Tue Jul 22 - Thu Jul 24
-redeye out of Maui . Little to no sleep as expected. 35 minute plane change in LAX then on to MSP. got some sleep on that plane, so the chosen routing worked out well. 2.5 hour wait in MSP then on to AMS. Got decent sleep on this flight so we arrived in reasonable shape at 6am
-train to hotel and short walk was painless. We were glad that we had watched the video on the hotel's website because it made the walk easy. We even saw the parked white Prius from the video
-our room was not available so we gathered up some info and maps and headed off to Amsterdam Central. 
-rode a train by mistake instead of the metro but no harm done. Wandered through Amsterdam on the way to the Gannon diamond factory tour. 
-stopped for bfast on the wharf by the library. Nice views and good food. Could tell that Laura was getting hungry, so a good stop.
-pretty neat to watch them polishing diamonds. Then the marketing phase in the showroom. Was fine, but a little too commercial and too many tour buses
-wandered through the city by the Waag and the Dam . Getting tired and tired of the masses of people so headed back to the hotel. 
-happily our room was ready so we got a shower and a long nap. Struggled to wake our groggy selves but got rolling around 6:30pm and headed out for dinner. 
-properly rode the metro this time and found a very good Thai restaurant
-did Lonely Planet's walk through the red light district. Pretty wild and seedy but people seemed pretty normal and we felt very safe. 
-tried to catch a ferry to the north but just missed it by seconds and we were running out of energy and daylight at 10pm. 
-metro back to the hotel for some much needed rest. A very good and productive day and we have seen alot of Amsterdam. Definitely a city more our speed than London. Love all the bikes, fewer smokers by far, and much more pedestrian friendly. So far so good! 

Fri Jul 25
-woke up at 5 so just decided to get up and do some planning. Laura slept through til after 7 and I was jealous. But came up with a good plan for the day. 
-had simple bfast in hotel room and got rolling. Took metro and tram to the Dam to the start of Lonely Planet's canal walking tour.
-was a very pleasant walking tour and out of the fray. Nice quiet streets and scenic views. Scoped out the various boat companies giving tours and chose our fav. 
-at end of tour found a yummy canal-side cafe and had a nice lunch and watched the boats and people go by. 
-scampered of to our noon wine and cheese tasting session . Video was lame but the guide was fun and entertaining. Learned some good facts about cheese and experienced the spectrum of ages and tastes. Filled out a cheese scorecard which will be fun to keep as a souvenir. Wine was tasty as well. 
-popped on the tram over to the windmill which now houses an organic brewery. Signed up for the 3:30 tour and decided to just chill out in their beer garden area and wait out the rain. Was a good choice and a good way to get some mellow downtime. 
-tried one of their beer samplers and liked 3 out of the 5. Was useful for when the tour started and the guide talked about the different beers they make. Was an ok tour and the experience overall was fun and worthwhile. 
-tram back to the hotel for a late afternoon nap that I badly needed. Slept until 8 and then decided we needed to rally for dinner.
-metro into the city and found an excellent Indian restaurant tucked back in an alley. All 3 dishes that we ordered were great and I won't be surprised if we return there tomorrow. 
-called it quits for the night and just took metro back to hotel and bed. A big day out and a good one. 

Sat Jul 26
-up by 5 again, but such is jet lag. Get our bikes today which should be exciting. 
-headed out early to the museum area and looked around at the buildings and wandered through the park. Pretty area. 
-we were still too early for our canal boat trip, so made a quick excursion to the narrowest house in Amsterdam . Only 1 meter wide at the front. Quick photo op then back for the boat tour. 
-canal tour was fine to good. About what you would expect. Some good info about all of the gyrations the Dutch have done to manipulate the water level. Pretty amazing and crazy engineering really. 
-we had some extra time so decided to take the ferry to this artist complex built in an old industrial area. The ferry ride was full of 20-somethings and we felt like we were on spring break. There must have been an event going on. 
-the 20-somethings turned right off the ferry so we turned left. We found a pub in a converted barge and sat outside and watched the scene go by. It started to rain and we felt very good about our decision to just sit; the area did not look like it had alot to offer. When we saw a ferry heading our way we made our escape and happily this ship was more empty. 
-we tried to walk home but the rain started to pour so we bailed and took the metro. 
-When we got to the hotel, our bikes were there! We checked them out and then went to our room for a rest and to read the biking material . 
-we decided to take the bikes for a test ride and make sure everything was working. So off to dinner we went in our helmets. We stuck out and the Amsterdam natives gave us a wide berth. It was good fun and we quickly realized how much GPS made life easier. We could focus on pedaling and not getting hit rather than on where we were going. We just had to follow the beeps and the arrows. 
-we had dinner and cycled home. The Indian wasn't as good as last night, but we are excited for the adventure ahead tomorrow.