With summer coming to a close, and what is looking like a busy, yet exciting fall coming up (for me anyways), B-Rod and I decided it was time for a getaway adventure. We booked time off and started to come up with a plan (or a loose idea of a plan which tends to be how our “planning” works). We had a lot of ideas floating around – scuba diving somewhere warm. . . . . another States trip . . . . Belfast . . . . Glasgow . . . . . Amsterdam. We went back and forth a few times, but in the end with a few days set to leave, we decided on Amsterdam. It seemed fitting that B-Rod’s first time to Europe would be to the land of his peeps.
B-Rod landed and finished his shift just after noon on a Tuesday, I met him at the airport and we made our way through security in the hopes of catching a 3:30 flight. The thing that we are learning about standby travel is it is nice to have a “plan,” but sometimes there are other plans that are meant for you. Essentially, the same lesson I am learning about everyday life! Turns out, this time around our plans just happened to work out directly and there was no need to resort to our back up (which was to check the departure board and see if there was anything that was calling to us!) We received our boarding passes and got set for the 8 hour flight. I used the time to do one last pit stop. When I came back B-Rod was a bit embarrassed and flushed. Not long after I left, one of the agents came over to loudly scold him (B’s “schooling” round 1) for our check in procedure. Instead of talking to them at the gate before security, we did it online. Guess that’s not the correct way with this particular airline, and B-Rod was publicly shamed for this mistake. The yelling apparently stopped a few seconds before I got back.
8 hours and 3 movies later, we arrived in Amsterdam and in true B-Rod and Rocky Bee travel style we have pretty much been going non-stop since. We learned our way around the public transportation system (after going the wrong way and heading out of the city first), ended up finding an awesome place to stay (kind of a B&B/VRBO situation), have done some fun things, learned some interesting things about the country, and had some good food. So far we’re loving Amsterdam and are looking forward to our next few days here.
Yeah!! It still feels like a lottery win when they call your name to get a boarding pass!
Yeah!! It still feels like a lottery win when they call your name to get a boarding pass!
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Our home base here is pretty awesome, unless you don’t like extremely steep stairs!
But you get to enjoy the view with a canal in front when you get to the top : )
On the way to the Van Gogh museum (where B experienced his second round of schooling for trying to take pictures – it wasn’t quite as publicly humiliating this time around)
The Sloten Windmill is the only tower mill open to the public.
Of course B had to get right in there to help out!
Also hit the Museum of the Canals (which was really cool) and tied in to some of the things we had just learned at the windmill.
Also spent a lot of time just walking around and taking in the surroundings, including bikes, canals, interesting buildings and cars (for B!)
Yes . . . this building IS very crooked!
Let’s not forget the food!
kroket’s – fried breaded rolls filled with ragout (how can that not be good!)
chocolate sprinkles instead of chocolate spread
rijsttafel – rice with a number of different appetizer dishes . . . . OMG this was good!!
We ended our day with a canal ride. We got a museum/public transportation package which included a canal tour, so we decided to do the night tour. Riding on a candlelit boat along the lit up canals and lights of Amsterdam. Couldn’t have been a better way to end our first few days here. Aaaaaccccccckkkkkkk!! So nice!
Been patiently waiting. Glad you finally posted! Was the little Indonesian man still at Sloten??
Enjoy, my friends!!
No little Indonesian man. It was an older gentleman who was just as excited as your Indonesian guy sounded.