travel

Cooling off

Amsterdam, Netherlands
Friday, July 7, 2006

We woke to a much cooler day - back to normal temperatures according to Ilana, 21oC. I spent the morning catching up on emails and trying to find accommodation in Belgium so as not to repeat our 'first night in Amsterdam disaster'. We didn't get out of the apartment until midday and then didn't get into town until 1pm. Our first tour was on a canal boat. The computer commentary had broken down so the boat captain had to take over. He was actually much better than any computer commentary and it made it a very enjoyable tour. We cruised around the canals looking at all the funny or unusual little houses and decorative gables. The BOSS has decided that she would like to live on a houseboat when she returns...

We wandered slowly through the streets to Rembrandt's house and did the tour of his living quarters and gallery. It was not as impressive as Van Gogh's but still displayed quite well. Unfortunately there was an American lady on our tour who had the most annoying, loud, twangy voice and no matter where we were in the house, her voice echoed into every room and up every stairwell. It was like fingernails on a blackboard.

We had again bought salad for our lunch but what we had forgotten was forks to eat it with. We searched the nearby flea market until we found a guy selling old kitchen equipment and he was rather stunned when we only purchased two forks for 50c. We found a lovely park beside a canal and ate our salad at 3.30pm.

The day was nearly over and we had once again missed the theatre museum and the neon museum. We spent the next few hours wandering around the shopping district and then had dinner in a Chinese restaurant - the Peking Duck was not quite as good as Hong Kong.

01 Nemo the technology museum
Nemo the technology museum
02 A boat
A boat
03 The backside of a boat
The backside of a boat
04 The skinny bridge
The skinny bridge
05 Seven bridges
Seven bridges
06 The skinniest house in Amsterdam
The skinniest house in Amsterdam
07 A gorgeous photo
A gorgeous photo
08 The BOSS doing homework
The BOSS doing homework
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