Holler for Holland

So we've spent the past two days in Amsterdam and it has been unbelievably awesome. This afternoon we drove out to Nieuw Milligen, Netherlands (/Holland), (about an hour outside of Amsterdam) where we arrived at the bungalows in which we're staying for the next month. I'll update about this neat housing area in the next few days.

For now, though, a recap of our time hanging out in Amsterdam thus far.

We got into Amsterdam late in the morning two days ago. By the time we had picked up our bags, gone through customs, arrived at the hotel, and taken a quick nap (sleeping on transcontinental flights isn't exactly the easiest thing...), it was about dinner time. So we hopped onto the train into Amsterdam and grabbed a bite to eat at a really nice Italian restaurant. But that's neither here nor there.

What's really neat is what we did on our full day off! First item of business: lunch at the "Upstairs" Pannenkoekenhuis, or "Pancake House" to those of us who don't speak Dutch, myself very much included. Pannenkoeken are the Dutch breakfast specialty; they are thicker than crepes, but thinner than full-on American pancakes.

Here's the awesome thing about the "Upstairs" Pannenkoekenhuis. Not only is it, literally, upstairs (a very, very, very steep upstairs), but it's also self-touted as the "smallest restaurant in Europe." To help convey that small-ness, I've included a video.

Charlie heads upstairs.

Pretty cool, eh? Not only were the pannenkoeken incredibly delicious, but the ambiance is hard to beat. I definitely plan on eating there again before we leave next month.

Unfortunately, my camera battery died right after I finished filming that video, so I don't have any pictures of the rest of yesterday's events: namely, trips to the Anne Frank Museum (very interesting, informative, and sobering) and the Amsterdam Tulip Museum (less sobering and more colorful...and it smelled good, too!). I'll steal some pictures from the rest of the band at a later point.

In the meantime, here are just a few other pictures from around Amsterdam.

Yes, those are all bikes. The Dutch really dig bikes. They even have bike roads separated with extra medians (in between the main roads and the sidewalks).

No busking allowed! Though I suppose one could argue that this sign only specifically prohibits playing the tenor saxophone whilst collecting money in a tuna can.

It's so cold here right now that many of the canals are frozen over--notice the birds standing on the ice.

My favorite classical violinist, Janine Jansen, is Dutch. And, she's so popular in the Netherlands that she just published a single issue of her own magazine. I found it in a convenience store right in between some of the most popular and hippest fashion magazines. How awesome is that?! A classical violinist so famous that she can publish her own magazine and sell it to the general public?!
Janine Jansen is the epitome of cool.

The Dutch (and much of Europe in general, I've found) are big on fruit smoothies without added stuff. These two were delicious.

An example of written Dutch. I mainly just enjoy how the equivalent to "emergency" in Dutch is so similar to English word "calamity." It seems so dramatic.

The first of 23 shows is tomorrow night! Off to play some card games before bed.