Our Amsterdam Home, Part 2

I'm finally showing the beautiful upstairs of our home here.  It has 2 bedrooms and a bathroom.  It definitely has its quirks, most notably that the washer and dryer are both tucked away in Andy's room, which I've already complained about.  The other weird thing is storage space.  Our bedroom has loads and loads of drawers, but no closet where we can hang things up.  Andy's room has a huge closet to hang things up in but basically no drawers.  Not our favorite.  Also, our bedroom doesn't have a door.  I guess it's not the worst thing ever; we're just thrilled Andy's room does have a door.  From the pictures, we weren't sure it would.  Anyway, we do love it!  It's a cool loft style.  We love the exposed beams.  We love that there's a shower and a tub in the bathroom.  We love being on the top of the city. Now for some pictures!

Our Bedroom:

The window looks over the Kalverstraat, the big shopping street.  (Same view as our family room.)

Hallway & Stairs:

From our room looking into Andy's room. Stairs on the left, bathroom on the right.

I'm surprised I haven't fallen yet.

Andy's Room: 

Little bit of a story here.  Before we got here, they said they'd put a crib in Andy's room for him, so I didn't bother shipping one over.  Nice, right?  Well, we get here and this crib must seriously be an antique.  It looks like it's from 1950.  Probably breaking all sorts of current crib regulations.  Probably has lead paint.  And it couldn't be lowered and was stuck at the height you use for newborns.  So, we headed to ikea!  It's about 30 minutes away, first with a tram ride and then a train ride.  Just imagine us carrying a giant, heavy, awkward box all the way home.  It was entertaining to say the least.  But, the happy ending--we eventually made it, and Andy has a safe crib now.

This lovely picture of Jesus replaced the painting of a nude women that was here when we moved in.

The view from Andy's window.

The Bathroom: 

There's a cool skylight above the bath you can't see here.

Parks, Noorder Markt, & Our 1st Family Bike Ride

We've been having so much fun here lately! Andy and I have been stopping by museums during the day to switch things up a bit.  So far we've been to the Amsterdam Museum and to the Museum of Bags and Purses. Andy and I found a new playground at the Vondelpark that's a bit more age appropriate.  He had a blast reuniting with swings and discovering the sandbox for the first time. 

Friday night we had a really fun ward barbecue.  We got to the area a little early, so we killed some time walking around a gorgeous little park.     

Saturday morning we headed to a market in the Jordaan area called the Noorder Markt.  We tried some delicious pastries and other good food and also got some delicious (cheap!) fruit.  We also got a baby seat put on Cam's bike for little Andy.  For those who don't know, Amsterdam is very bike friendly!  That's pretty much how everyone gets around.  There's special bike lanes and everything.  What's really crazy is that it's very normal to see people with 2 (or more!) kids on their bikes.  They can put special seats on the front, on the back, and they even make special bikes--box bikes--that can hold a few kids.  Anyway--we'd been debating whether or not it would be worth it to get a seat for Andy or not because it'll mostly be winter while we're here (and the seat is 100 euros), and we're not sure how often we'll use it.  We decided if we were really going to plunge into the dutch way, we should just do it! We weren't sure if Andy would like it, but he really loves it.  Saturday afternoon Cam took us on a bike ride to his work so he could show us how he gets there each day.  It's about a 30 minute commute.  Such a cool ride!  On the way back, we stopped at another park where Andy fell in love with the slide.  He couldn't stop laughing.  It was adorable.  Anyway, we're so glad we got the bikes.  We even road them to church yesterday.  (Usually we take a tram.)  It's about a 30 minute ride and is beautiful.  I think we'll  be doing it most sundays from now on. 

A crepe at the market.

First time on the bike!
*No one here really wears helmets, so we're having a hard time finding one for Andy.  Don't judge us! We're still looking.

In front of Cam's work. 

How cute is he in his new hat?! I bought one that ties under his chin, hoping this would discourage him from pulling it off.  (Like he does with every other hat.)  So far so good! 

I'm embarrassed to admit Saturday was my first time on a bike in Amsterdam.  I can't believe I waited so long.  It was a blast! This is in Spui Square.  Look at all those bikes!

Some pictures of kids and bikes here, so you can see what I'm talking about: 

A box bike.

Canal Cruise, Anne Frank House (almost), & Pancakes

We've done some fun things the past week or so!  The only downside is that we've all been pretty sick for the past week.  We're hoping we get better soon so we can have the energy to leave the house a bit more.  We still planned some fun things for Saturday to do around here and had a great time.

