Amsterdam

Amsterdam, find Gale on far side of bridge.

Gus and Gale in the "S".

The adventures never end. Kirk took off for a conference in Amsterdam and Gus and I followed a few days later. Gus and I figured out the train and buses from the airport and found Kirk near the apartment. After a few phone calls and scratching our head about the address we ended up at a great flat.

The Adventurers

Now Amsterdam is a city with few rules,  you can do anything you like as long as you do not infringe on others. Drinking, sex, smoking just lets say the place smelled a little funny. We went into a basement cafe to get some of our museum tickets printed out and I never saw so many kinds of that wacky weed in my life, the attendant was a little wacky himself. It took awhile but we finally got our tickets, all of our tickets printed. 

This is a city of bikes, they even have a 4 story parking garage at the train station for  bikes, amazing.  The tricky thing about this city is the streets, you are never sure if you are on one or on a bike path or side walk, verrrrry dangerous, more likely to get hit by a bike than a car.  So word to the wise, stay on the river cruises to get around the city, safest way to do it, and no chances of having an altercation with a bike. 

Jump Gus!

Safest way to travel, canal boats

We got a 2 day ticket for the river cruise. There are many boats that tour the canals of the city and you get to all the main attractions, it is like the hop on hop off buses but on the canals. And some of the boats had the sticky sweet smell to them, just cannot get away from it in this city.  

7 bridges

The most amusing sight were the houses that are leaning in strange directions and some houses are so thin that a queen bed would not even fit in one, but then it is 3-4 stories tall. Strange architecture.  This is pretty much due to the rising waters and falling foundations, if they have not been corrected they tend to be a bit askew. 

On the docks by Nemo

We went by some unique buildings, the Symphony Hall and children's museum, Nemo which is along the waterfront in the harbor.

Symphony Hall

Nemo

The museums are wonderful, my favorite was the Van Gough, only thing missing was Starry Night but I saw that at the MOMA is NY so I am ok with that. We had 5 stories of Van Gough, very enjoyable. We also went to the National Museum. Saw Van Meers Milkmaid but will have to go further afar to find The Pearl Earring. It is currently at Mauritshuis in The Hague, Netherlands along with "The Goldfinch by Carel Fabritius        ( sounds like I will need to make another road trip!)   My favorite painting  was the Night Watch. Later we ended up in the Rembrandt Park and to my astonishment they had the whole scene from the Night Watch in bronze. 

Night Watch

Night Watch in Bronze at the park

Gale with the Wife in Night Watch

We had dinner with a family of a friend of a friend. That was really entertaining. These people are want to be sailors so the discussions were interesting and riotous at times. Gus got an invitation to sail on their 50 foot sailing yacht the next day. He had a blast. He did a few rescues (dove down to clear prop of dock line,  everyone does this once.)and  suggested than entering and leaving dock you should not be going 4 knots, they will learn that with time. Love those bow and stern thrusters... Like Dad always said if you are going to hit it, hit it slow. We never had an engine that worked so we always came in under sail and you have no reverse in that situation. 

Going sailing out in the Ijmeer, body of water east of Amsterdam.

Gus having a hoot on a 50 footer, yahoo!

They are a lovely couple and have some great dreams of circumnavigating and are on there way to learning what needs to be learned to do that. 
Our air B&B was great, we were in the Islamic section of town with a beautiful mosques being built at the end of the street. We found a delicious restaurant that had an all you can eat buffet, Kirk was in haven. It has gold trim all around and many crystal chandeliers, palm trees pretty fancy but reasonable prices and lots of food we had no idea what it was.

All you can eat buffet, Kirks in haven.

We made a quick trip through the park before we headed back to England.
 

Gus trying to fly!

The Bus
The latest fun I have had with the bus driver is that I did not have the right change again, only had bills. He made me cross the street , keep the whole bus waiting and get change. Gotta love this guy. Kirks bus adventures are a little different, he rides different buses going different direction depending on what time, needless to say he has been caught many a time on the wrong side of the street while his bus merrily passes him and he can not even wave it down. We are learning but the curve is steep and we are American!