Amsterdam

Days 5 to 7 - 20 to 22 May
We arrived in Amsterdam in the early afternoon on Wednesday.  Rhonda and I were clearly excited to be in the land of cheese.

Happy to arrive in Amsterdam

The weather was reasonable and our spirits were buoyed by being met at the train station by Joanne and Robin.  A short walk later we checked in to the Best Western Dam Square Inn.  After the Grand Hotel Casselbergh it was a bit of a come down - but the rooms were clean and the location was very good.

Clean but basic (no fridge, and only a double bed)

The Best Western is in a quaint old building.

On the afternoon of Wednesday a group of us took a canal cruise, in a small boat.  We got to travel along some of the smaller canals that the big cruisers can't navigate.

Canal cruise

After the canal cruise - the boat captain is on the left

While the more nautically inclined of us did the canal cruise,Rhonda went with Joanne and Robin to Rembrandt's House (museum).  The photos below show the exterior and an inside scene.

Rembrandt's House

This is either an exhibit titled "Please do not touch" or actual pigments used by Rembrandt to mix his paints

I just need to get this out of the way - cyclists in Amsterdam are completely bonkers!  As our cruise newsletter puts it:
"You are in Amsterdam.  Dutch bikers are notorious for not respecting traffic rules and tourist bikers are notorious for having no idea where they are and will act confused.  Please pay attention at all times."  That information would have been useful if we had it two days before the cruise.  It is a particularly clever piece of understatement.  The way the traffic works in Amsterdam is this.  Trucks and busses don't have to give way to anybody.  Vans give way to trucks and busses, but treat all other vehicles with contempt.  Cars give way to anything bigger, but can pretty much do what they want to cyclists.  Cyclists are the lowest of the low of road users.  They compensate for their inferior status by actually trying to kill or maim pedestrians.  How our group survived walking around Amsterdam for two days is a complete mystery to me - really we were almost wiped out a few times while walking around.  It made the simple act of walking from A to B rather stressful.
On the plus side, however, is the fact that Amsterdammers love their bikes - bikes are everywhere in the city.  They have a real cycling culture and you don't see as many overweight people as you would in Australia.

A typical street with bicycles parked in it

During our canal cruise the boat captain told us that the authorities removed about 12,000 bikes from the canals each year.  We thought that that was a bit of exaggeration until we were walking to the Rijksmuseum the next day.  We were crossing a bridge when we saw two barges.  The first had a crane on the front and was dredging up rubbish from the canal.  The second was half full of old bikes dredged up by the first barge.  As we were watching we saw the crane pluck what looked like a fairly-new motor scooter from the canal.

Dredging up old bikes from the canals

And a reasonably new motor scooter

During our walks around Amsterdam we saw some delightful sights, including the Royal Palace in Dam Square, below.

The Royal palace in Dam Square

We also saw many buildings that would fail most building regulations.  You might notice some slight irregularity in the structure of the buildings below.

Slightly wonky building

Something's not quite straight

Look how far the middle building is leaning forward

The irregularity is caused by the buildings sinking a bit on their foundations.  Given that many of the buildings are several hundred years old, and built on wooden piles in the soft clay, they've done remarkably well to last this long, and they'll probably last for a while yet.  Rhonda saw some cute bowls in a shop we passed in a little side street.

Great conversation pieces for dinner parties

We also saw some very small motor cars, as you can see below.

Less a car, more a fashion statement

A Renault Twizy

There were also a lot of electric cars in Amsterdam, with charging stations on many streets.

Two electric cars being charged

We are staying close to 'Dam Square' in Amsterdam and Rhonda noticed the coffee shop in the photo below - clever name.

Damn good name for a coffee shop

A couple of highlights from our time in Amsterdam were the Rijksmuseum (a big art gallery) and the Maritime Museum.  We walked to both of them the day after we arrived.  They were very impressive but we only had time to scratch the surface of their collections.  Below are some pictures from the Rijksmuseum.

Party of children at the Rijksmuseum - they appear to be getting used to wearing hair rollers

Some 'Amsterdam' style furniture in the more-modern section of the Rijksmuseum - the chairs appear to be wearing clogs

Me by a ship at the Rijksmuseum - Dutch sailors were tiny back in the old days

Joanne looking at a very impressive doll's house

The painting below is of three sisters, painted by their brother.  Apparently the father saw the painting and said that, while it was very accurate it perhaps could have been softened a bit.

A painting of three sisters

Rhonda abandoned me while I was at the Rijksmuseum, to go back to the hotel to meet up with her cousin Brenda and Pascal (Brenda's husband) for lunch.  She had a lovely time with Brenda and I am looking forward to meeting the relatives in a few weeks when we return to Haarlem.

Below are some pictures taken at the Maritime Museum.  In contrast with the Rijksmuseum, the Maritime Museum was probably focused more on children.  There weren't a lot of exhibits, but what there was was quite interesting.

The courtyard at the Maritime Museum - impressive roof

Tiny little ships at the Maritime Museum

Lea taking a rest on board a replica sailing ship

John patiently waiting for Lea to climb on board after our visit to the Maritime Museum

We headed back to the hotel after the Maritime Museum.  A great day, but we sure walked a lot.  My reasonably clever phone told me I had walked over 24,000 steps during the day.  My feet agreed.
On the way back to the hotel we saw a couple of interesting 'clog' bikes,shown below.

Interesting bikes - the Dutch do like clogs

Friday dawned and we had time to kill before boarding our boat, the Avalon Impression.  The boys took the cases and bags to the hotel where we were meeting before getting on board, and returned to the old hotel to see what the girls wanted to do - shopping apparently, because that's where they'd gone.  After regrouping and having a cuppa together we split up.  The others, being more adventurous, set off for museums while Rhonda and I strolled around central Amsterdam and took in the sights - and I bought some very nice socks.  We stopped for lunch at a cafe on a street corner, and it wasn't until we had ordered a bite to eat that we saw the name of the cafe: P. King - well done brother!

Wonder if they've got my brother Peter's permission to use his name?

We boarded the boat just after 4pm and had several of those OMG moments - it is wonderful.  Below are a couple of photos showing our cabin and bathroom.

It'll do

Ditto

A little later we had a safety drill - good to see the crew take safety seriously.

Lea, Lyn and Peter taking safety very seriously

After briefings and welcomes from key staff on the boat we had dinner and then retired for the night. The staff had turned down our beds, given each of us a chocolate, and turned the TV on to a channel showing a fire and playing classical music - very classy.

Nice to comeback to a roaring fire and chocolates after dinner

Back in a couple of days with 'The Fellowship of the Rhine".