A cold weekend in Amsterdam

The last week here has felt like a typical Minnesota winter. On Friday we got about an inch of snow that has actually stuck around for the last couple of days and its so cold that sometimes a have a hard time catching my breath walking to the grocery store. I have certainly been through colder and snowier winters, but I think I feel it a lot more now that I walk everywhere. In these really cold days I wish I could just drive everywhere.

This past weekend we drove to Amsterdam. I still can't get over the fact that we can drive just two hours and be in a different country. Since it was cold and snowy it wasn't the best weekend for walking around Amsterdam, but we still enjoyed our time there. We didn't get to see the beautiful tulips that the city is known for, but the snow and ice around the city and its canals certainly added its own type of charm.

One of the first things we did was visit the Anne Frank house. Walking around the annex where the eight people lived, I had a hard time imagining how eight people lived in such a small space. The saddest things about the house was knowing that they never were allowed to go outside or even open the windows.  I just can't imagine. We also saw how they tried to stay "normal" inside the annex, there were pencil marks on the wall showing how much the children grew while they were there.

Amsterdam is known for their big bicycle culture(well there big bike culture and the red light district but that's a different story). There are people riding bikes everywhere, and the city is certainly built for the biking culture. There are bike paths all along the the walkways and roads. They even have their own stoplights. I can't imagine how everybody does it there, especially in the winter. There was snow all over the roads and sidewalks, I watched several people almost wipe out while walking around the city (including Steve hee hee), but I never saw anybody fall off their bikes.

Before we headed out of town, we of course ate some delicious Dutch pancakes. I really enjoyed Amsterdam, but if we're around when it gets warmer I'd like to go back and see the tulips...and eat more pancakes.