Amsterdam

This weekend I went on my first adventure in Amsterdam. No matter who you talk to, this city always elicits some interesting reactions, expectations, associations. And more or less, they are probably all true, because I feel like anything a person could want for is somewhere to be found within the city's web of canals. I had a great first visit and really enjoyed the city. It's much larger than Leiden, but is manageable, walkable and beautiful. There is an in-your-face quality to parts of touristy Amsterdam that could easily become overwhelming, but that's a part of what the city is, too. It's a pretty unabashed place, and I like that.

We caught our 25m train at 11 in the morning. Here's a shot of the double-decker bike parking at Leiden Centraal station -
I've been trying to describe the bike situation over here,
hope this helps illustrate the quantity, confusion and awesomeness

In the Museum Quarter's open square
We spent several hours at the wonderful Van Goh Museum, housing the largest collection of Van Gogh's work and included some of his correspondence with his brother, art merchant Theo Van Gogh, and his other painter friends. We spent the rest of the day wandering around the streets, just taking it all in

Vondelpark, Amsterdam's sprawling 100+ acre park, is named after writer and playwright

Joost van den Vondel, the "Dutch Shakespeare" -
We walked around a bit, but it was wet and cold out,
so I'm looking forward to coming back on a sunny, warm day

Christiaan Huygens, Dutch mathematician and astronomer
famous for his work with telescopes and pendulum clocks

Tall, skinny Dutch urban homes and offices-
Property used to be taxed on "frontage," so the narrower the face of the house, the less you paid

The Dutch Royal Palace -
Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands, but it's more or less just a title- all of the official parlimentary and royal business is handled in Den Haag

Laura, Margaret, Kata in Dam Square in front of the palace -

Dam Square got its name from its original function as a dam on the Amstel River which runs through Amsterdam

Outdoor flower market!
Tulip craze

Colorful baby cacti at the flower market!

DIY kit comes with a little flower pot, soil, & cannabis seeds

Flowerz!

After sampling a coffeeshop, the Hungarians and I decided an

Erotic Museum was a good use of €5 - it so was.
This woodcut is one of my favorites.
Anna Wagner, please reproduce this for our house next year

Watching hilarious old school cartoon porn at the Erotic Museum

We were really lucky to have such a nice day to walk around the city, it was sunny all afternoon

At a modern art gallery in De Pijp

This definately made me think of the Lips publication!

Gorgeous old houses in the Southern Canal Belt

We went out to eat, stopped in to another coffeeshop, and then went out for drinks. This is a view of the late night ice skating from the bar in the Leidsplein square

Coming back home to sweet Leiden -
A shot of the city biking home at six in the morning