Our Frankfurt Exchange: Amsterdam- 3 days of fun.

We had a fantastic whirlwind tour through Amsterdam. When all was said and done we were able to see everything that we wanted. The boys were great, they made it through 3 museums in 3 days with very no complaints. I think they even enjoyed themselves and they learned quite a lot. When we left each museum, they both chose post cards and their selections were very interesting. In addition to the art museums, we also went through the Anne Frank House. What an experience that was. All of us were definitely sobered by the tour and I know that it made quite and impression on both Henry and Charlie. One of the museums we visited was the Mauritshuis which is not in Amsterdam but is in The Hague, so we took a hour train ride over there and spent half a day over there. On Wednesday evening we all took a canal boat tour of Amsterdam- it was lovely! The canals were beautiful and it was absolutely the best way to see the city. We were all amazed by the house boats lining the canals- they vary greatly, some are elaborate and decorated with planted flowers and others look like they will sink into the water at any moment. We all sampled the local food delicacy- French fries! I ate them the traditional Dutch way- with mayonnaise. Charlie, Henry and Grandma stuck to plain and Poppo bravely tried them with peanut sauce. I think that the mayo was the best, and I liked them so much I ate them twice! We did have a bit of excitement on our return trip- a train did some damage to a tunnel between Amsterdam and Ultrecht and no trains were able to leave Amsterdam. All of the announcements were in Dutch, so we were all oblivious to the problem. In fact we were watching all of the other travelers scurry through the station, packing themselves into trains without realizing that there was any issue at all. It was only when I asked about our train that I found out about this potential glitch. We were told to immediately board a subway to Ultrecht and try to pick up our high speed train there. Fortunately, Steve suggested we ask one more person before we all traipsed off to Ultrecht with all of our luggage in tow, and at this point the problem had been fixed. Here are some photos from our Amsterdam Adventure:

We left Frankfurt on Tuesday morning on the high speed train and arrived in sunny Amsterdam in the early afternoon. The weather was so nice that we all walked from the train station to the hotel.

We stayed at the Convent House, a hotel that Poppo stayed at when he came through Amsterdam several years ago. The beds were soooo soft and fluffy!

After a quick lunch, Steve, the boys and I went to the Van Gogh Museum, while Grandma and Poppo took a tour of Amsterdam. The museum was beautiful and they had a scavenger hunt for the kids to do. After successfully completing it, they each got to select a post card. Charlie chose "Starry Night and Henry picked The Potato Eaters". Starry Night is usually at the Metropolitan in NYC but it was here as part of a special exhibit. Charlie was also very excited to see one of the Sunflower paintings- he informed us that it is quite famous.

That evening all six of us went through the Anne Frank House. Photos were not allowed inside, and truthfully we did not feel much like taking pictures. Both boys were quite somber as we went through. It was difficult to get a sense of where one was in the building and how 8 people could have lived in this space undetected for so long. Henry really wanted to know who it was that reported them, but even today no one knows who it was. There is a guest book at the end of the tour and Charlie signed it as we left.

Wednesday morning we all set out for The Hague, which is about an hour away by regional train. We picked up coffee and croissants in the train station and rode with the commuters. Our destination was the Mauritzhuis, a beautiful museum known for its collection of Dutch paintings from the Golden Age. They have a nice selection of Rembrandts, and most importantly for Steve, several incredible Vermeers- both 'The Girl with the Pear Earring' and 'View of Delft' are here. We spent several hours wandering the museum- Henry was so excited to see 'Dad's favorite painting', and the kids were entertained by a special children's audio program/headset that told a story about a boy and his grandfather.

That evening we went on a canal boat tour of the city. Charlie was our official photographer and he did a fantastic job.

On our final day we went to the Rijksmuseum, another spot known for paintings by the Dutch Masters. The most famous painting here is Rembrandt's 'The Night Watch' which is huge with a whole room devoted to it. The boys spent a lot of time looking at this painting. I came away with a whole new appreciation for Rembrandt's portraits, the reproductions truly do not do them justice. Steve was happy because the Rijks also has a collection of Vermeers as well.

After this third museum the boys sampled a local favorite, waffles with sugar. I think they are enjoying their 'pastry-sampling' tour of Europe. And, the best part is that almost everything comes with Nutella- crepes, waffles and even croissants!

Some other highlights were:

The fact that it stayed light so late. This is the view from our hotel room at 10:10 pm!

The 'I amsterdam' sign in between the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh museum.

The fries! And, NO, these did not come from Burger KIng, we just happened to stop in front of BK for our picture.

The old windmills.

And the bicycles! My word, they were everywhere. You had to be super careful not to get run over all the time. Almost all of the bikes were pretty beaten up, but most had baskets on the front. At the train station there is a 4 story bicycle garage jam packed full!