Amsterdam Renaissance Hotel

What abeautiful city, so much water everywhere, so much history...

From Jenn: For our birthdays this year, Julia and I decided to go big. On a gloomy afternoon in March over G-Chat, we planned our annual birthday excursion via a multiple choice question. We went with choice "C" of our self-created exam. The itinerary: Amsterdam, Belgium, and Paris. The basis: some people like chicken and waffles, we like Belgium beers and waffles. There is absolutely no agenda for this trip other than to consume. Unless you consider touring breweries and sitting at cafes peo...

Jenn's Birthday Extravaganza courtesy of Julia (her account is less hazy as she was not hazed by the pub crawl staff): ...To save you guys the mystery, we ended up being champs and doing both. Starting at a bar for a nice pint of local beer and a burger, we then joined the frat party (it's actually called the "ultimate party") at a bar near Leidseplein. We were welcomed by wrist bands (spring break, anyone?), an orientation (yes, orientation) that ended with "who's ready to paaaaarty?!", and ...

Today started out way too early. Jenn's rules were to get up at 7am and out the door by 8. We had to see the flowers! So we grabbed some coffee and a Dutch to-go breakfast (they have waffles glazed in chocolate and covered in sprinkles... like our donuts... but they're waffles... how can anyone resist?). Less than an hour on the train, and we were in the Dutch countryside, passing by windmills and goats. Outside of Leiden were the Keukenhof gardens. Some background - the tulip festival, in an...

We are stealing an idea from Chris and Melanie who decided to allow their visitors to write T-Pod entries. This will allow you to see A'dam through someone else's eyes, plus it will give us a week off =) The following was written by Julie's father, Marty, about his and Julie's mother's first visit to A'dam. ============================== Lynn and I began our trip to visit Julie and Stephen by boarding our United flight at O'Hare at 5:30 pm on July 24, 2003. We settled in for takeoff with abou...

We roll into Amsterdam and manage to weave our way around the people on bicycles to find our hotel. I have never seen so many people riding bikes before in my life. The city seems very environmentally conscience. Amsterdam is so much more than just "coffee shops" and prostitutes. It has canals reminiscent of Venice, excellent shopping, great old buildings, excellent modern architecture and good food and beer.

Even better than all of the above points are the people. Just about everyone...

went to the red light district. saw hookers in windows - surprisingly they were much more attractive than we anticipated. they don't like their pictures taken so when i tried, the three closed their curtains quickly. so i had to take the other pictures in stealth and it didn't turn out as well.

enjoy