King’s Day!
Sometimes making a Plan A and a Plan B pays off. Today was one of those times. Initially I had planned to get out of the city on King’s Day. Too many people for two little kids to be out and about. But that didn’t happen. The kids and Daniel slept in.
I was up at the crack of dawn. Coming out of a hard sleep, I immediately jumped out of bed and rushed to the kid’s bedroom to make sure they were alright. (Thank you anxiety.)
Samuel was sitting up in bed. I sat down beside him and whispered that we could get up and eat breakfast. I was going to the bathroom and as soon as I got back I’d make him some breakfast.
Then I checked on Miah. She was sleeping hard. So it took an extra few seconds to confirm she was breathing. (That anxiety thing again.)
After using the bathroom, I came back upstairs to find Samuel fast asleep. So I sat downstairs and watched the city wake.
At 6:15 people were already outside setting up tables and putting out merchandise and used clothing. By 8:00 Miah was awake, so the two of us enjoyed a delightful breakfast consisting of fresh-baked muffins, local blueberry yogurt and a cup of coffee for me. (About the coffee…) Then we tried to wake up the boys, but that didn’t work.
So Miah and I continued watching the commotion on the streets.
Around 9:30 the boys were up (not by choice). Turns out that sweet love-able Sam isn’t so sweet when forced to get up (and the large time change might also have something to do with it.)
Since we were late starting the day AND considering the rain that had started outside, we decided to wait and visit Keukenhof on a different day. Instead we played games, completed a puzzle and people watched from inside our cozy ‘home’ (our Plan B).
After lunch, we decided to venture outside and experience King’s Day for our-self.
And.
It.
Was.
Everything.
I
Hoped
It
Wasn’t.
The crowd was large. On more than one occasion I had to pick up Miah and carry her in my arms, out of worry that she would be trampled over. Then twice I lost Daniel in the crowd.
Then there was the rain. It poured on us. We carried the kids so that we could walk faster through the rain, but we also had no idea where we were going.
Also, people were wasted. Lots of young drunk or high people, dancing and carrying on. (Boy do I sound like an old hag.) We stopped on a bridge over a canal to check for directions.
We set the kids down, while we both hovered over the phone. Then along came a crowd of kids (by kids I mean 20 yr olds) pushing there way up to get closer to a stage and some dancing girls located behind us.
I swear for a moment, I pictured one of them paying no attention and shoving one of my children into the canal. (The first bar of the railing over the bridge is above Miah’s head.) So I snatched my kids and angrily marched through the crowd out of harm’s way.
On a separate but similar note, Daniel and I have already discussed that if a child does fall into the canal, the expectation is that he will jump in and save said child, while I scream from the bridge and stay with the other child. (Anytime we are near the canals for a prolonged amount of time, I check to see where the closest ladder is to climb out of the canal, just in case I need to point it out later. —My anxiety is completely normal for a mother.)
Back to King’s Day – I know I’m ranting about people being people and having fun. It’s a little petty. And I’m the one that brought kids out on King’s Day. But this is my blog, and I’ll be true to the anxiety driven lenses in which I experienced the day.
The fun things we discovered on King’s Day.
- The Cat Boat
- We learned about the Cat Boat from a children’s book we bought the kids about Amsterdam.
- It’s a house boat that sits on the canals and is full of cats.
- Unfortunately it was closed for King’s Day.
- A ton of coffee shops, bakerys and eateries
- Again, closed for King’s Day. But we made note of a lot of interesting places we’d like to try.
- We bought “American hot dogs” from three girls selling them in front of their home. They weren’t great, but it was a cute experience, and when I asked Samuel about his favorite part of the walk, this is what he named.
- All the boats on the canals were overflowing with drunk people and loud music. It was actually kind of fun to watch.
- Daniel was able to capture some great 360 footage.
We came back ‘home’ and got out of our wet clothes and into pajamas. (Since we packed sparingly, we didn’t have enough clean clothes to change into anything else.)
After dinner, the skies were clear so we headed back out again. Our evening walk was much nicer. Still a ton of people out on the streets, but we didn’t encounter any rain and avoided large crowds.
Amsterdam is beautiful, I’m glad we were able to get out and enjoy it some today. And honestly, on a rainy day like today being able people watch from our large window in our dry warm home, provided plenty of entertainment. Without King’s Day it wouldn’t nearly be as interesting.
Though King’s Day is certainly not for me, an-anxiety-proned-judgemental-overly-protective-mother, I’m glad we can say we were in Amsterdam on King’s Day.
1. Size
One becomes accustomed to a certain amount of coffee in the morning. The initial cup should be no less than 12 ounces. I don’t know if I’ve even seen a coffee cup that could hold 12oz here. Cups of coffee are served at 4oz.
2. Stroopwafel
Why don’t we have these in America? If this trip results in any sort of life-changes – it will be stroopwafels. Stroopwafels are made of two delicious thin wafer-like waffles with a surprise layer of carmel in between. They are served with every cup of coffee.
3. Coffee shops everywhere!
Seattle has got nothing on the amount of coffee shops in Amsterdam. One thing you can count on is a coffee shop around every corner. (Not complaining)