Aunty G comes to Town!

I had been counting down the days until Gia arrived in Amsterdam. We sadly couldn't remember the last time we had seen each other, but it was well before Jude and me being pregnant so it had been a while! Her visit coincided with Jude's chicken pox, but apart from a slightly fussy baby, the timing wasn't so bad as I had company while we were quarantined! Her visit started out with a trip downtown to take a canal boat tour. It was a beautiful late fall day. Afterwards, we strolled from Central Station to the Rijks museum, taking in the Christmas lights of the city. It is getting dark quite early here! 

On the second day, after a lazy morning, we headed into the Van Gogh museum and toured around for a while. Then we walked downtown and through the Jordaan (and inadvertently the red light district) to get to Arendsnest, the Dutch beer bar that Pete loves. Gia was a kid in a candy shop pouring over the menu to make her choices from the 30+ Dutch beers they have on tap. Yes, Gia loves beer as much as Pete! Jude was a doll hanging out with us for hours at the beer bar while we caught up, gossiped and chatted about life over beers and cheese. 

On Gia's last day in Amsterdam before Thanksgiving and before we took off for Belgium, she had a very Amsterdamer day, cycling into the city on a cold, gray day to do some shopping, buying over 30+ pounds of beer for her boyfriend (!?). We met up later at the Brouwerij 't IJ (windmill brewery) and had a fun night out while Pete babysat.