Amsterdam

As I sit waiting for our old friend Barbara who was our "cultural broker" so to speak when we visited on our look see and then when we first relocated to come show our apartment to some new clients that are moving to Germany, I figured I might as well continue with our travel updates.

Not long after we returned from London, we headed to Amsterdam for the weekend to see our good friends Jesse and Michelle tie the knot. They have been living in Amsterdam for the past three years (both working for adidas) and I don't know if they will ever leave!

We arrived late Saturday night and after quickly dropping our luggage off at Terrell and Stephanie's place (Terrell used to live in Portland/works for adidas/relocated to Germany/married Steph who is German/moved to Amsterdam about a year ago) we hopped in a cab and headed out for the bachelor/bachelorette festivities. John made sure I got to the restaurant where the ladies were and then headed off with Andy. When I arrived, I encountered a large table full of pretty ladies all dressed in red who were downing pitchers of margaritas after a big Mexican dinner. Since I had missed the food, I had a liquid dinner and met lots of Michelle and Jesse's friends and family. 

Soon after I arrived, we headed out to another bar and then to a club called Rain where we danced for about 4 straight hours. The guys met up with us in the wee hours of the morning and John and I headed back to the place we were staying for the night to crash. On Sunday, we got up and enjoyed a fabulous breakfast courtesy of Terrell's culinary stylings....bacon, scrambled eggs, pancakes, multiple kinds of fruit, and of course, the traditional German breakfast fare consisting of bread, cheeses, and meats. After breakfast, we hung out for a bit and then headed over to our hotel. We were unable to book the room for Saturday night, which is why we had to crash at T's place. By the time we checked into the hotel, it was time to leave to meet up with all the wedding people for a picnic at Beatrix Park. We enjoyed some snacks, tossed a football, and even had a hula hoop competition. I think I came in second with about 4 minutes of consecutive hula hooping, but Michelle's mom was the reigning champion with over SIX minutes! I am pretty sure that after the picnic we got some dinner with Andy and went and saw the new Transformers movie in 3-D. I forgot that in Germany you get an assigned seat when you buy a movie ticket, which is still odd to me. We were in the very front row, but the movie was good. 

On Monday, which was the 4th of July, I'm pretty sure we slept in and hung out at the hotel for awhile. We walked around, probably ate at Maoz, and enjoyed some beer, coffee, and iPads at some point. In the evening we went on a dinner boat cruise with the wedding group around the canal and that was a lot of fun. The beer was aplenty and they did BBQ at the front of the boat. We enjoyed three hours of cruising, listening to music, and enjoying the company. 

John if you are wondering--no I didn't use the bathroom on the boat.

After the boat cruise, we spent an insane amount of time hunting down Josh and Molly's bikes which were locked up along the canal so that we could ride over to Andrea's house (John's former boss from when he first started at adidas). It seemed like it took hours to get there, but we finally made it and visited with her and two of her friends for a bit before riding home. I must say that the bike riding culture of Amsterdam is very cool, but I just couldn't hang--I was pretty terrified each and every time I rode a bike and I much prefer to walk even if it takes three times as long. The mixture of speedy bikers and cars was a bit much. I just can't even fathom how people can do what they do while on bikes--talk on the phone, text, smoke, eat, carry grocery bags in their hands, juggle flaming bowling pins...what's next? Meanwhile I could barely steer the bike straight despite my death grip.

Tuesday we met up with the wedding group at 1 and took a bus to the wedding venue. It was held at a beautiful golf course and we all got to spend the night in little cabins. When Michelle gave us the info I was a little concerned about what it would be like, but it was awesome. The wedding was absolutely beautiful and a good time was had by all. John gave a nice toast during the cocktail hour and we even went for a little cruise around the lake in one of the rowboats. We had dinner, which was followed by lots of dancing and Chinese Lanterns and then an after wedding party with fire pits, marshmallow roasting, smores, chips and guac and of course more booze. 

The following morning we enjoyed brunch with the group and then headed back to Amsterdam on the bus. We went back to Josh and Molly's place to hang for the day since we had already checked out of our hotel. They let us shower there and then a group of us went to Pata Negra for tapas, which were awesome. After lunch we did some more iPadding and relaxing and then later we headed to Maoz one last time for our favorite falafel pitas.  Then, it was time to head to the airport and return home. 

It was so much fun seeing Jesse and Michelle and being part of their special day.