Amsterdam

We all got.a nice nights sleep. The girls slept from 7pm-9am. Matt and I woke up around 3, but then got a few more hours. This fatso was just outside our window this morning. 

We churched it up with a Dutch Ward close to downtown Amsterdam. One of the talks was completely in English, and the they had headphones and a translator in a special booth for the other talk. We were bezoekers!

From there we drove downtown and spent a long time figuring out our parking situation, and we still managed to get charged twice. 🤦‍♀️ we got to the Anne Frank House with just enough time to walk in and sit down for our tour. It was so powerful to be there where Anne and her family spent their last days. The girls and I listened to her book a few years ago, so we feel like we know Margot and Edith and Mep and Peter. 

The girls were somber and interested, Frankie even wanted to go through again. So thankful we were able to see this. We want to listen to her book again because D doesn’t remember all of it. 

Amsterdam is such a beautiful city!

We found a cute little restaurant for a late lunch. 

We love these cute little glasses the restaurants have! And all their cute decor. 

I read we had to try Dutch Apple Pie, and I always love a good food rec. 

I also read we should try Dutch pancakes, both the large, and the small puffy ones. Done and done. Matt and I split a tomato pesto mozzarella sandwich and it was all delicious and fairly inexpensive. 

Our little nondescript restaurant. 

We loved this huge menorah right across from Anne’s house as we walked to our canal cruise. 

Gahhh, so beautiful and also so cold!

A canal cruise was another must do on my list, and it was so great!

The girls had outgrown all their winter hats so we told them they could find new ones in Europe. This little cutie is coming home with this little cutie. 

She really wanted to sit in the back of the boat, but it was more chilly there so we all moved to the middle. She took advantage of her space. 

We loved the cruise! So much to see. 

We met a nice girl from Australia traveling solo for 6 weeks. She said it’s a 22 hour flight, so she had to maximize it. 

She took loads of pictures for us. 🤗

Every December-January Amsterdam has a light festival where artists from all over the world create fun light “artworks.” This one was about fire and how captivating fire is to watch. We got to see 3 of the 20 light pieces, and my favorite was under a bridge called “fireflies,” which they don’t actually get in the Netherlands, or Australia according to our buddy, but still love. (Because what’s not to love about fireflies?)

This kid kills me. 😂

The canal boats are covered in the winter, but as you can see on the right, they still let in a lot of cold cold air. 

This is a spot where you can see 7 bridges in a row. And if you stand up on this bridge you can look all around and see 15. 

Matt got a picture with our moat driver Mike. He’s my age, 44, and has traveled the world sailing. Interesting guy!

I wanted to find a Christmas market, but it was cold and we were slowing down. 

So we made our way back to our car, Tim Tam. 

Matt will forever be a little kid. “Take a picture of me with that thing that says ‘moco!’”

We stopped to pick up some long Johns for the girls, and then I still only had about 6000 steps. So Matt and I bundled up and took a very slippery walk around Alphen aan den Rijn. It had started snowing/raining and been hovering right at freezing all day, so a lot of the sidewalks were slick with ice. We found a blacktop foot path and took a nice long walk, and I met my move goal for the day with over 12,000 steps. ✔️ 

We got back to a baby bug eating a chocolate cupcake in our bed. 🙄😂

We finished Malachi and said see ya to the Old Testament for another few years. And we seem to be all adjusted to the time difference since we stayed up till after 10. The girls love having a bedroom upstairs from us. 

We had a perfectly magical day, not without a lot of hiccups, but we are learning and being patient with ourselves and each other. The girls have all been so grateful and are absolutely loving Europe, so even when they get obnoxious (which they do frequently!) it’s fine. Tomorrow we’ll leave Avifauna and Matt is convinced we must come back in the spring. If only time and money were no object.