Amsterdam

Amsterdam was my favorite. I absolutely loved the feel of the city. The people were so nice and everyone spoke English perfectly. Amsterdam is a city that is actually situated 13 feet below sea level. It's known as the northern Venice...but it's not sinking. It is a city built using sand and water. The Dutch have perfected the techniques on keeping back water from puttng their country under the sea. Actually, during the Hurricane Katrina, the Dutch were the first to be called by the USA to help rebuild the levies.

However, if you ever see a house somewhat tilting to the side it's because underneath air entered into the sand and it's starting to rot. The canal system is truly amazing. I'm not a person who easily gets lost but this city can do it to ya. Every street basically looks the same because of the canals. You have to really pay attention to the street names which are super easy to pronounce by the way...try this one, "Keizersgracht".

Here's some of my favorite pics from the trip.

This shows how the buildings are built basically on the water.
Gene and Stef. I stayed with these two while in Amsterdam. I had so much hanging out with them. Really staying with them made my time there. Stef is the daughter of Patti Jacobson, who is my mothers best friend from high school (cute). Thanks Gene and Stef for having me.

OK, funny story. So this bike is Gene's bike that he loaned me and was basically my main form of transportation. If you didn't know, there are actually more bikes than there are people in Amsterdam, crazy. ANYWHO, before I jumped on his bike he gave me the low down on everything I should know. He informed me not to worry about the oncoming or passing cars because althought they seem like they might hit you, they won't. OK, that made me feel better. So, about 5 minutes into my ride I start to feel a little confident and turn on to one of the main roads. 2 seconds later the girl in front of me gets picked off by a car. AWESOME. She wasn't really hurt but she definitely took a fall and called the ambulance. Gene later informed me that in all his 2 years of living there he had never seen a biker go down....lucky first 5 minutes I had then, eh?