This weekend is the end of a school holiday, the end of the Queen’s celebration and a long weekend for Brits, so the place is super busy. Lines to get on the shuttle, lines to get on the tour bus (mass confusion), lines at all the museums, lines at the markets-- all made for a tiring day in which we did not get done all we wanted.
The city bus tour went into some of the districts that we had not yet walked or boated: to the diamond processing house; beside the Anne Frank house which neither of us have any desire to visit; into the southern part of the city where there were actually single family homes; a brief jaunt into the countryside where we drove on the dike between the Amstel River and the polder 4 meters lower; and by the central Bank where the gold reserves are underground in vaults that flood if anyone tries to help themselves. There was a short stop by the Rembrandt windmill in the middle of some farming land just by the outskirts of the city.
Well, I led Joan through the red light district with the ladies of the afternoon displaying their charms in the windows. I suspect at night time it might be perceived as sexy, but on a sunny warm afternoon, it was fairly ridiculous.
The lines at the museums were more than an hour and we decided that we might have better luck on Monday or Tuesday, so we wandered off to the 2 km outdoor market where you could buy everything from cashews to shirts, fish to bicycles, ice cream to tablecloths and anything else you could imagine between. Having poked through another market yesterday, this wasn’t such a novelty and I even resisted the garlic chopping gadget, and the french fries with mayo -- a Dutch treat!
It is going to be a quiet night in for us as tomorrow will be a long tour day. Lots to see and only a short time.
Today’s picture is a typical lunch spot with savoury and sweet pastries.
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