Monday, June 18, 2018 (Amsterdam)

We got up and went to Omelegg for breakfast at the suggestion of the hotel registration employee. It was a good breakfast, closest to statewide breakfasts and conveniently located just a half block away. Tiffany had purchased our transportation pass online, thinking we would have it on our phone and could get started with our agenda for the day. It turns out we had to have a printed copy of it and would have to go to the train station to get those. We wanted to quickly get going and the weather was rainy and cool. We decided to take an Uber to the train station to save time and energy and to keep us a little dryer. Upon arrival the train lady told us to go to the magazine shop and get the pass. The magazine employee told us to go to the train lady. We headed back and asked to speak to the other attendant. She confirmed that we would now have to go to the Central Station to get our passes printed. I think we looked a little distraught because she offered us complimentary tickets to get to the Central Station. She told us you had to scan a ticket when you get on or enter a station AND when you get off. We thanked her and headed to Central Station.

Johnnie with her breakfast

Rain and a sample of the number of bikes everywhere

Not sure why he was sitting on his bike on the metro

We scanned our ticket and got on the metro. As we arrived at Central Station, you had to scan your ticket as you exited the metro area. Tiffany reached into her pocket and realized she did not have her ticket. She had put it in her pocket with her phone and it must have fell out when she reached for the phone. She was going to just squeeze in behind me when the gate opened to exit. As we walked through, several other people were walking through at the same time. The alarm went off and the security person stopped all the people behind us. He made them all stop and show their tickets. We just walked on like we didn’t know what was going on.

We finally got the tickets printed. Again the ticket person told us to be sure and get the tickets scanned as we got on AND off public transportation. He warned us that if you did not use it when you exited, it could lock up the ticket and then you could not use it at all. There was a wide variety of shops at Central Station. Tiffany bought cheese. Our main goal in Amsterdam was to see the many bridges, this is a city with over 1200. We also were planning a day trip to see the billion dollar sea wall. Regularly scheduled public tours are held on the weekend so we had to make special arrangements for a private tour. We were disappointed that it cost more but this was our main goal for visiting the city so we had no choice.

Our first stop for the day was at the Rijkmuseum. We saw many amazing works of art. I especially was impressed with the intricate dioramas and liked the cluster of paintings with various scenes, a great way to highlight chapters of a book. Of course, the Van Gogh and Rembrandt pieces were beautiful. We then took a ride to visit the floating flower market. Tulips are already out of season but the markets were abundant with all types and colors of tulip bulbs. I found a little shop with hand painted ornaments. The glass ornaments were actually painted from the inside and quit impressive. I purchased an ornament for my collection and Tiffany purchased a little wooden windmill as her ornament. We found a little café near the market and stopped for lunch. It was still drizzling and cool so it was nice to sit inside and warm up while we ate. Tiffany tried the pancake, a local specialty, and I had a club sandwich. The pancake had bacon and cheese mixed in it and it looked more like a crepe than a stack of pancakes. She enjoyed it.

Loved that the Rijkmuseum Selfie Zone

Johnnie in front of the Rijkmuseum

A little Van Gogh

Two Mothers

Two Mothers

Children of the Sea

Cow Beside a Ditch

Diorama of the Zeezigt Coffee and Cotton Plantation 

Sleeping Beauty

Tiffany in the National Archive area.

The rain had let up a little so we decided to take our channel cruise. Everyone walks and rides bikes in Amsterdam. It was funny to see a lady in a suit and heels riding along or a man in a suit pedaling his bike. Actually, everyone walks throughout Europe. When someone tells you it’s just a ten minute walk, you should beware because it’s going to take longer than ten minutes for Americans to walk. The ticket lady was very nice but unfortunately, sent us several blocks off in the wrong direction from our tour. It took us more than the designated 10 minutes so we had to wait for the next ride.

The cruise was an hour long and was very good. The guide pointed out that the homes had metal hooks on the outside of the homes near the roof. These were used to hoist items to various stories of the home when moving things. He said people did move around and it was not uncommon to see a washer or refrigerator being pulled up through a window. The house are also tilted slightly out at the top so items don't bang against the side when raising and lowering them.  We learned that the houses had the windows narrower as they got higher to make them look like there was more height. We found this interesting that perspective was again used to make an impression, similar to how the Old Town roads had been designed in Croatia. We were told that the reason for some of the houses looking tilted was due to the fact they were built on marsh land.

Windows got narrower near the top to create an illusion

The metal hook at the top helps to move thing in and out of the windows

Some houses have a group of similar houses together

Johnnie on a canal

We spent the rest of the evening walking around looking through the shops along the streets. We were both craving Mexican food and had seen one earlier during our walk. Tiffany pulled out the trusty GPS on her phone and navigated us back to the restaurant. We both had enchiladas and they were very good. As we were walking around after dinner, Tiffany was getting cool in her shorts and short sleeve shirt so she decided to put on her poncho. We had to laugh when a local man stopped Tiffany and asked her why she had that on when it wasn’t raining. It does not get dark until 10:15 and people tend to eat much later in Europe. The World Cup was also going on at this time and the bars and restaurants were overflowing with cheering fans. Our feet were tired and tomorrow is a big day, our last day. We headed home for bed.

WALKING ACTIVITY: 11 miles; 25,181 steps; 6 floors Temperature 64 and it was cool, rainy, and windy.