Day 3: Thu 30 Jul – Amsterdam

Was up about 6am and walked around the city – a bit grotty before the clean-up crews arrive, but interesting just the same. We then went to the train station and bought a ticket to Dusseldorf and booked a hotel for one night. Back at the hotel I had breaky which was OK but the fruit was not fresh.

Later, we had a good ride around Amsterdam which has plenty of old buildings (<>1600) and lots of canals. Boats of every description and water everywhere. Went to Botanical Gardens but they wanted Euro7 to get in, so we gave it a miss and just had a ride around. Stopped at a cafe on a canal boat and had tomato soup and bread and a coffee for lunch. Dinner was a venison dish with veggies and was really nice. 

Amsterdam has plenty of canals, bicycles and canal boats



Our hotel

Part of the bike park at main railway station

A houseboat complete with a full garden

Traditional Dutch windmill built in the 1800s

Cycle bridge to/from NEMO building

Many building are held up like this - perhaps due to the underwater foundations?

Magere (Skinny) bridge built in 1670 (one of the 1,280 bridges in Amsterdam)

'Soft' drugs are openly sold and used in Amsterdam; we left earlier than planned!


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