France, finally!

Bonjour from Tours, France! We finally managed to reserve seats on a train halfway to Bordeaux; we should be there by noon tomorrow. Paris will need to wait until October when we visit my friend Claire in Reims.
The Netherlands were fantastic! Amsterdam was definitely one of the highlights of the trip for me so far. The first day we found our gorgeous hotel (thanks Charlie and Trina!) And wandered around the city to see where everything was. We also managed to walk through the red light district and see some of the prostitutes advertising themselves in the windows. There are "coffee shops" (places to buy and smoke marijuana) literally on every corner and it is impossible to walk down any street without smelling it. Although technically people are only supposed to smoke indoors, we passed by a countless amount of people smoking on the street; it's basically everywhere.
We woke up early the next morning to eat HUGE breakfast and walk down the block to the Anne Frank House. It has been a life-long wish of mine to visit the annex where Anne hid for over two years with her family; I really appreciated the opportunity to finally see it. The museum is really well done with plenty of videos and interviews with friends of Anne's as well as her father. Although there is no furniture in the tiny apartment (we couldn't have walked through if there was!) Anne's decorations and pictures of her favorite celebrities were still on the walls. I think I had chills the entire time I was there.
Immediately following Anne Frank, we walked to the Van Gogh Museum only to discover that it was 20 US dollars to get in! We decided the Louvre is more important than Van Gogh and instead went to the National Museum, or the Rijks Museum. We also went to the Sex Museum in the red light district. (Very funny and interesting!)
The last morning we ate another massive breakfast and checked out of our wonderful hotel with the intention of going to Paris. As you may have read in my previous blog, however, all the trains were booked! We had to immediately cancel our reservation in Paris and frantically find somewhere to sleep until we went to Bordeaux. Since it was a Saturday, everything was booked! At one point I was seriously concerned that we would have nowhere to sleep. After 3 hours of searching for a hostel with two beds available (that didn't seem creepy; we didn't want a repeat of Berlin) we found a really cool place in Rotterdam. Since this was only our second hostel experience we were nervous but we actually had a really good time there. It was right on the harbor in adorable Rotterdam, was extremely safe and they even gave us free beer last night! We met some really cool people who gave us more travel advice; two guys we met are literally on the same route as us except going to opposite direction. (We of course, told them where to NOT stay in Berlin.)
Today we took a train to Tours, France; we'll be here for the night before we go to Bordeaux. I am really excited for wine-tasting in Bordeaux - the place we are staying is right next door to the information center on Bordeaux wine! Yes, we planned it that way. All the museums are free in Bordeaux... I can't wait to save some money :)
The language barrier is so much bigger in France than it has been everywhere else. So far no one has been rude though, which we were worried about. But the bread is amazing! We bought fresh sandwiches at a bakery for dinner and it is SO GOOD.
I can't believe that on Wednesday I will have been gone for an entire month! We still have so much to see and do. I hope everything is great at home; I'll see everyone in about 6 weeks!
Xoxo
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