I know, I know… why did we go BACK to the Netherlands when we were already there? Well, that is a result of a total lack of planning. The fun part about this is that you can pop over to another country at any given moment! The not so fun part is the slightly larger dent it puts in your travel fund In any case, we tried to soften that dent as much as possible by taking the train down from Edinburgh to London, then over to Harwich Port, then the overnight ferry to Hook of Holland, and finally the train up to Amsterdam. Slightly convoluted, but was an extremely fun experience (and cheaper than a flight…)! When we finally post our next blog post and you guys realize we flew BACK to London after Amsterdam, you’ll see what we mean about the poor planning…

At last, we finally set foot on the grounds of the oh so highly spoken of and revered city that is Amsterdam. Visiting it was only made better by the fact that we were joined by my glorious cousin and her fantasmical husband, Yasmin & Nimrod. Together, we explored the hidden jewels and treasures, nooks and crannies, secrets and lies of this city, all while eating good food, drinking good beer, and thoroughly enjoying each other’s company. An added bonus was getting to see some friends who live there! Frances Biemann, if you’re reading this – I CAN’T believe we forgot to get a picture of us pancaking together, in typical Hollander/Biemann fashion. Next time!

Miles walked:              28
Miles transported:     680

Forraying out into the city in search of food:

We found this:

And naturally, if one can sit on a mushroom, one should sit on said mushroom (while making this incredibly attractive face):

The beautiful canals:

A fire station! (Francy wanted me to post this… I’m still unclear as to why)

Hard at work solving crossword puzzles while picnicing at the park near our apartment:

Man and dog:

We found Eric!

The Communist House – Nimrod is right at home:

And then straight back to the park:

The team (I, apparently, didn’t get the “look ‘hard’“ memo):

Francy stole Nimrod’s lens and went to town taking some pretty great photos:

Both exhausted after a long and arduous day of doing absolutely nothing:

Making the mothers proud:

Though it was quite a zoo over there, Samsonite managed to take control of the “M”! … for Maritz, which is our last name, if there happen to be any readers who don’t know who we are 🙂

See? Zoo.