Cycle: 75.64km / 4hr53min / 15.45 km/hr
Monday August 26
Today is Amsterdam day!! Leaving all our bags in the tent, and happy to cycle without the extra weight for a change! Arriving in Amsterdam after an hours ride we decided to start off with a lunch and a beer along one of the many canal before cycling into the heart of the city. The canals are clean, they don't smel, and they are a haven for the birds. We saw a little platform floating in the water for the birds and the turtles! The canals are endless and they are their own little infrastructure for transportation. Tourists and locals all boating from one place to another. Water highway.
We cycled aimlessly for a long time, agreeing that we could continue to cycle for days in circles here and still be interested in what we saw. The narrow streets, the houses all stacked together with beautifully expressive gables fronting on the canals. The sheer number of bicycles and people cycling is hard to explain and the pictures will never do it justice. Yes, we rolled through the red light district and past all the pot smoke shops. We saw some fantastic street performers playing big band kind of music.
It was getting late in the day but we were energized after riding around Amsterdam....We decided to go through the Anne Frank house. It was really just an empty house with some artifacts displayed but it did bridge the gap between ones imagination and the reality of what her life, the war experience might have been.
It was getting dark very fast and we had taillights but neither of us had brought our headlamps. We took the train as close to our camp site as possible, but we still had a bit to ride after the train. We hit the country road......and pitch black night. Literally, it stopped us in our tracks. We pressed on once our eyes adjusted (at <5km/hr) as we were on a bike only path but every time a car went by it blinded us all over again. I pulled off my taillight and we used the solid red beam to get the rest of the way back. Amsterdam is lovely!
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| We bough this homemade fruit salad for 5, or 10, euros. We cant remember which. It was delicious, and a nice change. Plus, at the time, we had no food, and the nearest grocery was far far away. Thanks Tina for the chop chop chopping. |
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| Jenn enjoying her morning cafe at Fort Spion. |
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| Fort Spion had many fruit trees. Here Madalene acquires a pear. |
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| Look at that hair!!! He..he. Every couple of days, Jenn declares she's going to get a haircut. Approx 50 days later... no haircut. |
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| Westmalle for the win! And only 1.15 Euro in a supermarket! This is our lovely picnic site by one of the small canals in Amsterdam. |
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| Birds and turtles live in this canals... happy animals! |
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| Pictures dont do Amsterdam justice. Well, not our pictures. We were busy trying not to get run over. |
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| Narrow streets, pride flags, canals... all Amsterdam. |
