hello from Cologne

We are sitting in our hostel lobby waiting for our laundry to dry before we head to the chocolate museum here in Cologne.

Amsterdam was really the craziest place that either of us have ever been, by far. We did a lot of walking the first day, essentially exploring the city. In addition we went to the Anne Frank House, which is now a museum--as you can imagine, it was a sobering experience but definitely worth it. Neither of us have seen so many unique and fascinating people in one place. The city never sleeps and there are constantly tons of people around and MILLIONS of bicycles, the combination of which is overwhelming; you are liable to get run over by either a car or a bike if you do not pay attention. On Friday we rented bikes and cycled out of Amsterdam down the River Amstel to the little town of Amstel and then back to the city. It was wonderful to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Yesterday we took a free walking tour of the city and in three hours learned much about its history, which we found really interesting. Because we got up to so much during the day, our evenings were pretty chilled out--last night we did crosswords and watched a European Cup qualifying soccer match between Romania and The Netherlands, which our hometown Dutch lost 1-0. We can safely say that we will never forget our time in Amsterdam...

Tomorrow, we hope to take a cruise down the Rhine and go to a local jazz club which is supposed to be great. After Cologne, we head to Berlin on Tuesday and then Prague on Friday. We love you all and welcome comments here on the blog just so we know that somebody is actually reading it!