Marcie's Big Adventure - Day 17/3rd Day in Amsterdam, The Netherlands

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Hi Everyone,

Spent my last day in Amsterdam walking and walking and walking. It still in the 40s and mostly sunny. It was perfect for walking around weather. Started my day by walking to the Centraal Train station to find out what area of that ginormous building will be where I need to go in the morning to catch my train to the airport. Will be dragging my heavy suitcase around with me in the morning and want to walk as few steps as possible with my stuff. I ventured out into other sections of the city. Think of NYC, where you have areas like Times Square, Tribeca, Little Italy, Meatpacking district, Diamond district, etc. Amsterdam has the same type of thing. I did find the red light district! Although it is probably way more exciting at night to see everything than during the daylight. I’m just a kid from Vermont and I can assure you that our Woolworths did not sell the types of items I saw in the store windows or in the souvenir shops! And there were lots of kids, some with their parents in those stores shopping. I am clearly way more uptight that Europeans are. I couldn’t even stand and window shop I felt so embarrassed at things I was seeing. For those of you that have been to Amsterdam, I know you’re waiting to hear if I had their crazy French fries or their stroopwaffle. No, I did not. I found the most famous place for each but could not bring myself to order French fries with mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, etc. etc. all on the same fries at the same time. I looked at them as people ate theirs but it kind of turned my stomach. The stroopwaffle place was almost next door to it and my stomach was still churning from what I had seen and smelled with the French fries so eating something so sweet was not appealing at that time. I need more days in this city!! The city of Rotterdam, where my ship sailed into, is the second largest city behind Amsterdam. It was totally decimated by Hitler in WW2 and had to be completely rebuilt. I asked someone today how much damage the Germans did to Amsterdam and was told that Hitler really liked Amsterdam and had spared it. The older buildings are phenomenal. Not an exciting last day but it was another great day in a fabulous city wandering around. Hugs

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