Category: travel.

Stavanger, Norway is know for its street art.  When we were there in 2017 we took a really interesting street art tour.

But they didn’t seem to be offering that tour the day we were there on our cruise in September, so we headed off on our own to explore the city.

We started off just wandering around the area near the port, which was mainly shops and restaurants.

We were up and at ’em pretty early though, so nothing was open.

And as you can see, it was raining once again.

We then headed over to the old town with all of its quaint white houses.

We wandered around there for a bit and I spent most of that time admiring the small gardens that some of them had.

But we were also looking for a small museum located in one of the houses that Mr. Q and I had visited the last time we were there.

We walked past it a couple of times before I noticed a little tiny sign on the side of the house.  Back in 2017 you could enter the house on its own and it was called The Workers Cottage, but this time around it was part of the Canning Museum.  So we had to buy tickets for the Canning Museum to get into the house (and we also had to ask a staff member at the museum to open it up for us, which he was more than happy to do).

It’s now called ‘No. 90‘ and the house was built in 1836.  It had been lived in by 4 generations of the same family.  The decor on the first floor is from the 1920’s …

while the 2nd floor represents the 1960’s.

It’s very small, but certainly worth a visit if you want to get a peek into the interior of one these quaint little white houses.

When we purchased our tickets for the canning museum, the guide told us that they were also good for the other museums in town.  So we decided to check out the Stavanger Museum next.

I really enjoyed this museum.  It was certainly on the small side, but that made it perfect for seeing everything without ending up totally exhausted.

I particularly enjoyed an exhibit exploring the bunad, a traditional Norwegian folk costume, from different regions around Norway.

I also really enjoyed seeing the traditional Norwegian bridal crowns and learning more about their history.

I had seen photos of young women wearing these crowns, but I didn’t know that they were brides.  Apparently the wearing of a bridal crown symbolized purity and chastity (similar to the white wedding veil we wear).

The museum also showed a bridal crown made of straw, which was apparently what the not so pure brides got to wear.

But most of the crowns were made with at least some silver elements to protect the bride from evil spirits.  I guess those less than pure brides were on their own when it came to being abducted by trolls or evil fairies.

We were running out of time after seeing the Stavanger Museum, which was too bad because I would have loved to also visit their art museum.

Instead we had to make do with checking out some of the street art on our way back to the ship, including a series of ‘rude kids’ by dotmasters.

Yikes, this next one is defacing the Mona Lisa!

And I think we all know this rude kid with his face in his phone all the time …

But we didn’t actually find any actual rude kids in Stavanger.  In fact, pretty much all of the people we encountered in Norway, young or old, were very friendly and helpful.  I totally recommend a visit to Stavanger if you ever have the opportunity!

Our recent trip was actually the 4th time I’ve visited Norway.  The first time I went was way back in the 90’s when my mom and I took a bus tour around Denmark, Sweden and Norway.  Mr. Q and I have since been on a couple of cruises that stopped in Oslo also.

But this time around my sister and niece were with us, and my sister has always wanted to see Norway, so after six days in Amsterdam we boarded a Holland America ‘Viking Sagas’ cruise around Norway.

I knew Debbie would love the open air museum in Oslo, the Norsk Folkemuseum, so that was our plan for our first port of call.

This time around our ship docked just a little bit further away from pier 3 where you can catch a ferry across to the Bygdøy peninsula, but it was still a fairly easy walk.  We chose to detour through the Akershus Fortress on our way.

It’s super easy to buy a ticket for the ferry at the ticket booth on pier 3.  The ferries depart fairly frequently and we were able to get right on one.

The Bygdøy peninsula is home to the Folkemuseum, the Kon-Tiki Museum, the Maritime Museum, the Holocaust Center and the Polar Ship Fram.  You could easily spend an entire day over there.  Unfortunately the Viking Ship Museum is closed until 2025/2026 while they build a new facility.  My sister was a little bummed about that, she really wanted to see the nearly 1,200 year old Viking ships they display there.

It’s another short walk from the ferry stop on Bygdøy to the Folkemuseum through a very lovely residential area (what the museums calls one of Norway’s most prosperous areas).

In case you haven’t already noticed, yes, it was raining.  But it was only a light drizzle, and it wasn’t cold outside so it wasn’t a problem … yet (that’s foreshadowing).

The Norske Folkemuseum is home to 160 buildings from the middle ages through the 20th century and is Norway’s largest museum of cultural history.  The buildings are situated by region.

