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DD#1 finished her last AP exam last week, so we decided to take advantage of some of her free time before her finals begin in a month to do a quick trip to Amsterdam. Neither of us had been there before, so we took the 4-hour train ride from Frankfurt on Monday morning and returned late Tuesday night. Although we could have used another day (or half-day) to see the flower gardens, we saw pretty much everything we wanted to see.

We arrived at 11:30 in the morning, so we checked into our hotel, had lunch and immediately bought sweatshirts - it was a lot colder than predicted. Of course, nearly every shop had a huge collection of rolling papers and bongs, unless it was a sex shop, but we were able to locate some warm clothes. Then we headed off to the Anne Frank House, which was very impressive. We climbed the steep, steep stairs to the Annex and saw the rooms Anne and the others hid in for so long. Very sobering.

We wondered the pedestrian mall, did some sightseeing and headed back to our hotel to change for dinner at the Boom Chicago improvisation comedy show. Although it was very smoky - as is everywhere in Amsterdam - it was a fun show and a good meal.

Tuesday morning, we got up and headed out looking for one of the many pancake shops we'd seen the day before, not realizing that Dutch pancakes are really more like crepes and are not a breakfast food (and also not that great). Then we walked up to the Central train station, where we caught a 1 1/2 hour cruise along the canals. This was warm and beautiful and the perfect way to see the "dancing" (leaning) houses and the real character of Amsterdam. After the cruise, we walked through the pedestrian area to the Irish pub for lunch, then on the tram to the Van Gogh museum, which we enjoyed. The Rijksmuseum is under so much construction that we decided it wasn't worth stopping there.

After a stroll through the red light district - in the middle of the afternoon - and then Chinatown, we picked up souveniers for our friends & family and headed back to the hotel to pick up our luggage before the train ride back to Frankfurt. A quick but fun trip and probably enough of Amsterdam for me, as I'm not a big nightlife person and am not particularly tolerant of smoking, drug use and prostitution. But, the old buildings, the canals, and the artworks are all lovely, and spending time with dd#1 before she heads off to college in the fall was priceless, so it was definitely worth the trip!