Amsterdam - arrival day

Arrived at approx. 9am. We got our luggage and took the train to the city center. It was very fast to get to Amsterdam. We walked about 45min to our apt at 391 Keizersgracht. We booked through Cityden apartments. They had told me it was ok to email them from the train station and they would meet us there, but no one arrived for quite awhile. Myron called someone from a museum around the corner but no one picked up. Probably 20 minutes of sitting on the doorstep and Maarten showed up to check us in. That's probably our biggest complaint about booking apartments and not having international cell phone data to call for check-in. The apt is large (even larger than our home). Maggie's bed is a European version of the pack-n-play. The apt is modern, well equipped. We were told it would be a 1st floor apt but it's on the 2nd floor, and is 52 stairs to enter, even up a spiral staircase. The apt also has an open-concept living room/kitchen/dining area, jacuzzi tub and of course the ubiquitous flooding European shower (WHY DO THEY ALL FLOOD?!!) Maarten showed us around. After check-in, we went to the grocery store around the corner, Albert Heijn and bought a few basics. The coffee machine in the apt was a Nespresso machine which we also couldn't figure out the entire time we were there. We bought some cheese from a cheese shop, and wandered around the central area and canal belt. We had lunch at Greenwoods Keizersgracht. I had eggs benedict with spinach and Myron had a chicken club. We've discovered that carrying the stroller up and down all these stairs is going to be very difficult. We put Maggie to bed and had charcuterie for dinner: gouda, salami, prosciutto (why we got Italian meats in the Netherlands is beyond me), gherkins, baguette, spicy mustard. We ate and went to bed early due to jet lag and not sleeping well on the plane. Maggie didn't sleep well because her body clock was off due to jet lag so she kept waking up screaming. Eventually we got her up, fed her and went through the bedtime routine again around 10pm and put her down then (this was closer to the home bedtime). That worked and she slept through the night til the next morning. Normally she's a great sleeper so this was a bit challenging but the remaining nights were ok.Read more