Amsterdam in the rain

My second day in Amsterdam was mostly about a countryside bike tour. Unfortunately, no one told the weather I was planning to spend 4 hours on a bike; instead of raining heavily and then clearing (like it had the day before), it spit rain almost all day. But the tour runs rain or shine - and apparently it rains about 270 days a year in Holland so it goes on in the rain all the time - so I dressed up in a bright red poncho and rode through Amsterdam to a nearby suburb, Amstelveen. On the way, we saw one of only 8 remaining windmills in the Amsterdam area (out of thousands), visited a small farm that makes gouda cheese and wooden clogs, and rode back through the area below sea-level (called a poulder) that is created by a dike. Other than the fact that it wouldn't stop raining on us and my hands got quite cold, I really enjoyed it. Obviously, I'm thrilled to have purchased some authentic Amsterdam gouda (and am trying my hardest not to break it open until I get back to the States); it was also really cool to get outside the city and see the countryside. Mostly, I'm just seeing the European countryside through the window of a bus - when I'm awake that is - so it was good to see it in person.

After a short nap, I spent the evening wandering some of the areas of Amsterdam I had missed thus far. I found a small restaurant in one of the major shopping districts and had a savory pancake for dinner. I don't know if this is true everywhere in the country, but pancakes seem to be the Netherlands' answer for crepes.

I'm currently in Berlin and will try to update about my adventures here tomorrow. I do want to mention, however, one of the most interesting highway rest stops I have ever seen. About 2 hours outside of Berlin, we stopped at a plaza that used to be a checkpoint between East and West Germany. Many of the buildings were left standing, and there is a free museum dedicated to explaining what went on there. It was all in German, but I got my hands on an English copy of the guide after wandering the place. The strangest thing was a lookout bridge with an officer's eyes that said something like "See you." All in all, kind of creepy but also the kind of thing you might only find at a rest stop in Germany.