Wow! Just packing up to leave Amsterdam and getting ready to head back to the airport where we're going to pick up the car we leased. The fellow who leases the cars told us we really didn't want to try to drive in Amsterdam and now that we've been here for 4 days I can see why! All I can say is "what were we thinking?" I'm a bit nervous about picking up the car and starting to drive in Europe, but here goes. Everyone else seems to manage, so hopefully we'll be ok too. Ralph's uncle is going to meet us in Leiden and we'll follow him into The Hague to their house. So, wish us luck. We're looking forward to seeing open countryside, windmills and the beaches. Amsterdam is amazing, but for our little hick brains it's all overwhelming. The city doesn't sleep. There is never a time in the night or day when it's quiet...ever! We were right in the centre of the city, which was very cool because we were able to just sit and people watch. Aidan and I would open our apt window wide, lean out and just watch the street action below. There was never a dull moment.
Probably the highlight of Amsterdam for me was seeing Anne Frank's house. I was so moved when reading her diary when I was younger that to see where she actually lived and wrote and to try to imagine what it must've been like was very emotional. I'm looking foward to seeing even more history as we move along. We've all enjoyed learning more about the artists Van Gogh and Rembrandt. We went to Rembrandt's house and saw his studio where he painted his masterpieces and learned about his etchings. Fascinating. We saw how they made paint back in the day and took the "recipe" with us. Might be a project for Ralph and his students next year. Ralph is feeling very inspired here and we've only just begun!
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