So we made the plans, we got ready, we invited friends, and we went to bed early the night before. I woke up bright and early at 3:45 AM (because I'm weird and HAVE to take a shower before I go anywhere), we were out the door by 5, and were on the autobahn by 5:15 AM. Just a few short hours later, it was around 7:30 AM, Sierra complains of her stomach and chest hurting...10 minutes later, she says that she feels like she's going to throw up. (SIDE NOTE: My daughter is really good about knowing when she's going to puke, we can usually make it to the bathroom in time for her to get it right in the toilet.) We were in the car, and literally had NOTHING for her...Paul grabbed a plastic bag we were using for trash, "IN THE BAG," I heard him yelling. I finally found a gas station and we stopped to clean her off. She had gotten sick. Meanwhile, Dylan (my bf son) had had an exploding diaper, so it was good that we stopped when we did. Sierra looked a little better, no fever, we thought maybe carsickness? Dylan got changed, pants were exchanged. We started back on the road. I believe it was only an hour after that that we had to stop again, the same exact thing had happened. To both kiddos. Dylan had another diaper incident, only no exploding on pants, and Sierra managed to throw up a little more.
Right as we entered into Amsterdam.
Finally around 10:30 AM (we were should have gotten there at 9 AM) we were arriving in Amsterdam, we were stuck in a little traffic, and BAM, there she goes AGAIN. Unfortunately, we couldn't stop and turn around, we pretty much had to deal with it. Oh and it was NOT pleasant at all in the car, the smell alone was enough to make us all gag and open windows in 40 degree temps. We managed to find a car garage, and unloaded. We had to take off Sierra's big sweater she was wearing (she had a tshirt on underneath) and throw it in the bag...it was gross. Otherwise, everything was pretty much in order and ready to go. So off to the Anne Frank house we went.
Along the way we saw some canal boats
Doesn't look much like a sick kid huh?
Some of the buildings/housing in Amsterdam
We arrived at the Anne Frank house, and waited in line for probably a half hour or so. We were able to walk in and see the interesting replica's of what the house would have looked like when they lived there. They didn't have the actual house still in tact, so they just remade it I guess. It was a bit dissappointing. Don't get me wrong, it was really neat to see the house she lived in, and even to see what it would have looked like. But it was a small museum, and it went by quickly. But its an experience, I will never forget nonetheless, and I'm glad we were able to go.
This is the front of the building, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the museum.
Across the street from the Anne Frank museum was a tulip museum that was like a house boat.
Afterwards, we went to the Pancake Bakery. European pancakes are not the same as American ones, they are more like crepes. We were all hungry for actual food and not sweets, so we ordered accordingly. Lauren ordered a big omelet, Paul and I ordered a canadian pancake to share, it had bacon, ham, cheese, and onions in the batter...I thought it would have been rolled up with the pancake, but it was actually in the batter. The girls each got a little pancake of their own, complete with gummi bears, and powdered sugar, as well as a little toy suprise. It was fun, and it was a nice place to visit.
They had jars of molasses at the table.
Lauren's giant omelet
Our Canadian pancake
One of the girls pancakes, it also had a pincess crown, and a sucker on top, but that was the first thing she took off of it.
After the pancake bakery, we headed back to the car. Somehow we walked right through the red light district. Whoa...lets try to stay away from that area in the future! It was neat to see, but there were literally women in the windows in lingerie. They would first see our husbands and open the doors, THEN they'd see Lauren and I with the kids and shut the doors...we even saw and old lady, white hair and all in one of the windows. But I have to admit, she had real pretty LEGS people, LEGS! Ha ha.
If you can tell in the picture, the lightbulbs in the lights are all red...red light district, quite literally.
We headed to the NEMO museum, its like a science museum that we thought the kids would enjoy. We made it all the way back and found that the museum closed soon, so we decided against it, and headed back to the car. We drove to another side of Amsterdam and then walked to a boat canal tour, bought some tickets, and waited for the boat to come for us. We walked around and saw some of the sights while we were waiting. I saw the chess set that is pretty famous, you can actually play chess with others, it was really great.
The canal ride, was a 75 minute ride through most of the canals in Amsterdam, we saw some interesting things. We saw inside houses, and these people have nice houses! We saw inside the houseboats on the edge of the canal, very cute, and some really dingy. But it was a very relaxing ride, and I loved it.
The view from a window on our side of the boat
Once we made it back to land, we went back to the car, and headed home. No more puking kids, no more exploding diapers, Lauren and I were in the clear (I drove up there, the guys were driving back). THEN-about two hours into our drive, Paul starts pulling over, I was halfway asleep and asked what he was doing. He said he was getting gas. So I was dozing off and on...then I realized we still hadn't found our gas station. He waited until we only had 10K left on the van according to the little program that tells us how much gas we have left. We went all OVER the place. We found the esso, it was no longer there, like the business was no longer there at all. Then we found another gas station...it was closed for the night. Then we found another gas station, it too, was closed for the night. We drove to another town. More closed gas stations. By this time, we had LONG past the 0 K on the van's little meter. We knew it was only a matter of time. But we still probably went another 50 k until I told Paul to ask a cab driver. Finally the cab driver was able to take us to the third gas station where he had a card that he could swipe to allow us to pump something. We gave him some cash, and were EXTREMELY grateful to him.
We thought we might have to sleep in the car at one point, and I'm soooo glad we didn't have to. Paul drove another hour, and then pulled over, and I drove the last hour or so. We finally made it back home at 2 AM, we unloaded what we could, and went straight to bed.
It was an interesting trip to say the least. The car ride there and back were awful, but will definately make for some funny stories. I can laugh about it all now, but I was still worried for my daughter, and I was not laughing at all when I thought we might have to sleep in the car that night. It all worked out though, and we had a lot of fun in Amsterdam. Its true what they say. You can buy and smoke pot in Amsterdam. We passed many people who were smoking it and we could smell it any time we were near a coffee shop (its where they sell it for the most part). Lauren and I went into a coffee shop and checked it out, they had a menu for it and everything. It was really quite interesting.
I just had to! (This is a postcard and not an actual menu)
We didn't make it to the Heineken museum, or to the Nemo museum, so I might see another trip in our future, hopefully with no throw up, or diaper explosions or gas scares along the way. Its only supposed to be 4 hours away from here, but with all of the things that happened up and back, it took much longer. Still, its a fun city, and its a nice, clean city. I wouldn't mind going back at all.
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