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Yesterday was a day for us to relax up after Jam in the 'Dam (Night One), so we decided to get out and take a nice walk in the unusually sunny Amsterdam afternoon...

We headed over towards the Jordan neighborhood, a very friendly shopping area anchored on one street featuring various shops, mostly toys and books, though. We missed the open-air market that they ususally have on such Mondays, although I'm suspecting that the markets do a lot better in the summer months as opposed to mid-March.

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We walked by the Anne Frank House, clearly a pilgrimage for anyone that read Anne Frank's Diary back when they were in middle school. I was not one of them, though, so we opted to skip paying "to see a small room" and instead we went onto to the Dam Square for some genuine, Netherlands people-watching. The line out-front was out to the street, so that helped the decision further. Plus, I did have some plans to be back at our room for an important call that I had to make.

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We finished our shopping and people-watching in perfect time to catch a tram right back to our neighborhood, and Mark and Katie played cards while I tried to navigate through international calling on a prepaid, Dutch cellphone. I got flat-out dropped after minutes and minutes of trying to connect, so that was pretty frustrating but well worth-it in the end. Yehaw!

We got to night two of the Jam in the 'Dam music festival and were treated to an amazing array and assortment of great music. Umphrey's McGee > Benevento/Russo Duo insane jazz-fusion jam > Taking a seat waiting for... > Disco Biscuits > STS9 > 11 euro taxi ride to Plantage Kerklaan > home. Wow. Whatta night...

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I'm finally at that point in my vacation where I'm perfectly content, ready to return home with a renewed vigour and all that jazz. I'm glad we planned this vacation, I'm glad we're spending oodles of money on it, and I'm glad that I'll have memories of my first trip to Europe for the rest of my life. Good stuff.