Are you getting somewhere?

Or did you get lost in Amsterdam?

I didn't.

Yesterday was a good day!  After we got all settled, Rosalie and I went out to get some dinner and found this cool cafe in an area called De Pijp (peep).  They had a nice mashed potato and beef and vegetable stew that I had.  And tried a beer from the local Brouwerij 't IJ.  Then went back to the Hostel for the evening.
Also, something that I didn't realize about the city...Bicycles are EVERYWHERE.  Amsterdam is probably the most bike friendly city I have ever been to.  They have traffic lights for the bike lanes and everything.

Today was a full day.

Starting out at 7:45AM we had breakfast and then headed out.

The first stop was the Van Gogh Museum.  The outside of the building was unimpressive so I didn't get a picture of that (Maybe tomorrow) but on the inside, you got to see some of the great works of the wonderful artist Harry Van Gogh.  Haha...Just kidding, Vincent Van Gogh.  Throughout the museum, there are little informational tidbits about his life and the work that he has done.  Things such as:
- In 1880, Van Gogh decided he was going to be an artist.  He had not studied any art at this point.
- He died in 1890, meaning that all of the art that he did was learned and became such a art world changer in only 10 years.  (So, dont let anyone tell you that you are too old to start something new!)
- He voluntarily checked himself into a mental hospital at one point in his life.  He still did excellent drawings while in the hospital.
- He shot himself in the stomach in a field and died days later.
It was awesome to see most of his famous works.  The only ones we didn't see were Sunflowers which is in the National Gallery in London and Starry Night which is in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
I also found that he liked drawing self portraits.  I think there were at least 7 of them in this museum.

After that we walked around the city for most of the afternoon.  We walked around a park called the Vondelpark which was huge and there were beautiful dogs running all around.  I saw a group of people playing soccer there and at one point they kicked the ball in my direction so I rainbow kicked up to myself and bicycle kicked it back to them (in my head).

We walked from the park to a place called Leidesplein.  There were a bunch of food shops around there.  We eventually got to a place called the Bloemenmarkt.  This is where there are a whole bunch of shops that sell flowers and other souvenirs.  It was a really nice place.
Then we walked a big loop around the city, passing a school that was just letting out.  (Dutch children riding their bicycles are very cute).  We also passed the Universitat Van Amsterdam... that is a UVA that I don't have any ill feelings toward.

We went back to the hostel and I met three of the other people in here.  Two of them, Doug and Emory, are from Austin, Texas.  The third was Patricia from Chile.  They were very nice and it was fun just to talk about what's going on with other people.

We left for dinner and it was pouring down rain.  My jacket got soaked, but it dries off nicely (Dear North Face, thank you!)  .We went to a sports bar and had dutch pancakes.  They were huge (like bigger than the plate they came on) and good.  They were kind of like crepes, but a little thicker.

After that it was back to the hostel to dry off.

This is the Rijksmuseum.  This is a National Museum which was just refurbished for 320 million Euro.

This is the Concertgebouw.  A concert hall.

Row houses along one of the canals in Amsterdam.