bicycles, bakeries, leaning buildings and a wax museum

---

It's the end of our fourth day in Amsterdam, but it feels like we've been here a week at least. The city is a maze of curving streets, narrow alleyways, and canals, and we're just now starting to figure out where our hotel is in comparison to everything else. A few days ago we picked out a very tall tower which was under construction to use as a landmark... there was a metal rod sticking out at an angle on one side, so we looked at the direction it was pointing and planned to use it to find our hotel from then on. We went out that evening, walked around for a few hours, then used our tower to guide us home... only to realize, after walking for a while, that the metal rod was in fact attached to a weather vane on the top of the building... and it was moving. Haha. We found our way home anyway, after a while... Next time we'll pick landmarks that don't move. :-)

We've found a number of favorite restaurants & shops already: a little grocery store a few blocks away, an italian restaurant with awesome baked lasagne, a sandwich/pasta restaurant called Foodism with amazing super fresh paninis and fresh fruit smoothies for a very decent price, a gourmet cheese shop. In general Amsterdam is pretty expensive... We're litterally spending probably 10 times more money per day here than we will during the rest of our trip. It's definitely a great time though, as our pictures for this time will attest... We went to Madam Tussad's Wax Museum, which is only a few blocks from our hotel, and had a blast... It's kind of a self-guided tour, walking from room to room with automated lights going on and off and various places set up to take pictures with the wax people. Near the beginning there's a haunted house, which we weren't expecting... Dark, flashing lights, and wax figures of monsters and bodies... except some of them were real people, and jumped out... I had no idea I could be so scared by a wax museum exhibit. The rest wasn't so scary but still a little spooky cause they look so darn real and you feel like you're surrounded by people. Anyway, it was silly but a lot of fun.

We've found some great little clothes and art shops, but it's actually kind of refreshing knowing we're backpacking for the next 8 months... we really have no urge to buy anything, since the urge to keep our bags light is so strong. I don't think we've bought anything at all yet, actually, aside from food & tickets to the museum. Amazing, in a town like this... If someone were to like shopping, it would seriously be heaven. Shop after shop, all small and completely unrelated and random... tiny art galleries, a tulip museum, an "ottoman" museum (yes, cloth footstools), a specialty beer shop selling only bottled singles, a store with a pirate toaster (jeff liked that), a vintage shop with awesome hats (jeff fancied the pink one, haha). We found pure kiwi juice yesterday, with all the little seeds still floating in it (very tasty) and had the best green grapes we've ever had. This town is seriously a treat, and everything seems so cheerful and silly. Oh, and all of the women (plus many of the men) are wearing some kind stylish, wacky, colorful or outlandish boots. I feel a little out of place in my hiking shoes. :-) Also, a number of the buildings are built to lean over the street, getting wider at the top than they are at the bottom... Apparently this is because they pay property taxes based on ground area. I still haven't gotten many pictures of the city--it's been cloudy so we haven't gone out with our good cameras much yet, just my compact. But hopefully we'll get a clear day soon so we can get some good shots. There's a LOT to photograph.

A few days ago Jeff and I got a call from our friend Nic back in madison, letting us know that he's decided to fly out and join us in Amsterdam for the last part of our time here. He gets in tomorrow morning. It'll be fun to have someone else to hang out with here. For now, time to watch some Dutch TV (which, by the way, can be incredibly strange) and think about going to bed.

---