15.05.15
No 7 tram to Waterlooplein flea market, where I bought a cotton scarf and a lace tablecloth, from which to make new bow door boat curtains, I hope. Some good antiquey bargains here, but sadly we don't think we can manage to lug a coal scuttle home on the plane.
As it's a public holiday (something we didn't know when we booked this) the whole of the city was thrumming and our plan of a 3 hour boat trip was soon dashed, they were all full. So we settled for a 1 hour. Boat was full to brimming of course, we sat opposite a very nice couple from Washington DC, but she was Austrian and he was Dutch. Her comment of "my husband is not bothered about coming back to Holland, unless he is near water, he likes to be on boats" rang true to me, Pete being at his happiest on or around boats of whatever kind. It was good to see part of the city from this angle and to hear some facts about the various canals and we had it confirmed that the large hooks that hang way up on the gables of all the houses are for lugging furniture up into rooms as the stairs are all so steep and narrow.
We couldn't come to Amsterdam without a look around the red light district and I was interested to see that scantily clad women DO sit and pose in the windows, I had never really believed it. One beautiful girl winked at the 2 men walking in front of us - I wonder if one of them doubled back later.
We carried on through the Old Town, more beautiful canals and old buildings and churches. Then walked along the Amstel to find the docks, although we had read the map wrong (twits) and found ourselves going in the wrong direction, so decided to call a halt and have a drink in a cafe, get our bearings and decide where to eat our evening meal. Indonesian tonight, just off Albert Cuyp in de Pijp again. A tiny cafe, but chicken satay and beef rendang went down well after all that schlepping and then even more schlepping back to the hotel.
No 7 tram to Waterlooplein flea market, where I bought a cotton scarf and a lace tablecloth, from which to make new bow door boat curtains, I hope. Some good antiquey bargains here, but sadly we don't think we can manage to lug a coal scuttle home on the plane.
As it's a public holiday (something we didn't know when we booked this) the whole of the city was thrumming and our plan of a 3 hour boat trip was soon dashed, they were all full. So we settled for a 1 hour. Boat was full to brimming of course, we sat opposite a very nice couple from Washington DC, but she was Austrian and he was Dutch. Her comment of "my husband is not bothered about coming back to Holland, unless he is near water, he likes to be on boats" rang true to me, Pete being at his happiest on or around boats of whatever kind. It was good to see part of the city from this angle and to hear some facts about the various canals and we had it confirmed that the large hooks that hang way up on the gables of all the houses are for lugging furniture up into rooms as the stairs are all so steep and narrow.
We couldn't come to Amsterdam without a look around the red light district and I was interested to see that scantily clad women DO sit and pose in the windows, I had never really believed it. One beautiful girl winked at the 2 men walking in front of us - I wonder if one of them doubled back later.
We carried on through the Old Town, more beautiful canals and old buildings and churches. Then walked along the Amstel to find the docks, although we had read the map wrong (twits) and found ourselves going in the wrong direction, so decided to call a halt and have a drink in a cafe, get our bearings and decide where to eat our evening meal. Indonesian tonight, just off Albert Cuyp in de Pijp again. A tiny cafe, but chicken satay and beef rendang went down well after all that schlepping and then even more schlepping back to the hotel.
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