This sod roofed farmhouse is from 1845 and from western Norway.

There were quite a few buildings from rural areas of Norway.

Including some spectacular examples of the stabbur, a building used to store food.

The Folkemuseum is also home to the Stave Church from Gol.

This church was built in approximately 1200.  It was moved and rebuilt on Bygdøy in 1884.  Stave churches represent an interesting combination of Christian symbols (the crosses) and Viking symbols (the dragons at the top of the building).

In addition to more rural buildings, there is also a section of the museum called the old town that contains buildings from Christiania, which is what Oslo was called in the 1600’s and 1700’s.

There are shops and townhouses.

You can go inside most of the buildings on display including the shops, although Mr. Q opted to hold up the side of the tobacco shop rather than checking out the inside.

In summer or on weekends there are costumed ‘museum hosts’ demonstrating various activities.  However, we were there on a Monday in September, so we nearly had the entire place to ourselves.

We did run into a woman doing some baking in one of the houses in town though.

  Can I just point out that table she is working on?  If I didn’t know better I’d swear the base of that table was painted in Miss Mustard Seed’s French Enamel.

Speaking of fabulously worn painted furniture, I also took a quick snap of this next table inside one of the buildings.

How’s that for a delicious authentic patina?

When we were done checking out the Folkemuseum, we headed back to the ferry and back across the inner Oslofjord to Rådhusbrygge 3 (townhall pier 3).

By the time we got back to the pier the rain was really starting to come down.  We had initially planned to spend some time walking around, maybe check out Karl Johans gate, maybe pop into a couple of shops.  But we were getting soaked.

We ended up in a duty free shop at the port instead where we found a really nice wool sweater for Mr. Q.  Remember when I mentioned that my first trip to Norway was back in the 90’s?  Well, I purchased a Norwegian wool sweater for Mr. Q on that trip and he literally has worn it for about 30 years!  It had only recently begun to fray a bit around the seams, so it was time for a new one.

We also ended up running into an older Dutch woman from our ship who asked us if we would be kind enough to walk her back to the ship.  She was soaked and didn’t seem to have an umbrella or any other rain gear!  And I think she wasn’t entirely sure she knew the way back.

So, we headed back to the ship where it was warm and dry.

We were hoping for a picturesque sail away out of Oslo, but the rain continued.

We were grateful for our somewhat protected connected balconies because we were still able to sit out there and enjoy it.

The ship’s cruise director gave some commentary on the sights as we passed them, including the Dyna Fyr lighthouse.

You can rent it for events including weddings.  How cool would it be to get married there?

However, you may want to save up for it.  According to their website, the price of the rent is 4500 NOK + 12% VAT per hour (or around $500 per hour). Lunch is a minimum of 3 hours and dinner a minimum of 4 hours.  Although that price includes the boat trip back and forth, it does not include the food (as best I can tell, it looks like the food is in the neighborhood of $100/person with a 20 person minimum).

This was my 4th visit to Oslo, and the 4th time it was overcast and rainy.  If you’re looking for a warm and sunny vacation, Norway probably isn’t for you.  But as they say in Norway, “Det finnes ikke dårlig vær, bare dårlig klær!” which translates to “There is no bad weather, only bad clothes!”  I totally recommend taking a trip to Norway, but be sure to pack your rain gear!

As you know, last week my sister and I were out at our mom’s house near Las Vegas.  It was mom’s birthday on Halloween, and we decided to take her on a little road trip to celebrate.

We loaded up the car and drove up to Zion National Park in Utah.

We opted to take the more scenic route through the Lake Mead National Recreation Area rather than taking the interstate all the way.  This route makes a bit more sense when leaving from mom’s house in Henderson, Nevada rather than somewhere near the strip in Vegas, but it does also add about 30 minutes to the trip.  Mainly because the speed limit on much of I-15 is 75 m.p.h. while the speed limit through the rec area is 50 m.p.h.  Otherwise it only adds about 5 extra miles.  It took us about 3 1/2 hours to get there due to some road construction as well though.

I should also note that you need a National Park Pass to drive through the Lake Mead rec area.  My sister was able to buy an annual pass at the gate for $20 as a senior (you must be 62 or older, so I don’t qualify quite yet).  We were then able to use her pass for all of us to get into Zion as well, so it was definitely $20 well spent.

And Zion was definitely worth both the drive and the fee!

