Kenya Trip

Day 3 in Amsterdam

HAPPY CANADA DAY! Hope you had a great day of celebration in Canada!

As for us… today was much more laid back.  Our I Amsterdam cards had expired and so we took a break and decided to operate at a much slower pace today…

First we went on our hunt for clothes for Kenya, and after about 2 hours of searching finally found some dry-fit shirts (for the intense heat there) and some other shirts to ensure I have enough.  Then I found my new prize position, an authentic Dutch World Cup jersey to be worn (and likely spilled on by rowdy football fans) tomorrow evening when the Dutch take on Brazil!

We then rewarded ourselves with tea in Dam Square to be followed by lunch of a traditional Dutch meal… Eggs Benedict… Wow! I was not disappointed!  They made the best Eggs Benney I’ve ever had.  And to top it all off, it was at a restaurant inside of a renovated castle in the heart of the red light district! (unfortunately I didn’t take a picture… oops!)

After that we headed out to find a windmill.  We went, we found, we took pictures (which you can now see 🙂 )

We then travelled to a lookout over the city at the top of NEMO (the Science Centre here… similar to Science World in Vancouver I think) to get a bird’s eye view (or close) of the city.

Next on the list was becoming an “Expert Cheese Taster” yes I actually have a certificate (look at the picture)! We went and tasted the cheeses of a local Cheese maker.  It’s too bad I can’t bring any home as 2 of the goat’s cheeses were amazing!

Till Tomorrow, good day!

Well it was the last day of the city passes we bought yesterday so we had to get the most use out of our purchase.

We started the day at the Church of Our Lord in the Attic which is a Catholic

Fireplace from the church

church created about 350 years ago when Catholicism was banned in Holland.  It’s a 17^th century town house that has been altered to create a massive chapel that truly is bigger that you’d ever imagine and you would never know it from the street as it still looks like a townhouse from the outside.  Although it is under renovation for the next few years it was still amazing to see.

We then travelled to one of the oldest Botanical Gardens in the world, created in 1638 and contains over 4000 plant species and has greenhouses with 6 different climates. I have put a few pictures here to show you, but I think I took over 100 here (insert joke)!  As

Butterfly from the Gardens

a side note here, we did see the biggest pigeon ever (in our minds anyways)… it actually looked as though it had eaten another pigeon all together… HUGE!

We then travelled through the Foam museum of photography.  They had 3 very well known photographers

Flower from the gardens

presenting their best pieces here with most of the shots coming from a few very prestigious magazines.  There were some very interesting shots.

After that we did some shopping as I realized this morning that a few pieces of clothing that I was supposed to bring along for Kenya are still

Flowers from the gardens

in my dryer at home… (yet another blonde moment) so I’ll need to replace those before I go.

Tomorrow I think we are going to get on a few bikes and travel into the countryside to go windmill spotting.

Until then!

Lily from the gardens