Still catching up on the blog. Hopefully in time to complete it and our June trip to Chicago before we set out to California next month.
We disembarked from the Viking ship on Tuesday 5/27 and checked into the Inntel Hotels Amsterdam Centre in the Centrum Neighborhood of the city. Very much in the center of tourist-ville. Convenient for transportation, but really packed at times with tourists, students on break, graduation parties, etc. with clumps of high or drunk folks from the afternoon on. If we return to Amsterdam, I'd think about another area (the neighborhood around the Zoo looked very nice and still convenient to trams and boats).
View or the street below from the upstairs passageway to our rooms.
Mel and Diana had one day to spend with us before heading home so we wanted to get an overview first. We walked over to the area around the famous Central Station - still quite grand from the outside, but cut up by construction inside at least for now.
Nearby we got on a boat tour of the city (which could be followed by a bus tour if we still had the energy). As we had discovered on our previous boat tour, it's a great way to see the city up close without a lot of walking, but not so great for photos. Still, we did manage to capture a few
In this one we look like we're bracing for impact in Star Trek
After the boat tour, we had a wander around the Flower Market where there was an incredible variety of bulbs and flowers for sale and a really cool building with complicated shutters.
By then we were ready for some lunch and we happened upon a small cafe called Studio 2 that had a variety of sandwiches, salads, and a local treat called Poffertjes (small puffy pancakes dusted with powdered sugar). Definitely needed one for the table.
By the time we were finished with lunch, it was starting to look a little rainy and some of us were ready for a rest. But Mel, Diana, and Chris, ever the intrepid travelers, went off to take the bus ride - and unfortunately got stuck in really bad traffic followed by a slogging walk home in the rain. Not the best moment of the day. But we finally collected us all together and dry in the restaurant next to the hotel - Humphrey's which has a sort of indoor forest vibe. By then we were more concerned with getting food and wine into us and didn't take any pictures, but I cribbed a few from someone else's trip.
Diana and Mel had an early flight back the next morning so we called it a night.