We stayed at the Best Western Plus Zion Canyon and when we drove up to our hotel we were not disappointed.

But honestly, there were quite a few hotels along highway 9 in Springdale, and all of them had a similar view.  I think one could be happy with any of them.

Before planning this trip I didn’t realize that Zion is the 3rd most visited National Park in the U.S. with over 4.5 million people visiting per year (wowza!).  It’s only beat by the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Grand Canyon National Park.  I really thought Yellowstone would be higher up on the list, but it’s down at number 7.

Because of the large number of people visiting, the park has developed a shuttle bus system to move people around.  There is a shuttle bus line within the park that travels the Zion Canyon scenic drive, and another shuttle bus line that goes through Springdale and has 9 stops including one right in front of our hotel.  The shuttle buses are completely free of charge.

However, you should note that from March through November and around the Christmas holiday you are not allowed to drive your own personal vehicle on the Zion Canyon scenic drive (with one caveat, which I’ll explain later).

After arriving and checking into our hotel, my sister and I decided to walk to the visitor center while our mom rested up a bit.

It was a beautiful sunny afternoon, and even the walk through town was gorgeous.

It took a little over 20 minutes to walk to the park entrance.

After checking out the visitor center a bit, we decided to take a quick hike on the Pa’rus Trail.  This is an easy 3.5 mile paved trail that starts right at the visitor center.

It follows the Virgin River up to Canyon Junction.

It was late afternoon by the time we started this hike and the golden light at that hour was absolutely stunning.

The leaves in Zion were just starting to turn for fall, they weren’t quite at peak color yet but were still very pretty.

The Pa’rus trail isn’t especially physically challenging, and in fact it’s even possible to do it with a wheel chair.  The scenery along it is beautiful, so even if you aren’t much of a hiker, you could still really enjoy a visit to Zion.

As the sun was coming down, we decided to hop on the Springdale shuttle and head back to the hotel to pick up mom and get dinner somewhere.

Funny sidebar tidbit, the two guys we sat next to on the shuttle were from Holland.  Seriously, as I keep saying, it’s a small world!  We were sure to tell them how much we loved our trip to Amsterdam in September.

We’d heard a lot of talk about how crowded Zion can be, and that there can be up to a 45 minute wait for the Zion Canyon shuttle.  So we planned accordingly and decided to beat the crowds with a sunrise hike the next morning.  We used this same strategy when we went to Sedona last year, and it worked out great.

The first shuttle leaves the visitor center at 7 a.m.  So we got up at 6, enjoyed the included breakfast at our hotel with mom, then drove up to the visitor center.  It was easy to find parking there at that hour (but the parking was completely full later).  We also got right on the shuttle with no waiting, and plenty of space (also, FYI, when we returned at around 11 a.m. there was only a very short line for the shuttle, so visiting Zion in late fall is also a good way to avoid the crowds).  We took the shuttle all the way to the final stop at the Temple of Sinawava.

This is where you will find the Riverside Walk that leads to the Narrows.  This is a 2.2 mile trail that follows the Virgin River deeper into the canyon.

At that hour we nearly had the trail to ourselves and it was magical to watch as the sun came up and started to light up some of the peaks around the canyon.

The popular thing to do at the end of the Riverside Walk is to continue your hike up through The Narrows by hiking in the river.

That explains all of the shoes left at the end of the trail.

But I have to tell you, it was 28° that morning.  And we were told that the water was around 47°.  Yeah, even us hardy Minnesotans weren’t brave enough for that, plus I’ve never really been one of the cool kids.

A few brave souls showed up while we were there though, and indeed they headed off in the water.

More power to ’em.

If you’re willing to suffer the cold, late October might be the best time to do this hike.  I’ve seen photos of how crowded this spot can be in the summer months …

But we just took a quick selfie (me on the left, my sister on the right).

And then turned around and headed back towards the shuttle stop.

There was a shuttle waiting, so we hopped right on and headed back to stop number 7 for the Weeping Rock Trail.

This is a short but steep trail that ends at a rock alcove with dripping spring water.  Being rather afraid of heights, I stayed as far from the edge of the trail as I could get.

They had a lot of plant markers identifying many of the wild flowers growing alongside this trail which I found interesting, and they also provided a good excuse to stop and catch my breath periodically on that uphill climb.

By the way, I mentioned that it was about 28° that morning, and here’s proof.

All of that dripping spring water was creating icicles!

