Day 63: Amsterdam

We slept in a bit today, enjoyed some hotel coffee, then headed for breakfast at the Pancake Bakery. We showed up before they officially opened, but they let us in and we got the first flapjacks of the day. They were not ordinary pancakes, they were thin, huge, and came in all kinds of combos, like chorizo and cheese. They were great.

After our breakfast (more of a lunch), we rented bikes from our hotel. There are bikes everywhere here, more than Munich. The riding is not as easy here, however, with canals & bridges, one-ways, and lots of intersections, pedestrians, and other bikers.

Our trip still went relatively smoothly (although Brooke did get cursed at in another language at one point). Our first bike stop was Vondel Park, a smaller Central Park of sorts.

Next we went to the nearby Van Gogh Museum, which was a very cool art museum. The museum is centered around, you guessed it, Van Gogh. What made it cool was that it was as much about Van Gogh as it was about looking at his art. They set up his art chronologically and described where he was and what he was doing when he created it, so we could follow his changing style, growth, and ultimate demise.

From the museum we slowly pedaled our way back to our hotel to return the bikes, stopping for a snack and drink along the way.

We rested up then headed out for another Thai dinner (we decided we need to work Thai food into the routine when we get home). We walked back over to the red light district to have a drink and people watch. At night it still felt sleazy, but there aren't 5 year olds walking around so it isn't quite as weird (but still very weird).