Amsterdam - Day 1

We had a lovely canal-side apartment in Amsterdam. It was a little out of the city, but really close to a tram that went straight to Central Station, and a supermarket, a bakery, a pharmacy, and a bottle store... all those things you need when you travel with children!

We had two full days to see what we could, and the second day's forecast was for rain. So we took advantage of the sunshine on the first day and took the kids to Artis (The Amsterdam Zoo). It is a small zoo (being in the middle of an urban/suburban area in the city) but has a varied collection of animals, and we were surprised that quite a few of them roam free, especially some of the birds.

Here's just a few of the pics:

Macaques

Pink pelicans

Very quiet, disinterested thing

Garden

It looks prehistoric

Owls (Hedwig?)

Elephants 

Peacock

Giraffes and zebras

Wolves (they were gorgeous!)

Very cute, and roaming free (but not for touching, much to Miss L's disappointment)

Camels

After leaving the zoo, Master J and I did the tour of the Amsterdam Dungeons while S-i-L took Miss L for a walk in the pushchair to try and get her to sleep. The dungeons were very well done! It was a tour of about 20 people (with Master J being the only child) and it took us through many rooms, each complete with actors playing the parts of judge, torturer, jailer, and executioner etc. Unfortunately photos were not allowed, except for this blurry one I took in the foyer.

The Amsterdam Dungeon

There were many scares, screams, heeby-jeebies, and bumps in the night, and the woman beside me got such a fright in one room that she screamed and landed in my lap with her arms around my neck! It took us both a second to regain our composure! We went through a witch trial and burning, being sold into slavery on a ship, a mortuary and hanging 'garden' of corpses, a room of mirrors, and we crawled through a pitch black tunnel with things grabbing at our ankles. Although I enjoyed it and thought it was fabulously done, I was glad when it ended so that the adrenaline could cool down a bit! And a few of the guys in our group had obviously been sampling some of Amsterdam's finest before they came in. They found everything to be extra-scary and extra-funny. By the end I think they were getting on everyone's nerves, not just mine!

There were street performers in Dam Square who were very entertaining.

And that was the end of Day 1 in Amsterdam. We enjoyed looking around the city and catching the trams from here to there. We got some groceries and headed home for another early night (we seem to be doing that a lot!).