Well I've finally gotten around to uploading photos from my vacation to Amsterdam this past April.

We stayed in a 1 bedroom houseboat which was only about a ½ mile from Centraal Station, and only a 5-10 min walk to the heart of the City.

Here's the topside of the houseboat...








On the inside it had a sitting area/dinner table, a kitchen, bedroom and full bathroom.









The most amusing thing about the houseboat was the fact that the vents were clear, and of course, there was a vent directly above the shower. At night you'd pretty visible to anyone walking across the deck to the boat nextdoor... The wife made me go up top and stand guard a few times



If you go back and look at the first picture I posted, the vent pictured above, is the same vent that's visible in the bottom left corner of the 1st pic.

cont....

 

The view from the boat was pretty good too, here's a shot of Centraal Station, then a zoomed in shot, both taken from our boat.





and an evening shot from the deck.


As for when we were away from the boat, we spent a good part of our time just wandering about the city....













If you've never been to Amsterdam, let me tell you, there are TONS of bikes around! Here's a parking deck by the train station just for bikes.


cont...

 

Now two specific places that we absolutely must return to someday...

The first spot we hit that blew us away was a little restaurant up the steepest flight of stairs I've ever seen called "Upstairs Pancake House".
When I say little, I mean it. The place only had 4 or 5 small tables and the chef was also the waiter, cashier and owner!

I had the fresh strawberries and cream pancake while my wife opted for bananas and cream. To say these things were any less than divine would be an understatement!



Unfortunately they're only open Fri-Sun so we were unable to make it back to try the savory varieties. I was really looking forward to an apples and bacon pancake! :o

The other really cool place we stumbled across is a little bar (again I mean little, only one small tasting room, most people hang out in the alley) called Wynand Fockink, and it's a few decades over 300 years old! They distill 40+ liquors (about 24% alcohol) and serve them straight or you can get mixed concoctions like Chocolate Cherry or Orange-Vanilla.

The bar is so old you can see the shelves have bowed under the constant weight of the booze. Each bottle is a different "flavor", though most are citrus or spice infused. Also, you can see a little 'room' with beer taps on the left side... There's a window to the alley there so the bartender can serve beers directly to the outside. Brilliant!

They serve them in small glasses, filled to the absolute brim, in fact, they're only about 1 drop away from overflowing! So full that you can't pick it up without spilling, so the tradition is to lean over the bar and take a slurp out of the glass before picking it up!


As I said, it's very small inside, so most people hang out in the alley outside the shop. It's empty here, but by 5:30, it's pretty crowded!



cont...

 

All in all it was a great trip and we've decided whenever we go back to Europe, we need at least 2 weeks. 1 week was just enough time to get settled in, then it was time to leave.

We've also decided at we'll try to stop in Amsterdam for at least a day or two each time we go overseas. Once you're there it's pretty cheap to get around, and Amsterdam is such a fun city!

Here's a few more random pictures from our wanderings, including a trip to a small beach town on the North Sea...










Notice the seats here facing out towards the crowd... Several bars in the Dam Square have seating like this. About 3 or 4 rows of seats that face away from the bar so patrons can drink and people-watch. Kinda neat.





Oh yeah, here's the ICE High Speed train for you train guys...




Cheers!

- NCSU

 

WOW! Amsterdam looks like a beautiful place.. i guess i need to add that to my "places to visit" list.

 

Awesome! Looks like you two had a great time. I always have wanted to go to Europe and visit a few different places, Amsterdam definitely being one of them!

 

dang!!!!! trip looks awesome. love the houseboat! thanks for sharing the pics.

 

Nice Bar!

Looks like a pretty cool place.

Whats the price difference between the Houseboat and Hotel Ibis?

 

For the houseboat we paid 600 euro for 5 nights. I just did a quick search for the Hotel Ibis in that photo and they charge about 670 euro for 5 nights.

We're trying to decide where to for our next trip. I think it's between Ireland and Spain...

- NCSU

 

Amazing pictures man, Really looks beautiful there, and fun. I love places like that.


Ireland is my spot, I have to go there before I die. So go there and make me jealous of you again

600 euros? whats the exchange rate on that?

 

no red light district?

 

Nice photos. I cant wait to go there in 2010.
Did you get a contact high in the coffee shops, lol!!

 

Nice pics, looks like you had a great time.

Ireland for the win! I haven't been to Spain but I have been to 10+ countries in Euorpe and Ireland is the BEST! Dublin or Galway would be tops on the places to hit up. Unless you don't like the .

 

Thanks for sharing those pictures man, let me ask you when your in those old pub style stores and stuff does it really bring that charming warm felling that it creates?

I mean when watching shows about the old countrys I get the feeling that its so comfortable there.

 

Great pics man.