Amsterdam, Netherlands

After a “restful” five days in Santa Barbara packing and re-packing our lives into 40L backpacks, we hopped on a bus to LAX. Through our bargain hunting a few months back we found that a new low-cost, long-haul Norwegian airline called Norse Atlantic was due to start operating daily flights from Los Angeles –> Oslo in August for $225/person one way (includes the extra charge for an overhead carry-on). While it was bare bones, it far exceeded our expectations; new plane, good selection of movies, and we even ended up with a three seat row to ourselves. Add in a separate one way flight on KLM from Oslo–>Amsterdam and we only paid $740 total for both of us. Not bad!

**Packed up, about to head to the airport**

**Coming in for a landing in Amsterdam flying over the Dutch countryside**

In Amsterdam we were fortunate enough to stay with a friend from school, Katherine, who has lived in the city for the last few years. She was out of town when we arrived so we had her place to ourselves (besides her cat, Cleo) for a couple nights before Abby’s brother, Jesse, and his boyfriend, Luigi, flew in from Texas to travel with us for the first week of our Europe leg.

**View from Katherine’s flat, right along the canals**

During our first full day in the city we covered a lot of ground meandering around the canals, checking out cafes, coffeeshops, the world famous Rijksmuseum, and then De Wallen (Red Light District) in the evening.

**Rijksmuseum has paintings on display from some of the most famous Dutch artists in history**

**Van Gogh self portrait – if you didn’t take a picture did it even happen?**

**Abby pondering the meaning of life with Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch” – his largest painting**

**Ian in the gardens out front of the Rijksmuseum**

**Packed in De Wallen – suuuuper touristy**

**Never too far from a Dunkin’ – shout out to our Boston crew**

On our second full day, Jesse and Luigi arrived in the morning after a 24 hour delay because of a missed connection in Houston…ouch. They shook off the lack of sleep and rallied to make up for lost time. The highlights of the day included food and wine in Vondelpark and stumbling upon some outdoor music, having one too many at a woman-owned brewery (Brewed by Women BAR), and dinner at a massive food hall (Foodhallen).

Live music and beers in Vondelpark (video clip)

**Beers and expressos at Brewed by Women BAR**

Foodhallen (video clip)

During the morning of our last full day Katherine came back from a holiday in Italy and played tour guide. We took a short (free) ferry to the Noord neighborhood for lunch then walked all over the city, stopping for local snacks and drinks along the way. We kept it tame enough to catch an AM train to Berlin, Germany 🙂