The Netherlands

Nathan came home one day and mentioned he had seen a vacation package online to The Netherlands, which mainly featured a trip to see the tulips that bloom there in April/May. We weren't planning to travel anywhere before going to Portugal in June, but Nathan had a few comp days, I had made quite a bit of extra money subbing, and we both had wanted to see the tulips even though it wasn't at the top of our travel list. So we decided to go for it! We were all for buying the package until we figured we could probably get a nice hotel on our own and do the whole trip ourselves for cheaper. So we did. And it was wonderful! Nathan took off the Friday and Monday right after a TDY to Graf, so we had a good long weekend to make the drive. The tulip fields are about 30 minutes outside of Amsterdam, so we stayed between them and Amsterdam in a nice hotel in really cute town. I wish we would have remembered to take a picture of the neighborhood across the street from our hotel. All of the houses had little canals in front of them and many had boats tied up in front. We had a great time at Keukenhof (the tulip fields) even though we missed the actual fields being in bloom. We also rented bikes for 3 hours and rode around the whole city, which was so fun and really easy since Amsterdam has bike lanes next to every car lane. We took a canal cruise, saw the Anne Frank House, and went to the Ice Bar. The Anne Frank House was little bit of a let down because they had altered so much of it to turn it into a museum. Plus Anne's dad didn't want to replace anything in the house after the Nazis confiscated everything. It made it really had to imagine it actually being the place where they lived. And the Ice Bar. Oh man. Do not go. It was totally lame. The most disappointing thing we have done by far on any of our travels. But we were surprised at how much we loved the city! Sometimes spontaneous trips are the best.

flower shop near our hotel

windmill in the town where we stayed

these tulips were enormous!

we learned that tulips are originally from the hindu kush area. who knew?!

they were the sultan's choice flower

there are bikes chained up all along the streets

we ate dinner at the hard rock cafe - my first time!

the Anne Frank House

many of the houses along the canals are leaning