Once we arrived and checked into our hotel we unpacked for a bit and immediately set out on foot to find some lunch and fight the jet lag. We walked over to one of our favorite areas, the Jordaan. Poor Henry seems to be struggling quite a bit and is lashing out... He hurls himself at bikes, mopeds, pigeons, children... Sounds fun, right? Hopefully he gets over this soon as it made our walk particularly unpleasant. Can you imagine a dog that doesn't like bikes living in Amsterdam? Pretty comical, actually!
It's so strange living in a city where I don't know my way, have no idea what restaurants are good, what neighborhoods to avoid, etc etc. But this is all part of the adventure - and a huge part of the reason we decided to leave Portland for a few years. I wanted to step out of my comfort zone, and boy have I ever! I have so much to learn about Amsterdam and Europe in general!
The second day in Amsterdam we woke up early and took Henry for a walk. We knew there wouldn't be many people (read: pigeons, bikes, kids and scooters) out in the morning - so we thought it would be the perfect time to take Henry for a nice walk over to Vondel Park. Back in Portland, we loved taking early morning walks before the city was awake. I loved how peaceful and quiet it was. Here in Amsterdam, I found that the quiet felt eerie. I'm sure that will change, it just felt uncomfortable, like something wasn't right. I look forward to appreciating the peace of the morning hours in Amsterdam someday (hopefully soon).
Now our second day in Amsterdam is over and we're settling in and hoping our six hour nap earlier doesn't stop us from sleeping through the night... Tomorrow is a big day for us. Any guesses what it is? More updates coming soon. As well as some catching up from the weeks leading up to our move. Thanks again for sticking with me as my blogging was sporadic!
{Photos © Liz Denfeld}
