Anna and I landed in Amsterdam around noon on Friday to find that the airport was huge. We were planning on picking up the car, grabbing a quick lunch in Amsterdam, then getting back to the airport to pick up Kennedy. However, it took us so long to walk out to the car that we figured by the time we drove into the city and found a place to eat, it would be approaching the time of Kennedy's arrival, so we opted to leave our bags in the car but not take it yet so we wouldn't have to pay for parking, then hang out in the airport for another hour and a half. We found a good little café, wandered through a few of the numerous shops, and made our way up the the airport's "Panoramic Terrace" (we were underwhelmed by the latter). Overall not a horrible place to kill a little time.
Once we picked up Ken we headed on in to Amsterdam, figuring we could see a few sights, maybe get to a museum, and eat dinner before going down to The Hague for the night. We got into Amsterdam without a hitch, but even I was slightly rattled once we started driving through the city because there were bikers everywhere. Of course I'm a huge advocate of biking and bike-friendly roads, but this was almost overwhelming. They came up one-way roads straight towards us (and these weren't wide roads to begin with) and would literally push off the car if they got too close. Pedestrians weren't much better. I was glad that I'm used to driving in Vienna and had a pretty good idea of what traffic signs to look for so that I could concentrate on not hitting anyone. Then there was parking, which was pretty much nonexistent (we probably should have known better than to go directly into the middle of the city), but we eventually found a parking garage and the attendant there was friendly and jovial and gave us a map and umbrellas and sent us on our way.
We set off wandering up Damrak past the Koninklijk Paleis towards the train station just to get a feel for the city.
Carnival in front of the Koninklijk Paleis
Wandering up Damrak
The first thing we passed was a mini amusement park right in front of the Koninklijk Paleis. I'm not completely sure if that's a relatively permanent carnival or if it was just there for Queen's Day, but people were certainly enjoying it. It was pretty overcast and spitting rain, but we kept going for a little while before circling back around to the Westerkerk near where we started.
Westerkerk
We were close to the Anne Frank Huis at that point. It was a place we all wanted to see and we weren't sure just how wild things would be once the Queen's Day festivities started, so we decided to go ahead and go, even if it would start our trip out on a rather sobering note. It was just as heavy as we expected it to be, but the house-turned-museum was very well done and informative. Walking through the hidden rooms in the annex that I had read about in grade school and seeing the magazine clippings Anne Frank had hung on the walls of her room to make it less gloomy was all so surreal.
Houses across the canal from the Anne Frank Huis
After we stepped back into the sunlight and recollected ourselves we went in search of somewhere to grab dinner. Anna and I had at least had a bite in the airport while waiting for Ken, but we'd only each had a Belgian waffle since then and were all hungry. After wandering aimlessly for a while, we came across Spanjer & van Twist, a promising-looking little place. The outdoor patio looked really pleasant, but it was a little chilly so we went inside.
We split a bottle of wine, an appetizer, and a few main dishes between the three of us and all enjoyed everything we were served.
By the time we finished we figured we ought to head out since we still had a forty minute drive ahead of us to The Hague (Den Haag), where we were staying for the weekend. After one quick lap through some of the areas we'd wandered earlier that day, we made it back to the car and hit the road. We arrived without much delay, got settled into our room, and fell asleep relatively quickly. A low-key night for sure, but we felt it was a good way to kick off the weekend.
Also, here are a few more pictures from around Amsterdam:
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