Saturday Sept 22
PART 1
Whenever one door closes...
Another one opens.
Leaving Rwanda was sad but our trip wasn't over yet. Flying back up to Europe I couldn't help but be excited for the continuation of our vacation. As many of you know our connecting standby flights from Barcelona to Atlanta didn't look good. Since we were already making a transition in Amsterdam we decided to try flying out of there to Atlanta. It ended up being a 'excellent' flight, meaning we'd definitely make the flight. So we exchanged our 2 days back in Barcelona for 2 days in the beautiful city of Amsterdam. Truly, we would have been bored going back to the already familiar streets of Spain so this was perfect. And...I really had wanted to go to the Netherlands. Sleep didn't come easy on the night flight but knowing that we'd have a whole day ahead of us in Amsterdam, I did catch some shut eye. It was still dark when we landed and we both had the sinking feeling that the warm weather we'd been experiencing would not be found here. Sure enough the captain announced the ''fine'' weather of 12C. Burrr! Walking up the jet way I pulled my jacket closer and breathed the chilly air. My body yearned for all the delightful scarfs, hoodies, hats and gloves that were passing me by. But even the cold weather didn't totally dampen my spirits. We got on the bus that would take us to our hostel.
From the directions we would hop off at the last stop, cross the street and voila! see our hostel. Unfortunately, this didn't happen and we spent some time walking up and down the streets trying to find our way. Since it was still early morn few people were out and about. The cobblestones sang loudly as we drug our luggage past the quiet buildings. We finally saw a mother and son walking and asked them if Bloomstrat was ahead. Yes! We were headed in the right direction and coming around the corner I saw the sign, "Shelter Jordan". My numb fingers grabbed the door and we entered a small hallway. After checking in we bundled up as much as we could and headed out for some sight seeing.
I couldn't figure out why my viewfinder looked funny while taking a picture of Sarah's coffee. That's when I realized [duhhh] that I was leaning over my cup of tea. The steam was fogging up my lens.
The little cafe also offered free internet to its customers. I quickly shot emails to both my parents and Fiona to confirm our safe landing in AMS. We went thru some tourist maps and finally picked seeing the tulip museum [which also happened to be right across the street] and a vintage store that was on the same street. I saw this adorable postcard at the museum and snapped a photo. After that we headed down the street to find a vintage store that Sarah had found on the internet.
Of course there were many things to catch our eyes during the long walk. However it wasn't till much later that we realized that we didn't know if the store was more south or north of the cafe. The wind started to pick up and we could feel the first drops of rain on our faces. Giving up on finding the store we started to walk back up the street. It was amazing how a beautiful sunny day could so quickly turn dark and cold. A storm had definitely settled in and we didn't know for how long.
Taking the hints from other travelers we ducked under the awning of a store to wait out the rain. The big drops had no intention of leaving and the freezing wind cut thru my thin jacket. After standing there for a bit I was dreaming of all the warm winter clothes that were packed away in my moms attic...oh, if only we had had room in our luggage for them. The rain slightly let up and we headed out. Making stops every now and then when the rain got heavy, we got back up to the starting point. That's when we realized that the vintage store was up from the cafe not down. Just a short 2 blocks away! Our wet clothes dried out a bit in the warmth of the store. We talked with the friendly storekeeper about things to do in our short time in AMS. She gave us some ideas and also told us about a Saturday market just across the street.
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| 1928 Summer Olympics Building |
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| Walking down Bloomstrat |
We walked down the street and crossed one of the many bridges. We saw a little cafe right next to the Anne Frank House and decided to start off the day correctly. After ordering some pastries and warm drinks we settled down to figure out the day.
I couldn't figure out why my viewfinder looked funny while taking a picture of Sarah's coffee. That's when I realized [duhhh] that I was leaning over my cup of tea. The steam was fogging up my lens.
The little cafe also offered free internet to its customers. I quickly shot emails to both my parents and Fiona to confirm our safe landing in AMS. We went thru some tourist maps and finally picked seeing the tulip museum [which also happened to be right across the street] and a vintage store that was on the same street. I saw this adorable postcard at the museum and snapped a photo. After that we headed down the street to find a vintage store that Sarah had found on the internet.
Taking the hints from other travelers we ducked under the awning of a store to wait out the rain. The big drops had no intention of leaving and the freezing wind cut thru my thin jacket. After standing there for a bit I was dreaming of all the warm winter clothes that were packed away in my moms attic...oh, if only we had had room in our luggage for them. The rain slightly let up and we headed out. Making stops every now and then when the rain got heavy, we got back up to the starting point. That's when we realized that the vintage store was up from the cafe not down. Just a short 2 blocks away! Our wet clothes dried out a bit in the warmth of the store. We talked with the friendly storekeeper about things to do in our short time in AMS. She gave us some ideas and also told us about a Saturday market just across the street.
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