Amsterdam.

Was in Amsterdam for the last 10 days for work.

Enjoyed the alone time but missed my 2 Looks dearly.

Some photos of the trip.

Arrived at 7am in the morning so we took the airport-hotel shuttle to check-in and drop off my luggage.

 

 

Welcome to Amsterdam - the land of cyclists!!

 

 

View from the Hotel Allure guest room on the 3rd floor.

Hotel Allure's location is not too bad - near Albert Cyup and a metro/tram stations.

Only thing is you either need to walk or take the tram to places.

 

 Clean and spacious rooms.

No free wifi or LAN though.

There was an uninvited visitor on the first night - a mosquito!

It was stupid enough to buzz around my ear and I smacked the nightlights out of it!

The only other thing about the hotel is the killer steps up to the reception!

These stairs are not meant for heavy luggage - be warned!

 The street outside the hotel.

 Lunch on the first day at Burger Bar!

Near the office and a must visit!

The rest of the week was spent indoors as I was on training.

 The park behind my tram change stop.

Really nice at night with the lights.

 

The other side of the stop.

 

The street leading to the office.

 

 Views from the training room.

On Saturday, I had a colleague accompany me to some touristy sights in Amsterdam.

First stop, a place I had wanted to visit last December - Anne Frank House.

This was within walking distance from Dam Square.

 

 Being here and remembering the words in Anne Frank's Diary, it was pretty surreal to me.

Never one day did I thought I will be able to visit the place she hid in during WWII.

Otto Frank, the sole survivor of the family retained the area behind the bookcase.

The space was bigger than what I had imagined when reading the book.

To hide in there everyday - I would have want to run out and bask in the sun.

It was heart wrenching imagining how she felt.

The stairs though were steeper than I had thought - I had to walk sideways up.

Otto Frank said, 'Most parents don't really know their children.'

This stuck in my brain after leaving the house.

After that, we headed for the canal cruise.

 

The sun came up!

 

 

 

 Once a year, there's a gathering of the countries best clog makers for a competition.

We were lucky and got to see it.

Man, it's not easy to make!!!

This year they gathered 25 out of 50 makers and apparently this is a dying trade.

Well, I think it's like in other countries that the traditions are hard to keep.

It was heart-warming to see some really young clog makers.

Lunch time!

We headed to Madame Tussauds and we took loads of photos with lots of stars.

The photos are all gone as my colleagues SD card got corrupted.

The photos that I have were the streets from the top floor of the building.

 Royal Palace.

 

 Dam Square.

This made me miss Kylie.

I think she would have loved the weather and the birds!

 

 Last stop, The Amsterdam Dungeon.

A little history lesson on the beefeaters, plague, witchery, missing people turning up on ships etc.

Sunday was shopping day!

Kalverstraat as usual - to get clothes for Kylie and Mr Look.

Since it was purely shopping, I only caught photos of the food I ate!

Breakfast - MacDonald's Egg with Bacon McMuffin!

 

There was a long queue outside this shop which I never noticed before.

Had to try!

The ice-cream was really soft (softer than Mac) and it was scooped from a tub and not from a machine.

My guess is that it's hand-made.

Yummehz!!

Next time, I'll bring people to try and eat it again (an excuse)!

Dinner was settled at a cafe carousel which was at a corner of Weteringcircuit.

Burger, apple juice and poffertjes.

The rest of the week was back in office for training for me.

I have to say that technology is amazing as I managed to FaceTime Kylie with the help of Mr Look everyday.

She wasn't very excited about sitting in front of the iPad to see Mommy though.