Where are the children?

On the first day in Amsterdam, Vivian asked, "where are all the children?"

I hadn't noticed there was not one child. The tour guide said they were all in school. 

 

Vivi and Chicky Wicky are quite the travel buddies. 

 

Upon arrival in Amsterdam, we got a taxi, but there was a moment when one driver got out and another got in. Weird. So I got out, showed him me taking a picture of his plate, then said, "we go here. Nowhere else."

 

It's always better to be safe than sorry. It didn't feel unsafe, just weird. 

The boat was docked in a place that was sort of odd to get to because it was on the other side of a river. The driver had to ask directions.  Fascinating. Amidst this, Vivi ate a roll in the back seat, happily munching away. 

We checked into the river cruise boat, then scampered off to discover this new country. Our versions of discovery are different. Vivi mostly wants to find things to climb. So we went to a park and she climbed.

Each day, the bartender created a drink of the day and each had lovely, fresh fruit juices everyone - including Vivian - could enjoy. 

This picture was taken for our friend Anita, because she loves flowers and we think of her when we see particularly interesting flowers. 

 

Rush hour in Amsterdam.

There are thousands of bikes and they only cost about 30 Euros - the locks are more expensive than the bikes - so bikes often are not locked. 

 

People bought this windmill and live in it!

 

Rembrandt spent a great deal of time here. 

 

We went in a tour of a diamond factory, which was really interesting. I hadn't known Amsterdam is famous for cutting diamonds. Nor did I know anything about diamonds. 

They showed us people cutting diamonds and then took us to a room where they brought out trays and tray and trays of diamonds and rings. It was bizarre, yet fascinating. Vivian must have tried on 50 rings.

 

Her favorite diamond is heart shaped. Go figure. 

At the gift shop, I got her this bracelet and it seemed like a nice way to remember our trip (and far less expensive than the shiny diamonds in all the other display cases).


And then we got to sail!

Erasmus Bridge

The river cruise had to detour because something something something so instead of Alpine on the Rhine, we went to Utrecht. This would have been fine, but we showed up on the docks and it is an industrial area and the city was too far to get to by foot. No taxis. No public transportation. So Vivi and I walked and found a park.