Monday, June 27, 2016

2016 Europe - Day 4 - Amsterdam, Netherlands

We had breakfast in the concierge lounge of the hotel. The plan for the morning was to take a canal tour. Using Rick Steve's Jordaan walk, we headed back to the Anne Frank House. We ended up taking the Orange Line on the Grey Line Company This trip trough the city took about an hour and a half and had five stops. In hindsight, I think that we would have been better off with a sightseeing boat, but everything worked out. It is a great way to get a different perspective on the city.

After the canal tour, we bought tickets for the Westerkerk Church Tower. They take six person groups up the tower on a 30 minute tour. The tour guide stops at each floor and talks about the tower construction and the bells. I am not a heights person and stayed inside at the top rather than walking around the outside of the tower in the rain. Jack gets the photo credit...

The next stop was lunch. Liz had recommended that we try shoarama. Sharon lead us back to a place that we had seen on Oude Lellestraat near the beginning of the Jordaan walk.

After lunch, we finished the Rick Steve's Jordaan walking tour. We stopped for a cold drink along one of the canals in the heart of the Jordaan neighborhood.

At this point, we walked back to the flower market to do a little shopping. I bought Sharon a Christmas ornament, while she shopped for some Delftware.

On the way back to hotel, we toured the De Papegaal Hidden Catholic Church along the busy pedestrian shopping mall. It was closed when we were doing the walking tour yesterday.

Back at the hotel, Sharon tried to check on the status of the Fedex package of the keys to Eric. She got very frustrated with the hotel staff. We had a drink in the bar at the hotel to unwind.

We did the Rick Steves' walk through the Red Light District about 6:00 pm. Although I have read descriptions of the set up, I am not very good visualizing the physical layouts based on written descriptions. As a result, I was "surprised" how it is organized. Given the early hour, the area was not very active yet.

We ended up having a cold beverage at a restaurant just off Dam Square and watching the Italy versus Spain Eurocup Soccer game. The bartender was Italian. Italy won the game by the score of 2 to 0.

We finally wandered off and got a cab near the front of the New Church. Sharon had made a 8:00 pm dinner reservation at Tempo Deoleo. This is a Michelin rated Indonesian restaurant. We had the international rice table. The food was very, very good.

We got a cab back to the hotel. Sharon and Jack went out for a while. Surprisedly, they stumbled across a Red Light district very close to the hotel which was much more active than they had seen earlier!

It was almost midnight by the time they got home and everyone got to bed.

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