June 15, 2013 (Happy Birthday, Ann!)
It was rainy and windy this morning when we woke up, but we ate breakfast, put on our raincoats, and headed out anyway. Luckily we headed out just about the time that it stopped raining and the sun started to come out. We had planned to go to the Van Gogh museum since we knew it was supposed to rain. Since it was across the city, we planned to stop at Waterlooplein, basically an outdoor flea market and Bloemenmarkt, a huge floating flower market where they sell flowers with health certificates so you can take them back to the U.S. Surprisingly enough, we actually managed all these goals.
We were happy to be walking in the pretty part of Amsterdam (near the train station where we are staying is not the pretty part) too. The large flea market of Waterlooplein was a lot like our flea markets, but with a more tourist trinkets and bike locks. We found a couple magnets, I found a moonstone pendant and Clayton found some old dutch coins. At the Bloemenmarkt I was able to buy 10 tulip bulbs that have a health certificate so I can bring them back to the states. You are typically not allowed to bring fruits or other plants into the U.S. because they will cause problems with the flowers in the U.S. However, these are allowed so I was really excited to find them. No, I have no idea where I a going to plant them, but nonetheless I have flowers from Holland. Once we made it to the Van Gogh museum, we really enjoyed it and spent a couple hours looking at his paintings and learning about his life. The museum was set up well, showing painters that he drew inspiration from with one of their paintings and then his beside it. It did a nice job of showing his growth as a painter.
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| The Waterlooplein flea market |
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| A picturesque view of Amsterdam: Canal, houseboats and bikes |
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| A pretty picture of Amsterdam: the canal, houseboats and tall houses |
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| The floating flower market from the backside |
After the museum, we found supper at a good Italian restaurant where we both had spaghetti carbonara and had tiramisu for dessert. Once we were refreshed (both with food and resting our feet) we moseyed back towards our B&B stopping at the grocery for some food for our adventure tomorrow. It started rainy, but turned into a nice day in Amsterdam!
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| Our Italian style Tiramisu |
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| These little cars are tiny and they can drive in the bike lanes |
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