Fiendish Friday: Amsterdam

So we just got back from a couple weeks abroad, so you’ll get a couple Fiendish Fridays that might be more like travel reviews. Deal with it. smiles.

We landed in Amsterdam, the kiddo and I. He had a full night’s sleep on the plane and I had none. We had a four seat row to ourselves, so I showed him how to stretch out on three of those seats and still keep his seat belt buckled. But three seats weren’t quite enough for him and every time I dozed off upright, he would hit me trying to get half my seat as well. sigh.

The hubs told me he cleared both our common credit card for international travel but mine didn’t work when we landed and the 150 Euro he gave me before he left turned out to be 130 sheckles and 20 Euro. Good thing I never depend on a man to take care of me. LOL. I had called my own CC company and got international clearance on my card, so we weren’t totally screwed.

We went to the zoo the first day, sunlight to reset out clocks. I was sadly disappointed. The last time I was at the Amsterdam zoo it was very enjoyable. No idiot controls. Animals right there. They fed the lions live rabbits for a chase. Not anymore. Now it’s all controlled. Very Americanized. Very disappointing. But the kiddo had fun on the play ground.

Next day, we met the hubs for coffee. Then took a canal boat tour with my uncle in law.
Kiddo loved the Van Gogh museum. They get high marks for having a scavenger hunt for kids. The kiddo won a postcard with the Van Gogh painting of his choice. I was quite surprised by his choice. The Potato Eaters. Very unexpected.

We capped the day with an educational program and tour of the Anne Frank house. Kiddo was not impressed. It’s so hard to get him to grasp the impact of WWII.

Friday the kiddo was sick. He had a nasty cough and I got to go to a pharmacy and explain in Dutch, which I don’t speak, what I needed medication wise for him. LOL. It worked out ok. Although I was a bit worried with the big green leaf on the front of the box. I asked the hubs about it when we finally got to see him and he told me it wasn’t pot laced cough syrup. Whew. LOL

All in all, Ams was disappointing. We walked most everywhere because it’s not that big. But literally every block someone was smoking marajuana on the street. The smell of second hand weed makes me nauseous. So I spent four days trying not to vomit. Bleh. I know, I know the ridiculousness of a drug prescribed to help with nausea making me nauseous is not lost on me.

Oh, and the kiddo apparently inherited my hubs terrible inability to adjust to time zones. He woke me at 2A every day, saying he couldn’t sleep. I’d give him half a melatonin and he would go back to sleep, but I wouldn’t sigh.

A special note on Schiphol airport. It sucks. 6 security lines, four of which to check our passports. One of them, we had a passport check and interview, walked 20 feet down a hallway and stood in another line for a passport check and interview. I shit you not.