Monday, June 1. Some sun.
How can we sleep so much? We went to bed at 9:30 pm, woke up at 3:00, tossed and turned and then finally came to life at 10:00 and hit the streets at 11:00 am. We had an unhealthy English Breakfast in a little cafe close to our hotel and then walked and gawked for a few hours, got lost and finally made our way back to the hotel where we had a tea and crashed.
Walking the streets of any town is tiring and here is no exception. However, the hotel map that we have seems to be missing a few streets on it and Amsterdam has never heard of the boring grid system that we have in Canada.
There is risk to life and limb as we walk the streets, often head buried in a map, dodging silent bicycles as they skim along often with one handed drivers the other hand with a cell phone to their ear. When walking you have to have eyes on the back of your head as well as good side vision. Good hearing does not help as they are like arrows slung at you from left, right, centre and back of you.
The residential streets are much more interesting than one with shops on them, although shops can be anywhere at all. There does not seem to be much control on zoning either but it does add to the flavour of the place.
Regarding morality and the Dutch, I have come to the conclusion that what we see in Amsterdam regarding drugs, sex and morality is probably no worse than any big city in the world. Take the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver for example, that is certainly appalling, and we are not proud of it but it is not indicative of how most citizens live. It certainly does show the underbelly and seamy side of our society though. Same with Amsterdam maybe, I hope so.
Marijuana here seems to be looked upon as just another escape from reality like alcohol and tobacco use. It appears that youths from all over the world who come here smoke openly, just because they can, and no one hassles them. And I can tell there are also many kids here who do not use it but look upon it as an accepted practise that they just do not participate in. Some streets reek of the smell of marijuana which was an odour I was not familiar with until yesterday.
These vertical buildings fascinate me as you can see by my photos..
The love of my life, doing another pose for me, about the 300,000 thousandths in our married life,
yet she still feigns a smile for me.
Interesting that you can grow a wisteria in a pot.
Nicely done, complete with attached trellis.
Just a colourful lupin.
We wandered a flea market today in our travels. Now I know where people get all the weird clothing that seems to abound here.
A more traditional Dutch venue.
These cheese wheels have always fascinated me.
We always stop for flowers.
That is what we expect in Amsterdam.
The lineup for the Anne Frank Museum. Do you think the pot-heads visit that?
Some tourists arrive by way of the Canal Cruise boats, I think they get priority entrance and cannot be too popular with those in the queue I would think.
This houseboat is all set up with automatic watering for all his plants and baskets. No watering restrictions I would think.
Take away the boats and cars and this could be two hundred years ago,
Can you think of a more interesting looking front of a building?
Hollywood could not create one so authentic looking.
And this! Does this say 'Keep out!"
That is a very stately way to arrive at a restaurant or hotel, in a canal boat.
Talk about an entrance to a pricey hotel.
Typical here.
The building on the right is moving in some furniture, via the rope and pulley.
Third floor from the top, their window is open.
And this one is set for a remake. It appears to be in a run-down area that is getting a do-over.
Now that building facade has some character to it.
These are all stealthy assassination vehicles, parked, waiting to run down innocent tourists when their guard is down.
Just a cute lonely little pinkish pink building proped up by it's more traditional neighbours.
Only outstanding because it chose to be different.
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