Discovering Amsterdam with Kids

Good morning everyone.  I wrote this while hanging on the deck of the boat in the boat house, quite the cute little space.  The family who lived here really had a good thing figured out. We are in a residential block just off the Amstel Canal. The city is getting busy with it's morning all around me. Workmen are coming and going with tools and women are biking by with packages and bags.

A lovely couple just biked by. The man was wearing a full beautiful slicker like you would see on a cow boy in the old west, yet European.  There are more electric bikes here then I remember.  Also electric car charging stations are seen about. Across the Gracht, or canal, is a boat with just the most beautiful garden going on.  Wow!  Its Right up there with my gardening heart.

The first full day in Amsterdam we got up and had a lovely breakfast at a place called Bagel and Beans.  Salmon on Bagel for Joel and I, while Jordan went with the yogurt super food vegetarian thing.  We took off from there determined to use our passes on all cool things in our area. First we hit the Zoo which is a very historic zoo and had a nice line up of enclosures.  The butterfly house was out of this world.  Joel loved it and did the "Look Mom..." after every turn.

From there we went to Microbia, which was totally cool.  There are microscopes and interactive exhibits all over the place.  The kids went from thing to thing saying "eeeewwww". They dug the microscopes.  There was even a place with all different types of rotting matter you could smell.

Then we went on to head to NEMO, which is a huge interactive science museum.  The kids loved it.  They went from floor to floor playing with each interactive station over and over again.  I found a place to sit on each floor and chilled out.  By this point my knee was not as happy as I would have liked.  I kept switching between the brace and a tensor bandage while sitting at each floor. The boys where having fun and I got to sit.  Jordan especially liked the floor on hormones.  The boys were both shocked at how open the exhibit was about sexuality.  You have got to love Europe with it's openness and level-headed approach to sex and nudity. Not a bad thing in my book.  Then we went to the navel museum but found out it closed in 15 minutes so decided to punt that till tomorrow.

So we walked to Central Station and got a canal ride around the city.  The boys had ice cream cookies and a view and audio tour. Joel loves boats so this was so great for him.  For me I could elevate my knee on the bench seat and enjoy.   It was nice to hear about the structure and stories of how the city grew to be it's current great self.

We had just enough time to walk over to Ann Franks House for our tour.   This is when one of my favorite things happened of the day.  We were going through the square called the Dam or Damark and over in square was a man feeding the birds.  Joel loves animals and birds are no different. The man gave each boy some food and the birds jumped on them and ate and ate.  They loved it.  It was like the scene in Mary Poppins with feed the birds playing in the background.  The ancient buildings around them and the pure joy of feeding birds was just so magnificent.

After the nice interlude we walked for Anne Franks House.  It was time for some serious reflection.  We did the lecture and then the tour.  It was somber and moving.  I was watching the boys have their first real first hand view into the Holocaust.  Jordan was very moved and read every word of the info.  He had read the diary several times and was well up on the story and particulars. He was quite and somber.  Jordan is often not quite or somber.   Joel was tired and not very patient after a long day.  /It was also very moving for his little mind and a little hard to digest.  We left there tired and ready for dinner and some down time.  It was about 8:30.  We had left the boat at around 10:00 so we were ready for a break.

We took the tram the wrong way for two stops, figured it out and got off and switched sides of the track.  Amsterdam is a big horseshoe so it is really easy to get turned around.  We then took the tram near our place and went in search of dinner.  We found a cute little hamburger joint that also had sushi.  Amazing mix.  Everyone was happy and everyone had exactly what they wanted at a decent price.   We stumbled home and everyone just dived into their own corners.

The second day of touring in Amsterdam we started the day with a trip through the flee market at Waterloopen and then had a lovely breakfast of Ice Cream and waffles.  Yes, I am quite a Mom.  We then went to the Hermitage Museum that has two exhibits.  The first was on Queen Catherine of Russia and then the second was the dutch masters paintings that are usually in the Rijksmuseum but where there on special display.  The museum had audio devices you could click at different stations all over the place.  We learned a lot about the dutch history and all sorts of stuff.  Joel got board about an hour in but did really well all considering.

We then went to botanical garden which was really nice.   It started to rain really hard and we had to hide out in tropical building for an hour or so.  The boys had fun playing around and I sat under a tree on a bench enjoying the nature.  The sky cleared up and we went shopping on the way back to the barge.  Each boy got little things and then we chilled out for the evening eating left-overs and packing for our early departure the next morning.

Jordan had a very interesting ah-ha moment.  Before this trip I had told him and told him that Europeans are more reserved and he would have to behave and not eat like a pig etc.   He did not really believe me until this event happened.  He was having his second Nutella Ice Cream Waffle of the day and he looked around and realized he was the only person with it all over his face, hands, shirt etc.   A dutch family was looking at him with a look that said "See they are uncouth pigs."  He looked at me and I could tell he was having a moment.  After that he started trying to correct Joel's behavior on little things and saying things like "You just can't act that way here... it is embarrassing."  I should have gotten it on video to blackmail him with when he is older.

Anyway our stay in Amsterdam was fantastic.  The city was everything I remember and then some. I did not know this would be such a great place for kids.  We did so much and they had a great time.   I frankly had only been to one of the museums before and I learned a bunch.  I would highly recommend this as a great family stop. Of course Amsterdam can be a very adult place, but it can also be a great family place too.  So long for now Amsterdam, but never goodbye.