Well, here we are. Second city. We left our apartment at 10 this morning, waded through Paris traffic, and went through the pleasantly quick and streamlined Paris security (didn’t even have to take our shoes off- yay!) After sitting around for a couple hours, we hopped onto a small plane and flew the grueling 40 minute flight to Amsterdam.

First impressions? It looks a lot more like a regular city than the world’s biggest historical monument. Apart from a giant windmill a half-mile away, the part of Amsterdam we’re staying in is very regular looking.

We have seen a couple hundred bicycles in the last few hours, but that’s to be expected here.

Unlike Paris, everyone seems much more relaxed. People wear jeans and t-shirts instead of suits and dresses. There are children and families around: we saw no one but single or couples of adults outside of tourist areas in Paris. We haven’t been downtown yet, so it will be interesting to see if that holds.

Also unlike Paris, we’re staying quite a ways from anything. And we’re on a houseboat!

This little thing is even quirkier than the last place. The internet is slower, the oven looks like a microwave, there’s no dishwasher, the front door doesn’t really close, and the promised washing machine and hairdryer are nowhere to be found. And since the washing machine at the Paris apartment was broken, we did a little washing in the kitchen sink and hanging on the deck.

But it’s still pretty nice. Apparently five ducks live on the deck outside and they’re talking away right now. The canal is nice, and there’s an actual restaurant down the road that doesn’t expect you to hang around for two hours and served hamburgers. Which means dad ordered a whole fish: I’ll get him to upload the picture of it later.

Le fish. It had eyes and everything.

Did I ever mention that the bathroom in Paris had a tub with no blocker and a hand-held shower thing at the wrong end? Well… We have a regular shower now, and that’s super exciting.

Also, because the internet is so slow, no pictures of the houseboat tonight. We’ll look for an internet cafe tomorrow, but unless we’re successful… It might be a long week of reading my random ramblings instead of looking at pretty pictures.

Tomorrow we’re taking a bus tour of the countryside. Goodnight!