Amsterdam

For a place whose official travel pamphlet says things like "as for prostitution- if you choose to spend time with one of the women, please be warned they are not always women," Amsterdam is surprisingly wholesome. The whole visit I just kept thinking, how much my Mom would love it. It's a perfectly preserved and updated piece of history. The canals are amazingly beautiful, and we spent a lot of time on the deck of our hostel catching the Netherlands sun. The food was beautiful, I even indulged in some Salmon overlooking the canals. We managed to do all the Amsterdam "musts", we rented bicycles with three new German friends and rode around the city and outskirts for an entire day, we took a taxi boat tour, we stood in line and saw Anne Frank's house, and even strolled through the red light district at night. All in all Amsterdam is like food for the eyes. Everything was beautiful excepting maybe the often cranky attitude of the tourist-sick locals. Now, onto The Hague for a different side of The Netherlands~