Amsterdam

Just landed and made my way through customs and immigration fast and easy at JFK.

We landed in Amsterdam at around 6:30 AM Saturday and decided to venture out of the airport given a 6+ hour layover.

The airport is amazing, complete with shops, showers and fast and easy storage lockers. After dumping our bags, and getting some Euros, we trained to Center Station. Feeling a bit like I was on The Amazing Race, we walked towards the museum district.

The city was empty. For an hour. We walked in total darkness (sunrise was after 8) over canals, past shops and amazing statues. As it started to get light, we took some amazing photos - the lights on the canal and subtle light made it a fun challenge.

By 8, shops finally started to open and we had a terrific breakfast of eggs and the best cappucino I have ever had.

David wanted to visit the Van Gogh museum, but because it didn't open until 10, we hit the Rijk (spelling?) which included Rembrant's largest canvas painting. This thing was massive - close to 20 ft high sporting detail and vivid colors that seem impossible for an oil painting. I had more culture in an hour than I've had all year.

In order to fix that, I insisted on walking through the Red Light District. We peeked into a coffee bar for the aroma and window shopped for, umm, this is a family blog for god sakes! I will leave it at this... I saw a video for sale called "Drill Bill." Wonder if Tarantino got as big a kick out of that as I did.

Amsterdam is absolutely gorgeous and friendly - I would love to vacation there at some point. I'm so glad we ventured out of the airport. There seem to be more people biking around than anything - I bet it would be a killer place to live.