Amsterdam Adventure: Day 4

Josh and I thought about our interaction with Hans (the photographer from Sunday) and wished we had spent more time taking with him so we all met up for coffee this morning. It was a nice way to begin our last day in Amsterdam...bagels and chatting with a new friend. He also takes great photos so you should check out his phlog if you haven't already.

Ben became a bit fussy at breakfast and needed a nap (so he needed to be walked in the wrap) so we said goodbye to Hans and took the tram to the Portuguese synagogue. It was built in 1625 (or thereabouts) and, fortunately and surprisingly, wasn't harmed in the War. The building does not have electricity and is lit by 72 windows and 1,000 candles. It was amazing to see by day--I'm sure it is incredible at night.


After the synagogue it was time to visit the Van Gogh Museum. Wow! We really, really enjoyed the permanent collection as well as the exhibit of John Everett Millais' work (he did the painting of Ophelia).

Then we headed to the cafe Foodism for lunch and I devoured a plate of homemade non-cheese pumpkin ravioli. Yum.

After lunch we caught the early bus to the airport and to our surprise our flight to Stockholm was canceled. It all turned out OK because we were re-booked on a flight through Oslo that arrived the same time that our other flight would have gotten into Stockholm. And we got to view the beautiful Norwegian landscape.

So, the vacation to Paris and Amsterdam gets 10 out of 10. And we are happy that we get to have another vacation beginning on Friday! We are headed to Gotland, an island off the east coast of Sweden. It will be much more relaxing with long beach walks and a long ferry ride. And, as of today, we have two weeks left in Europe. But, I can't really say anymore about that now.