Day 17

Leaving at dawn we headed out via Eurail to Amsterdam. We arrived around 11AM and were able to drop our bags off at our Hostel and make it back to the Visitors Center to meet a group that was doing free walking tours of the city.
Here is the Anne Frank house, Ashley went here last time she visited Amsterdam, but with a line that stretched down the street and around the corner. So, we decided that the Van Gogh museum was more our style.

Here is an underground Catholic Church that seats 300 people and is home to one of the worlds largest organs. When Catholicism was banned in Amsterdam, more than 300 people would attend this church and shortly after hymns would be blaring into the streets.
The police, not being idiots and good Christians, would not work on the Sabbath. So complaints were filed on many Sundays, but not looked into until Monday came around. Which as we all know, there were no Catholics at mass still so the church remained "hidden."
Another beautiful and surprisingly not smelly canal.
Tulips! We did find some but the fields had not yet bloomed so we did not get to experience the fields of rainbow colors.

Reservations are happening!

This past week has been a great one, less than two months away from my first abroad experience and reservations are happening. Today I booked our Hostel in Interlaken, its the Lazy Falken Backpacker. We are planning on staying there for four nights after our stay in Southern France at the La Mas Jorel, its a bed and breakfast in the Provence region.

Ashley will be MIA for the next couple of weeks. She is in the Alps getting to ski during one of her breaks that I think occur way too often (I'm just really jealous). She is staying with one of the teachers at her school who has a cabin/condo near the mountains. She was really excited to go and get her fix of skiing for the year. She will also be seeing a couple of different friends with short trips back and forth.

I will keep everyone informed of the latest happenings as they will be happening all to fast as we finish up the plans on our trip.