Day 8: Amsterdam

We left Rotterdam this am and headed to Amsterdam. It looked like it had snowed a bit in Rotterdam, but the sun was shining. The weather was nice in Adam, except it was bitterly cold. Bone chilling cold. Thank goodness it was sunny.

The big bummer is now Andy is getting sick! It couldn't be avoided with me coughing and sneezing all over the place.

We managed to find a tram without too much trouble, except we kind of took the long way around to our hotel. If I have a nose for finding stores, Andy must have a nose for the ladies. We were walking down one street schlepping our luggage, and there were ladies in the windows. I wish I could have gotten a picture of Andy looking at the map stopped in front of one of the windows. I think it was the one where she was doing her nails. It was very bizarre. I couldn't believe what nice bra and panty sets that they had on, and were very toned. I was expecting the 'ladies' would kind of be skanky, and not tanned, skinny with fake boobs. Since it was only about 1pm, it was kind of creepy the whole thing so I was glad when Andy figured out where we needed to go.

Our hotel is across from Sarphati park which is in the De Pijp area of Amsterdam. The woman was very nice at the front desk, and apologized that we would have to take our luggage up three flights of stairs. I told her we were prepared. Okay- I had read on tripadvisor about the hotels with the windy stairs, and people complaining. I thougth they were big babies. OMG- I about fell down the stairs. It was almost a straight up windy staircase, and pair that with a hand bag, carry on and a rolling bag it was a miracle I didn't kill myself. Coupled with my stuffy nose and cough, I'm sure it was quite a site.

The room is what it is. We definetly started off the trip with big, nice rooms so this is a bit of a step down. We like the area, and being across from the pretty park so that accounts for something.

I had on my agenda for today a boat cruise, Albert Culyp market and a 1 1/2 hour walking tour of the red light district. We had passed a boat cruise spot on the tram, so we headed back in that direction which would also take us to the market.

Nothing too cool in the market. I saw some neat fabric, but we will be going to a fabric market on Monday so I'll hold off. I found fabric stores on the same street, so I can always come back. Andy tried the frites since he didn't have any in Rotterdam. The mayo had a weird perm taste to it. Andy didn't really taste it, but it could have been vinegar.

The boat cruise wasn't for another 45 minutes, so we walked down to the Rijsmuseum (which was just a few blocks). The building was so beautiful. We decided to regroup because it was almost 3pm, and I knew we couldn't do both the walking tour and the boat cruise. Andy seemed like he was going to fade so I suggested we go check out the Henieken experience tour. It's where you go through the old brewery from the perspective of the bottle. We had originally nixed that on the agenda, but thought it might be silly.

We walked back to the brewery only to discover that the experience tour was closed until Summer 2008 for renovations! Never has something that I didn't want to do, become something that I wanted to do so fast! They were offering 5 euros and a free beer at the Ice house, which looked like it might be an ice bar. We might check it out.

We headed over to the boat to check it out. The man was very nice, and asked where we were from. We said "Seattle, WA" and he said, "I was just in Washington, D.C". Andy told him that we were actually on the other coast, and they guy thought maybe a two hour plane right. Andy had told him it was more of a 5 + hour flight, and the guy said "America is so big!". He said we could go and sit in the boat to wait. He must have been impressed by our long journey.

Andy was very happy to be warm and sitting. I did feel good. The boat soon filled up, with mostly Japanese tourists with a scary looking tour guide. Scary in, I wouldn't want to cross her.

The tour was about 75 minutes, and we got a great overview of the city. We even passed the handbag museum along the way! I was excited. Andy got some really great video, which will be awesome to remember that part of our trip. At first I thought the night tour would suck because you couldn't see anything, but then I realized you would better be able to see into people's houses! I loved all of the architecture.

After the trip we headed back to the hotel so Andy could take a break. The way up was definetly not as bad without your bags.

We have discovered out remote doesn't work. Does that constitute a room switch? Since Andy was sick, I had to stand on a chair and change the channels for him. It was the least I could do for getting him sick.

We needed to go out and get some dinner, so we headed out to one of the spots that was on my recommended list. It was a hamburger and fries place, which didn't sound appealing to either one of us, so we wandered up a couple streets checking out restaurants. We are getting better at scoping out menus, but the surinese-chiness take away places looked intimidating and not very cozy. So we settled on Balfi House, which was an indian place. It looked cozy, and we could sort of understand the menu. We could understand curry, tiki and kip (chicken).

The place got packed about 15 minutes after we sat down. There was a birthday party next to us, which seemed like a good sign. It was dark, candle lit, warm and cozy.

I had really wanted to try rijstafel ("rice table"), a Dutch specialty. Which is a bunch of differently spiced dishes over rice. It is usually meat, but they offered a vegetarian version. I should have written down all I ate, but the only one I remember is allo gobi (sorry for the spelling Rohan). Andy ordered chicken bhuna, which is some sort of tomato chicken. Mine came with a delicious soup that had a light taste of lemon. Everything was amazing!

Maybe when Andy feels better he can fill in some details.

We took a little walk around our new hotel to let our food digest. It seems a Saturday night in Amsterdam is watching Idols, not at the coffee shop.

We are now watching TV back in the room. We dropped off the remote at the front desk, and they put new batteries in. But had a feeling that might not work, and when we came back up and it did'nt work we were debating on whether to switch rooms. I know that sounds lame but when you are sick on vacation, you need your tv. Anyway, brilliant Andy googled the instructions on how to reset the remote. It was a universal remote that they had not programmed yet! He saves the day.

It's almost 11am, and I need to get him to sleep. He has been getting up at like 2 or 3am, from the jet lag so he hasn't been getting much sleep.

We have to make up for not hitting the red light district today, so hopefully it will be an early morning. It will depend on if my coughing keeps us up like last night.

It may sound like a bad trip, it's not. It is definetly not how I pictured it, feeling like crap and getting Andy sick. But, we're still managing t have fun.

Last thing- we have w-fi in the room, which is awesome so I'll probably post more pictures soon.