Europe - Amsterdam 10-16-09

Our last and final stop for sightseeing on our whirlwind tour of Europe. We arrived in Amsterdam early afternoon on Tuesday. Once we dropped off the luggage, we took off to see Anne Frank’s house. Quite a moving story that was captured in a little girl’s diary during one of the most horrific periods in our history. We ran into a couple other free spirit travelers while standing in line. They intend to tour 20 countries in Europe. They appeared to be in their early 20s and this was their first week of their 4 month tour. After an hour wait in line, they got to the teller to pay for the tickets and realized that they were out of money. It will probably be a long 4 months for them.

After our tour of Anne Frank’s house, we walked around town. We discovered that it wasn’t a very big city. We walked along the streets. We were blessed with another beautiful day, albeit very cold; probably around 10 degrees Celsius (maybe 30-40 degrees Fahrenheit). The buildings are very tall and narrow – some were 7 stories high. Some of the building’s façades look as though they are about ready to fall forward. Like Venice, the town has many water canals – making the city a very pleasant place to walk. We found some interesting things that stood out to us as were exploring the town. The town’s primary source of transportation is on the bicycle. Bicycles lined the sidewalks and fences. Large lots contained hundreds of bicycles just parked. We are accustomed to seeing parking garages full of cars; they have lots full of bicycles. We had to be very careful when walking to yield to the cyclists – they were everywhere.

Another interesting sight that caught our eye (although we tried to avoid it), were the young girls advertising their wares in the windows. These girls stood in the windows just wearing their bras and panties. Some streets had three or more windows in a row with women in waiting. We were not even walking in the, “red light district”. There were also stores that had items in the windows that I think would not be allowed in America.

On Wednesday, we continued to walk around the city even though it was very cold. We walked along the street with the flower shops and stopped in a store for a couple of souvenirs. At noon, it was time to go.

All day Thursday, we were on the train. All day Friday, we sat in the airport. Our flight was delayed by almost five hours.

In Summary,

We found that each country had something very special about it that we enjoyed. In France, the people were especially nice and took the initiative to help those who were obviously struggling; yet, we found this country seemed to have the filthiest conditions. Berlin seemed to be the cleanest of all the countries, yet they didn’t seem to want to waste their time helping anyone. Venice was terribly run down; yet tourism kept it alive. Amsterdam offered the canals and tall buildings as Venice, yet you had to be careful to close your eyes to the smut. Switzerland and Austria offered a sense of serenity because of the beauty of the scenery and lack of hustle and bustle. London had toilets that would not completely flush. Rome had history. All shared their own style of universal art (graffiti).

It was a wonderful opportunity to discover the special qualities that each of the countries had to offer. But after three weeks, we’re going to the best place on earth – America; my home sweet home!