Friday, May 27, 2016

Amsterdam

Ari and I flew to Amsterdam, and then took the bus into the center of the city. 

We stayed at this awesome little hotel. 

Our bed had a fish above it... It was very funky. 

I was so excited to go out and see the canals. 


We found this cool bar that has been there since the 1600's in the same spot with the same decorations. 

They serve tiny glasses of brandy wine, and when they pour it, it is completely full. You have to bend down to sip it before you pick it up. 

We found the floating market.  It had some flowers and LOTS of tourist goods. 

I couldn't stop myself from taking so many pictures of the canals. 

 We went on another walking tour here. This was a little garden in between buildings. 


This is the outside view of Anne Frank's house.  We went there another day and waited in line for two hours to get in.  We didn't take pictures though because we were too busy reading. 

We went on a tour to see some little touristy towns outside of Amsterdam. In Volendam we got to go to a windmill. 





It was really cool to see how it worked. 









It was a cute little town too. 

Next we went to a cheese factory. 

Then we took a boat to a third little city, Marken. 

I tried on some wooden shoes that were just my size. 

I made some cheese. 


It was a very pretty boat ride. 


Then we went to a factory where they make wooden shoes. 



Even Ari tried on a pair. 

We didn't get tempted into buying anything, but they sure do make cute planters. 

This one might be a little big though. 

I was excited to see cows that make the famous cheese. 

It was very rainy, but we still went to the Van Gogh museum, the Rembrandt house, and the Rijksmuseum. 

We got to see some very famous things. 

I had to take a picture of one of these funny vases. 

We got one last picture on our way out of town. 

Our flight home was even more amazing.  Ari even put on his free pajamas on the plane.  Our flight attendant gave me lots of wine and extra cookies which I read a book and watched movies.  Our chairs even folded all the way flat like a bed, so basically, it was heaven.  

We had the best time, and it was very hard to come back to reality.

Prague

On our first night in Prague after our train ride, we went to the Air BnB where we were staying.  The owner told us some good places to eat and get drinks.  Ari was in love with the low prices in the city and cheap beer. 

The next morning, we went on a trip to the little village of Kunta Hora.  They have an old church there that is decorated with bones, and I really wanted to see it. 


It was both creepy and awesome.

They said that a half blind monk arranged most of these pyramids.


You could see the injuries from the Prussian War of the ones in the cases. 

This was the most amazing part. 


It was a really small church, so we didn't actually stay that long.



Then we went on to see this church which is supposed to be the most beautiful one in the Czech Republic. 


It took six hundred years for them to build it. 







The little city had some amazing views. 

I loved that there were skulls even on the statues in the city. 

This was the Charles Bridge. 


Prague was filled with amazing views. 

You can see the castle off in the distance when you are crossing the bridge.  

We walked over to see the Lennon Wall. It is from the Velvet Revolution in 1989. People paint new things on it all the time. I really learned a lot about Communism on this trip. 


I can't remember the name of this church... 

We took another walking tour in Prague. This was the astronomical clock on the Old Town Square.  It is amazing, and so cool that it was built 600 years ago. 


We also toured the Jewish area of town where the Jews were for a time locked in. 

The king told them it was to keep them safe because people were trying to kill them to cancel their debts. 

After our walk, we went up to the castle to see the other side of town. 


It is a beautiful castle.

It is up on a hill, so it gave even more beautiful views. 

It was a long walk up and down.

Then we walked over to this amazing park that you climb up to that overlooks the whole city also.

I got 36,000 steps that day.

I went into this awesome tour store to look for a present for Isaac.

I didn't find a present, but I did convince Ari to go down the slide, which was worth it. 


On our last night in town, we went out to eat street food. 

We tried this trdelnik, which is supposed to be a donut filled with chocolate and ice cream.  We didn't really think that it lived up to the hype. 

We spent two full days there, and then we got up to go to Amsterdam for our last city.