Today we left London for Amsterdam flying British Air. I am fairly certain I complained about this two years ago, but it never fails that when we fly in or out of London Heathrow or Gatwick Airports we are at a gate that is as far away from the security entrance as possible. We easily walked a half mile to get to our gate, and by the time we got there we had only about 5 minutes to board before they shut off boarding. When we landed in Amsterdam we also had to walk about a half mile to get out of the terminal, so we got in some exercise today.

Amsterdam is as beautiful as expected. The cab ride to our hotel, which is in the central part of the canal area, was interesting because of all the narrow one-way streets the driver had to turn down to work his way to the hotel. Lots of bike riders--I wonder how many are hit a day or how many bike riders hit pedestrians. It is crazy to see all of the bikes. They stop for no one! Our hotel is a group of refurbished old houses facing one of the canals. Our room is quaint (i.e. small but functional) with a wacky(i.e.tacky) crystal chandelier. It isn't cheap -285 Euros a night- but that is what you pay to have a canal view. The hotel (The Ambassade) is actually quite nice and Robyn found it as a recommendation in Rick Steve's book on Amsterdam and did research about it on Trip Advisor. So far she has done a great job of finding hotels she likes. Of course the advantage of her finding the hotels is if there is a problem I can be thankful I had nothing to do with the selection.





In Amsterdam there are three ways to get around; bike (not happening), walking, and the tram. We have been walking and trying to take the tram when we can. So we take our time going everywhere since we are having to walk.






The first activity on the agenda was to go to Anne Frank House which is a 10 minute walk from our hotel -- for normal people. 20 minutes for us. Luckily, Robyn had bought tickets in advance because it was a good hour wait to get a ticket. The Anne Frank House is of course where she and her family and two other families hid from the Nazis for over two years before they were turned in, arrested, and sent to concentration camps. The front has a more modern façade than when the Franks were in hiding but the upper annex where they hid is still the same as the day they were arrested except without the furniture. Anne's room even still had the pictures she put up on the walls. Most of the items were removed when the Nazis raided. When Otto Frank agreed that the house should be preserved as a museum, he did not want to have it refurnished with items they would have had. It is absolutely amazing that eight people survived in that small space for over two years without being discovered. Pictures and various versions of her diary are all displayed and it is just another reminder of how tragic the holocaust was.





After leaving Anne Frank House we had dinner at a restaurant called Moeder's (there is supposed to be a umlaut over the o and it would be pronounced Mooders). This translates to "Mother's" and is traditional Dutch cooking. Robyn found it through her research and made reservations weeks ago. It was really good and we both ate more than we should have. Dinner took forever (they weren't actually in a hurry to take our order or for us to pay at the restaurant-it's a European thing), so we had to rush to get over to the Concert Gebouw for the concert we were attending at 7:15. This was a performance by the Netherland's Philharmonic of Rachmaninoff's 2nd Symphony. We were late and missed the overture, which was a piece by Beethoven. At least we were getting our culture. I love Rachmaninoff, especially his symphonies, and was not disappointed by this performance-it was fantastic.









As we were leaving to catch the tram I felt something was hanging around my waist and realized my belt had broken. I mean, totally and completely fallen-apart-broken. Great--this was a belt I bought a few weeks ago at Kohl's because I had gained weight, so now my fat belly has broken the belt I bought to handle a fat belly. Oh well, I wonder if there is a Kohl's in Amsterdam?

Tomorrow will be a museum day and a day for me to get out and run a few miles. Robyn took over 100 pictures today--enjoy the pictures I have selected.