Today was Ellie's 16th Birthday!  To celebrate we started the day out in Leidseplein.  In Leidseplein we had lunch at Ellie's favorite pizza place.  Then we went to a bakery for dessert.  At the bakery I had a chocolate covered waffle, it was so delicious! 

After lunch the four of us went on a canal tour.  The tour took us through many of the historic canals in Amsterdam.  We went past some old churches built in the 1500s and 1600s.  We also went past the Anne Frank house, and many other museums.  One of my favorite things we saw were the house boats.  House boats are boats that are permanently docked on the shores and people live in them all year long.  There are over 2,500 house boats in Amsterdam.  The boat also went out into the Amstel River.  The most surprising thing was how dirty the water is in the canals, its kind of gross.  The ride lasted about an hour and a half.  We all had so much fun.

After we got done with the canal ride Ellie and I came home because we were tired.  Mom and Dad went shopping for a sim card for my phone, so I now have a functioning Dutch phone.  However it is very expensive to call or text America.  They also got us passes that can get us into many of the museums here in Amsterdam.  Tomorrow we are planning on using these passes at some of the museums. 

Mom, Ellie, Dad and I on the canal boat.

We passed this church on the canal tour. It is
many hundreds of years old.

This is the Rijks Museum, we passed it on the canal tour.

This is one of the most famous bridges in Holland.  It used to
be lifted by hand, but it is not anymore.

This is another old church we passed on the tour.

This is the largest floating Chinese restaurant in all of Europe,
we passed this on the the tour.

These are some house boats.

This is the most famous hotel in Amsterdam.  It is very luxurious!
Many celebrities have stayed here.