erincarson78:
And the cheese museum was two doors down. It smelled VERY ripe in there.
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Which we did. So I bought a water and was kind of blown away that I was paying for something with Euros.
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The canal system was stunning.
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A restaurant where you can sit and eat by the canal.
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This is Westerkirk, which was sadly closed, and Anne Frank house, which (as you can see) had an absolutely insane lineup which would have taken 2-3 hours. So instead we crossed the canal...
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Workin' it.
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An artsy photo of Shawn with Dutch matches. Very hipster.
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A cool tower I saw on our train ride. There are so many interesting old buildings... It's kind of funny when you compare it to Victoria with our handful of coveted heritage buildings. Here, heritage buildings are known as "buildings".
erincarson78:
We saw hundreds of wind turbines on our ride through Germany, alone or in fields full of them. There are also solar panels on many of the buildings. The government has encouraged green energy growth by paying very attractive subsidized prices for it.
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We barely made the train but we did it. Berlin, here we come!
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The infamous Red Light District of Amsterdam. It is a strange place.
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...to the tulip museum. Much more cheerful!
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Shawn looking very dapper in his clogs.
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I missed it when it came to Science World, so I was really pleased to be able to see it in Amsterdam. The exhibits are made by plastinating cadavers that have been donated. I was not allowed to take pictures but there are pics at bodyworlds.com
erincarson78:
We stopped at Panorama restaurant to sample a couple of local beers. This one was our favourite. The pizza was also very tasty.
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I thought Liam and Alice would like this life-sized Lego guy!
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Took this walking downtown... In the evening I finally broke down and had a waffle in another shop. Mmm!
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The famous Sex Museum. Kind of fun. I did take a picture in there but I'm keeping this family friendly ;)
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Another pretty side street on our walk from our apartment near Westerpark to downtown Amsterdam.
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I liked this window display with raisins still on their vines.
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The buildings here are tall and lovely. There is a lot of mixed commercial and residential and it works well! At the top of the buildings you can see winches used to lift large items to the upper floors. The stairways are too steep and narrow for that.
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So much cheeeeeeese! Cheese heaven.
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A pretty view of one of the canals.
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Everybody bikes everywhere here, and no helmets or fancy biking clothes to be seen. It's not a political statement or hippie lifestyle to ride a bike here, it's just part of everybody's life.
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The bedroom in our funky Amsterdam suite. It was full of musical instruments and the wifi password was "leonardcohen".
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Our first meal in Amsterdam: lamb shawarma in a pita, aka shoarma broodje. We had it twice - really tasty fast food.
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Giant wooden shoe in front of a tulip stand. How Dutch and touristy!
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We liked this clever advertising for a car company in the Amsterdam airport.
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The security lineup at the Paris airport was CRAZY long and Shawn looks worried we might miss our plane.
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Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris is awesome looking.
