Marlin came to Europe again and we met up with him in Amsterdam on the 25th and 26th. We hadn’t been there in twelve years ourselves! We planned this five or so weeks before, and had a very hard time finding a room below 100 euro, since it was a national holiday on the Thursday, making this one of the most popular get-away weekends of the year. We found a spot at the Euphemia “budget” hotel (it still was 80 euro for a double room with bathroom, but without breakfast!) and went to Marlin’s hotel in the Red Light district as soon as he got in. We walked around, went on a canal tour, had dinner in an Indian restaurant and drinks on a heated terrace on the Rembandtsplein. After days of rain, the weather cleared up that afternoon and night, so we were very lucky! The next day it was totally raining again, but we went to visit Volendam as planned anyway. We also visited Marken, they are both old fisherman’s towns that now live off tourism. Later on we brought Marlin back to Amsterdam and drove home through the rain. We had a good time in Amsterdam and it was great to see Marlin again, but boy is that city ever expensive!! And busy.. we were glad to get back to our not-so-busy south on the Friday ;))