Saturday June 21st 2014
This cute little cafe is located right on a canal & just accross the road from our hotel:
So we had to stop for a coffee & of course the local speciality. I forget the exact name but they are like tiny pancakes (size of a 20c coin) very light & fluffy & dusted with icing sugar. Of course they were served with strawberries & cream. We ordered the smallest size to share & this is what arrived. Delicious!!:
This will be a fairly boring entry as we prepare to check out of our hotel & await our transfer to the AMAVerde for our next APT cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest. As we have a 12MD checkout & will be collected around 2.30pm for transfer to our ship, we will store our luggage, take a last look around Amsterdam, grab some lunch & be back at the hotel by 2PM.
Well we finally had some sunshine today so we had a walk around, stopped for lunch here:
Then walked back to our hotel to prepare to leave. Some photos of our walk:
I keep thinking of things I forget to mention, after I publish each blog entry. So I have been jotting down some random thoughts on Amsterdam when I think of them & saving in Pages. So here they are, in no logical order:
Coffee shops (where they sell small quantities of drugs) are everywhere. 250 in Amsterdam alone. I am paranoid I will accidentally walk into one of these instead of a cafe.
This seems to be a young persons city as we didn't see many older people other than fellow tourists.
The people (locals) here are very, very friendly (except if you are a pedestrian and walk across their cycleway)!
Everyone seems to speak & understand english.
There are almost 2 bicycles for every resident.
Bicycles just get dumped everywhere if there is no space outside the building they wish to enter, so it is easy to trip over them.
Cyclists & motorcyclists do not wear helmets.
Cyclists ride very fast (it is very very flat in Amsterdam) and do not stop for tourists. It can be very intimidating when you accidentally step in their path.
First impressions from when we arrived last Wednesday onboard AMACello have changed as we stay longer. The fact that there had been garbage strike underway for 3 days did not help much. On our tour of the inner city on Wednesday there was garbage piled up everywhere which you had to walk around. So given that, the suicidal cyclists, trams & road traffic, it was quite an exercise trying to cross a road keeping your life intact. Luckily when we were travelling from the ship to our hotel on Thursday the garbage was in the process of being cleared.
There are many Irish Pubs in Amsterdam.
The locals are very soccer crazy and were really celebrating their wins. Lot's of orange decorations everywhere, with some wearing orange coloured suits and clothes.
We (or more to the point, Mike) were very excited to see a "Guest Laundry" just a short distance from our room on Thursday. Anyone who has travelled in Europe will know just how difficult it is to find somewhere to do your laundry on a regular basis. We have survived by washing the "unmentionables" every day & easy dry items regularly on the ships & hanging them up on hangers. On the last 2 river cruises we have sent several items which need ironing (no irons allowed) to be laundered & found the prices very reasonable compared to the hotel rates (was 18 Euros just to wash & iron a pair of trousers in Monte Carlo). Needless to say we (Mike) managed to get quite a lot done here (whilst I was getting my hair cut & pedicure) so will arrive at the AMAVerde with everything nice & clean.
More news & photos from the AMAVerde tonight or tomorrow!
Betty & Mike
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