Note from May 17: I got home from my trip to Amsterdam, Glasgow and Edinburgh – with not much excitement to tell about. It was a lovely trip. In summary – I’m not sure when I’ll get pictures posted – I’m still working on the ones from Ireland (and that was the end of March!!) what you’re seeing here is a backlog of notes from the trip that I compiled – day by day… that are just now getting posted (but on the dates it happened instead of now…):

Amsterdam:

8 hour layover – and it was 75 F outside and sunny. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day. I got into the airport by 7:20 am and decided to head into the city since my next flight left at 15:00. I was in the city by 8, and having breakfast at a cafe. After wandering around the centraal train station to get my bearings, I walked down the canals hoping to get to the Anne Frank House before it got too crowded. It opened at 9 am, and I got there about the time it opened. Shockingly, the line was around the building – and nearly 3 hours just to go in. As a result, I got a few pictures of the outside, bought some postcards and decided that 3 hours in Amsterdam would be better spent somewhere/ somehow else.

This meant a bit more wandering the city, until I saw a stand for a 1 hour boat tour out on the harbor. The weather was perfect – and I was craving a boat ride anyhow. (There’s just something about sunshine and water that always attracts this piscies girl – even though I can’t swim!!) So, tickets were 18 euros, but I figured what the heck and went back to the central station, where the boats left from. After popping into a roadside stand for some eierkuchen (egg pancakes with various things in them – usually served cold – kind of like a giant pancake cookie thing) and a gatorade, I grabbed the hour boat tour.

For the next hour, we went out on the harbor, cruised past the maritime museum and then up a few of the canals. Yes, we went back past the Anne Frank House, (the line now was much longer than when I was there) and then back to the main train station. I took a few photographs, but I’m not sure how they’ll come out due to the movement of the boat and reflections off the water.

From there, I headed back to the train station and subsequently to the airport – to continue my journey… to Glasgow.