After that short hike it was back to the shuttle and stop number 4, the Court of the Patriarchs.

We were able to get to the Sand Bench Trail from this stop.

This was a lovely trail, but it also doubles as a horse trail.  So much like our hike in Forestville State Park a couple of weeks earlier, we found ourselves dodging road apples (a.k.a. horse poop).  We eventually gave up on it and headed back to take the shuttle back to the visitor center.  It was time to return to the hotel, pick up mom, and find some lunch.

While riding the shuttle we asked the driver about handicap accessibility.  The shuttles are handicap accessible and they have a motorized lift that will help people get up and into the shuttle.  However, she also let us in on a not so well known tip.  If you have a handicapped person in your party, you can get a special permit that allows you to drive your private vehicle on the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive along with the shuttle buses.  You can also stop at any of the stops and park your car to get out and look around.

We went to the information desk at the visitor center and the park ranger was more than happy to provide us with this special permit.

So after lunch we once again headed into the canyon, this time with our mom.  She enjoyed several of the scenic overlooks, like this one at Big Bend …

and she even walked a bit of the Riverside Walk with us (that paved trail we hiked at sunrise).  She was able to use her walker and the trail is quite flat at the beginning.

We ended up back at our hotel by late afternoon, and mom was a bit worn out.  So I have to admit we just lazed about for the rest of the evening.  In hindsight, I regret not thinking about doing the scenic drive in the Kolob Canyons instead.  That part of the park is about 40 miles north of where we were though, so it would have been a bit of a drive.  Plus part of the scenic drive there is closed due to damage from a rock slide.  So maybe I don’t feel so bad about missing it after all.  Instead we enjoyed a quiet evening visiting with our mom on her birthday.

If you ever have extra time in Vegas, and access to a car, I highly recommend taking a little road trip out to Zion.  It’s a little further out than Red Rock Canyon or the Valley of Fire, but definitely worth the drive.  Have you been?  Leave a comment and let me know!

While we were in Amsterdam last month we checked out what is billed as ‘the most beautiful market of Amsterdam‘, the Albert Cuyp Markt.

I can’t really vouch for whether or not it is the most beautiful in Amsterdam because we didn’t go to any other markets.  But I can definitely say that some of the booths were very pretty.

Especially the ones filled with flowers.

I thought their prices were a bit better than ours.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen two bunches of sunflowers for only $5.30 (or 5€) at my local farmer’s market, have you?

Or bunches of zinnias for just over $4.

They had a lot more than just flowers though.

They also had produce …

And cheese.

There were some seafood/fish booths as well, but I had to walk past those quickly wihtout snapping a photo because the smell is a bit much for me!

There were quite a number of food booths too.  We tried a few of the local specialties including the famous stroopwafel, which was delicious.  I’m not a fish eater, but Mr. Q also enjoyed an amazing fish and chips.

My sister and I had to try the poffertjes …

These were little tiny pancakes with powdered sugar on them.  A bit messy, but quite yummy.

There was all kinds of other merchandise for sale as well; clothing, fabric, art, handmade soaps, all the usual suspects at a market like this.

I even found one booth selling vintage items.

And you’ll never guess what they had!

A Dutch toolbox!  Can you believe it?

I seriously considered purchasing it.  It was 45€, or about $48, and I would have splurged for it.  However, it was rather heavy and I knew I was already close to the weight limit on my suitcase.

Plus, we were on foot and we still had a bit more walking to do that day.  I didn’t want to lug a toolbox around with me.

After we left the market, we ended up walking to the Holocaust Memorial.

Each of those bricks has the name of one of the more than 102,000 Dutch victims of the holocaust.  The brick is engraved with the victims name, date of birth and date of death (if known).  We saw everything from victims in their 90’s to small babies.  How terribly sad.

After that somber experience, we headed to a brewery, Brouwerij ‘t IJ.   The tasting room is located in an old windmill.

Unfortunately, I’m not a beer drinker, and the beer here did not change my mind about that.

But it was fun to stop in and check the place out.

Before I let you go today, I just have to share a fun little side story.  The woman who snapped that group photo above for us was there by herself.  Shortly after taking the photo for us, another woman walked around the corner and saw her and her jaw dropped.  That was followed by a bunch of ‘oh my god’s!’ from both of them.  Turned out that they knew each other from the U.S. from years ago, both were on vacation in Amsterdam, and neither knew the other was there too.

What are the chances you would run into someone you know at a brewery in Amsterdam?  The world really is a small place sometimes.

