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Published: January 19th 2007
We've been in Amsterdam for a week now, with three days left before we fly to Bahrain. Today was the first clear day we've had for a while, so we took advantage by finally getting our cameras out and taking pictures of the city. Yesterday was the opposite of clear: there was a crazy rain and wind storm all day yesterday, which ended up killing 27 people across Europe. It poured for part of it, but at first it was just windy... We were outside when the wind started, looking for the Stedelijk Museum (modern art) on foot, when the wind suddenly picked up. It was so strong I could almost lean into it without falling. A big gust took Jeff's hat with it, and he went sprinting after it down the road for almost a block while the wind whipped it down the street. He would have lost it, except it was run over by a car (just the brim) which stopped it and allowed him to pick it up. It left tire tread marks on the brim though. Haha. :-)
We decided to skip the museum and walk back towards our hotel. The wind was still out of
control, knocking over signs and ripping the enormous plastic sheeting off of the construction site at Central Station. We kept seeing planes taking off from the airport near by, and they looked like they were hardly moving against the wind and were visibly shaking. I can't believe they didn't cancel flights. (I heard they did later). A flying pidgeon was nearly thrown into me, knocked off course by the wind. There was umbrella wreckage everywhere. Then a huge chunk of rock was ripped off of the top of a building about 40 feet in front of us, and exploded into a pile of small rocks on the sidewalk. Scary... We heard on the news later that a 2-year-old was killed in London by falling rock the same day. We were lucky, and we made sure to walk in the streets away from old buildings the rest of the way home. It began to absolutely pour as we got close to our hotel, and we were drenched when we finally got inside. We watched the rest of the storm from inside.
Today when we woke up it was sunny and clear, so we grabbed our cameras and headed outside. The
wreckage from the storm is apparent everywhere... Tree branches and trash scattered everywhere (Amsterdam is usually pretty clean), sunken boats in the canals, and a huge tree literally uprooted from the cement sidewalk. We wandered around, past the Anne Frank Museum (which we've heard isn't actually worth entering, but it was sobering just to stand outside the house she hid in) and into the shopping district. We ate lunch at a place called "Maoz," which is a falafel place where everything is prepared completely fresh for you (even the falafel is fried on order) and you get to stuff your own pita sandwich with a great salad bar. Plus it's unbelievably cheap. It was our second time there, and we'll be back again.
After a nap today we might head to the Heineken Museum. Apparently they don't even brew beer there anymore, but I've heard it's a fun tour anyway. Then hopefully we'll make it to the Stedelijk Museum tomorrow, without being blown away on the walk there. :-)
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Megen
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Sounds like fun!
Laura! I just read all your blogs, and it sounds like you're having an awesome time. I'm really excited (but still sad) for you, being able to travel like this--you're my brave little hero! Miss you tons!