Zaandam

Day 25:

This morning we went to the Findorff Markt, a farmer's market for the small part of Bremen we were living in. Our host said it was a small farmer's market, however, it was massive. There were multiple cheese places, butchers, vegetables, fruits, knife sharpeners, flowers, and of course Danielle found the pretzel stand. Basically the best farmer's market of our lives.

In the afternoon, we boarded our train to Osnabrück, Germany, then caught a connection to Amsterdam, Netherlands. In the second train, we were in a coupé with an older couple who were on their way to Amsterdam for a cruise down the Rhine River. We were pretty jealous! Once in Amsterdam, we parted ways from the frat guys who, from the sound of it, were very big fans of Dutch coffee and pastries, and boarded a regional train to Zaadam. Its a smaller, slower town just outside of Amsterdam that we thought would fit us better, concerning both stress and budget. We found our next place in an awesome old house along a stream.

We were figuratively starving, so Danielle found an Egyptian restaurant just down the street. PHENOMENAL lamb shawarma. And our server liked us so much. He asked us where we were from, and after we gushed about the shawarma, he told us we were their guests and ended up giving us a round of beers on the house while we were watching the football game! We felt so at home in such a foreign place. On our way home, we went to this little bar that was going crazy to watch the end of the game. But it was a travel day, so we are exhausted.Read more