Amsterdam

In December after leaving my job at Microsoft, I went on a trip to India and Africa for a month. I'm only now getting around to writing up a post about it since I've been super-busy recovering from the trip, moving to San Francisco, and starting my new job at Facebook (more about that later).

The full set of photos is up on Flickr for perusal now. This is the first post in a series about the trip - the others are available at India and Africa.

On the way to India we stopped in Amsterdam for a day. It was the middle of winter, so many things were closed, including the famous Rijksmuseum, above. Had it been open, I would have apparently been able to see lots of Rembrandts, Vermeers, Van Goghs, etc..

Here are some of the famous "fries with mayonnaise."

The city's canal system is very extensive - it's nicknamed the "Venice of the north".  The only boats I saw anywhere were tourist boats, so the canals don't seem to get much real use any more.

We went on a tour of the red light district called "Randy Roy's Redlight Tour". It's run by an American woman from Michigan(?). It was very informative - recommended.

This is the main train station, which provides easy access to/from the airport.

A big attraction is the Heineken brewery and museum "experience". Unfortunately we only had one day so I didn't have time to go inside.

Next up: India!