Hiking, Geocaching, and Amsterdam

Jeremy had a three day weekend, so we decided to take advantage of it and go explore the great city of Amsterdam! Aw, the joys of staying with someone who is living in Europe...

Our first flight together...first of many!

Our first flight together wasn't without its difficulties. Got to experience some of the joys of flying in Naples, Italy with an itialian company. Our flight was scheduled to depart at 6:50, so it was an early morning. They had us sitting on the plane for an hour when they come on the intercom and state they are having computer issues and unfortunately the flight was being cancelled and we needed to get off. That's pretty much all they told us. We had to get off the plane, take the bus back to the airport building, then figure out ourselves where to go to get on another flight. Well, this proved to be difficult and annoying with these Italians. It was as if this sort of thing never happens because it took FOREVER to get on a new flight, which ended up being not until three hours later than we were supposed to leave. So annoying. What we got for compensation? A coupon for breakfast, and in Italy, that means a pastry and coffee, so about three euros worth, woohoo. Once we finally got out on that flight, we made it to Amsterdam just fine.

Enjoying my Italian cappucino! One of my favorite things about Italy...

Once arrived in Amsterdam, we then had to battle and figure out the public transportation. This proved to be a little confusing sometimes as well. We discovered that you don't just take the train to where you need to go, but you take the train, then metro, then possibly tram and bus. And its not just one ticket that works for all these, no, you have to have a different ticket for the train, metro and tram, and then the bus. So we had a train ticket from the airport, then because we didn't get the metro ticket we were stuck in the metro station and couldn't get out. We got in with the train ticket, but couldn't get out unless we had the metro ticket. It was a very interesting process. By the time we feel like we understood the process we were leaving!

We made it to our hotel finally and then set out to explore some of Amsterdam. There was a geocache really close to the hotel that we found first. Jeremy found it without even using the gps! I think he's hooked...! Then we went into the museum district in Amsterdam. We were going to go the Heineken Brewery, but decided it was a little too expensive, and not worth it. So we just looked at it from the outside! We did go to the Van Gogh museum. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed. They didn't even have the classic Van Gogh painting there. Even if they want the original painting to be in Paris, you would think they would at least have a copy in the Van Gogh museum. It was five levels of painting, and only one level was Van Gogh's painting. The rest were artists' that he was inspired by or whom he inspired.

It was really nice walking through this area though. Saw a few cool buildings and ate at a nice dinner. I got tomato soup! It was delicious. And Jeremy got to taste their burgers and fries.

In front of Amsterdam Central Station

Indoor ski resorts are quite popular in Europe. I don't know how many there are, but I know they are throughout Europe. Jeremy had discovered that there was one near Amsterdam, so we went there so I could teach him how to snowboard. It was very interesting. They charge by the hour so you have to swipe in to start your time and pay more if you go over your time. There wasn't even a chairlift, just the poles that you grab onto and pull you up, which are difficult to do for someone that has never snowboarded before. It had two runs, but one run didn't really count cause it was just a really tiny little bunny slope for kids. The other run was longer, but still not too long and not too steep. Definately not the type of place you want to go to if your more advanced, can get boring really quick. Surprisingly there were quite a few people there that were pretty good. It was a good place to go to introduce Jeremy to snowboarding. Can't wait to take him in Colorado! Or if we got to go in Austria or Switzerland that would be awesome! But he did pretty good, giving he only got four hours to try. It will be good when we get to go on a bigger run and all day.

Geocaching in Amsterdam!


Heading to teach Jeremy to snowboard!

Walking the streets of Amsterdam. They had some pretty Christmas lights up. Not sure if it was for the season or if they are up year round. Notice the chess pieces in the background?

That night after snowboarding, there were some geocaches in the more central part of Amsterdam I wanted to find. This was awesome and so much fun because it led us to walk along streets that we probably would not have on our own. It was a great way to explore some of the streets of Amsterdam! And I really enjoyed it. I like Amsterdam. I you stay away from the red light district it is a really cool city. Bikes everywhere, lots of people out walking and biking. It was curious because we walked along many residential streets and we were able to look into many people's living rooms, kitchens, dining rooms, etc. They just had their windows wide open to where people could see in. It was cute to see families sitting down for dinner, people cleaning dishes in the kitchen, men reading their books. We felt like we were invading people's privacy, but they were the ones that had their curtains open. It was strange, but very cool to see inside people's homes. One we saw was an old lady on her death bed at home with her caretaker standing over her. Very weird, it was right on the corner of a somewhat busy intersection.

I was getting very hungry and we wanted to try some local food so we finally found a little pub that looked to have some good Dutch food. It turned out to be an excellent meal with some local flavor and entertainment! Jeremy got this really good french onion soup and chicken with the best local sauce on top. I got split pea soup and goat cheese salad. So good! I have never seen such a big chunk of goat cheese! Seems like in the states they usually skimp you on the goat cheese cause its expensive, not here! I couldn't even finish all the goat cheese I was so stuffed! And for our entertainment we got to listen in on a "sing-a-long." They told us it was crowded because they were going to be having a sing-a-long. We thought they meant just some sort of karaokee or something, but no, it really was a sing-a-long. Many different ages of people got together in a circle with their songbooks and were singing with each other. It was very interesting!

Enjoying some classic Dutch fries

After dinner we walked around Amsterdam some more. I was kind of wanting to get some coffee and we had seen a few coffee shops so decided to stop in one. As soon as we walked in we experienced some classic "Amsterdam." Yeah, word of advice, "coffee shops" in Amsterdam are probably not selling coffee, but drugs. It was interesting. We knew right when we walked in due to the smell but couldn't believe we didn't realize it earlier. After that, we realized that there aren't too many actual coffee shops in Amsterdam. I guess people there don't really drink too much coffee.

Before calling it a night we decided to walk through the red light district. Outside of this district, Amsterdam is a wonderful city for anyone to visit and enjoy. It has a lot to offer, a lot of culture. But inside the red light district you finally see where Amsterdam's reputation comes from. A very different experience walking this area. I was glad I was Jeremy. It wasn't too terrible, just not somewhere I would want to spend too much time probably. I coudn't believe how many hostels and hotels were here. I stayed in a hostel in the red light district in Frankfurt one night by myself, I would never stay a night in the red light district here!

The next day we were flying out but decided to get up early and go into the Anne Frank House before we left. We had just enough time. I am really glad we did this. I didn't realize it was in Amsterdam, I thought it was in Germany. It was very interesting to walk through this house and realize we were standing where those 8 people hid out for so long. It was a humbling experience.

All in all I really like Amsterdam and definately suggest it for a place to visit. It was a nice weekend!

Now, some more Geocaching pics:

Geocaching- found a nice hike close to Jeremy's apartment

Discovered a nice trail on Ischia while geocaching

This past weekend one of Jeremy's co-workers and his wife hosted Thanksgiving dinner. She used to be a chef so she had a very nice menu planned. It was delicious!! Some different ways to cook the classic Thanksgiving dishes. There were lots of Jeremy's co-workers there as well so it was nice to be able to talk to them some. The morning before the dinner the Navy base was having a 5k race so we decided to do that before stuffing our bellies that night! It was a wonderful morning for a run and Jeremy's and my first race together. It was fun.

On Sunday we went with three of Jeremy's co-workers on this awesome all day hike up a peak that looks across at Mt. Vesuvius. It was a wonderful hike! A good workout and a beautiful day! It was coold to be able to look over at Vesuvius and we could see the trail that you hike up on Vesuvius to the top.

Jeremy at the top of our hike

The whole group doing a curious pose