Long Layover in Amsterdam

On the way back to the U.S. from Scotland, we had a 5-hour layover in Amsterdam. Five hours seemed like a long time to sit in an airport, so we looked into doing something while we were there. We Googled "long layover in Amsterdam," only to discover that Amsterdam is the perfect city for a long layover. The train station is directly linked to the airport, and it took us only two stops to get to Amsterdam's Centraal Station. From there we walked outside, crossed the street, and found ourselves in one of these.

It was the perfect 1-hour tour of the city! Ben had never been to the Netherlands before, and I was delighted to share a little flavor of it with him. It really is such a lovely place. How can you go wrong with a city where canal boats and bicycles are the main modes of transportation?

We saw sights like this . . .

(Um . . . some people live in these boats. They just have to pay to keep them docked. Wouldn't that rule?)

bikes, bikes, everywhere!

Millions of them! Everywhere!

And most importantly, HUP HOLLAND!!! [When my family stayed in Holland for 6 weeks one summer, the orange flags and "Hup Holland" signs were unavoidable. Obviously, these people are devoted to their soccer team. One time we asked a lady on a train, what exactly does "Hup Holland mean?" She replied, "Well . . . it means . . . it's sort of like . . . GO for it, Holland!"

There you have it!]

We finished our canal cruise and ate some stroop waffels. Then we made it back to the airport with lots of time to spare. Amsterdam was such a fun little unexpected bit of icing on our very indulgent cake of a vacation. Mmmm hmmm.

Whew! And now I can get back to regular blogging. Done with travel mode for a while.