Vamos a Ámsterdam!

This morning started off well..We got up at 7:30 am and got out the door by 8:15 to get to our 9 am bus to Amsterdam. We were expecting quite the trek to get to the Brussels Noord Station but instead as we stepped outside there was a bus heading towards us that said "Noord". I pointed at it asking Sandra if she thought we could take it to the station and the bus driver stopped, opened his window and asked if we were heading to Noordstation. We said yes and he waited for us to get on the bus. When we were on he gave us the nod at our stop and then pointed us in the direction of our bus lines headquaters. SO NICE!!!

On the bus now, have been for almost 2 hours. They are not quite as prompt as they are in the UK but significantly more so than they are in Spain. I actually feel my punctuality (already limited) decreasing in Spain. Anyways, let me tell you about the man in front of me. He is wearing HEAD TO TOE camo. Not ABU's or ACU's or BDU's all of which you can still find on a real soldier, like the old school stuff that you can only get at the Salvation Army. He also has on a camo hat that has an American flag and an eagle embroidered on it. With combat boots. Speaking perfect French with a French accent. How could this possible get any better you might ask? He is wearing an over the shoulder Gucci man purse. If it wasn't so obvious I would have taken a photo.

We made a pit stop at the halfway point earlier. They had a vending machne with Douwe Egberts coffee, my favorite!! And, the MOST expensive J. Biebs CD ever! It was 18.95 euro. That's $26! 

I knew as soon as I said things were going well I would jinx it. The bus just had to stop for half an hour to be inspected. Love life's sarcasm. 


We have now arrived in Amsterdam. I love it even more than Brussels! We were trying to find our way and the lovely Dutch girl on a bike (SO MANY BIKES) stopped and missed her crossing light in order to give us directions. Then we got most of the way there and stopped and asked this other guy who happened to be Italian if he knew how to get to the hotel and he stopped and pulled out his iPhone and google mapped directions for us! We got to our hotel okay! Yes, Hotel! Yes, it was Amazing!! We both took long hot showers there before heading out. This is how I was meant to travel. In hotels. Not hostels. thank you soooo much mom!! :) 

In front of our hotel

inside the hotel

We got re-dressed and went to the Anne Frank house. It was so incredible. I can't believe that they really lived there. In Anne's room there were tons of photo's or news clipping glued to the walls like of Ginger Rogers and Greta Garbo. It was all very moving.


While we stood in line for the museum we were right behind the same couple that had been on the bus with us from Brussels so we started talking to them and they definitely have the life I want! They were probably late 20's, married, obviously well-off as she had Longchamp luggage and a purse and was wearing the pair of Hunter rain boots that I want from Nordstrom, and she said that they travel all the time. She will just find a deal online for tickets and then they just go. Like she booked their round trip tickets from NJ to Brussels for $280 each two weeks ago and they packed up and came. She was so sweet too! We were saying that we needed to go to an ATM because Sandra didn't have any cash and she offered to cover our entrance! How nice! We ended up being okay without it but still! 


From there we were starving so we stopped and ate some food and then walked around all the shopping centers but by now it was after 6 so they were mostly closed. We ended up going on a canal boat tour which was okay but I was really motion sick so it could've been better. Also, it rained all day! But not just rained, it was that cross between snow and rain where it's just slushy rain. So cold! 


After our canal tour we decided we wanted to eat in the hotel and watch TV, something we haven't done in so long! So we called it a night!