July 12 - Amsterdam

We started today by renting a pedal boat to tour the canals of Amsterdam.

The canals are lovely and it was a relaxing way to see the city.

 One of the many bridges that we pedaled under.

 Woof-woof was our look-out.

 The Little One getting into the pedaling action.

 After we finished pedaling(and having had a run-in with a big boat that we wish we had picture of(all the people on the boat were taking pictures of us...)), we found a bench to have lunch on.  While The Guy was off getting us some bread I had a run-in with a wasp.  My right hand started swelling up, so we had to find some benadryl for me to take.  (I was so frustrated with myself.  I brought a first-aid kit, but didn't have it with us so it didn't do any good.)

My swollen hand.  Okay, I admit that I feel like a pansy after seeing this picture, but my hand was throbbing and it was really swollen.

 We found a park.

 The kids enjoyed getting some wiggles out.

 We had some time before our Anne Frank house tour(at 8 pm), so we decided to walk to Dam Square to see the palace, etc...

Here is Woof-woof with a canal background.

 On our way to Dam square we accidentally walked through the red-light district(luckily no one noticed where we were except me - at least no one saw the women except me...).  We arrived at the square too late to get into anything.  We walked into the church(what we could see was lovely), they told us to leave, saw the palace, watched a bunch of street performers, looked at the shopping areas, and decided that if we couldn't go into the palace or church that the area wasn't all that cool(we're not that into shopping).

 We found a lovely diner to have dinner at.  It was empty.  It was starting to drizzle, so it was the perfect place to eat and spend some time before our tour.

 We had some smoothies!

 We figured out a lot of things to do with the napkin holders.  The Little One didn't know what to do with them on her hands.

 The Guy enjoyed his cheese pancake.  He told me that his family isn't so crazy for eating cheese on waffles after all.  

 I told him that there wasn't any syrup on the cheese pancake he ordered...

Woof-woof liked napkin holders too!  

 She also had some amazing pesto pasta(I'm going to have to try their technique of sauteing the pasta with the pesto).

Sweetie had a toastie with ham, cheese, and pineapple.

 After we finished our dinner we walked over to the Anne Frank house.  This is Westerkerk, the church that Anne talks about hearing the bells of in her diary.

 This is a memorial statue of Anne Frank next to Westerkerk.

 Inside the steps at the Anne Frank house museum.

 Pictures weren't allowed inside the house.  It's amazing though.  Walking up to the bookshelf and going through it was really interesting.  Having just been reading the book and then going there was really fun and sad. And I enjoyed seeing it with kids.  Seeing their reactions to it was interesting.  I enjoyed reading the book with them(we edited some parts) and hearing what they thought of everything in the book.  Then seeing their reactions to the living space was fun.  Sweetie really like all of it and I think that it came alive even more to him.  Woof-woof loved the fact that she too could write a diary and has decided that when we get home she wants to write something too.  I love seeing how different events shape the thoughts and actions of my kids.

Two tired kids on the metro home.