Lisa and River, Nick and Jenni, Matt and Emily

We had a really crazy 6 weeks filled with good friends from back home.  Every other weekend we had new guests coming in to town, all ready to experience the beautiful Amsterdam!

Our first guests included my best friend Lisa and her husband River.  Their trip started in Italy (for 2 weeks) and then ended in the Netherlands.  We were also joined by our lovely friends Nick (from college) and Jenni who recently got married and started off their honeymoon in our neck of the woods!

Last fun couple, Emily and Matt, dear friends from Seattle!!!  They started in France, Germany and finished in the Amsterdam.

We try our best to be creative and show our guests the best of Amsterdam so please know when you visit, most likely we will do the following:

Boat ride around the canals with Pap.  Marc Paping owns a few boats and for only 30 euros an hour, will take you around the canals.  It's a nice boat, we bring wine, beer, food, and he conveniently picks up and drops us off right by our place.

 My favorite route takes us thru the Amstel, around the Red Light District and thru the main canals (Singel, Herengracht, Kaizergracht and Prinsengracht).

Bike ride thru Vondlepark.  This park is huge and big part of our life.  If we are not running around the full length of the park, we are bbqing with friends, taking naps during the early evening or playing with Indiana.

Favorite places to take our guests to dine:
Pancakes - for traditional dutch pancakes (pannekoeken).  My go to: Banana, Bacon and Chili Pepper.
Umi - Yummy sushi, nothing like home, but it works for now
Castells - 70's ski lodge atmosphere with awesome fillets
Tabac - good beers, dim sum and bitterballen with mustard
Cafe George - delicious wine and fries with mayo
Kantjil and de Tijger - Traditional Indonesian/Dutch plates (rijstaffel)
Rose's Cantina - Good for now Mexican dishes
Molenpad - Tables by the canal side, awesome bitterballen with mustard
Brouwerij't Ij - Beers and bratwurst with outdoor seating under a windmill
Cafe Loetje - Best steaks in the town
De Bazar - Tasty turkish food in an old Dutch church
Casa Peru - Peruvian dishes and sips of pisco sours - lime juice, simple syrup, bitters and egg whites
Mama Shoarma - Late night eats before hitting bed

Sites we recommend you See:

Anne Frank
Bloemen Market

Van Gogh

Hermitage

Red Light

Albert Cuyp Market

Heneikin Experience

Bike rides thru Vondelpark and to the various plazas - Leidseplein and Rembrandtplein

Kalverstraat - shopping

9 Straats - more shopping

The Jordaan and De Pijp neighborhoods

To die for sandwiches - 

Peanut butter, chicken and cucumber

Goat cheese, chorizo, walnut, arugula and honey - from Hartenkaas

In between guests, we joined friends Courtney and Michael on a quick trip to Delft, Netherlands.  Delft is particularly known for its canals and delft blue pottery (delftware).  We purchased some delftware, and enjoyed some beers/snacks while we waited for the rain to calm down.

Recently Kirk and I purchased slingbox thru our friend Eric.  We now have access to his cable and can enjoy UW football games!  We had our first stab at Sunday brunch and watched UW defeat USC for the 2nd year in a row!  We have a lot of Husky love out here!  Go DAWGS!!!

We just celebrated Kirk's 31st birthday!  It started off with a lazy day walking around the city, then a delicious steak at Cafe Loetje, ending with drinks at Tara!  Definitely a nice time with friends!!!

The next day we made brunch, had some friends over, watched more husky football, tasted the best bloody mary's (made by Ali Watson) and headed on to Pap's boat for some afternoon boating.  We were joined by friends Per, Lisa, Em, Matt, Ali, Jennifer and Johnny!

What a great way to spend Kirk's birthday weekend!  It was really hard to see all of our friends from home come and go, but we wouldn't trade it for anything!