TRIP 2/9 Amsterdam Day 2

Today we took a relaxed pace day. Mimi and I went to the grocery store down the street where she experienced the challenge of finding what you want when everything is labeled in Dutch.

Grocery Loot

Silas living the dream

Navigating on the trams in Ams

Then we took off in an uber for Centraal Station where I picked up my IAmsterdam card. It was $70 for a three day pass for all of the museums and a bunch of other activities, including all transportation. The kids are free almost everywhere so I just bought them each transit passes for $2.50/day. So basically everything is paid for from here on out (except for food).
We hopped on the tram and took a wild ride to the Van Gogh museum. Trams are my favorite way to get around Amsterdam because they're fast, scary, you can see the whole city as you travel, and they go where you need to go.

Silas explaining the Potato Eaters

My favorite Van Gogh, of course

We jumped the line at the museum and the workers told us about a treasure hunt for kids. We loved it!  The best part of the museum was when a familiar face showed up. Nathan! He had a layover on his way to Pisa where he's establishing an exchange program for the UofU. Nathan and his buddy teamed up with my kids and we did the whole game and saw all of the paintings. I love doing kid activities at museums because they make them come alive.

It's not the real one.

The IAmsterdam sign was nearby so we hit that and then crossed the street when we saw a diamond center.

Photo Op with Nathan

Amsterdam is famous for diamond polishing. The smooth Italian guy showed us how they're cut and then tried to sell us some $6000 diamonds. The kids were delighted and said it was their favorite activity so far. I love when fun happens upon me.

Picking out diamonds.  They didn't have any black ones.

Next we had gigantic pancakes at a place Dax and I used to frequent when we visited Amsterdam.
By 5 we were exhausted. We went home to unwind and then played foozeball at the hotel. To finish the day we went in the Japanese hot tubs and sauna on the roof.

Pancake lover's dream come true.

This hotel was something else.  This is the Johnny Cash machine.

Badplaats apparently means hot tub. 

Rooftop hot tubs 

Jude's favorite Van Gogh.

These kids are such fun travelers. The world excites them and they love pointing out all the little different things they see. Their favorite observations are the tears of joy on my face when I see them learning to love traveling as much as I do.