Just another weekend in Amsterdam

This weekend, I had a cousin in town for work.  I hadn't met this cousin until this summer at the K family reunion and I'm so glad I did.  She happens to have an office in the Hague that is in the same office building as my company, which is crazy small world!

Anyways, C was a sport and let me take her to Amsterdam.  We met about 10AM and drove to the park and ride to catch the tram into town.  There was still ice/snow on the grass, but all of the streets were clear from this week's snow fest.  It was freezing cold, but being bundled up really helped.  First, we went to Central Station so that I could make sure there was enough money on one of the tram passes to get us around.  There was, so major score!  Then we grabbed the first tram to the Anne Frank house.  The line was a tad long and we were hungry so we found a Dutch kitchen restaurant and tried the Schnitzel.  It was the best schnitzel I've had in the Netherlands by far.  Can't give you the name of the restaurant, but it was right on a canal that leads right up to the AF house.  Definitely a repeat.

We then went to the AF house.  We used our Museumkaart's so that's the second time I've seen that museum on the pass!  I'm definitely getting my money's worth out of that card.  The museum was just as moving as the first time.  I still get chills listening to Otto Frank discuss the discovery of the diary and his first thoughts when looking for a publisher.  It's unimaginable.

After that, we took an Amsterdam stroll.  It was lovely to walk past canals I hadn't seen yet.  We happened upon this scene:

It's a floating hot tub!  Not sure how it works, but how interesting is that?  Did I mention it never got above 32F on Saturday?  I guess it's like the hot tubs at ski resorts.

We then braved the Red Light district, which consisted of one small block of viewing and then getting the heck out of there.  If you come to visit, I'll do it again, but only for like a small block.  It was shady and I just felt bad for those girls.  I totally judged too.  It was my idea to do it - C probably thinks I'm crazy, but at least we can say we saw it now.

We walked the floating flower market, which was nice because they had a shop dedicated to Christmas, which was fun to walk through.  We then jumped on a tram and made a decision to get off where ever we saw something interesting.  Found another ice rink and jumped off for a picture:

Looks like Christmas!!!  Love it.

Then we jumped on a tram to Rijksmuseum, which was covered by the Museumkaart again.  Score!  I really enjoyed it the second time...tons of fun going with a good friend.  Loved the Night Watch again, but can't get enough of the smaller Rembrandts and the idyllic scenes from Amsterdam.  This is my favorite: Amsterdam scene

Then we drove back to the Hague.  What a great day, thanks C!