Day 4: New Apartment & Museums

Sunday morning, after a last treadmill run, we had to pack everything up. Though we had another week in Amsterdam, we were moving from the hotel paid for by the conference to an apartment we'd rented. We couldn't check in to our apartment until the afternoon, so we left our luggage at the hotel (in their left luggage room) and set out to see some sights.

We went to the Amsterdam Historical Museum (they are in the process of rebranding as "Amsterdam Museum"), which was incredibly interesting. One of their exhibits was the recreated interior of a famous lesbian bar that had closed, but may possibly have been reopened?Since it had gotten to be lunch time, we stopped at the museum cafe. Brian had another sandwich and I had a pancake with apples, raisins, and honey.By the time we'd finished lunch, it was time to check in at our apartment. The entrance was in the middle of this picture. We were two flights of stairs up.
Brian, waiting for Daniel to show up and let us in:The apartment was very cute and well-designed to take as little space as possible. This was quite possibly the smallest bedroom I've ever seen -- pretty much just room for a bed:
The kitchen:The bathroom:The living room:Having dropped our stuff off, we walked to the Botanical Gardens.
We joked about what this tree must have done to get itself locked up:There was a building with tropical plants. It was very warm in here, so we spent a lot of time looking at the plants!
Our plan was to then go to the Tropenmuseum (which has exhibits on the tropical former Dutch colonies) or the Amsterdam Resistance Museum (about the Dutch response during WWII). We thought we were heading in the right direction, when suddenly we saw the Amsterdam Hermitage (which is in the opposite direction):Since we were here, we decided to visit. They also were having an exhibition on Alexander the Great.

Brian was standing there, trying to figure out how we got turned around, when a stray cat started rubbing against his leg. He was so startled and I got a good laugh out of that! Though she's trying to enter, we did not let her in the museum:
As it had gotten to the time when the museums were closed, we headed back home. The window of this coffeeshop made me laugh every time:
Though we didn't take any pictures, we stopped at the grocery store to buy dinner and snacks. (Our host stocked our fridge with bread, cheese, and yogurt for breakfast every morning.)

Then, we went to a coffeeshop for the full Amsterdam experience. Neither Brian not I felt the effects of this trip, so we were a bit disappointed; though in retrospect, perhaps that's a good thing. We returned home, munchie-free, and went to bed.

Day 9: Vondelpark

Friday was out last full day in Amsterdam. We started the day with a run along the canals. The son of a friend of my mom's lives here, so we'd arranged to meet him Friday afternoon. He lived about 3.5 miles away from where we were staying, so we decided to walk to his place instead of taking a tram. Taking a short break en route to enjoy the park: We had a very nice time talking to him, his son, and wife, and then we walked back home through the Vondelpark. There were lots of people and animals out. Here's a pair of Egyptian Geese: Some moorhens:Exiting the Vondelpark:We had dinner close by, continuing our vacation trend of stopping at a Wagamama if convenient:Then we walked back home, exhausted from an exciting trip!

Day 6: City Park

The next day, we of course wanted to get more birding in, so we headed over to City Park. We saw these ducks, which I had identified at the time, but no longer remember what they are:I'll try to remember to look them up and post an update. We rely on the book a lot to help us with identification since we are new birders!
It was the middle of the morning, but everyone was ready for a nap:
We went to the Botanical Gardens. Apparently they were quite damaged by Katrina, but they are working on getting them back to their former glory.
Robin taking a bath in the fountain:
Me, in front of some trees:
Brian found the flower setting on the camera:
Inside the gardens:
House sparrows had invaded the nest box:
An employee saw us birding, and he recommended that we check out the cherry trees for hummingbirds. We'd looked for quite some time and were just about to give up when he, from across the flat, signaled to us that the hummingbird was there. These guys move so quickly! Some good camera-work by Brian resulted in some decent photos:
At rest, though backlit:
We then walked to the art museum, which is located in the park! We had a quick lunch at the cafe inside:
This was one of my favorite paintings, by artist Tom Uttech:
Taking a little break:
Back outside. A duck and turtle, living in harmony:
Parked in City Park, plotting our next move:
Back for more birding:
We saw lots of gulls. Gulls are really hard to identify for novice birders, as they look very much alike! We don't have too many gulls with black heads at home, so these guys were fun to see:

Day 3: Whale watching

Tuesday, the day after the marathon, was a sort of rest day. My legs were tired, so we chose sightseeing options to give me a bit of a break. After a breakfast in our rented apartment, we headed over to the harbor for a whale-watching tour.

Waiting for the tour to begin (we had to get there early because they didn't sell advanced tickets.) Actually, the website recommends buying advanced tickets, but Brian went there while I was running the marathon and was told they don't sell them. Weird!:In line, waiting to get on the boat:View of the harbor from the boat:
The boat took us about 30 miles off of the shore, to a marine sanctuary. We had a great day for seeing marine wildlife. The dolphins were very playful and swam close to the boat:The naturalist pointed out two kinds of whales. This is a humpback's tail:I know we also saw finback whales. These next two pictures are of whales, either humpbacks or finbacks.Inside the boat, having a snack:Back on dry land, we wandered over to the Public Gardens and Boston Common. They are separate entities, but right next to each other.This guy with no shirt but suspenders kept us entertained for quite some time. He was quite the dancer!We walked to the Granary Burying Ground, which is one of Boston's oldest cemetaries. Benjamin Franklin's parents are buried here.A man handed out folders of information at the entrance, so you could do a self-guided tour:We took the T to Chinatown and ate at My Thai Vegan Cafe, where we had an absolutely delicious meal. Since everything was vegetarian (vegan, actually), we had so many choices!We walked back towards our apartment, taking in the nightlife and stretching our legs.