Thursday, March 22, 2018

September 22nd 2017 - Amsterdam

So this was our day for Amsterdam. A 20 minute walk brought us to the train station and we had an uneventful journey to the city. We decided to do a hop on hop off bus tour - as that is most often what we do in a big city. This posed quite a few problems! First we had to go to the Tourist Office to get the tickets. It was their first day of a new computer system and none of the assistants could get it to work efficiently. It must have taken at least 45 minutes to finally get it sorted but even then they could not get the tickets printed out. So they had to email them to me and I could use my phone to show the tickets. This was then followed by quite a wait outside the shop we were directed to. However, 3 or 4 buses went past but didn't stop for us. Then we had to make our way across roadworks to where we had noticed buses had stopped. Again there was a long wait and when the bus arrived there was such a queue that there was no room for us. We continued waiting and finally got on a bus but decided hopping off was not an option becuse there would not be enough time. So we sat on the bus and listened to the commentary of which I remember nothing! It was practically impossible to get any photos because of the style of windows and because it was raining. So all in all a bad decision - we would have been better to take a walking tour!



































Irish pubs everywhere!








Jim wasn't willing to spend that much on me!














Rushing for our stint in the red light district!










Poor Ted - I think he's scared!




The Amsterdam duck store has the cutest rubber ducks!









Some sort of market that we walked through! Car boot?














Seemingly you need to have booked 6 months in advance to get into the Anne Frank House. We hadn't booked at all and we were not willing to join the longest queue I have ever seen!








It went on and on and on...!





That vehicle passed by when we were getting revived with a glass of wine. The passengers were cycling it and the driver had nothing to do but steer. In return for their hard work there was beer etc. on board!











Some human statues.

Having traipsed through Amsterdam in the rain for most of the day we got back to the train station for a train journey home. Next time (if there is one) we'll do a walking tour!












Later on we went into Gouda to have a meal and we had a look at the funfair en route.

















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