Anneke's Travels: First week in Amsterdam! July 13

Phew, I'm a little behind! There are just so many things to do here and it's hard to sit down at the computer to write about it when I could be doing it!

Our first week in Amsterdam was busy and fun. We were busy touring around the city, but at the same time we were learning the neighbourhood and where all of the grocery stores are.

I like going grocery shopping with mom because it's fun to see all of the different European foods that they have here, and sometimes I get to pick out a special treat for us to have. It's a good thing that I go with my mom, because we have to carry the groceries home in our backpacks and mom usually says she's only going to get two things and then she gets a whole backpack full so I need to use my backpack to carry groceries home as well.

Some things that kept me busy in the first week were going to the library with my cousin's library card to take out some books that are in the English section (that library is HUMONGOUS), going to the zoo and the planetarium in the zoo to watch my dad's cousin Stephen give a presentation about space, taking Jack for walks around the neighbourhood, snuggling with Stella the cat (see the pictures below!), going to NEMO (the local Science Center), going on walks around the city, and going to the Rijksmuseum (with lots of famous paintings).

My dad wants us to explore the neighbourhood without parents, so sometimes I go out with Hendrik and we go to the zipline park or go to the local outdoor street market. Last time, I bought some poffertjes!! Poffertjes are mini pancakes with powdered sugar and butter and THEY ARE SO GOOOOOOD!!

They have "American hot dogs" in a store called Albert Hein.

This is right after I took Jack for a walk.

Hendrik and I got to walk around the Artis zoo before we went to the planetarium!

The gorilla was playing dead!

Me with the earth after the show in the planetarium

This cat keeps coming to our porch door! I have already named her Stella from "Stella by Starlight".

I was trying to stop Jack from scaring the cat.

This library is the biggest in Holland!

I'm at the Ooster-park!

Here are the Flamingos that were at the Artis zoo!

HAPPY JACK!!!!

Kaasschaafs are very handy for cutting kaas! (AKA cheese)

There are drinking fountains all over Amsterdam, and this crow was enjoying them!

We are on our way to Nemo, a HUGE science museum!

This is in the Human body floor in Nemo.

I'm inside a bubble!!!!

I'm next to a Molen!💓

I got a pastry from a grocrey store for 80¢!

We went to an art museum called "The Rijksmuseum" and there were so many cool art pecies.

This is a pretty famous painting!

I like this one!

This is called the Night Watch. It has a metal bar in the middle of it because they are in the progress of restoring it, and there is a glass case around it because they still want you to still be able to see it, because it takes 10 years to restore it.