Summary of Amsterdam: pretty and kinda dirty. It’s sort of a cross between Berlin and Copenhagen. I still think I’d prefer to live in Copenhagen or Berlin, but Amsterdam was pretty good.

We had a lovely warm and sunny day. The best part spent on a barge/cafe just watching the world go by.

Watching the organic traffic (read: slightly disorganised, potentially dangerous mix of pedestrians, bikes, cars and big trucks) go by fast became a fun pastime.

The four of us did heaps of walking and tramming around the city. Places like the red light district were okay for a quick look but going a little further out was more pleasant. We spent most of our time poking around second hand stores and clothes places, in a coffee shops and wandering down canals while avoiding the silent-but-deadly bikes.

The Anne Frank museum aka the place that she and her family hid during WWII was eerie and sad. Amazing that they all managed to hide there for a full two years and completely awful to think that someone sold them out…but worst of all that Anne herself died only a month before the allies arrived at the camp to free them.

There was also a Catholic Church built into the attic of a building where the Catholics went to worship while the Protestants set the rules on who could worship. Quite an amazing construction given the constraints! And used up until quite recently.

Such a brief summary for a whole city, but we’ve been out and about so much and tired when wifi is around.

We fly out to Iceland on Thursday.