Amsterdam

Our time in Amsterdam was absolutely amazing we loved every minute of it. We enjoyed seeing the unique style of buildings and the the many canals that ran through the city. Our first day mostly consisted of catching up on some rest and getting a quick tour of the city on a canal boat tour. That evening I was looking at the different museums that I wanted to see over the next couple of days. One of the museums that I had been looking forward to was the Anne Frank House Museum. I did not realise that the tickets for this sellout months in advance. I was panicked! However, 20% of the tickets are sold on the day of, but there is a difficult waiting period online to get a ticket. So the next morning at 9 a.m. when the tickets went on sale Garrett and I both got on our phones to get the tickets. Unfortunately we were not successful after a very stressful hour of waiting in an online queue just to see that the tickets were not available. So we went on with our day knowing that we would get to see some other museums that I had planned, and try the Anne Frank tickets again the next day. We went to a little cafe at the end of the street where we were staying and while we were there I decided to check my phone to see if the Anne Frank tickets are still being released or not. Garrett decided to check on his phone as well and all the sudden he says “they’re available!”. We quickly purchased the tickets and I was about ready to cry because I was so excited that we managed to get the tickets. However since I did not expect to get them that day, I already planned to go to other museums. One of which (the Van Gogh Museum) we had a timed entry for at 2:45. Our Anne Frank tour had timed entry for 4:45. It was ok though because we still had enough time at the Van Gogh Museum before we needed to go to the Anne Frank House. It was a very sobering and eye-opening experience to go through the house where the Franks lived in hiding for 2 years. It was unbelievable. Our second day was not filled with museums and rushing around. It was a much more laid back place. We started off with a trip to the pancake bakery which is a famous bakery in Amsterdam known for…..you guessed it it’s pancakes. They were massive ! Garrett and I realised we probably should have split one, but we enjoyed them nonetheless. We then rented some bikes and rode around the city for a few hours. It was the most fun that both of us had had so far on this trip. We absolutely loved seeing the city on the bicycles. Our first stop was at a windmill and then on to the city centre. We saw Dam Square, the red light district, and vondelpark. We then went to get some food and hang around Dam Square again. While we were there, a street performer was doing a juggling/comedy show. He requested my help during part of the show which included me passing a baton up to him on a 7-ft unicycle . Fortunately I was able to throw it right to his hand and not into the crowd. We finished off walking around town, had one last look at Central Station lit up at night and then headed back to our apartment. Although our time in Amsterdam was short, it was well spent and we loved every minute of it. Now onto Germany!