Red Light, Green Light

Flashback...Going back 2-1/2 weeks.

We were on our way to Europe for our vacation/Tour of Duty trip. The first part was our stopover to Amsterdam.


Kieran was all set with his kosher meal and 'TD' on the seat in front of him.






I was all set with my in flight bottle of wine. I was now off for 2-1/2 weeks. Woo hoo!
85 pts. I'd give it more but I couldn't sleep on the flight.
Kieran did though, I think. I'm not sure. It's all a daze to me now.
I was trying to sleep cause I knew we'd be in trouble with the 6 hour time change once we land.




We landed in Amsterdam and caught the train to the city center. Our first thought was that Toronto should have a train from the airport into town. All the big international cities have it. We should too.

Instead we built the sheppard line. That goes to Fairview mall.



We were exhausted. Neither of us had slept or rested well on the plane, and having a kid who doesn't seem to need much sleep, I was dreading he was going to put us through our paces.

After getting to Centraal Station, we hiked the 2.5km distance to the Hotel Weber. Even with the TomTom in hand it was longer than we anticipated plus having our backpacks loaded with diapers and Kieran not wanting to go in his stroller it was a long walk.


We got to the hotel at about 9:30am local time (3:30am Toronto time) . But we weren't able to check in until 1:30pm local time. It was a painful few hours. We had been up for 24hrs now.
But Kieran didn't care. As soon as he was free, we were chasing him all over this park near the Van Gogh museum. We didn't understand why he also wasn't feeling jet lagged.



So in order to pass the time until we could check in, we left our bags at the hotel lobby and saw some sites. I'd been to the Van Gogh museum before, so I sat with Kieran as he played with his trains in the museum while Tresa walked around in a daze. Kieran finally fell asleep as we were having a bite to eat at a the museum cafe where I my eyelids felt like lead. I was wishing for a bigger stroller I could sleep in.


We finally were able to get to the hotel and check in. The stairs in Amsterdam buildings are incredibly steep. It's like going up a ladder. We had to go up 3 flights of stairs to get to our room.

I was worried about carrying all of our stuff up these flights.
The photos don't do justice to the actual steepness of the staircases.






But it was well worth it. Our room was ultra modern. The pics of the hotel room were 100% accurate.





It was a great location, close to the center of Amsterdam. Food, museums, transportation and shopping areas were very close by.






We did the usual touristy stuff. Canal ride - hop on hop off was a great deal, if you start early enough and study the map it can take you everywhere in the city.





Anne Frank house. Which is a museum now and Kieran just happened to fall asleep as we were entering the museum. No strollers are allowed, since you can't get them up the steep stairs. So we carried him. 30+ lbs gets to be a little heavy after a while.




The tulip market near the center.
The Artis Zoo.
The Rijksmuseum.
Coster Diamonds.




And there was this yummy Australian ice cream shop near the food district. The only downside was the affect ice cream has on the body and brains of 3 year olds.





And we did our best to avoid getting hit by a cyclist.

Click me for Amsterdam photos (in german: claquez-moi pour plus de photos)