We went on a Canal Cruise and loved it.  This is definitely a tourist must when you visit Amsterdam.  Most people go on a big, covered boat with lots of people.  We opted for a smaller boat and were glad we did.  The weather cooperated beautifully and so did Andy.  (Thanks to Baby Einstein, which saved our life once again.)  We were on the boat for about 75 min. with 6 other people and went around the western canals of Amsterdam, through the Jordaan.  The pictures aren't the best because Cam was holding Andy, and I was holding the laptop for Andy.  But it was stunning!

An old warehouse.

There are 2500 houseboats on the canals.  This one is just a home for cats! Crazy. 

Andy stuffing his face with raisins.

Our plan for the afternoon was to go to the Anne Frank house and then go to the famous pancake house that's nearby.  After standing in a barely moving line at the Anne Frank house for 30 min., we decided we'd come back another time and headed to get pancakes.  Despite having the rudest waitress alive, we loved it. The pancakes were incredible!  Expensive, but incredible.  

Andy and I shared a chocolate, banana, & whipped cream pancake.  Andy let me take a bite  occasionally.

Cam had an apple and bacon pancake.  I guess that's traditional here?  I wasn't gutsy enough to order it, but once I tried Cam's I wished I would have.

We actually had a lot of good food during the weekend.  Friday we went to this takeout Chinese place and ate it in Rembrandtplein.  It was really good food.  The best part was this incredible classical guitarist that was playing while we ate.  And then it got even better when an old man started dancing all crazy to the music.  Just by himself.  It was so entertaining. I was so bummed I didn't have my camera.  On the subject of food, we had a couple from church over for dinner Sunday.  It was so fun to get to know them! And very refreshing to be around fellow expats.  I was so excited to have people over.  I haven't really talked to anyone but Cameron for a month.  Cameron's great and all, but it was nice to have some variety. :) And one last food mention: look at this delicious sandwich I had for lunch on Saturday. 

Mozzarella, Pesto, Tomato, & Rocket.

Andy and I made another visit to the Vondelpark last week.  This time we played in the playground area for a while.  It's really intended for older kids, but Andy still had a lot of fun running around.  He's such a funny kid.  He walks up to every little kid and just starts yelling at them.  Not like angry yelling, just talking excitedly and loudly.  And they're all terrified of him.  Ha! He had a good time though.  Up until it was time to leave.  By the looks of this next picture, you wouldn't guess he'd just thrown a full-blown limp body, shrieking tantrum for a solid ten minutes.  Is it possible for the terrible twos to begin at 15 months?  It was embarrassing, to say the least.  Especially around all these perfectly behaved european children.  We'll see when I get up the courage to go again.  

Beautiful park.

How to get to our front door:

I know I've complained about how ridiculous it is to get to our apartment here; the time has come to post proof.  

You start at this door.  This is the door from ground level.  We share this entrance with about 8 other apartments.

This is what it looks like to the left of the door...

...and to the right. Pretty cool little street.

You open that door, and find this: a little hallway where everyone stores their bikes.  And where we store our stroller (illegally) by the fire escape. 

At the end of that hallway, you go through this door.

And then you proceed to go up five flights of stairs, also known as the bain of my existence. 

Oh, and do you see that little cubby under the stairs?  That's where I used to store my stroller until I got smart and decided to store it illegally. (Just try to imagine pulling a stroller in and out while standing on stairs, holding a large child.)

So you keep going, and going, and going. 

And then right about here, you want to die because you're carrying a 30 lb. child, a diaper bag, and a bag of groceries.  

And then right as you decide you're never leaving the house again, you finally get to this door at the top.

And then you get to this cool little terrace.  Follow the path for a bit.

Then go up a few more stairs and then down a few more.

And then you get to our house! (Kind of.  We're on the top two floors.) As a side-note, I would like to point out that we were shown a picture similar to this when we chose our housing.  Doesn't it look like it's a ground level house?!  Let's just say I'm more than slightly irritated that we were given no warning about what kind of journey precedes getting to this point.  Oh well.  At least it's amazing on the inside, right?

Almost there!  You go through this front door (after unlocking the main lock plus the two deadbolts our paranoid downstairs neighbor insists on using), and then head up one more flight of stairs.

You made it! I feel pretty proud of myself every time.