Dagje uit in Amsterdam

In an initial attempt to make it (all together) to the American Consulate in Amsterdam for Will's passport, we printed out the forms and filled in all the details, checked train and tram schedules, packed the double diaper bag and went to bed Wednesday night thinking we had all our ducks in a row. In all the careful preparations however, we forgot to factor in that the passport office is only open from 830am-1130am and nonchalantly boarded the train in the morning (James was talking about the train ride for days). By our first transfer, we realised we were never going to make it in time- we also had to get Will's photo made for the passport at a special place that crops it down to acceptable American dimensions.
It sounds (and momentarily felt) like we just don't have it together, but we reassured ourselves that with actually keeping the boys reasonably satisfied and moving forward on all our other projects, it was not going to be a big deal to make these lemons into a reasonably refreshing beverage.
'James, how would you like to go to the zoo and see the animals?'
'Trains go!'
With trains around there is no need to distract anyone with animals.
We spent the day in Amsterdam anyway- it was beautiful and we took a boat tour that drops you off at the zoo. We had been there twice before but had seen the same half of the zoo both times and thought that James would be a much better age to appreciate it all now.

Where you catch the water-taxis:


On the boat; there was plenty of room luckily to push our huge carriage and rambunctious toddler to the very back:

You can really see our futile attempts to cut James' hair in the last photo.
The tour around the canals and harbour is always fun and you notice new stuff every time. They have a really cool replica of a Dutch East Indies Company ship:

At the zoo it is nice because James can pretty much walk around on his own, though there is a fair bit of recovering him from going the wrong way.
Everybody loves the monkeys:

Just as exciting are the interactions with other 2 year old humans:

Then there was this guy in the petting zoo that was lying on the ground with the goats and a pig:
First we called him the 'Goat Whisperer' but changed it to the 'Pig Spooner' after a while. I want to say he seemed harmless enough but it was just a little too weird.

James was more into jumping off the rocks than the animals:


I love this old huis they have in the middle of the park. I'd love to get inside but the way was blocked off and we didn't have time to investigate any further. Also there was some sort of cow in the paddock surrounding it. It does make a lovely backdrop though-

They actually feed the vultures carrion. They are amazing- huge and beautiful and a little terrifying- definitely a place to watch little fingers in the fence. We overhead one woman saying to her friend- 'Are you still hungry for lunch now?'-

We had lunch at a restaurant in the zoo where they have a huge playground; we thought it would be a great place for James but it was fall vacation and there were hundreds of 'big kids' as James says just going crazy. It was a frustrating and annoying to see because they weren't just playing and having a good time- there was a lot of screaming and kids climbing over the barriers to where the animals are kept- and not an adult lifting a finger to rein anyone in at all. It was such a stressful place to sit. Most of the kids were probably between 4 and 10 and there were adults around but just absolutely no guidance or boundaries at all. I felt bad for James because he is such a sweet kid and just wanted to play in the sand or go on the slide but it was way too hectic. I think people think they are being tolerant (or just don't believe they can control the situation) and let their kids go in spaces like that when it is really just being too lazy to interact and be responsible.

We left 'Lord of the Flies' island as a soon as we could and ended our day in the Vlinder Pavilion, a much more relaxing environment where they have a greenhouse full of tropical plants and butterflies. James dug it and was ready for a nap after- he slept all the way back to the train station for an hour and a half including being picked up in the carriage and put on and off the boat.












Finally we made it home after four train changes. It was rush hour when we began unfortunately and there were two instances where we rushed to meet a train and it was standing room only and there was no way of squeezing on the four of us. Here we are making the most of the rumble seats in the baggage portion of the train car.


A great day out actually but, more planning next time.