First Day in Amsterdam

It is 10pm on our first full day in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and there is still a slight sunset.
We made the flight from Houston leaving there at 3:40pm and arriving a little early at 8:00AM this morning in Amsterdam. It was so foggy when we landed that I could not see the ground until just before the plane touched the ground but the fog burned off and the day was beautiful, sunny, blue sky, slight breezy (in fact it was chilly enough for our jackets).

We had decided that since we did not really have a schedule we would use the train and tram to find our hotel and we did fine, even with a few steps, hauling our luggage around. We were determined to follow the Rick Steves (and many others) advice to only have one bag each (which we decided to check) for our six weeks here. That means lots of laundry for me, but it has been worth it so far. We did pack rather heavy carry-on bags which did prove to be a bit daunting for me while trying to load into the very fast tram. I fell over a little bit and actually had a dutch woman with a baby in a stroller get up and offer me her seat. I think she was afraid I might fal on her baby. It wasn't quite that bad, but I told Ed that he would have to handle the two heavy bags next time. I also think he should be behind me or at least helping me up the stairs....don't you? He was so worried about paying for our tickets that he had no idea I wasn't behind him anymore and was struggling with the bigger of the two bags (which held his clothes!!) and my carry on. But once I was upright and firmly holding the rail I was fine and we arrived at our stop and got off and walked the few blocks to our hotel. The doorman greeted us warmly coming directly to me and taking my bags. What a guy!!

Once situated in our room we spoke with our concierge and had some of our questions answered. He directed us to a grocer store a brief walk away, a pharmacy and a phone store.
We took some time checking these places our and then took the tram to the city center. On the tram I showed Ed how to put in the strip of tickets to pay for our trip and without luggage it was a very pleasant ride to Central Station.

We walked around Central Station for a while and then decided to take a canal tour. The tour takes 1 1/2 hours. I had not slept on the plane coming over. Ed had slept a bit, but on and off so for us to sit in a boat on the water and listen to a narration of the architecture and history of the city was asking a lot of our bodies. It was very fun to see this city from the canals.

After the canal boat tour we decided to walk back to our hotel. We thought we were about half way there from the canal tour place by the Rijksmuseum but I think we decided we had miscalculated a bit. Even so, meandering through streets with beautiful homes, dodging bicyclists everywhere, seeing little families playing together, young women helping older grandmas.....it was very nice. The bicycle parking lot at Central Station tells a wonderful story.
We have been struck by how healthy everyone here looks. Business people in suits whiz by on their bikes talking on cell phones. The lane in the street dedicated to them is very serious. Everyone obeys the rules. There were more bikes than cars on the streets. We have also been struck by how tall everyone is, men and women. There are also very cute children.

On our way back to the hotel we decided to stop at the grocer and buy something for dinner and breakfast and lunch in the morning. Shopping was very fun. Lots of different looking foods. We haven't been too brave yet although we did stop and have lunch at a little place that had deli type sandwiches. We found the place by walking along the street and noticing a line of young people at this one door. We decided to check it out and it looked good. We were not disappointed. I also noticed at the store many men with lots of little children shopping for food. It was very cute although the dad and daughter behind us at the checkout was not so enthralled with us when we took a little more time after realizing that there are no free bags at checkout and since we didn't bring our own like everyone else we had to ask someone behind us in line to grab one for us which we had to pay for before we could finish and get out of their way! Oh these tourists!!!!

The people here have been very nice to us generally. Most of them speak such great English. It is embarrassing that we do not speak another language but one man said to us, "you don't need to. You country is so big why would you need to, except for maybe Spanish?" He was very gracious.

We came back to the hotel and both fell asleep for a couple of hours and now we will be up late again. Oh well, we will sleep until we like in the morning and have another wonderful day exploring this wonderful, exciting place.