Van Gogh

We started off the day biking to the museumplein and then continuing around the city. We are definitely not used to riding bicycles. This is the most bicycle friendly city I have ever seen. Salt Lake City wishes it were this awesome!

The Van Gogh museum was amazing, Along with his paintings, there are paintings of Claude Monet, Paul Gauguin, Bernard, Manet, Rodin, Delacroix, Monticelli, and other artists that Van Gogh was inspired by.

 One of my personal favorite pieces by Van Gogh- The smoking skeleton

A piece from Monet that I haven't seen before 

We grabbed a bouquet of flowers from the flower market. I wish I could grow flowers. There were so many tulips and other bulbs for sale.

I certainly feel as if we aren't gaining normal vacation weight. I think we are burning all of the calories we are consuming by walking and biking. It is too bad we forgot a pedometer. It would be interesting to compile the mileage on our feet.

We found a brouwerij that is a stone's throw from our place. We were about to leave Amsterdam without having really great beer. It is called Brouwerij 't ij. They had a White IPA that was incredible! A barley wine that was different than any I have tried before, and a Bock that was off the charts!

A couple of my observations while being in Europe:
Everyone plays American music. Everyone. The hole in Bruges we spent all of our time in played bad 80's and 90's music like it was his anthem. All of the shops play crappy pop music. I think Jared and I are the only people on the planet that don't understand the obsession with Bruno Mars.
Everyone smokes. Incidentally, I've picked up a smoking habit by just being outside.
Large vehicles are scarce. Everyone either drives a Smart car sized vehicle, motorcycle, scooter, or bicycle.
Most people are multi-lingual. The girl who worked the B&B in Bruges said that in Poland, if you speak more than one language, that is incredible but in Bruges, if you speak four languages, they want to know what else you can do.