Amsterdam!

Yesterday we returned from our trip to the lovely city of Amsterdam, so I thought I would share some photos (LOTS).  James and I agreed that travelling with a baby was difficult in some ways but entirely doable and we still really enjoyed ourselves.  The difficulties were mainly to do with 1) the guilt of Finn crying in a hotel room at night 2) the inability to pack loads of activities into one day and 3) the lack of one-on-one engagement to entertain him.

Luckily all of these were manageable, partly because we are really lucky with Finn and the fact that he enjoys seeing new things and being outside - so 3) didn't matter as he was totally fine to just stroll around in his pram and look around (wo betide us if we put the cover up on the pram - I think people thought we were freezing him out but he wants to be able to watch stuff).

2) was also fine because we're lucky that he's now on a rotation - it's not really a schedule in any way as the timings hit differently each day depending on when we get up for the day, but he's on a very regular three hour rotation.  He eats for about half an hour, is awake for about an hour and a half, sleeps for about an hour and then repeat.  This means that we can plan accordingly.  So we were able to visit the Anne Frank house (where she hid) which is obviously a quiet and somber place just by starting our walk there in his wrap sling when he was due to be falling asleep.  He was asleep by the time we got there, and we made it around the entire place just in time for him to wake up hungry as we sat down in a cafe.  By keeping to his schedule like this, we had an easy-going time of it.  Yes, we couldn't see as much as we would have before Finn came along but it meant we prioritised and spent more time relaxing in cafes and our hotel room.  It was almost nice to be forced to sit down somewhere every three hours! Of course it didn't always work out exactly to plan... but then we just improvised.  When he woke up halfway through the Van Gogh museum obviously starving (or so he would have you believe) I wrapped the sling in a loose toga way and fed him while walking around (it's times like these I'm really glad to be breastfeeding for entirely selfish reasons!).  I couldn't carry on long term because he's getting really heavy (14 lbs 9 oz!) but it worked long enough to finish off the museum.

As for 1) ... well... there's no way around him being unhappy at night.  So we just did our best to keep it as short as possible and hope that the people near us are understanding.

All in all it was a fantastic time and I can't wait to take Finn along on another exciting adventure.

SO!  On to the pictures!

We took the train there (around 4 and a half hours total, with a change in Brussels).  The way there it was very crowded but Finn seems to enjoy trains nearly as much as planes and we let him sleep through as much of the journey as we could.  We arrived in the afternoon, checked into our hotel, dropped off the pram, put him in the wrap and had a good wander around.

We also had a look around the red-light district but there are no pictures of that!!!
After a fantastic dinner out and an early night, we started the next morning but heading straight to a cafe

Then it was off to the Van Gogh Museum.  Afterwards I consulted a map to see where to go next and Finn practiced grabbing things (a new skill!)

We then went to the grocery store for our traditional evening meal one night of the local specialties in bread, cheese, and beer.  In doing so we found Finn to be particularly useful (or at least his pram)...

The next day we headed to the Anne Frank house (and another cafe)

All of this walking around is really exhausting!

Then we got back on the train to head home.  This time we were in a car that was nearly empty.  Which was good because Finn wanted to do his two most favourite things as of late:
1) make lots of bizarre and loud noises including squeaks, squeals and fake coughs and
2)  play with his tongue and all the strange noises that can make....

As you can see, good times were had all around!