Have you ever run into someone you know while on vacation?  Leave a comment and tell me all about it.

I thought I’d take a break from posting about our Amsterdam/Norway trip and share some gorgeous fall photos with you guys today instead.

Last weekend my sister, niece and I visited Forestville State Park way down in the southeast part of the state, almost to the Iowa border.

Fall colors were pretty much at their peak, and it was going to be a lovely, sunny day with a high near 60°.  Perfect for a little hiking.

This state park contains the restored 19th century village of Forestville.  The Minnesota Historical Society operates it as a historic site.

During the summer the buildings are open with staff dressed as historic figures, but this summer they had a limited schedule due to some bridge construction taking place.  We were still able to wander around and see things from the outside though, such as this 1897 wagon/carriage barn.

Normally this next building is the visitor center, but it wasn’t open while we were there.

The Foster and Meighen families opened the first general store here in 1853 and the town grew from there to include a blacksmith shop, a cabinet shop, saw mills, farms, stores, grist mills, and multiple hotels.  However, when the railroad decided to bypass Forestville in 1868 the town began its decline.  By 1902 the town’s post office closed and Forestville officially ceased to exist.

The Meighen family’s home was attached to the brick general store.

This next building wasn’t shown on the visitor guide, but it presented such a pretty picture that I had to include it here.

After checking out the historic town, we decided to hike up to the overlook.

There was one downside to hiking in this park.  It contains an equestrian campground, so most of the trails are shared between horses and people.

Unfortunately, that meant that we spent a good deal of time on the trail looking down to avoid things like this …

My niece was driving that day and she threatened to not let us back in her car if we stepped in it.

But that didn’t stop us from enjoying the gorgeous scenery.

The fall colors were spectacular.

And the hike up to the overlook was totally worth it.

It’s hard to make it out, but you can just barely see the bridge that was at the starting point of our hike in this next photo …

It looks pretty daunting, and although the hike was uphill all the way to the overlook, it was otherwise an easy hike on a gravel trail.  We didn’t have to do any rock scrambling, and aside from avoiding those road apples, we didn’t have to watch our footing for any other obstacles.

We took a minute to enjoy the view at the top and snap a quick selfie before heading back to the car.

I totally recommend a visit to Forestville State Park if you’re local.  It is about a two hour drive from the Twin Cities, but certainly worth it.  I think it would be even more fun to go when you can see inside the historic buildings, so maybe we’ll have to plan another trip to Forestville next year!

We took a 2nd day trip from Amsterdam while we were there last month, but this one was a little closer than Madurodam was.  Once again, we took the train, but this time to a small town called Zaandam.

Let’s start out by admiring the central train station in Amsterdam.

It’s pretty spectacular, isn’t it?

It was built in 1889 and features a cast iron platform roof.

The train from Amsterdam to Zaandam takes just under 15 minutes.  Once you arrive in Zaandam, it’s just a short walk through town and then across the bridge over the river Zaan to Zaanse Schans.

I was delighted to discover that the typical historic color for houses in the Netherlands was green, and there were plenty of green houses lining the bank of the river.

And on the opposite side of the river were the windmills we’d come to see.

Zaanse Schans is a sort of open air museum filled with classic Dutch wooden houses, windmills, barns and shops.

It’s not strictly a museum though, because people actually live in some of the houses.

It is incredibly charming, but also quite touristy.

Several bus loads of tourists arrived shortly after we did, but that didn’t spoil the ambiance for me.

We still found quiet spots to enjoy.

Maybe because most of the tourists were in the cheese shop scarfing down the free samples.

My sister is always game to pose for a cheesy photo.

We’d picked this trip mainly because we wanted to see the windmills.

You can’t really get any more Dutch than a windmill, can you?

But actually, we really enjoyed visiting the clog factory and learning all about how wooden shoes were made.

And we enjoyed checking out the Albert Heijn Museum.

Albert Heijn is a chain of supermarkets in the Netherlands that began in 1887.  This little museum is set up to look like a small grocers from that time frame.

My sister is also one of those people who loves a good grocery store, and we always have to check out the local grocery shops when we travel.  We also have been known to pop into a grocery store and put together a picnic dinner rather than dining in a restaurant, so we did check out a couple of other Albert Heijn stores during our stay in Amsterdam.  So it was interesting to learn about their beginnings.

However, I don’t think it will surprise you to learn that my favorite spot in Zaanse Schans was a lovely little antique shop.

