New Years in Amsterdam

Since we were moving into our new apartment On December 28th, we decided to stay in Amsterdam for New years. We had heard many stories about the abundance of fireworks all over the city this time of year. The Dutch government allows fireworks to be sold in the stores a couple days prior resulting in nonstop fireworks from December 30th through the early hours of January 1st. We got up and went shopping on Saturday the 31st and were amazed at the constant pops and bangs of the fire works heard all over the city. We could even smell gunpowder all day long. We heard thet the center of the "madness" would be at nieumarkt, a square close to our apartment, later that evening for the big show at midnight. We went out for a late dinner and then made our way to the square. We were just in awe of what we say. There were hundreds of people that had forms a huge ring around the square and people would run our into the center and set of some fireworks and the crowd would cheer loudly depending on the "show." then at midnight, there were so many going off you could barely see the person next to you from the smoke. Here are a few pictures from our experience. Happy New Year!