We are the Christensens: Amsterdam

I asked Peter a few weeks back, was there any part of our trip that stuck with him or he thought about more than others? Not necessarily our favorite place but a place that you just couldn't stop thinking about? For him it was Scotland (close second for me!). For me, it was Amsterdam. Amsterdam wasn't super high on my priority list for our trip but we ended up going to meet up with Peter's parents, Eric & Sherry and godparents, Steve & Karen, who were starting a Rhine River cruise to Switzerland. After traveling for 6+ weeks on our own, it was so refreshing and fun to see family!

I loved Amsterdam. Far more than I thought I would. It was such an easy and lovely city to explore. Parks, bikes, great food, generally English speaking, good beer, and gorgeous scenery. We couldn't have asked for a better experience!

We rented bikes for the week which was a bit of adventure! Bike theft is very prevalent so were were given a double lock for our bike which was a bit of a pain to lock and unlock every time you needed to go somewhere. I also got some lovely bruises from the bike locks because it was wicked heavy! Also, trying to use GPS on your phone, while biking and navigating was less than ideal. We were staying about 15 minute bike ride from Peter's parents so we would bike over to their hotel, park our bikes, and then walk or Uber with his folks around the city.

We stayed outside of the City Center in a neighborhood just around Vondel Park. We pretty much walked our bikes through Vondel park anytime we needed to go somewhere which was awesome. We loved being in more of a local neighborhood. There were great restaurants and, of course, we found a great little tap room.

Some of my favorite memories:

Thai food take-out picnic in Vondel park then brewers night at a little tap room near our AirBnB.

Walking around the Jordaan neighborhood with Steve and Karen. They both arrived a day ahead of Eric & Sherry. We got to spend the day just wandering the city with them.

Eating Greek food for dinner. I was responsible for most of the food options and I, of course, found an itty bitty family run Cretan restaurant. We had a great time speaking a mix of Dutch, Greek, Italian and English. We had some ah-maze-ing deep fried feta. So good.
Breakfast at Omelegg. So delicious. Slightly weird ex-pat was sitting at our community table trying to get us to buy her book.
Boat tour through the canals of Amsterdam. We ended up getting a semi-private tour with another family who was visiting. Our tour guide gave semi-accurate historic information which was quite entertaining.

Van Gogh museum! Bucket list checked! I've wanted to visit that museum since I studied Van Gogh in high school. It did not disappoint.
Afternoon spent drinking beer and reading with Peter at a random / hidden brewery.