Amsterdam Day 3 & 4

We were obsessed with the bikes of Amsterdam. The city was built for bikes and not cars even though there are plenty of cars buzzing around.  The cars are much smaller than the cars we drive in the states.  The bike pictured below has a wooden scope in the front to haul groceries or kids and there's an additional kids seat on the back.  They made it look so effortless.  Bicycles have the right away over pedestrians and cars.

We had reservations for a restaurant our friends recommended called De Kas.  We took the tram to a different area of Amsterdam and walked around the park before our reservation time.

The restaurant was in a greenhouse. It was so beautiful.  The food was a pre-fixe two course meal. I was a little worried b/c I don't do pre-fixe very well or rather I don't do very well when I don't know what I am eating.  I am a turkey sandwich kinda gal. I like to know what I am getting. The first appetizer that came out and it was green, cold and had peas. I had to brace myself but I wasn't going to let my neurosis get the better of me.  The green cold appetizer with peas was amazing.

The wine was amazing too.

I was a master of Amsterdam. Upon getting off the plane, Andrew became directionally confused.  He couldn't get anywhere. There were even times he busted out the compass on his phone b/c he didn't believe me.  After navigating the tram system to the greenhouse I was able to navigate us on the tram to the Heineken Brewery for a tour.  It was a self guided tour even though there wasn't much to read as I think all anyone is looking for is the beer at the end. The brewery had horses but they were lame compared to the Clydesdale horses. 

Baby glasses of beer. Andrew said it was better than Heineken in a can. I wasn't really impressed but I don't like beer.

The tram dropped us off at the Dam Center (tourist central). We had walked around a gift shop in the area the day before and I wanted to go back to get some things for the kids.  We bought Miss M wooden shoes. Her and Big Willie loved them. I was sad we didn't buy some for Big Willie.

A friend had recommended a place to get a glass of wine close by Dam Square so we headed there after the gift shop since it started to rain again. 

We got there around 4pm and we were the only people in the bar. We chatted up the bartender and told him what we thought we liked and didn't like so he poured flights of various whites and reds so we could if we really knew what we liked and didn't like. We discovered some new ones to try that we wouldn't have tried before.

We took a Drug and Sex tour to learn about the red-light district of Amsterdam. It was interesting, educational, uncomfortable at times, and worth going on.  We ended up taking the tour with all Americans and some Iowans which was fun.

This little alleyway is one of the areas of the red-light district where there are literally red-lights when someone is working. It's all so bizarre.

We found the best Thai food on our last night.  We arrived around 5pm and when we left an hour later there was a line out the door.  We are still dreaming of it's amazingness.

All good things must come to an end.  We went home early on our last night and packed (or maybe just binge watched Orange is the New Black on Netflix).  Our flight out of Amsterdam to Frankfurt was at 10am Wednesday morning. I am an overly anxious traveler so we got an early start and had just enough time to do a little shopping in the airport!