Today we were booked into a bike tour with Urban Adventures. We had to meet our guide at Dam Square before 10am. He was late, but finally rocked up and we were joined by 3 others, a guy from Adelaide and a mother and daughter from South Africa. Our guide was John, an expat from the US (though he doesn't think of himself as expat as he has lived here for 11 years). He was a pretty chilled guy.
We were fitted with back peddle bikes, which are what everyone rides here, and hit the streets . John told us a bit of the cultural history of the place. We didn't do the monuments, but more of a social tour, which was really interesting. The tour was called bikes and dykes and John explained how the canals had evolved and how they determined the cultural identity of the Amsterdam people, who consider themselves apart from the rest of the Dutch people.
We headed out to the east of the city and visited the Dappermarket, then stopping for a coffee break at a really pretty garden, in an old summer house of someone rich, called Merchelbach. We also went through a really cool community garden lot, where you rent a space for a year and get a little plot and it comes with a tiny little garden house.
We got a bit of rain while riding, but not enough t make it uncomfortable. It was fun riding and being part of the mass of bikes that make up most of the traffic here. Fun fact, there are about 881,000 bikes in Amsterdam. More bikes than people. The bikes everyone rides are pretty basic, not flashy. A second had bike is about €120, and an expensive one about €400. When you see the way they are stacked and chained together on the street you can see why you wouldn't want an expensive one. Many are stolen and then resold by bike junkies, you could get one for €10! John told us he had been through 10 bikes in 11 years. One he just forgot where he put it and another was on a rack that some pranksters just moved down the street. He found it a year later!
He was a pretty casual guide . Occasionally he would glance back and make sure we were all there. We were eventually. At one stage I went through a red light and rode through a sea of cyclists, with Ken and the South Aussie guy following and apologising. But all good, we were on idiot bikes, with a hire sign on the front.
After the tour we walked in the direction of home and stopped by Rembrandt's House. We did the tour, which was really quite interesting. They have set the house up as it would have been when he was working and living there. The audio headsets accompanying tell the stories and make it all come alive. They also have an exhibition of his etchings which were really impressive.
We found a guy selling poffertjes in a little market. He told us he was 6th generation pancake maker. He was using his grandfather's iron and utensils. Good poffertjes .
We bought some cheese and snacks and headed home to chill for a while.
We decided to check out an area John had told us about over near the docks. We had a quick look in the library and continued around the path, finding ourselves at a pub called Hennekes Boom . It has a large beer garden area, so we bought a couple of drinks and sat on the canal wall, enjoying the sun and the views as the boats came by and pedestrian and cycle traffic crossed the bridge. Then we were surprised to see the bridge doing a "Harry Potter" and swinging away to be the bridge to nowhere as a larger boat came through.
After another drink we decided it might be a good idea to head back and find somewhere for dinner before we fell in the canal. The young girl drinking a beer and smoking a joint sitting next to us might have more to worry about. Apparently about 7 people drown in the canals each year, most of them drunk!
It took us awhile to get back, as usual we needed to consult the map. We did find ourselves in a beautiful area, along Plantagenet Parklaan and the beautiful houses. We passed the plantarium, with its amazing glass houses. We finally found ourselves back near Rembrandthuis and walked on into the busy district and found a snack for dinner. Last night was our best meal? This was maybe our worst! Fried stuff, enough said. We topped it off with an icecream on the walk home to complete the diet disaster.
We were stopped by three young girls from the US asking for directions to the Red Light District. I directed them and told them to stay safe, should have asked them if their mothers knew where they were.
Back home to bed, we have an early appointment with a man named Frank.



Steps 16,219
Kms walked 11.8
Kms cycled 11