Today I slept in, even the bells tolling on the clock tower couldn't get me up. The is the perfect place for sleeping. Finally moving, we left the cocoon of our boat and hit the streets for an exploration of this new city.
We headed in the direction of Dam Square and the National Monument as a starting point . It took us a while as we took in all the people and all the bikes! We have just spent a week in London where they paint on the footpath which way you should look when crossing the road. Here you have to watch out for bikes in two directions, cars, trams, buses and other pedestrians and they drive/ride/walk on the wrong side of the road! A little tricky, but they seem to be used to the tourists and just go with the flow.
We walked through a shopping precinct and discovered a lot of cheese shops, as well as your usual clothing/shoes and tourist businesses.
After walking for quite some time we started back in the direction that should have been home. Of course, it is never that easy and we were soon consulting maps and recalculating. When we figured we were almost on the right track we bought some lunch to take back, some broojdes (rolls) with delicious hot meat fillings. We found our way back and sat out on our deck to eat and watch the tourist boats go up and down the canal.
We rested, chilled and watched the world go by. The sun was shining and we were sitting in a pretty good place .
I had found a restaurant on a blog I was reading and we went there to book a table. It was in the red light district, but it was all pretty quiet at 6.30 when we walked through. We booked a table for later and went back to Dam Square and had a drink while we watched the comings and goings of everyone there. It is quite a busy spot, there were bikes and people all over the place. We watched a Rasta guy sit in the sun to eat his takeaway. Bit by bit he got more comfortable, taking off his jacket, then his shirt, then his shoes and socks. He swung his long dreadies back and tucked into dinner.
We returned to Aneka Rasa, an Indonesian place. We had a seat in the window so we could watch the people on the street. We had the Aneka special, a set banquet. Wow! The food was amazing and there was so much of it. There were 7 mains, 2 types of rice, 3 accompaniments and banana fritters. Everything was tasty. Best meal so far! And at €20 euros each pretty good value.
We walked home slowly, we had eaten so much there was no other way to move. We are getting into the swing of Amsterdam. The vibe is much more chilled than the pace we have been keeping in London. We have slowed down and relaxed into this beautiful and entertaining city.
Back home, we sat and watched the canal for a while, until it got a bit chilly when we headed down the very steep steps to our abode. I blogged and chatted to Georgie in Nice for a while, then time to sleep, ready for another day of adventure.


Steps 24,066
Kms walked 16.3