Amsterdam/Holland

I had a lot of fun in Amsterdam. What was nice about Holland is that almost everything was in both English and Dutch. So I was able to read and talk with people in English. 

 We made it to the city in the afternoon and we were able to tour the Anne Frank house. This was something that I really wanted to do so but we were not sure that we were able to go in because it is a big attraction and there is usually a rather long line just to get in. I think it was because we were there later and when we got to the house it was only going be open for like another hour we were able to walk right in. We took the whole hour and I was pretty amazed with how big the secret annex was. Of course for all the people that were hiding in the small apartment and being cooped up without the possibility of going outside would have been very restrictive after a handful of days. 

 What I thought was amazing were the amount of bikes in this city! While I was in Europe many people use this mode of transportation but nothing compared to Amsterdam. I am standing on a dock that is between the ocean and the city with a place were I guess you could put your bike. It would seem that a car would be a nightmare and really a bike would be the best thing to get you around the city. 

 The next morning we were able to go to the Alkmaar cheese market. It is one of the oldest cheese markets that are still around. They still have people dressed up back when the market would have been set up for trading for hundreds of years. 

 They bring in these huge cheese wheels by boat or wagons and line the cheese up like this and then wait for the market to open. There was a lot of cheese!! We were able to taste some and it was yummy. 

Once the market opens the men toss the wheels of cheese on to this boat looking carrier and one gets on each end and pull the rope over their shoulders and trot over to the weighing station. Then they weigh their cheese and take it over to be sold. It was a very interesting process and pretty impressed with how light weight they made this cheese look.