So this might have been one of the longest days of my life…sort of.  Even though I’ve slept some since I woke up yesterday morning, it hasn’t been a good solid eight hours of sleep and so it feels like I haven’t slept at all.  Between the red-eye flight and the jet lag I’m all screwed up.  That being said, we were able to get a little sight seeing in and I’ve already had some pretty strong impressions of Amsterdam.  Here are my stream of consciousness thoughts cause that’s basically the only way my brain is working at the moment.

When people said everyone spoke English here, they weren’t kidding.  I think the only person who didn’t speak English well that we’ve encountered so far was a busboy where we had dinner, and I think he might have immigrated from somewhere outside of Europe.

The city is short and sort of spread out, but very very cool.  Its grey and rainy but for me that only adds to the charm of the city.  The architecture is very unique and is definitely the flavor.

Despite the grey weather, the people strike me as extremely friendly and very willing to help out any time you have a question about anything.

A possible exception to the friendliness are the cyclist, of which there is an overwhelming abundance.  There are a ton of them, they ride fast, and to someone unfamiliar with the city it only takes one near miss to realize that the smooth part of the sidewalk is actually the bike lane and you shouldn’t walk there.

If you ever come to Amsterdam, I can definitely recommend staying in the Museum Quarter.  Our hotel is just across the street from the Rijkmuseum (one of their biggies) and just a few short blocks from the Van Gogh Museum.  A short walk in the other direction from the Museums is an area full of restaurants where we got lunch and dinner today.

Our hotel is pretty nice, though I’m not sure I’ve ever stayed in a room where the ceilings were as high as the room is wide.  Very, very small compared to a stateside hotel, but its pretty nicely appointed and it’ll definitely do the job for a couple of days while we’re here.

The Van Gogh museum was a pretty good visit and, as I said, easy for us to get to.  I became a real fan of Van Gogh when I saw a good bit of his work at the Musee d’Orsay in Paris.  Wouldn’t you know that when we visit two of his more famous paintings, The Potato Eaters and Starry, Starry Night, are in New York on tour.

I think I had more thoughts than this when I started, but I can’t remember what they are anymore.  We have a few things planned for tomorrow including the Ann Frank House and the Heinekan brewery museum tour.  Hopefully tomorrow will be a little more of a rested day and we’ll get in everything we want.