Arriving in Amsterdam from Eindhoven was fine, plenty to see on the train journey, a real peaceful feeling warmed inside me when I saw the flat fields rolling away for miles, the windmills and familiar flowers. Met by my partner, who has been working there for six months now and has his own apartment, situated just one tram from central station or a hundred yards from his local coffee shop, he kindly brought supplies: some food and a large spliff for the train.
I have visited "The Dam" several or twenty times before, mostly in harder times when my partner's sister and I have scraped together our giros, got the ferry, and driven over from UK, sleeping the night in my old beemer: -4 degrees and big duvets, all for the love of our herbs.
Never before had i visited Amsterdam as a tourist with children in tow, but for me I was really just happy to be there. We exited the train for the metro and dragged our cases out at his nearest stop, where there were thousands upon thousands of bikes parked up at the station. A short walk later and we were in his cosy apartment, kids exploring while parents smoking.
Next we popped to the market (see separate shopping in Amsterdam Blog!)
That evening we slept at the Novotel, just minutes walk from the apartment but with enough space for us all to sleep comfortably. Returning to the apartment for breakfast, more playing and smoking. In fact a nice family sunday chillout, which to be honest, is something we really miss while Daddy is away so often.
After lunch we checked into our canal boat, where we were staying for the rest of the week. A huge boat, just 5 minutes from central station, with a picnic bench on the roof. Inside was clean and tastefully decorated with a huge living area (or dance studio as my 5 year old declared) and a bedroom at each end of the boat, one ensuite.
After a short time of unpacking we were off for a walk into town, buying some sweets and treats for the kids (to sustain the moaning of car-bred children having to walk for more than 100m at a time).
We were really lucky with the weather as the sunshine had followed us from Marseille. I could have walked for hours, taking it all in, the shops, the hustle bustle, the cosmopolitan mixture of people buzzing past. After an hour or so we stopped for some refreshment, coffee for us and hot chocolate to warm the children. It was a sports cafe, that happened to also be a coffee shop (how convenient!). Of course we enjoyed the smoke (at a separate table), and the children enjoyed resting their feet, colouring and tv for a while. We only stopped twice like this for half an hour during the whole week... was this such a bad thing (please see the article from hubby's blog... entitled
Are we the new McCann's)
Next Day we hired bikes, one for Jordan and one for me with a large wooden box on the front, for Kelisse to sit in and our picnic/munchies .. (to fight the cold I put her in a holdall with her fur coat covering her knees and she loved it). We whizzed about for a few hours, up and down canals, passing Anne Frank's house and some other attractions on our way. Lunch at the boat, sitting on top, feeding the ducks and passing seagulls, sipping wine and smoking a head... really chilled out.
In the afternoon we headed for the zoo park, but found that our legs were failing us somewhat, after several years without much exercise to walk and cycle two consecutive days was taking its trial, and we decided to hit the supermarket, forget the zoo and head back... The bike piled high with shopping and child proved too much for me, so my young, fit son had to take over the pedalling challenge - at this point i realised that I really had been doing a work out all day - as his bike was light as a feather and it felt like i was in flight all the way back!! If I lived in Amsterdam I would definitely use a bike all the time.
Late that day we met my partner after work in the lively Waarmerstraat again, where this time Kelisse had Egg and Chips in our favourite coffee shop.. (this was the second and final visit to a coffee shop for me). We wandered back to the boat through the streets of the red light district, an eye opener for my 15 yr old Im sure, but hell, the way we look at it, its better for your kids to have knowledge of the temptations in life with our introduction and explanation, rather than fumble along later and getting into a whole heap of problems. During the walk, I don't actually think my daughter noticed the girls in the windows, she was too busy counting bikes, canals, lampposts and all the other distracting conversations that I engineered. Got back, and I cooked Red Thai Curry.
Next morning we rose early to be first in the queue at Anne Frank's house. It was quite a long walk, much further than it looked on the map, maybe 40 minutes or so, but we didn't have to queue and I think we all enjoyed the experience and gained a little knowledge of what it was like during the war for the Jewish community. The kids had their pre-printed questionnaires that I did for them, giving me the space to take it all in and read my way around the museum in peace.
At lunchtime we met Daddy from his workplace, meeting a couple of colleagues, which left me thankfully with even more inspiration and more bells ringing for me to do my own sites, as these guys are making their thousands from private websites, and have houses in paradise already - they are going to work for? ..fun? i suppose!
That evening we ate at the Pancake Bakery - a nice place, which offered a delicious choice of sweet or savoury pancakes, though the service could have been a little quicker.
On the final day we went to the Nemo Centre (see separate blog entry)
Sad to leave Amsterdam, and certainly could have stayed for the whole week, (even with kids). Before we travelled, I was aprehensive about finding enough things for us to do all week. But now I realise it was a great city to visit, with or without children and will definitely be saving up for another stay on the boat this year.
Sometimes from our sleepy villages and slow siestas the world could almost pass us by.. thats why its not a bad idea to find out whats going on in the news from time to time - to remember we are in 2008, living in a supposedly democratic society, its an olympic year and many people in the world are at still at war, suffering terrible famine or fighting the backlash of natural disaster.
