Amazing Amsterdam

AND BEYOND...so, this is the first entry in the "and beyond" portion of the blog "Cambridge Capers and Beyond"...we are on a plane headed to Greece, by way of Amsterdam...and we are so humbled, grateful, amazed, and thankful to be going...the entire story of how we got to this place is nothing short of miraculous.  God is good. 

So, we ended up with an unexpected 8-hour layover in Amsterdam, and decided to take advantage of it with a city tour!  In the words of the British, "It was brilliant!"  We were SOOOOO thankful we decided to explore a bit...here's some of what we saw: 

1. Windmills - this one is 400 years old.  There are around 1000 windmills left today of the 9000 at one time.

2.  Wooden ice skates - These belong to family members of the farmer we visited, and are hanging from the rafters.  We learned that most all the canals in the country freeze over in the winter and that ice skating is a national past time...cool.  The wooden ice skates fit OVER your regular pair of shoes.

3.  Wooden shoes and Cheese - we visited this farm where they make fresh (we met the cows) cheese and also MAKE wooden shoes --  REALLYY?!?!?!  So, the kids had fun trying on a pair and holding 10 year old gouda cheese, which, by the way, they told us is called, "parmesan." Oh...of course...

4.  Beautiful boat-lined canals - Since 1/2 the country is BELOW sea level, they have a 24/7 "Pumping-Water-Out-Party" with these enormous water pumping stations, which we learned everyone in the Netherlands has the opportunity to pay special taxes for (our tour guide Hank said with a grin.)

5. "I AMsterdam" is the official city motto. In "Museum Square" are these enormous letters of their motto.  I like how this photo captures our children's personalities a bit...as for me, I'm just thankful that the "d" was extra wide to accommodate both

 Tori and my hips...ahem...

6. - Anne Frank's house - Probably the highlight of the day was getting to see Anne Frank's house. See the middle building with 3 windows across with BLACK on the bottom story?  This entire structure is the house where she and her family were hidden during WWII. 

6 1/2. - This is the church that was just one-half block from Anne Frank's house that she mentioned in the book, from which every quarter hour she could here the church's bells chime.  I couldn't believe how moved I was to put sights and sounds to her story...