A funny sort of morning, the idea was to be up around 6:45 – 7:00 and head off to breakfast then finish packing. Well we picked a good morning to sleep in!!! I woke at 7:15, the latest yet on the whole trip, and woke Deb. We showered and dressed in record time and were done with breakfast by 8:15. It is a beautiful bright sunny day.

We returned to our room finished packing and had our bags out by 8:30, and then retired to the lounge to await our taxi, booked for 10am. While we were waiting we jumped on the net and did a little last minute research on the city. Our plan is to drop our bags at our hotel and head off to do a 3hr walking tour of the city that starts at 11:15 in Dam Square.

Our taxi arrived 30mins late and that put the walking tour in doubt. We got to the hotel at about 10:50, checked in, left our bags at reception and walked down the road and got a tram up to Dam Square. Yes, we were free in a city for less than 30 mins and we were already using public transport, who would ever have guessed!!!! 

We met up with the “Sandemans” tour guides and were off on the tour by 11:25. The tour started off with a walk to the Old Church (I will not use the name names here, it’s way too confusing and very hard on the spelling, and the Red Light area. We saw a few of the window “girls” and heard some interesting tales of how the district got started and a bit about the liberal laws here. The oldest “girl” working in town is 73 years old!!!! And apparently you have to make an appointment to see her!!   During the walk we passsed many “Cafes”.   In Amsterdam there are about 700 cafes that sell Hemp relate drugs, in small quantities(5g), to be smoked on the premises. We even saw stores where you could buy seeds and grow your own. It was quite strange to see people rolling joints at tables and in the cafes.   I did note that there were a lot of very relaxed people floating around town,   and the nearby food shops were doing a good business.  We then walked down to the old Jewish Quarter, onto the Begijnhof Convent, the  Royal Palace, we crossed the widest bridge in Amsterdam, saw the narrowest house in the city and many other sights. It’s a very interesting city. We finished the tour at a cafe across the canal from the Anne Frank House and museum.  When we got into the cafe we found a table of 6 from our river cruise, and we had passed another couple just metres from the cafe!!!!

We had lunch in the cafe. We both had the must have, apparently, Dutch cuisine called Kroketten (Crumbed, deep fried, meat filled croquettes served on bread slices with mustard). Tick, while tasty, we don’t need to have this again!!!  Lol   Before we left we booked a tour of the Red Light District for tonight.   It should be interesting.

We then walked back to our hotel, 25 mins away. It was nice to be able to get out and walk at our own pace again, and without a big group. Our hotel is a converted old merchant’s house and our room is on the first floor overlooking the Reguliersgracht Canal and a bridge.

In the afternoon we unpacked a bit and settled into our room. We got our bearings and saw about the restaurants in the area and the location of supermarkets, laundrette and things close by.   We have a nice Indonesian (yum!!!), Italian AND Fish restaurants near us. When I enquired about good “Dutch” Restaurants, the front desk guy said he couldn’t recommend any (And I got the impression that statement covered the city!!!).   (I read in the lonely planet guide that Dutch food is more about filling the stomach that titillating the taste buds!)

For dinner we went into town up near the train station to an Indonesian restaurant our guide from this morning suggested. Bunga Mawar, is a very small restaurant hidden away on Zeedijk  Straat. It was delicious, we had a samoda each followed by Satay Chicken (with what Deb rated as the best peanut sauce she has ever had, even better than mine!!!) and a Rendang Daging, with rice and stir fired veg ( and a small bowl of sabal for me J ). (Greg told me the Rendang wouldn’t be hot,   mmm he must have meant by his standards!!   But it was edible and the meat was really tasty and tender as well as hot!!)   The meal was great and after it we walked back up to the visitors information booth to meet up with our tour for the night, The Red Light District Tour with Sandeman’s.

The tour was pretty interesting, covering the history of prostitution in Amsterdam and the changes that are being implemented now. We strolled the streets, looking into the various windows, with girls  of varying ages, race, size and looks, and in the “Blue Light “ lane the “girls” had a few extra bits just to surprise you! It was interesting watching the way the windows worked and all the colour of the streets. The tour finished at about 8:30,and we were taken to a bar for shots of Jager..... (whatever it is). Deb gave me hers. A few of the younger members of the tour showed me how it was done. When I did the shot with no trouble they were impressed that an old guy could do a shot!!! If only they knew!!!  LOL Since it doesn’t get dark here until after 9pm , we decided to walk around a bit and see how this looked when the lights took hold a bit and more windows opened for business. It was all good fun and the streets were lively and full of laughs. The City council is closing down half of the remaining windows on June 1 this year, so it will change the look and feel of the area dramatically.

We eventually got a tram back to the hotel and ended an interesting first day in Amsterdam by ourselves. It reminds us both of Venice and New York. Strange mix but true, Venice for the canals and the buildings in the older parts of New York, especially the area where we stayed.   

(I (mum here Carly!!)    really enjoyed the day, was so nice to be on our own again and eat different food, our room is nice and it overlooks a lovely canal, what a great place Amsterdam is and it was never on our list of places to visit, really glad our river cruise ended here.  I am very much looking forward to the next 3 days exploring this great city – hopefully go to Anne Frank’s house tomorrow)

Really glad to hear you enjoyed your birthday Georgiana.   Hope John’s sister is ok and that you continue to enjoy your celebrations when John gets back home.

It is late,  I am rather tired, so will post this now.  Hope you all have a great week.

Love from us xo