Hunting the Hummingbird - by David C Hoffman

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Sunday, January 14, 2018

Amsterdam - last day

 Our last morning in Amsterdam, we had planned on having a slow, lazy morning and then seeing some sights. Our flight didn't leave until 10:00pm, so we had like ten hours to kill before we needed to even check in.

Instead, that very morning our Airbnb host finally replied to our text inquiry we'd sent the day prior (we'd also discussed the possibility upon first reserving the place) about late check-out by replying "sorry, someone else is checking in!" 

Not cool, man.

So we had an hour to figure out what to do with all our luggage. 
We knew we could rent a locker at the airport or even the nearby train station, but we had A LOT of luggage to move and would need a van -not just a standard taxi - just to facilitate getting our stuff to a storage space.
We'd already arranged van transportation to the airport with the driver who'd brought us to our place from the train station when we'd first arrived, but we weren't expecting him until 6:00pm.
 
We talked out our options, and decided on moving our stuff to near a park bench out front, and just trading off being the adult staying with the stuff or being the adult taking the kids around town.
It wasn't ideal, but it would work.

We were piling our stuff out front when the sweet man who lived in the very next row house asked if we were headed to the airport. 
His name was Rijn, and we'd made small talk with him and his wife several times throughout our stay there. They had a little patio set out front and would often eat their breakfast out there and read the paper.

When we explained that yes we were checking out but no we weren't heading to the airport until much later, he offered up their home to hold our stuff in.

So nice, right?

We were grateful for their kind offer, but when he said they'd be leaving that afternoon until much later in the night, we said no thanks, as we'd need to get our bags again around 6:00pm. 
That's when Rijn said "no worries, we'll just give you our key and you can let yourselves in to get your bags."

I mean, WHAT?!? This man was willing to give his house key to strangers, while also offering up that they would be GONE for several hours. Who does that?!?

David and I were both so touched by his generosity and trust.  
May we be able to pay it forward someday.


The kids played out front for a bit...




...and then we started off to enjoy our last day in Amsterdam.


 
 Amsterdam, you are beautiful...






I'd read on TripAdvisor that "Pancakes Amsterdam" was a must-visit place for breakfast, so we walked there that last day for brunch... 



Dave ordered a hashbrown-type crepe with bacon on top...yuuummmmm...

We LOVED our food there and all four of us declared the restaurant a hit!






The kids and I had some selfie fun while David was taking care of the bill...
 







Love those two so very much.

 
 We were thrilled the weather was so great for our last day there. We decided to just walk around and enjoy the sites.
I tried my hardest to soak up all of it! I just could not get enough of these gorgeous row houses...







We just walked around with no real destination in mind, stopping along the way at whatever drew our interest.






We stumbled upon a fun park we decided to play at for awhile...












This fountain area looked so fun, but we didn't have dry clothes with us nor a place to change, so we couldn't jump in, but we still enjoyed walking around and taking in another cool Amsterdam park.
 


Later in the afternoon we headed back to the house and played in the front playground one last time...



We walked to dinner nearby, then it was time for our taxi to pick us up. 
We used the key to get into the neighbors house, grabbed our luggage and left a quick thank you note with our email address on it in case they were ever in Oregon, and loaded our massive amounts of luggage up, said goodbye to our cute place, and headed to the airport.

Man was I sad to be leaving Amsterdam! I kept saying that we should have planned a longer stay. The canals, the houseboats, the people, the architecture, the food, the shops, the museums...gah. I just loved it all.

But I couldn't let the blues last too long, because next up was Iceland!
 

1 comment:

  1. نحن نقدم التمويل للأعمال مع ضمان
    لا تقلق أكثر سنساعدك!

    موافقة سهلة وسريعة
    سداد مرن
      البريد الإلكتروني: (trustenquiry05@gmail.com)

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