#Icesterlin Day 8

May 30th

Today is our last full day in Amsterdam and we had a jam packed day. We were up and hour early. We had the first time slot to visit the Anne Frank Haus and we didn't want to be late. We grabbed a quick pastry for breakfast on along our walk at Dialoog.

We made it to the Anne Frank Haus a few minutes before they started letting people it. There are truly not enough words to express what that experience was like. They did not allow photography in the house so everyone needs to book a trip to Amsterdam for no other reason to come here. It is a powerful, humbling, heavy, sad, and uplifting experience. One that I will no doubt carry with me for a long time.

It is amazing the thoughts and insight of a 15 year old. With so many fantastic quotes, we leaved with these few before heading out.

"I keep my ideals, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart." 
"My life here has gotten better, much better. God has not forsaken me, and He never will."

If you can't take a trip to Amsterdam to experience this, at least read her book. Such an inspirational person.

We left with a very heavy feeling and spent the next hour or so walked through street markets and talking about all we had just experienced. Amsterdam has great street markets and they are everywhere. It was another great way to experience the city.

It wasn't long before we end up outside Westerkurk. We got tickets to head to the top to get the view of the city. Because of the age of the church and how narrow the steps to the top are, they only allow one small group up at a time so it made for a really neat experience to be 4 of the 6 people in the party to the top.

The view from the top was everything we hoped for. It was great. This city was so pretty to see from above and watch as all the road and canal wove in and out.

It had been a busy morning and it was time to finally try some local cuisine at Frens Haringhandel. The thing to eat was a ate herring sandwich. We were all in, as long as we got one sandwich and all shared it.

Once we walked up, you could smell the fish, and once I saw that slimy little booger, I chickened out. I applaud Jed, Eric and Audrey, they all tried it. I just couldn't. Their opinion, one bite was enough and I think they are all glad they did it, but no one went back for a second sandwich, or a second bite of the original sandwich.

We immediately headed to our next attempt at local food at Vleminckx. They were Flemish fries and they were way more my speed. These were great and a great way for others to get that fish taste to go away.

After snacks, we all split up so we could cross of a things that were on our To Do Lists before we had to leave in the morning. Jed and I headed to the Museum Ons' Lieve Heer Op Solder (Our Lord in the Attic). It was prohibited to have mass in Amsterdam during a part of the 1600's and this was a church that was hidden/turned a blind eye to that has been reserved.

It was a very impressive building and you would never know from the outside of the building.

Jed & I quickly finished out time at Ons' Lieve Heer Op Solder and headed over to Reypenaer to meet up with Eric & Audrey for our Cheese Tasting class.

We are all Expert Cheese Tasters and are super proud of our accomplishment.

Before we left, we felt like we needed another chance at a windmill so we headed out to Molen De Gooyer. This windmill was a little closer to what we had hoped to find but I think I will need to plan another trip to Amsterdam when we can make it to the Tulip Festivals and see a large windmill with tulips everywhere.

Our next stop was at the Royal Palace but we didn't plan out the timing very well and were unable to make it inside so we enjoyed the architecture and headed to drowned our disappointment with a quick drink from another place out boat tour guide, Alec suggested, Wynand Fockink.

This place was great! The entire experience, you see, you don't just walk up to the bar, order a drink and find a table to hang out at here. This drink is an experience, after you pick from dozens of flavors of a whiskey type drink, they pour you a shot of it to the top, top of the shot glass. It is so full that you don't pick it up, you have to put your hands behind your back and slurp the drink until you have emptied it enough to pick it up. It is so fun. The atmosphere, the personality, the local follow crowds, it was just great.

For a while we sipped on our first drinks like you were supposed to before we went back to try other flavors.

After our time with all of our new best friends, we headed to dinner at Jasmine Thai Cuisine restaurant. It is amazing how much good international fare was all over the city. We loved the throw back to Thai food (again) as another reminder of our trip together last year.

When we were done with dinner, we decided we had to go back to Wynand Fockink for one more drink experience and for us to grab a bottle for us to bring back to the states for others to experience it the best way we could show them.

One of the two bartenders

The other bartender

It was starting to get late and we were leaving again, silly early in the morning. Since we had had a few hiccups with the Amsterdam transportation system, we decided to swing by Centraal Station to make sure we had everything figured out to get our tickets to airport and to know where to get the train. Since we were getting on the train 4:30 am, we figured not many people would be around to help in the morning.

As we were leaving the train station feeling pretty good about what we needed to do in the morning a HUGE thunderstorm hit, just sheets of rain. We tried to wait it out for a while but in the end, we made a very unsuccessful mad dash back to our house and ended up soaked!

It was a fun way to end our last day in an amazing city.