On Monday Jess, Mike (Jess's co-worker) and I rented a small boat to cruise the canals of Amsterdam. I have to say it was one of the coolest things I have ever done.

Our reservation for the boat was at 1pm, so prior to that we stopped at Albert Hein (the big grocery store chain here) and loaded up on beer (for Mike and I), champagne (for Jess), cheese, bread and various other snacks.

We arrived at the rental place and I went in to deal with the deposit for the boat and signing on the dotted line. The gentleman behind the counter in semi-broken English asked if I had a credit card for the deposit. Before I had the chance to answer yes, he broke in and said: "of course you do! You're American". Hilarious! I love the American stereo types we have been running into. Not to get too political on the blog, but I'm glad we weren't here when George Bush was in office. I get the feeling that we may have been run out of town.

The boat was a small aluminum fishing boat (fits up to 6 people) with a small electric outboard motor. It didn't go very fast, but we weren't in a hurry. The weather was perfect and we cruisedup and down the canals for almost 5 hours. There are some big (very long) tourist boats that don't give a flying hoot about you and your small boat, but for the most part the canals were just full of folks like us soaking in the sun, having drinks and a good time.

It was such an amazing way to see the city. Your perspective is so much different when you are looking up at the beautiful architecture from the middle of the canal as opposed to right next to the buildings. It really is the best way to see it.

The only downside was the bathroom situation. I have a small bladder that seems to shrink even more when beer is involved, so we had to dock on several occasions.

Depending on where you dock, the canal walls can be rather high. On one fateful occasion (that is probably forever burned into Jessica's memory) we tied up and I attempted to pull myself up the wall and get up to the street. As I was doing this the boat decided to leave the comfort of being parallel to the wall with my feet still on it. So, just imagine me hanging onto thewall as my legs and feet begin to float away.

Streeeeeetch.

So, the choice was to let go of the wall with my hands and take a dip head first or let go of the boat with my feet. As a germaphobe, I obviously chose the latter. So there I am hanging from the wall with my right leg completely immersed in the water flailing with no leverage to pull myself up. Luckily a total stranger came by just in the nick of time and helped me up. Thank you complete Dutch stranger!!! You rock. Sorry folks. Luckily there are no existing pictures of that fiasco to share.

Except for that minor incident, it was a great day!!! We definitely plan on doing it again. Especially with visiting family and friends.

Late night cocktails at the Van Gogh Museum was just ok. So, no pictures or stories to tell. It would have been better if we could wander around the museum with our drinks and "get our art on", but we were quarantined to the lobby with your drink. We didn't want to see the whole thing anyway because we'll be back when visitors come. See how thoughtful we are!

On Sunday Jess and I took our bikes to the Amsterdam Bos (Forest). It's a huge park just outside the city. We just toured around it trying to get lost and taking every path we came across. It was so much fun!

From the English website for the Bos:

"With its 137 km of footpaths, 51 km of cycle paths and 50 bridges, the Amsterdamse Bos is one of the largest city parks of Europe. It contains 150 indigenous species of trees and over 200 species of birds."

We didn't see all 200 species of bird, but we did see quite a few. At one point we stopped to watch some sort of large male geese get in a fight (over a girl I'm sure). As we were watching a random pheasant decided to pass right by just a couple yards behind the goose malay. It was hysterical. I imagined him saying something like "Just passin' thru...don't mind me. Don't know and don't care what this about." They were too far away for a decent picture, so you'll just have to take my word for it that it was humorous.

After the ride around the Bos, we stopped for a much needed ice cream break. It has been HOT here! It's been between 70-75 for the past week. It's perfect weather! We have been told not to get used to it, however, so we are making the most out of it.

Stay tuned for the next installment. It involves a rental boat, the Amsterdam canals and the lower half of my body taking a dip.

In the meantime, here is a random shot of me wearing huge novelty wooden clogs. Enjoy!

We totally failed getting cell phones today. You have to have a bank account and debit card before you can get a phone here. So, we had to wait for the mail to come today to get our new Dutch debit cards, then we had to ride our bikes (oh yeah..did I mention we bought bikes?) to the bank to activate them. The bank was closed of course! So, no phones for us until at least Tuesday. The whole town is shutting down for the holiday.

So yeah...we bought bikes last weekend and have officially assimilated into the bike capitol of the world. It's truly amazing just how many bikes there are here! There are basically bike highways everywhere and they are packed. Yes, there is a bike rush hour.

Going to the Van Gogh Museum tonight for an Expat reception. Cocktails, hors d' oeuvres and art!! Hopefully I'll get some pictures to share.

In the meantime, here is a nice canal shot I took the other day.

First Post!

Jess and I have been in Amsterdam for almost 2 weeks now. I'm finally getting around to creating the blog. Sorry for the delay!

So...what's been going on...

We are currently in an apartment/hotel that the company provided until we find our own place. It's cramped with the dogs, but is free...so we can't complain.

Both of us are waiting on our work visas and "technically" cannot work until they are processed. We also both officially registered with the government and got our Dutch Social Security numbers yesterday. Next is the dogs. There is a yearly dog tax! They need to get a job...

We have been apartment hunting and found a couple places we really like. One in particular is amazing and we are currently holding our breath if we can get it or not. Of course, wherever we end up will have an extra bedroom for visiting friends and family!

The first picture is an example of the type of places we are looking at. Here you are facing the building. The apartment is on the top floors.

The second picture below is with your back to the building. The canals are so cool...

Well...that is all for now. I will keep up with this on a regular basis as we have more adventures!