Last night in Amsterdam, home tomorrow

It’s late here in Amsterdam on our last night. Getting up early tomorrow morning to fly home. Had a great time in Amsterdam.

Yesterday we visited a few churches, the former location of a nunnery, and went to Rembrandt Huis, the former home of Rembrandt for many years here in Amsterdam. The weather was odd, starting off rainy, and after a short afternoon nap at the hotel, ended up sunny and beautiful.

Today we went to the Rijksmuseum, where we got to see paintings by Rembrandt and Vermeer among other Dutch artists. It’s an amazing museum, and had been remodeled since our visit in 2001. Afterwards we walked through Vondelpark for a bit, before sitting at a restaurant in Leidseplein for some lunch. After a brief stop at the hotel in the afternoon we ventured out for dinner, and later ended up at this great pub called In de Wildeman, which was a beer cafe on the site of a former distillery that operated for over 250 years, and had been a beer cafe for the past 23 years. There were 17 beers on tap (from all over the world, though mostly focusing on northern Europe) and 200 bottled beers. While there we met a really funny and quirky expat Englishman who’d been living in Amsterdam for the past 12 years. We had a lot of fun chatting with him until we just had to get back to the hotel. We need to get up at 6:30am here, get packed, get breakfast, and be at the airport at 8:30am. It’s been a really good trip, and while I’m not looking forward to going home, at the same time, I am. You probably know the feeling.

Might blog before the flight, but probably not. Might when I get home, if I’m up to it and if there’s anything to say. In the meantime, there’s loads of photos in the gallery (and some being uploaded as I write this). Enjoy!