Gezelligheid

Twee oud jenever, alstublieft!* M and I just got back from our vacation to Amsterdam, which was so beautiful - we had a wonderful time. We stayed in a really cool hotel, the Eden Rembrandt Square, which is in a great location in the canal belt. Every day we went to museums, like the Rijksmuseum, the van Gogh museum, the Stedelijk, the Frans Hals museum in Haarlem, and to famous houses, like Rembrandthuis, and Anne Frank's house and the Willet-Holthuysen house. I've read Anne Frank's diary about 50 times, so it was very exciting to see her house, although also terribly sad. I never realized it was on such a lovely canal street. There is no furniture anymore, so you have to imagine all the beds, which is difficult to do because it's very small. Anne's room is easily recognizable because the walls still have her magazine pictures pasted on.

Our favorite thing to do was to walk along the canals at night, looking at the reflections in the water and peeking into people's windows, which, according to my Frommer's, is not discouraged. We also spent a fair amount of time in pubs, drinking local beer and eating cheese. It's just ridiculously charming there - everyone rides bikes, all the cafes have a cat, when you go to a restaurant or bar, all the tables have candles. Supposedly when the canals ice over in the winter, people ice-skate to work!

Bonus! We come home and the dems have taken back congress and Britney dumped K Fed. That's one small step for man and one big step for mankind.

Here we are doing our best impressions of Dutch genre figures.

* Two old gins, please!