We landed at Schiphol (larger and busier airport than I expected) and caught a train to Amsterdam Central where we had a five minute walk to our hotel - A Train Hotel. We arrived at the hotel too early (10.30am) to check into our room so we left our suitcases there and headed out for a walk. We'd had breakfast in Geneva at 6am and now Matt let us know that he was starving hungry. We foolishly tried to hold him out until midday which rather spoilt our walk along the main streets and some of the canals. We saw signs to the Anne Frank House (the place she and her family hid in for 2 years) and also to a few other places of interest.
However Matt was 
not letting up, so Mase introduced the kids to the Dutch street style chips - hot chips served in a paper cone topped with mayonnaise - they didn't like the mayo (and I don't blame them, there was too much of it) but they devoured the chips (photo attached). We then decided to book a 24 hour open ticket to cruise the canals in the inner city area. Unfortunately it was raining and windy and the windows were fogged up, so we couldn't see anything really. When we finally got a seat near a window, Mase opened it to try and reduce the fog and got some annoyed from people nearby - so no photos that day. We did learn some interesting facts though. We had noticed that many of the buildings looked like they were tipping over or at least not vertical. Well we had this explained. Apparently because the houses were tall and skinny, it was impractical to carry shopping/large items up the narrow staircases, so when they built the houses they installed a beam with a hook from outside the top floor - this was used to lift larger items up to the top floors. However this presented another problem - the items could damage the buildings/windows - so they built the houses in such a way that they were wider/larger at the top than the bottom to prevent items knocking against the house as they were raised. Also - while the houses are tall and skinny, they don't exceed 4 or 5 floors because the ground is so soft and muddy and require deep pile foundations. Another interesting thing is that some old wooden pile foundations had rotted and caused houses to sink so now they use concrete. 
Apparently Amsterdam is called the Northern Venice and we did see a row of houses built along the canal where doors/windows opened directly onto the water...see photo. We headed back to the hotel around 3pm and spent the afternoon there - researching places we'd like to visit with the kids on the next day. Our room was rather interesting - top floor (3rd level) of the hotel, accessible by a very narrow spiral staircase up which Mase had to haul three big, heavy suitcases. We had a split level room - attic area with 3 single beds for kids, then downstairs two single beds for Mase/I and a small cot on the other side of the room with a kids play area which had a kitchenette and table/chairs for them - so Jo and Matt cooked us some wonderful meals while we were online. While talking about the hotel, you'll remember it was called A Train Hotel - apart from being a stone's throw from the central train station, the hotel was furnished as if it were a train. As you entered the foyer there were train tracks leading to the 'carriage' which served food and then on to the private carriages (bedrooms) for patrons. There were train seats in the foyer and eating areas, with old suitcases stored on the overhead rails, pictures of trains, miniature trains, memorabilia, boomgates that opened when the breakfast carriage was in use and many other 'train/rail' features to make the experience unique. Just backtracking slightly, my first 
impressions of Amsterdam after a few hours walk thru the city were: loads an
d loads and loads of bikes - everywhere (I thought Paris had heaps but that was nothing compared to Amsterdam as the two photos prove - yes, it is three floors of bikes!); consequently they have separate bike 'roads' next to the main traffic roads; also trams in the centre of the roads; chips in a cone with mayonnaise; lots of beautiful flowers; city of canals (never imagined it would be like this); marijuana cafes as you wander down main streets; immorality confronts you on/in many street shop windows; heaps of eating places to tempt the tastebuds....I have to say that as a city it didn't really impress me greatly but that may be because I didn't visit the right places. 
Here's a photo of one of the types of bikes the mothers with young children ride...Sunday morning we continued our canal cruise which was to take us to the Jewish History Museum
. On the way we saw NEMO - a huge boat shaped building (called the 'Titanic' by locals) which houses science exhibits and activities for children (similar to Scitech) - see photo which has an old pirate ship in the foreground. 
We also saw some of the typical tall skinny houses - photo. 
The photo of the large building surrounded by water was built in the mid-1600's in a record 9 months - due to the need for munitions storage. Anyway, we'd seen info about the Jewish History Museum on the web and it promised to give the history of the Jewish community in the Netherlands, as well as having a Kindermuseum - designed to be child friendly and it was. We went thru the kindermuseum first with the children and it had all sorts of interesting exhibits, movies, pictures, books, a Jewish kitchen (with blue/red divisions) etc. Then we moved into the main museum - we didn't have time to go through all the areas but it was extremely well laid out and gave options for pursuing particular subjects in more detail via audio or visual aids. They had a whole floor dedicated to explaining the internals of a synagogue - layout, some of the rituals, furniture and furnishings. Very interesting reading (but no photography allowed). 
Time was limited by our evening flight, so we then went to an indoor kids play area where the kids could run around, play soccer, climb and play on slides, bikes etc to wear off some energy before sitting in a plane for a few hours. 
Photos attached. Then back to our hotel via the canal cruise boat to collect bags and head by train to the airport. I must say that by this time I was very ready to be heading back to Aberdeen with the thought always in the back of my head that every day was bringing us closer to our return to Perth, God willing...which makes me ponder whether I am counting the days, with the same longing, until the return of Jesus Christ - as Paul said in Hebrews 10 - 'for he that shall come, will come'...
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