Amsterdam: Day 1

As soon as I got off the train in Amsterdam, M and I were off. Got straight on the metro (tram) to the Zoo (which is a station). The passes for the metro work in time increments rather than per use. So we got an hour pass. Then we went to the hotel (at 10 am) but the room was not ready so we left our stuff in the lobby and left. We stopped by Blue Bird which is a cool coffeshop; then we started a walk back to central station. On the way we got a bread pastry - delicious. When in the heart of downtown, we went to a coffeshop called The Doors. While there I had a great drink called Looza in the mango flavor (M had banana flavor).

Amsterdam is filled with cars, scooters, bicycles, mopeds, motorcycles, metro, waterways, walking. It is incredible how more accidents don't occur.

Anyways, we walked through the Jewish quarter, passed bridges over waterways, and churches.

Lunch was on Jodenbreestraat at restaurant Orff. I had Sate Ajam, salade and frities (chicken skewers with a peanur butter sauce and fries).

Then we got bikes!! Best choice of the day. The bikes we got were through Amsterdam Mac Bike Bike Rentals - we got the one with a foot pedal break (cheaper). We biked at least 3 hours - all through town - visited the "I Amsterdam" sign. Then we had dinner at restaurant Ocho - a latin grill. We had fajitas, quesedilla, and chocolate cake. After we had tead at The Otherside - a coffeshop right next to Ocho. These two places are located on Reguliersdwarsstraat. The Otherside was really cool with chandeliers throughout the small space.

The day was jam packed! Going to sleep now but more tomorrow :).