The Kellers Go to Amsterdam

Our trip was amazing!  We had such a great time, and we are so glad we went.  We have already decided to start planning and saving for another trip. 

We crossed this canal bridge each day on the walk from our hotel to the city center.  The canals were really beautiful.  We took an evening canal cruise one night that went all through Amsterdam.  We learned that they keep their canals clean and fresh by removing 1/3 of the water and replacing it with fresh ocean water regularly. 

Our first day in Amsterdam, we were still pretty tired from the long trip from Cape Verde to Lisbon to Amsterdam.  We strolled around and got a good look at the city.  We went to a movie, and it was awesome to sit in a movie theatre again and watch a movie in English.  We saw a 3-D movie, hence Lamar's glasses.  We also went and watched football games at a local sports cafe.

Monday we activated our tour cards and museum-ed it up.  We started at the Rembrandt House.  This was Rembrandt's actual house.  It had his art and cultural collections and demonstrations of his print making techniques.  Then we went to the Rijksmuseum (Dutch Masters).  It was amazing.  It had a lot of everything, and it was well worth it.

We visited this church:  De Nieuwe Kerk.  It was built in 1410.  It was originally a Catholic church, and then it was "redone" as a Protestant church.  It survived a massive fire, and was rebuilt.  The architecture was amazing, especially from the inside. 

Lamar especialy loved the architecture.  He took a picture of these leaning buildings.  They look like something out of Harry Potter the way they lean.  It was really cool to see the way the old buildings are still used today and adapted to modern life.

We visited the botanical garden on Thursday morning.  It was one of our favorite spots.  It was so quiet and clean and fresh.  They had a butterfly house and tons of areas distinctive of specific regions in the world.  These lantern plants were my favorite.  I want to find some to have for Halloween! 

The bamboo garden was super cool. 

One of our favorite activities was the zoo. The Amsterdam Zoo is the third oldest zoo in the world. We took tons and tons of pictures of the animals, but we thought we would just post this one picture of the leaves on the tress changing colors.  Living somewhere that is summer all year round  really makes you miss the seasons.  This was such a renewing day for us.

Thursday evening we went to the Heineken Brewery.  We were tired, but we were super glad we went.  We got to see how the beer is made from start to finish.  We also got a couple free beers with the tour. 

Overall, it was just an excellent trip all around.  We bought a tour card that turned out to be well worth it.  We saw a ton of museums (historical, art, religious, etc.).  Lamar really enjoyed the Van Gogh Museum and the Allard Pierson Museum (archaeological museum).  We visited the Dutch Resistance Museum and the Bible Museum that were inspiring, to say the least.  Besides the culture and history of Amsterdam, we also enjoyed hot showers, Subway, cool weather, speaking English, and not standing out like a sore thumb.  We boarded the plane more than a little sad to come back.  But I suppose the temporary nature is what makes vacations special.