Coast to Coast: Amsterdam

Fun facts I learned in my first day in Amsterdam:

1. A strong cheese smell gives Arin a headache.

2. Van Gogh only painted for 10 years.

3. There are 765,000 people in Amsterdam and 600,000 bikes. And they go fast.

It sure did not feel like a summer day here in Amsterdam today, but we still had a great day! Started our day at the Anne Frank house museum. It was a cold wait outside....

It was a really well done exhibit and it was crazy to be walking around the actual house.

Unfortunately, there were not pictures allowed inside, but the original book shelf door was there. It was a sad story, but I was incredible impressed by Anne Frank's insight into the war at such a young age. To warm our souls and our bellies we went down the street to The Pancake Bakery, known to have the best Dutch pancakes in Amsterdam and even the world. You try to pick what'd you'd get with a menu like this:

These are all pancakes except one small omelet section. We decided to split everything three ways and got the Indonesian Savory pancake, Mexican savory pancake and a Nutella and banana one. The pancakes were closer to crepes than America pancakes and that made me happy!

I continued my clean plate club tradition. Next we walked off our puppy tummies past beautiful canals.

And finally reached the classic Amsterdam sight.

It was absolutely impossible to get a picture with out anyone else in it... I obviously ended up sharing my moment with the casual guy next to me.

It was just a short walk to the Van Gogh museum. I honestly had no idea that Van Gogh did all his paintings in only 10 years and that he started very traditional artist before he moved to his heavy brush strokes and colorful palettes. It's crazy Van Gogh didn't become famous until after he died and that he would use the backside of canvases or just paint over paintings he wasn't found of. Here are some of my favorites:

A classic selfie done old school style.

I love the yellow gold and blue in this picture.

Horseys. What more do I need to say?

First the skeleton is so accurate and then the cigaret was just added to ruffle the teacher's feathers.

Amsterdam!

This is an enlarged painting of the house Van Gogh had in Amsterdam painted by him of course.

They said he was inspired by Japanese art and loved drawing/painting peasants both of which are demonstrated here.

Gorgeous.

Amazing.

Arin and I just hung out at the bar under our hostel as Paige rocked a Skype interview. Then we all went to Walk to Wok for dinner. While this wasn't a Dutch stable or a classic Amsterdam establishment I did enjoy picking my ingredients and....