Amsterdam!

I loved this city, we all did! Even though it was the middle of January, cold and rainy, and no flowers or green in sight, it was so attractive and cool. It's only a 2 hour drive from our house, so knowing we will return multiple times helped us not feel as if we had to cram everything into the two days we had. I think I've said it before, but it's such an advantage to be able to visit big cities like this in the off-season and avoid long lines and crowds of people.

The first place we went was the NEMO Science Museum which was a really good hands-on museum for the kids.

Then we went to the Van Gogh Museum, which we all really liked. It was a peaceful, beautiful museum of manageable size. Since is wasn't overwhelming, and because it was formatted according to the different periods of Van Gogh's career, it was a place that we left feeling like we really understood his art and career. Sometimes in the big museums you can feel so bombarded with imagery that it's hard to take in and appreciate, but not this place.

We walked certain parts of the city extensively, but didn't get up to the "seedier" part of the city with red lights and "cafes", we'll leave that for next time! The buildings, canals, and bridges are so charming. While we love exploring new cities it's also nice to have an occasional taste of home, so we had dinner at the city's Hard Rock Cafe, which was easy & relaxing.