city # 1: Amsterdam

So the first place I'm going is Amsterdam. Originally I was just going to fly into there on the 15th but leave immediately to get to my first hostel booking, in Rotterdam. It turned out, though, that there was an airline seat sale on if I was willing to fly in a couple of days earlier than I'd planned, so I thought 'why not?'. So now the first two nights (the 13th and the 14th) I (and Alice--when she found out I was going over earlier than planned she decided to come then too) will be in Amsterdam.
I don't really know too much about the city, except the normal things: that it's the capital of The Netherlands, etc. I vaguely remember it being in The Hiding Place (I think it was one of the cities that Corrie would go to on the train with her father, wasn't it?  Mom?  I am looking at you here.).   It wasn't one of the cities I most wanted to see on this trip--I'm mostly spending a couple days because of the plane ticket thing--so I'm not quite so hardcore about it.  It will still be cool to see though.  

Anyway, this is what it looks like from the air:

You can see that it is criss-crossed with canals. This is even more clear when you look at a map of the city:

Right now I am trying to figure out what are the things I want to try to see while we're there.  It will come as a surprise to no one I am sure that I mostly want to see as many historical things as possible.  Probably the one I want to see most is Anne Frank's house.  There are a couple of old churches that I am interested in going to :  Nieuwe Kirk (New Church), which is the one that the Dutch royalty get crowned in, and Oude Kirk (Old Church), the (shocking!!, I know) oldest church in the city.  (Apparently you're allowed to climb the tower in Oude Kirk so that would be cool. I love climbing towers.  I did it in a couple of cathedrals in England.)

Anyway that's all I got for now!

P.S.  Joe, if you know of any particular sites in Amsterdam associated with WWII, you should let me know and I will see if I can check them out and take some pictures to show you!!