Au Pair of Adventures: AMSTERDAM!!

The weekend in Amsterdam was absolute perfection. I wouldn't have changed a single thing. By the end of the weekend, we had walked over 40 kilometers, often in freezing temperatures, rain, and even in hail.

Friday I left the house at 11:45am and took the train out to Ansbach. Adam met me at the train station and we then went and met Eddie in the parking garage. We left Ansbach just after 1:30pm. The drive was going well until we hit Frankfurt. We sat in stop and go traffic for the better part of two hours. We finally arrived in Amsterdam just after 10pm. We first went to our boat to drop off our belongings. The boat was awesome, even if our room was tiny. The three of us could barely be standing at the same time, that's how little room we had. We did have our own sink in the room, so that was nice. There were two showers and two toilets down the hall for everyone in the 10 rooms to use. I thought it would be an issue and there would be a line to shower in the morning, but I never had to wait to use the facilities. There was a little kitchen/restaurant area in the front where breakfast was served. It was a really neat little setup. I was glad I found this place on such short notice. Anyways, after dropping off our stuff, we went and parked the car. From there we headed out into the city. We spent the evening walking around, popping in and out of pubs and wandering the streets. It rained on and off all evening and the temperature was around freezing. I think we made it back to the boat around 3am.

Saturday we were up around 10am for breakfast. We got ready afterwards and ended up leaving the boat just after noon. We did more or less of what we did the night before. We walked around, saw the sights, popped in and out of pubs and shops, and explored. We ended up walking over 20 kilometers by the end of the day. Around 5pm we were back at the boat and spent a couple hours napping and resting before we headed back out for the night. Again, we did more or less the same as before. There seemed to be a lot less people out and about Saturday night than there had been Friday night. All the pubs seemed to close earlier as well. It was even colder than the night before and had been raining on and off all day. We managed to get back to the boat by 3am.

Sunday we had to be up for breakfast by 10:30am and check out by 11am. We were a bit late and ended up leaving at 11:30 or so. We brought our things to the car and then set out to do a little more walking around since it was actually sunny. We were all pretty exhausted by then, so we didn't spend too much time out. Our last stop was for some lunch before we headed back to the car to leave. As we were leaving lunch, it started hailing. We pulled out of the parking garage at 2pm. The drive home was going well until we were just north of Frankfurt. It started snowing hard and fast and it was accumulating quickly (the first snow of the year!!!). Everyone slowed down. There was also an accident, therefore causing us to sit in traffic for nearly three hours. We were originally supposed to get back around 8pm, and we didn't pull into Ansbach until 11:15pm. The next train home for me wasn't until 12:14am, so I had to wait an hour before I could catch it. I walked inside the door just after 1:30am. I was completely exhausted. HD looked at me, laughed, and said, "Wow, you're finally home!"

Here's a few pictures from the weekend.