The Het Jagershuis is located in the oldest house in Zaanse Schans, built in 1623.

It’s easy to see why their courtyard drew me in.

If only I could have thought of some way to get one of those concrete garden ornaments home.

I did manage to find a souvenir there that would fit in my suitcase though.

It’s a hand-painted antique Dutch ice skate!

I’m sure the average Dutch citizen would think it’s a cheesy souvenir, but I love it.

Can you imagine actually strapping skates like that on over your boots and heading out on the ice?  I’d likely break an ankle.

The skate was only 21€, and I thought that was a total bargain.  I’ll definitely use it as Christmas decor, maybe hanging it from a wreath or sled.

We really enjoyed our day at Zaanse Schans, despite how touristy it was.  It may have helped that it was warm and sunny, it was one of the few days on our trip where it didn’t rain at all.  It was definitely worth the short train ride to get there!

First up, congrats to Netti whose name I drew at random to win my Amsterdam giveaway from last week.  Netti, I sent you an email so check your in box if you haven’t seen it yet!

The first six days of our recent trip to Europe were spent in Amsterdam.

At first it might seem like six days is a lot for one smaller-ish city, but we (my husband, sister and niece) all wish we’d had even more time there.  There is so much to see in Amsterdam, not to mention the surrounding areas that are easy to reach by train.

First of all, some online sources say Amsterdam has over 100 museums!  Can you imagine?

  Now, granted, some of them are quite small, like the Tulip Museum (I’ll share more about that one in a Sunday morning garden post).

And some of them are quite … well … let’s just call them quirky.  Like the Cat Cabinet Museum, or the Museum of Bags and Purses.  Then there are the marijuana museums, and sex museums that people seem to expect from Amsterdam (sorry, we didn’t check out any of those).

And of course, some of their museums are world renowned, like the Van Gogh Museum, the National Maritime Museum and the Rijksmuseum.

I’ll share more on that one later too.

We also visited the Rembrandthuis Museum.

Rembrandt lived in this house in the 1600’s for about 19 years.  At the age of 52 he had amassed so much debt that he had to sell off the house and its contents to pay his creditors.  That actually ended up being fortuitous for the future curators of his museum because there was an inventory made of all of his belongings for the sale.  Thus it was possible to recreate the interiors of the home with amazing detail.

But in addition to museums, Amsterdam is just a very charming place to wander around in with all of its canals, bridges, and narrow gabled canal houses.

Although nothing is more than about an hour away on foot max, the public transportation system is super easy to use as well.  All you need is a credit card with a chip.  You tap as you get on a tram, and then you have to be sure to also tap on your way out (that’s how they know how long of a trip to charge you for).  Most of our tram journeys cost around $3.

On our first day in Amsterdam, we ended up stumbling into one of the traditional Dutch pubs, known as a bruin café or a brown bar.

Please forgive Kris and Debbie if they look a bit worn out.  We’d been on an overnight flight and none of us got much sleep.  Plus it was over 80° in Amsterdam that day (which is totally unusual for them in September), so we were both hot and tired.

This was clearly a spot normally favored by locals and it was the one instance during our entire trip where people tried to speak to us in Dutch.  We later found out that brown bars tend to be local watering holes, sort of the Dutch version of an English pub.

While in a brown bar, you have to order some of the brown food to get the full experience.  We tried the bitterballen, which are basically a meat and gravy sort of mixture that is rolled into balls, then battered and deep fried.

I thought they were delicious.

We also tried the ham and cheese kroketten, which was also good.

Speaking of stumbling across something unintentionally, that’s also how we ended up in the red light district.  We were trying to make our way across town on foot and the route took us down this alleyway.

I didn’t quite notice the red lanterns at first and it was a little startling to realize there were scantily clad ladies about 2′ away from me behind all of those windows.  Awkward.

Over the coming weeks I’ll share more about some of the side trips we took outside of Amsterdam itself, as well as the 2nd half of our trip which was spent on a cruise around Norway.  So be sure to stay tuned for that.

If any of you are looking for a city to visit in Europe that is super easy to navigate, where nearly everyone speaks English, and you can use your credit card for pretty much everything (in fact I saw more places that didn’t accept cash, rather than the other way around), Amsterdam just might be the perfect spot for your next getaway!

Have any of you been to Amsterdam?  And if so, what was your favorite thing to do there?  And if not, what are you waiting for?