Amsterdam and Home

The canal cruise was a great way to see Amsterdam from another angle.  It's always an interesting city to be in; the scenery is never boring.  There are canals, tall, narrow houses -- some leaning at interesting angles -- the ladies in the red light district, the cross dressers on the corner, the smell of pot wafting out of "coffee" houses, and hoardes of people going everywhere by bike, tram, boat, car and foot.  They hang out in parks (when it's sunny), shop, eat, drink, hang out and hang out some more.  We had lunch with Lynn and Mark after the canal tour in a food emporium, then we split up and spent our day finishing the tour of the flower market and basically wandering around, meandering the narrow streets back to our hotel for dinner.  It was our last night in Amsterdam and, thanks to our wandering, were too tired to do much else.  We finished packing and crashed. 

New Market

Bikes, bridges, boats and canals

Canals and bikes

Dutch architecture

Tall, narrow houses reduced tax on the front edifice, but they extend to the rear of the block.

Flower Market

The flower market -- about 3 city blocks of flowers, vases, seeds, tubers, botanically themed tschotschkes of all kinds



canal bridges

I would visit Amsterdam again.  But now, it's time to go home.  Auf wiedersein!  (Which is German, but I don't know it in Dutch.) 

Amsterdam

We continued cruising the Rhine toward Amsterdam and stopped in Kinderdijk.  There, we toured a windmill, including a climb to the top.  People actually lived in the windmills and were responsible for making sure the arms were turned into the wind so that they continuously pumped water out of their living area and back into the sea.  Today, people still live in them, but they pay rent for a 2-year option.  It's like staying in a lighthouse back in the states, only lots more work.  We left Kinderdijk and woke up in Amsterdam.  Transfer to our hotel, the Moevenpick, was uneventful and we immediately met our guide and went on a walking tour.  It was Sunday morning, so the streets were very quiet.  The weather was cool and overcast with a brisk breeze.  Our tour was quite interesting and informative and ended in the main square (the Dom) about noon.  The clouds were just beginning to break up and the day started looking promising.  Amsterdam exploded in people.  Suddenly there were people and boats everywhere.  Ray and I found an unremarkable place to have lunch and walked until we found the Flower Market, where we ran into Mark and Lynn.  We had arranged to meet them for dinner, and they were doing a Rick Steves walking tour.  We confirmed our dinner aarrangements and went back to our room to refresh.  After a nap (we'd already walked 8 miles),  we opted for a cab to Rembrandt Square to meet Mark and Lynn for dinner.  We found a small restaurant/pub beside a canal for dinner, which turned out to be sandwiches and beer.  It was really pleasant watching the canal traffic and relaxing over a bite and a brew. 
Today, we're looking forward to a canal cruise with Mark and Lynn.  Maybe we'll get to the Reichsmuseum, maybe we'll do something else.  ttfn...