City: Amsterdam
Soundtrack: Mew - Frengers & The Zookeepers Boy EP
Accomodations: Hotel Alexander - Nothing fancy, but nothing to complain about. Smallish room with a bed, small table, TV, wardrobe and a safe. Bathroom was fairly large with a nice shower. Our room was off the back of the building, so it was nice and quiet. They also had an elevator, which, as I would learn later on in the trip, was huge. Nice breakfast buffet in the morning. People in Amsterdam like chocolate sprinkles on everything, even especially toast.
Best Bar: I didn't write down the name of it, but on the back end of the Leidseplein we found a little corner bar that had board games and decks of cards for all the patrons. The service was fast and friendly, the Duvel was cheap and it seemed to be mostly locals. There were two big windows in front, so the ventilation was great, a rarity in the city. They also had a cat that sat in the front window. Awwwww. We ended up there both nights we were in town.
Best Meal: Italian at Pasta Pino. I had Spaghetti Bolognese and it was delectable. I was surprised at how many Italian pizza joints and Irish bars Amsterdam had. They're like Quiznos here in the States. One on every corner.
Sights Seen: The Flower Market, The Old Church, The New Church, Anne Frank House, Van Gogh Museum, Red Light District, many, many bars.
Best Bit: It goes without saying that the Anne Frank House was incredibly powerful. I still remember doing reports on The Diary of Anne Frank in fourth or fifth grade. It still resonates (thanks to Ms. Obrien - my English teacher). But the best thing we did in Amsterdam, hands down, was the very last thing we did in town. We saw a flyer for something called The 2007 World Press Photo Exhibition and it took us a while to actually find it, but it was worth the hassle. It was, for me, probably the best thing we did the entire trip. The exhibition is basically a collection of award winning press photos from the last year from all around the world, covering a wide variety of subjects - news, sports, nature, etc. Each and every photo that was included was simply incredible. It gave me tremendous inspiration. It's no coincidence that my travel photos got much better after I saw this exhibit. Also, it was fitting that they were showing these in the Oude Kerk (Old Church) because that's what seeing these photos was for me, like going to church. I walked out of there one highly motivated photographer. It was impossible to see those images and not be inspired. You can see all the photos at the Exhibition website. Some of my favorites are the jewish settler v. the police, prayers at a ruined mosque, film watching in Africa and Crouchy. Seriously, this was one of the most powerful things I have ever seen. I couldn't buy the book fast enough.
Random Thoughts: We took it pretty easy in Amsterdam. Ms. Smith had a job interview as soon as we got back, so we couldn't really do any funny stuff. But we did drink. A lot. Mostly in the Leidseplein, a great little town square with tons of bars and lots of outdoor seating. This place kind of set the tone for our whole vacation. In every town we went to, we'd find the happening town square, plant ourselves outside at a cafe or bar, drink heavily and do some people watching. Did I mention it was 80 degrees and sunny every day of our trip? I actually got sunburnt. Not a drop of rain to be had.

A quick general note. I'm going to try and get the recaps for each city we visited up in the next week or so (otherwise, I'll probably never do it). I tried not to go crazy posting all my photos (I took close to 1600 for the whole trip), just the best, because I hate when people post every travel photo they take. So bear with me.