Tim, our tour guide was hilarious! There are "free" waking tours offered in most big cities in Europe where they walk you around the city for three hours and you tip the tour guide what you thought the tour was worth. This guy was good. He made the whole trip entertaining and the three hours flew by. I was a little bummed when it was steady rain for the first hour and we were all sufficiently drenched.
I'm not a fan of the umbrella life, I just don't like dealing with them, and rain is refreshing. If it's the least bit windy it's constantly flipping inside out, you have to dodge other umbrellas when walking down the street so you don't get your eyeball poked out, and going in buildings stinks because the thing is dripping wet. Enough with my little rant.
The black house is one of two fully wooden houses left in all of Amsterdam. It was built in 1528, I believe. After two huge fires destroyed much of the city, the people decided that maybe building homes of wood wasn't such a good idea. Especially since they are so close to eachother.
We also got to see the narrowest house in the world, the pink one. It measures 1.7 meters across. This is because houses used to be taxed on their width. This clever guy decided to buck the system a little and build the narrowest house possible.
This cool courtyard is a hidden gem in Amsterdam, called the Begijnhof. To enter there is a simple and plain door in the Spui square. You have to know where the door is, or you would probably never find it. This courtyard dates back to the 1400's and was used as a place for women to go to escape men. It's still occupied by single women only and seen as a place where women can always go to seek help. It's extremely quiet and peaceful for being in the middle of Amsterdam.
It was so good to see some friends from America! It's an adjustment coming from two small towns (Carroll & Storm Lake) when you go anywhere in town there's like a 99% chance that you will see someone you know and say hi. Even taking a trip to Des Moines, you often run into people you know. Being abroad, I'm still constantly looking around thinking that maybe one of these days I'm bound to see someone that I recognize. Nope. Haha.
We found a cute little coffeeshop with a cool atmosphere and awesome coffee and hot chocolate. To make hot chocolate they put a chunk of chocolate on a stick at the bottom of the mug and then poured warm milk over it. It was so good! We went back to this place a few different times.
Walking down the street and caught someone using the hook at the top of their house to move a chandelier in. It was also interesting to learn that many of the houses lean forward at an angle to make it easier to move in furniture.
