Amsterdam 1

My college friend and host in Amsterdam, Ryan, was a student, so I had the majority of each day to wander around the city by myself. Knowing what a pain (literally) it was to navigate an entire city on foot, I rented a bike first thing. 12 euro for 36 hours on this monster:

I asked for something less conspicuous, but being child-sized limited the bikes I could ride. In hind sight, I totally would have rathered a discrete black kid bike.

Finally mobile, I set off for anywhere. Seriously. I just followed large groups of bikers hoping to end up somewhere neat. I couldn't hold my phone to navigate and even if I had, I would have been lost. So I followed some bikers and ended up at the Rijksmuseum, home to some of Europe's most famous pieces. It was right next door to the Van Gogh museum, but unfortunately I needed to save money and did not enter either. I wish I could have! I settled for a selfie with one of Amsterdam's famous "I amsterdam" sculptures.

I then wandered to Vondelpark for a long leisurely trip around the bike path with a 45 minute detour to lay out on one of the many luxuriantly green lawns. The park was packed with people enjoying the summer sun, dogs running around off-leash, bikers, joggers, and frisbee-ers. New favorite spot!

I continued my wandering all over town until my host came back. We made some pasta for dinner and then went out with some of his friends from his school program. It was overall a very nice, easy day 1.