Day 10 – 7/10/2019 – Amsterdam Day 2

We slept in this morning (go figure) which compressed our itinerary a bit.

Up, showered, and out the door we headed down the block and around the corner to a bakery that we had spotted yesterday. Cheryl had a veal quiche and I had a chicken quiche – and a chocolate croissant.

Then, because of the time issue we rode the tram to the hop-off point for our morning walk thru the Jordaan neighborhood. Rick Steves was our guide with his humorous and informative recorded tour, however we saved time by reading the transcript (and cutting out much information that we already knew) rather than listening to the recording.

The tour started at Dam Square – where they dammed the Amstel river and founded the city. Adjacent to the square is the old post office, now a shopping mall.

The tour took us along and across canals

Past historic houses (This is the Anne Frank house)

Past interesting shops (‘nothin’ but ducks’ and guess who’s front and center.)

And creative food stands (This is a fry stand.)

If you look carefully the ouses on the left seem to be leaning toward the street. They’re built that way. Less chance of the keg of spice (or the grand piano) crashing into the wall while you are hauling it up the outside.

If the forward lean in houses is ok, the lean of the tower on the Westerkirk (west church) is not. The engineers estimate that the tower will likely fall in about 100 years.

We were able to finish most of the tour by the time we needed to get to the restaurant/meeting point for our canal tour. We had time for lunch and a bit of shopping before our “wrangler” rounded us up to walk us several blocks to where our boat was docked.

There we met our guide – Captain Dan from Those Dam Boat Guys.

We loaded into the boat and met our 8 fellow passengers – mostly from the British Isles and took off.

At this point it was raining so they issued clear umbarellas for those of us who weren’t dressed for inclement weather (and even those of us who were). Captian Dan commented that it’s always a challenge to lead a tour when you are talking to a bunch of umbarellas. Eventually it stopped raining and the umbarellas were collapsed but it was interesting to both Cheryl and me that the two of us (sitting in the back of the boat) interacted with Captian Dan a lot more than the other passengers. I’m not sure how they all felt about the tour but we agreed that it was fun, informative, and well worth recommending to all our friends and relations. If you read their website it sounds like a party boat. And while most people had an adult beverage or two (or joined us in the bottle of cider that we brought to share) it wasn’t really a party atmosphere. And the breeze did a good job of blowing away the smoke from the cigarettes (and other burnables) that people were smoking.

Upscale neighborhood where the owners tried to outdo each other on their decorative fronts

The red house in the center is the narrowest house in Amsterdam. It is just under 6 feet wide. The owner is 6’3″. He literally cannot lie crosswise in his house.

While a forward lean is OK, a sideways lean is a problem. These used to be called “the leaning sisters.” Now the are called “the drunken sisters.” Strangely Mulligan’s Pub is the only straight building in the block.

This boat is a feline rescue center – the Cat Boat.

The tour lasted just over 90 minutes and once docked we repaired to the cafe that Captain Dan recommended for apple pie and coffee/tea. The pie was excellent.

Then, because it was still raining, we made our way back to civilization (the old town) and hopped the tram back to our neighborhood.

We arrived with time to rest a bit before walking around the block to the Van Gogh museum for our timed entry at 4:30. We spent the better part of two hours wandering thru this excellent museum – Cheryl deciding that she really doesn’t like most of Van Gogh’s work. Me deciding that I actually do, and being fascinated by the how his style developed thru his life. It was really amazing to see. Much of the museum was “no photography” so if you want to see pictures you’ll just have to come to Amsterdam and experience it for yourself.

From there we wandered a bit looking for a likely place for dinner. We settled on an upscale burger joint (over the top decor, velvet chairs, truffle mayonnaise, a Wizard of Oz theme to the menu) and had a great meal.

You know it’s a high-class burger joint when there’s a frescoed ceiling.

then it was back to the room for dessert (Twix) and evening activities.

so that’s the day. The step trackers tell us that we barely recorded 5 miles today. We’ll have to do better tomorrow.

Till then – Nite all,

Traveling Light

Day 10 – 7/10/2019 – Amsterdam Day 2

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