Amsterdam times two

Last weekend, at the last minute, we decided to head to Amsterdam for our first trip. We've been avoiding the big city during tourist season. We spent the morning in Vongelpark. We had lunch on a bench overlooking a fountain and an extremely uncoordianted man getting rollerblade lessons. It is what I imagine Central Park to be like...there were ijs stands, homeless, band stands, cafes, families, druggies. It wasn't unpleasant, but not as nice as other parks in Utrecht. Though I suppose it is supposed to make up for that in size. Elena fell asleep, we dashed to the Rijksmuseum. Though it is under renevation, one large wing is still open. We enjoyed it, however, it was extremely crowded with tour groups and people carefully centering the paintings in their digital camera windows to take a picture in low light with no flash. I had this urge to yell, stop trying to take a picture that will turn out lousy! Enjoy the art, admire the brush strokes and buy a postcard for 50 cents in the gift shop! Elena woke up in time to the see famous "Night Watch" by Rembrant. She was most impressed with the model boat on the first floor, however. This is apparently genetic as Richard took about 40 pictures of the same boat during his visit a few months earlier. We decided to walk back to Central Station. This was a big mistake. Even though it was Sunday, the shops were open and the streets were crammed with people. Elena was getting a little jostled in her stroller. English was spoken everywhere. The V&D (department store) was having some annual sale that involved circus performers and bikes parked in the street over a block away. We kept veering away, trying to get to less crowded streets. Which lead us into the Red Light district around the famous 'Oude Kerk' (old church). As Jake put it, I never though I could stand and put one hand on a church and the other on something I really wouldn't want to touch. It was a sketchy area with obvious drugs. The prostitutes were standing outside and after passing some extremely graphic posters we turned tail and retraced steps back out, crowds and all. Thankfully we didn't get any questions from Elena like, 'Momma what dat lady doing?'

Two days later, on Tuesday we returned to Amsterdam. We had to go to the Consulate to renew passports. I've been having trouble with the lamination on mine not being up to standards and we are hoping to avoid the new biometric chips that constantly transmit your personal data. Looks like we just made it in under the gun. The Consulate, though we were expecting the worst in terms of lines, etc, was a refreshing step on to 'American Soil.' This time we learned out lesson and didn't attempt to walk back to the Station and just took the tram.

If you can sense we were under impressed, you are correct. It isn't that the Rijksmuseum collection isn't amazing, because it is. But the streets are crammed with tourists and chacki shops. The 'flower market' mostly sold bulbs and was nothing compared to Utrecht's line of actual flower stalls. We've decided that we will return to Amsterdam for 'targeted visits' - we want to see the Van Gogh museum, Anne Frank house, NEMO, and Maritime museum. But we don't need to roam the streets or have a cappachino at a cafe. If we want to do that we will stay in Utrecht or go to our favorite daytrip town, Leiden.

The only picture we took in Amsterdam....Elena and Poppa admire the boat...