding the hotel once getting off usually caused a few moments of confusion for us.  Amsterdam was definitely not an exception!  We couldn't find our hotel, and we were so side tracked by how beautiful it was!  Finally, the nicest couple (who spoke english) stopped and asked us if we needed help.  Of course, we looked so silly because it was literally just across from the canal of where we were standing!  :)

Amsterdam reminded me of Venice in a few ways - but with more flowers and more space.  It is so beautiful and very romantic.  The people are very friendly and it's easy to make new friends!

We stayed at the Hotel Pulitzer, which we absolutely fell in love with.  It was probably my favorite place we stayed on the entire trip.  Because we went during a low travel season, we were upgraded for free to an awesome room.

Our first night was so much fun.  We walked around until we got lost, found a place to eat dinner, and had drinks at our hotel bar.  We spent 4 days in Amsterdam... and I could have spent more.  

It was one of my favorite places of the whole trip!

My dinner the first night there... A banana pancake.  So good, I ate it our last night there, too!

The canals were magical at night!

Enjoying drinks and making friends with the bartenders.  They were great!

No one in the world loves flowers more than my mom... so I thought of her every time we saw colorful flowers!

Had to take a picture... me and my sisters make 3 :)

Souvenir shopping :)

The floating tulip market... I wanted to take them all home for my mom.

Touring the Heineken Factory - definitely a highlight of the trip :)

Inside the factory... 

I like tiny cars...

and TL likes tiny coffees!

Playing in our hotel room... probably shouldn't be up there, but it was fun!

My man and his latte, getting lost in the city.

Seeing the city from the canals by boat - beautiful!

A parking garage for bikes... and it was jammed full!

Our tour guide had a funny comment - he said the canals are 3 meters deep.  "One meter water, one meter mud, and one meter bikes!"

While we were there, we also visited the Anne Frank House.  It was really touching to see the annex where she stayed.  I didn't know it was in Amsterdam - but it is definitely worth checking out if you go.  They have her original diary in there and it's interesting to see exactly where she and her family were hidden.

This is a video of our hotel... it was pretty historical.

Warning: before you watch, please know we did this after our visit to the Heineken factory :)  We were having such a great time!  Hope you don't mind my dorky voice.  Yes, we are big nerds!

We feel so lucky to have gone to Amsterdam, it was a fabulous city to visit!