AMSTERDAM!

We've been in Amsterdam for two days and it has been wonderful so far. Yesterday, Jay and I took a train here and we immediately noticed the pleasant, laid back vibe that the city exuded. This is probably due to the abundance of "coffee shops" that litter the town but the people are really friendly and the city is beautiful. The Dutch also LOVE their bikes. I have never seen so many bikes in my life. Honestly, you are more likely to get run over by a stoned biker than you are a car. When we got into town, we wandered around and grabbed lunch at a place called Pancakes!. They served these traditional Dutch pancakes. Jay got a ginger one and I got a spinach and mushroom one with huge dollops of goat cheese melting and oozing all over the top. YUM. We wandered around some more (Amsterdam seems perfect for doing this) and found a bar to drink at where we were joined by a hobo(complete with unzipped pants and loud/incessant muttering to himself).
Today, we got an early start and headed to Rijksmuseum which had great, entertaining descriptions of the paintings and artifacts. Rembrandt's famous Night Watch was on display and we saw some other really interesting paintings. We grabbed lunch from this huge open air market and headed over to Vondelpark to chill with all the locals and eat our lunch. The park was beautiful and the weather has been perfect. Later on we went to see the Ann Frank House which was haunting but very informative. I learned a lot of things about her and the family's hiding situation that I previously hadn't known. We wandered some more, grabbed dinner, and are planning our trip to the Dutch countryside tomorrow! Hope to update again soon and Jay and I send our love!

P.S. I stayed in the Red Light District for about 2 minutes before getting the hell out of there. Jay will probably return later tonight while I'm sleeping. I thought I saw him slip out of bed yesterday and he was suspiciously tired this morning...hmmm sneaky little bastard.

*Jay*
Not much to add (again) since Becca did such a thorough job but I'll just reiterate how much we've enjoyed Amsterdam. The weather has been warm and sunny for the first time since we got to Europe, which is a huge plus, and the city is amazing. It's vibrant without being hectic and historic without the pretension of Paris. Very cool place...and I'm not even high. The Rijksmuseum was better than I thought it would be, probably due to the English descriptions next to each work. Unlike the French, the Dutch aren't too up their own asses to post something in a language that more than 20% of visitors will understand, making the experience far more enjoyable. The Anne Frank House was also very interesting, though a bit of a downer. The Holocaust tends to do that...anyway, we can't wait to head off into the Dutch countryside and continue enjoying the great weather and wonderful hospitality.