Day 2
Sunday was my birthday!! Happy 22 years to me! Thank you to everyone who wished my happy birthday! I'm sad I didn't get to spend it with a lot of people at home, but I'm glad I got to be abroad and have fun still :) Madilyne and I met up with Ali and Maite for dinner to celebrate. They are TCU COE students like us, studying in the Hague (an area outside of Amsterdam). We decided to let them know we were visiting in case they were available to meet. Luckily they were! It was great getting to talk to them. They are the only 2 in the Hague, so they do get a little lonely. It was good to hear about their school experiences and traveling.
In the morning, we went to a museum, walked around, and ended up at the Royal Palace. It was an audio tour where you hold a handheld device up to your ear and it speaks about the room you are in or picture you are looking at. Each box can speak different languages so other language speakers can understand it. The palace was cool. However, Versailles was better. We only got to see 1 floor of the palace. Plus, most of the rooms were blocked off by glass, so you could only stand in the entrance way. I didn't know there was even a Dutch king and queen until visiting. I thought that was an English and French tradition.
After the palace, we went to lunch and it was there that we decided to go to the Amsterdam Lookout Tower. We were debating it since it was rainy, but we didn't know what Monday's weather would bring, so we decided to do it while it wasn't raining heavily. We took a FREE ferry across the river. There was a bike lane for bicyclists and a pedestrian lane. The ferry ran every 3 minutes and was very quick across the river. We went into the tower and got our pictures taken in front of a green screen that made it look like we were hanging off a construction rail. We got 2 poses, each with 3 different backgrounds (one is featured below). The elevator ride to the top of the tower had a light show which was cool. At the top, there was a 360 view of the area around the tower. On the some movable screens in front of the windows, you could scroll and it would show you where things were located. It would also show you a night version of the city and an old-fashioned view of what it used to look like.
Upstairs and outside on the deck, there were a lot of photo opportunities. We found an "A'dam" sign to take a picture at since they took out the "I Amsterdam sign". We waited in line for the swing since we bought tickets ahead of time. Once we got on the swing and it started moving, it was scarier than we thought! On the ground, it didn't look like the swing was going that fast, but on it, the push is much harder than expected. I'm also not the biggest fan of open heights, so I held onto the sides of the swing with my life. The workers took our picture with the company camera so we could purchase them at the end or download them. There was also a video of the whole experience for purchase.
General pictures from the day including: Royal Palace, Lookout Tower, and Flat Stanley
Day 3
Today, Madilyne and I accidentally slept in until 11. However, today was our chill day since we did so much yesterday. We also had our Anne Frank tour at 5:45 so we had time in the early day. It was also beautifully sunny outside compared to yesterday's rain. We were a little upset we didn't get to do the swing in the sun, but it's water under the bridge now.
I decided to take Madilyne to Primark to experience it. Primark is one of my favorite clothing stores. It's similar to Forever 21 in design, style, and price, but it's European. There is one location by my home in Philadelphia, but there is not a lot in the states. It took a lot out of both of us to not shop for anything since we don't have space in our backpacks on this week trip.
We went to breakfast at this place called DeliFrance. Our hotel gives us a 15% discount. We tried to use the promo yesterday but they told us we needed to spend at least 8.50 Euro per person. So today, we made the minimum and each bought a combo meal. The girl who worked there recognized us and liked that we came back. We got our discount and had to immediately run to the train station to make our train.
It was a last minute decision to go to the... BEACH! Since our hotel was out of the Amsterdam city limits, we had to get a 3- day regional transit pass. With that, we could go anywhere in Holland. So we decided since it was sunny and we had time to kill, to go to the beach. It was a little ways out, but totally worth it to go. Apparently Madilyne's transit chipcard didn't read when we got onto the plane and the train man was nice enough to let her off at the next stop to scan it in and let her back on. If he wasn't kind enough to do that, she would've been fined 50 Euros! On top of that, we used the bathroom at the train station and had to pay 50 euro cents. It's weird to pay for the bathroom since it's a natural need.
The beach was beautiful! It was in Zanvoort aan Zee. During the winter, it's a ghost town. There was barely anyone around. I was in love with all the dogs on the beach. It's a dream of mine to take my dog, but she hates the water. Plus, beaches back home are always crowded. You'd expect the beach to be nice since it was sunny out. However, the openness of the ocean and lack of buildings made it colder since the wind was blowing everywhere. I've never been that cold on a beach before. There was also foam from the water which I've never seen before. We took some sea shells because they were pretty.
When we finished at the beach, I took Madilyne to Amstelveenseweg. This was the area I was in last time I came to Amsterdam. It's a great, quiet neighborhood that I would definitely want to live in if I moved to Amsterdam. I've had my heart set on this plush bear I saw back in summer 2017. It was a stretch that it would still be there, but I wanted to check. Sure enough, it was there! I had looked all over websites for it and it was too expensive to ship to America since it is a European brand. The store is called Imagine and it is the cutest store ever with a bunch of home decor, baby stuff, kids books, kids toys, etc. Then we went to Etos pharmacy and bought some waters since you have to pay for waters at restaurants (which is also very annoying). We strolled through Vondelpark and passed Hotel Central Park (where I stayed last time). Going down memory lane was great and nostalgic!
At night, we went to the Anne Frank House. It got very cold and we had to stand outside for a while. When we went in, my ticket wasn't scanning, so I had to step aside in a swarm of people, which was very embarrassing. I eventually got in because Madilyne had both tickets on her phone and accidentally used my ticket code instead of hers. I tried keeping it together this time, but I think I cried more since I noticed more the second time around. The part that always gets me is when her dad is speaking about being the only one left and finding Anne's diary. I also swear parts of the museum (not the secret annex) were laid out differently last time. It was unsettling to see this woman taking pictures of everything in the house since photos were not allowed. The house is a place to pay your respects and be solemn. It was silent throughout because people were listening to their audio guides in addition to being serious about the content. We stayed until 7 which was the time the museum closed, so they rushed us out.
Then we went home and bought our train tickets for the airport to Prague tomorrow!