Atyrau Journal - Surprise Trip to Amsterdam

We learned a few weeks ago that Jim's brother Kevin would be in Amsterdam in mid August. With direct flights from Atyrau to Amsterdam, the opportunity to see him was too good to pass up. We had a wonderful time with Kevin and we also got to experience the sights and sounds of one of the most interesting cities in the world.

Here's Amsterdam at night:

And here are the three of us partying on a canal cruise. Our hotel is the building in the background:

And we met one of Kevin's good friends who lives and works in Amsterdam and Brussels:

On the river cruise, we saw a view they call "Seven Bridges," where you can see seven bridges at once. The picture doesn't quite capture it. The man in the picture had trouble staying awake. His friends kept sipping his drink while he was on this "snooze cruise:"

We saw the Anne Frank house, which was an amazing experience. The rooms are still as the family hid in them for so many months before they were captured by the Gestapo and sent to concentration camps. Another interesting site was the Catholic Church in an attic. At one time, there was a prohibition on publicly practicing any religion other than the state religion in public. All other religions were required to practice their religion in private homes. Many churches were built in private homes. We visited Our Lord of the Attic, a beautiful and very complete church hidden away on the top floors of a house:

The hotel had great views of the open water and the city skylines. The first picture is from our room in the peaceful early morning before the city stirred. The second is from Kevin's room.

As we do whenever possible when we visit new areas, we made a side trip to The Hague Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is in a beautiful, peaceful setting, and we enjoyed our time there.