The "Dam"

Well I was in Amsterdam for a few days and it was fantastic.  The weather was outstanding, especially for Amsterdam, and I got to see a new part of the town I hadn't yet.  I walked around, and around "the outer" circle as I like to call it, since that is where my hotel was this stay.  I saw Vondelpark, which was a great place for a run, the Van Gogh Museum and the Anne Frank House.  I also saw the tulip market and the farmers market, both cool.

Van Gogh was so amazing!  The paintings and history to go with them was so interesting.  His style of painting was like so few of his time and really made the pictures come to life and almost just jump off the canvas.  Plus it was really cool to see several paintings that are so world famous with pictures all over the world in person.

Anne Frank house was also very powerful.  The whole place has been refurbished and kept just the way it was when Anne and her family and friends were hiding out there.  The building is kept as a state protected building and can never be taken down, not that they would.  The only thing was that Otto Frank, Anne's Dad and his business partner Herman van Pells, who was helping to hide them during the Nazi occupation, wanted to have the apartment stay unfurnished.  There were some pictures with furniture but they specified that those had furniture just for the pictures.  It made things seem larger then I am sure they were or felt with 8 people living there and also the coming and going of the business associates who would come and go, as they were also in on the secret.

Well enjoy the pics.  I just got into London and enjoyed my first experience in "the Tube".  It is raining here and I am not able to do much but it does feel nice to be sitting still for a change.  Notre Dame game is Saturday and then Kay will be here in less then a week.  Excitement on the horizon.  Talk to everyone later.  Most of the pictures are just things that caught my eye since I have been here a couple of times already.

Ciao

Dam Square with people all a bustle.  

A strange thing was happening on my first day with lots of college aged men and women running all over town singing, boating and all sorts of other things.  This was a pack of guys singing in the middle of one of the main roads.

Taking bicycling to the next level in Amsterdam.

A statue in Vondelpark.

The view from the bridge going over the park near my hotel.

That is a mossy pond.

One building had several of these very old statues built into the side of it.  Each one was holding a different pet which seemed funny to me, especially since they looked really old.

One of my must have meals anytime in Amsterdam.  It is at B & B on Ronkin.  Just ask for the hamburger.  GRUB!

The main musical hall all lit up at night.

Dam Square with no people, a rarity.  Something that requires waking up early to see.

I don't know, do you think this town caters to teens and twenty somethings?

Waiting in line at Van Gogh.  Yes it rained but luckily the line was short.  Sorry no pics allowed in the museum, same as Anne Frank.

A tree growing in a funny direction at the park.  Don't know how it got that way but I liked it.

This is the clock tower, not far from Anne Frank House.  

Along the canal of the Tulip Market.  All those little stands on the left sell more tulips then you have ever seen.  Everything from seeds to flowers.

A old style oil lamp along the road.  I liked the top.