Our first day in Amsterdam. The city of canals and bridges. We wake up a bit earlier. Deb finds the ultra modern gym in this hotel. We venture out to find breakfast (lunch) at about noon. We walk down Priesengrat and come upon a tiny cafe with two outside tables. We figure if we sit at both of them (they are small) we can prevent our breakfast being ruined by smoke. Small (exquisitely small) menu. The girls order omlettes with cheese and tomato, or what they believe to be omlettes. Well, they are called omlettes on the menu. Marc orders a fried egg sandwich. The menu here is limited to about 4 different egg preparations and some cheese. I try to get some toast, because I figure I will share some of the girls' omlettes. The old Dutch woman says, "toastie?" I say OK...and she says "with ham and cheese?" I say "no, just plain toast"...no toastie for me.

When Sarah's "omlette" comes it is white bread with a hard cooked egg on top with ham and tomatoes cooked with the egg. Not good for anyone. I pull off most of the ham, but we try to explain that we ordered cheese and tomato omlettes, not with ham. She doesn't understand. Can't fathom not having ham. So she comes out with Emily's and it still has ham on it. It is obviously with the same one, just ham removed....we see a remaining piece of ham on it and she reaches in to the egg and pulls it off....

So we order two more with JUST CHEESE AND TOMATO please.....two more come. Emily refuses to eat it so we get her some lemon yogurt from a store up road. Marc and Deb eat all the remaining "omlettes" and fried egg sandwich....yes, all three. Sarah does eat hers with removed ham.

We get ourselves up and make our way over to the Van Gogh Museum. It's about a 20 minute walk (this city is so small!)....past shops and things. The museum is terrific. The flow of painting reflecting his life of art (and the influences of others: Monet, Gaughin, etc.) is really interesting. Amazing that he had only been painting for about 10 years when he killed himself.

We stop in a little park for lunch for the girls (Deb and Marc are still digesting the eggs): baguette with mozzarella and tomatoes. Ice cream cones for dessert. We walk to a boat dock and take a 75 minute boat cruise through the city via all the canals. It's great. The girls especially love the houseboats along the canals. They want to live on one.

We walk home to our hotel by about 6:30. We are trying to decide: Ann Frank House today or tomorrow? Dinner? We will see. Stay tuned.