Amsterdam!!!!

We have spent the past two nights in Amsterdam and it is probably my favorite place we have been so far. I think most everyone else agrees. Minus maybe Alan who has now caught Brenna's sickness and hasn't been able to really enjoy everything as much. Lucky for Brenna she is feeling all better and can now taste and smell :) The first day we got into Amsterdam we walked around and explored a bit. Everyone here is super nice, Erik asked the tram conductor which stop our hostel was at and he not only told Erik but went over the intercom and said "Jonny four stops" and preceded to let Jonny know after each stop how many stops were left.

After walking around for a while we decided to go to the Sex Museum, so basically we walked around and looked at porn.... it was quite strange but we figured we could experience the sexual part of Amsterdam without going to a sex show or buying prostitutes (a lot cheaper too).

I had amazing birthday yesterday we started the day visiting the Anne Frank house. A little bit depressing but really neat to see, I am glad we all went. The space that they shared was actually a lot bigger than I imagined. I think we are all really enjoying the culture and seeing all the historic places but feel slightly ignorant about what we are actually seeing. My advice for future travelers make sure you research everything before you go. I knew this before we left but somehow thought I would manage. On my other adventures I have been spoiled, it is a lot different traveling without a history teach whispering random facts in your ear :) (Love you Mom).

After the Anne Frank house we went to the Heineken Brewery and did a tour of the brewery which was actually pretty neat. We got to see how the beer was brewed, play games, go on a virtual ride and got a free sample followed by two beers at the end of the tour. While we were sitting enjoying our beers people gave us some of their free beer tokens so we all ended up getting three beers each which was a nice little birthday plus :)

I forgot to say that Brenna and Katie bought me three balloons for my birthday while walking back from the Anne Frank house and tied it to my wrist which I wore for the rest of the day, I think I was down to one before the Heineken experience though. They are difficult to manage in the wind with bikes and trams and what not.

P.S the transportation system here is so crazy!! To cross the street sometimes you have to cross five lines of traffic. The bike lane, the car lane, the tram lane, the other car lane, and the other bike lane!

At night for my birthday we went to dinner in the big park here and then sat by the canal watching the boats go by and listening to people sing and play the guitar. It was probably my favorite evening of the trip. We walked around the red light district at night which wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. Just a little bit sad seeing the prostitutes in the windows, we saw a couple of them get costumers. Super strange.

Today Lilly took us to a little town where her Aunt and Uncle live called Aalsmeer, where we went to the lake and went swimming. Then Lilly took us back to her Aunt and Uncle's house where a few people went on a bike ride and saw the town. I could move to Aalsmeer right now its a really cute town. You should check it out if you haven't heard of it! A couple of people got burnt at the lake, we unfortunately didn't bring sunscreen because we were told that it was supposed to be stormy, which didn't end up happening until this evening. We have been having really amazing weather everywhere we have been which has been really nice. We are having a real summer.

Everyone has been getting along swimmingly and I think we are all just having a really great time and enjoying each others company. We of course miss you all and hope everything is going well at home! Brenna is no longer sick and it seems like Alan is getting better so hopefully by Berlin everyone will be all healthy! Don't worry about the e.coli we have been told that it was only in some sprouts coming out of Hamburg and some seeds from somewhere else so we should be safe!

Hope all is well!

Sending love from us all!