Amsterdam & Kuekenhof Gardens

The flowers and fragrance were incredible
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Our journey in Amsterdam began with a tour of the city by bus, then a stop to the largest diamond processing facility in Amsterdam, then a canal boat trip and finally a tour of the Anne Frank house.

For dinner we stopped at a Pancake House – Sally had a Bacon & Cheese Pancake; Steve had the Ham, Cheese & Onion Pancake. Of course we had Amstel Beer to wash it down. For desert we had an Apple Pancake with powdered sugar and 2 scoops of ice cream.

On the second day, Saturday, we ran into our table mates, Richard and Sandra from northern Virginia.  We spent the day together...so much fun!  We went on the tour of Kuechenhof Gardens which was incredible.  The flowers where truly indescribable. We took over 127 pictures just in the first 4 hours of our day.  Don't worry...we don't have enough time to load them all!

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After the 4 hour tour we went to the Rijks Museum.  It is truly amazing to the great works of Rembrandt.  Sandra studied Art History and she really added to our experience with greater explanations of the artist's techniques.

After the museum it was time for a much needed break with a beer and snacks...would you believe...Hard Rock cafe.  The city is starting to fill up with people in celebration of Queen's Day.  We have been told that in order to walk around you must climb up on top of peoples' hands or heads.  Supposedly they get quite crazy during this time...Sunday night and Monday.  Also this is the only legal day that people can have yard sales so everyone displays their 'wares' for sale on this day.  Our tour guide referred to it as rubbish instead of junk.

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After our return to the hotel, Steve got the internet connection and we have been updating the blog and using Skype to talk to family members.  It has been a great adventure thus far and look forward to the next phase in Paris!