A Bar in Amsterdam
This morning we would arrive and dock at our final port, Amsterdam. Those who have meticulously followed this blog for the past ten years may recall that my very first post chronicled my experience roaming about the streets of this delightful city. I chose this itinerary specifically because of this. What an ideal way to conclude our “Disney Adventure” ™ !
Every evening we would receive an information sheet under the door with the next day’s various itineraries and other essential information. I know, it’s a little late in the trip to tell about this now. Oops!
Here you can see how jam packed your day could be if you chose to do so. You can also see how many snacks were at one’s disposal around the clock.
To start the day we queued up for a guided canal tour. Technically, we were up and out at the crack of dawn, but the sunrise at this time of year isn’t until after 8:00 am.
It was such a beautiful, calm morning. We drifted past the house boats and iconic brick homes of Amsterdam. I learned that the multi-storied apartments are built with a forward lean, in order to use a pully to hoist up furniture. Now you know too.
After the canal cruise we could choose to visit one of three different museums: Van Gogh, Rembrandt or Rijksmuseum. We chose the Van Gogh. We walked through the Rijksmuseum’s bicycle tunnel which opened up onto a large plaza, the Museumplein.
Once in the museum, we separated into groups for a guided tour through the exhibits.
Psych! It’s a replica that’s meant to be touched by visitors. Please don’t go man handling works of art without permission.
The museum was great, though the language barrier between ourselves our guide was a bit high. Her english was certainly a lot better than my Dutch.
Post museum we wandered back out to the plaza for a cappuccino at the very first stand I stopped at on our first trip.
You may think you know what’s happening in the picture below, but there’s more to this story…
This poor girl got herself a yummy, sweet waffle, and then was besieged by wasps attacking the sugary treat. She had to surrender the pastry to the hostile insects. Then these pigeons swept in and took the whole thing! Nature at work.
After the museum, we were shuttled back to the boat to regroup for the afternoon excursions. We could either visit a charming fishing village or travel to the countryside to see the iconic wind mills and taste cheese. Although these two offerings sounded lovely (I do enjoy a piquant Gouda), we agreed that we would rather go rogue. We wanted to just walk around and seek out the some of places we enjoyed on our first trip together.
We headed into the Old Town of Amsterdam. The weather this evening was absolute perfection.
We had one specific goal and that was to find the delightful, cozy bar in which we lingered almost every evening of our last visit. I had the address but feared it may not have survived after all these years.
Guys, this is the most charming bar on the planet, in my humble opinion.
Dark wood panelling is lined with framed football shirts along side crystal light fixtures
It was such a gift to be back here after all these years. We were both feeling so grateful to be able to revisit and reflect on these fond memories. We enjoyed our beverages and reluctantly moved on.
We walked a whole heck of a lot. Really. We were now ready for another stop. We found an outdoor café riiiight on the canal.
I snapped a million photos of the architecture. Here’s five of them.
And we’re walking, we’re walking…
A bust of Eduard Douwes Dekker, pen name Multatuli, who is considered one of the Netherlands’ greatest authors.
We put in a record number of steps today. We were quite ready to enjoy our last evening meal on the ship. It was spectacular as per usual.
We would be up and out early the next morning for our journey back home. They had a very swift system to get you the heck off of their boat. Coffee, pastry…buh bye.
In the past ten years, Mr. Jones and I have had more amazing adventures than we deserve. I’m so grateful for every one. That business trip to Amsterdam on which I tagged along was an experience that I could never, ever duplicate. It came after a very long time of thinking…”Maybe Someday”. This voyage, however, was one for the books, or the blog as it were. Thank you for following along. I hope you enjoyed the journey.