Around Amsterdam

Around Amsterdam

I spent all of today in Amsterdam, taking in the city.
It has so many canals, I've never been to Venice, but I imagine Venice must be like this- they are literally everywhere.  You cross a bridge about every two minutes.  There are also tons and tons of bicycles- they have their own bicycle streets parallel to the automobile streets.  Amsterdam is a beautiful city with its canal houses, tall churches, and many squares (pleins).  I walked first to Anne Frank's house, where she wrote her famous diary and where she hid from the Nazis until being taken to the camps and murdered.  The experience there was very moving, and very well done.  I left and made my way to the Amsterdam Museum, where I had lunch.  The museum was fun- it's extremely high-tech, you use your program to activate displays (so they know what language to do them) and it presents a history of the city from settlement through the modern day.  I enjoyed it.  I then walked through the flower market and Leidseplein on my way to the museum district.  I visited the Rijksmuseum, which was ok- mostly Rembrandt and some other Dutch masters.  I then went to the Van Gogh museum, which was very good.  I had Argentian steak (they have a million of the Argentian places around the city) for dinner, and then headed back to the hotel.