Saturday July 22

First thing this morning we packed up and left our hostel. We tried to figure out what we were going to do and where else we could stay. We found an internet/laundry mat that cost 3 euros an hour so we started looking up hotels in Amsterdam. We found one that had air conditioning and was very far away from the Red Light District, it was called Le Meridian. We didn't’t have a map so we took a picture of the computer screen to use as our map. We had no direction of North, South, East or West. We knew we had to go South so we had to ask 3 different people before we figured out what direction to go. Then we just started to guess as to which streets (they were all in Dutch by the way) to turn on. We were really lost and frustrated and then it started raining…cherry on top! So after about an hour or two of riding our bikes we stopped at the Marriott and the nice people there gave us great directions and we found our hotel with in the next 20 minutes. The neighborhood was so cute. There were kids skateboarding on the sidewalks and so many green trees. The hotel was so nice! We felt so fantastic showering in the fancy shower and laying on the soft beds with air blowing on us!! It was 3:00 pm and we had not experienced anything in Amsterdam that we had planned to so we took a tram to the Anne Frank House. It was such a long line but it was so worth it. The Anne Frank House was the house where Anne Frank and others staying while in hiding from the Natzi’s in World War II. It was intense and very humbling. Her diary entries were really touching and I thought it was really good. We ate dinner at thcafecafé and I had a BLTA (avacado) on a freshly baked roll. It was fabulous. We’ve had such good experiences with food in Amsterdam. We went back to the hotel and were craving ice cream so badly so we called down to the restaurant in the hotel and they told us that ice cream with chocolate sauce was 8.50 euros! So we asked if they knew where an ice cream shop was nearby and they gave us directions to the best ice cream ever! I ordered a scoop of chocolate, caramel and hazelnut in a cinnamon waffle cone. AMAZING!!





















This is the street that our hotel is on, it was
fun riding bikes through these beautiful trees.
















Katie and I taking a little break frombike rideeride in the
rain to see this beautiful canal. They are all over Amsterdam.
















Here is a picture of our hotel (Le Meridian). It just goes to show
what effect good design can actually have on our moods.
















Here Katie and I are attempting to find our way around
Amsterdam but the map we had didn't have our destination
on it. After this trip we feel very proud of our navigaabilitiesities.















Here is the picture of the map we attempted to use.
It is taken off of the computer screen Hey, we were
trying to be resourceful!