Amsterdam photos 2

Monday morning. Coffee and toast. Finally, a really good night's sleep.

I didn't mention - the first two nights in our hotel, we were attacked by mosquitoes. The hotel was right next to a canal (not a difficult placement in this Venice of the north), which means...breeding ground. Emily and I woke up looking like characters out of Star trek. Woke up is the wrong word. Got up. We compared our "Borgness" and because I was the one with the eye swollen shut, I decided I was in better costume.

Joking aside, the third night we finally had some bug spray, which helped a lot. Over the weekend, I must have murdered at least 9 mosquitoes in the bathroom hanging out on the shower curtain.

Anyway, some more images of the city here. Dorothee mentioned to me that she's never been to Amsterdam and wants to go and visit all the museums there (hey - birthday coming up! :-) ) but for me, I was just interested in wandering around and looking at the beautiful houses and not always so beautiful tourists. Also, except for Sunday morning, which I had to myself cause Em flew out in the early morning, we didn't really have time for museums. But, it's a city I'd go back and visit, and then I'd make it to a few more of the other attractions.

Meanwhile, Saturday was spent grabbing the last few photos Emily needed, going to yoga, as mentioned, watching a bit of the gay pride parade which filled the city with lots of revelers, having a nice dinner at a restaurant near our hotel, etc. Sunday morning I slept in, and then headed over to an antique market. I accidentally wandered through one block of the red light district on the way and scurried through, a little embarrassed. I went to a design cooperative (picture of the carved wooden frogs from that place - a statement about how 3rd world countries like Indonesia, are often used for low-cost labor. In the case of the carved table, only a country with skilled artisans are even able to make such a table - it was gorgeous) to look at some modern dutch design. At around 1, I slowly made my way to the airport and then flew home.

It was a lovely weekend and so nice to see and hang out with Em. She even let me touch her iphone. :-)