UK and Europe '24 Day 11 - Last Day in Amsterdam

 It's been a busy few days and we're happy to have been able to cover so much territory here in Amsterdam. The location of where we're staying had several benefits including proximity to the city (10 minutes by bike!) in a quiet location near a canal with friendly hosts and even friendlier cats!

We decided to take it a bit easier today, so are just shy of 10,000 steps, having ridden to Westerpark near Jordaan this morning. I can't really say there's a cafe culture here in Amsterdam, and if there is, we didn't find it. Our mission to find somewhere for breakfast was met instead with Cafe Amsterdam, inconspicuously located across the road from the park in what used to be the engine room for the town's water pump house. Just opposite is an octagonal building that used to house the steam engine, and now appears to be a B&B.


I'm always impressed by creative visionaries and what they do with old spaces, and grateful to the person who saw the potential for a cafe/restaurant here, instead of "smelly old pump room". The extremely high ceilings and large windows create a large, comfortable space to enjoy some refreshments. There was no breakfast menu, as such, although eggs were an option, so I opted for the sandwich gezond (fresh salad roll) and Chris ordered the ham and cheese roll. Mine was messy but delicious, and I've still managed to avoid spilling food on myself since our meal at The Ring in Southwark.




Food and coffee consumed (coffee still in sad-face emoji territory) we walked back over to the park and sat in the sun for a little while. It wasn't a lie on the lawn experience like in London, but the sun was warming and the birds were fun to watch. 


We had spotted a huge bird's nest on top of a chimney earlier on our ride, and think most likely owner/builders are the grey herons we spotted in the park. There were plenty of ducks waddling about, trying it on with people for a few crumbs, and a seagull perched on top of a headless statue in the pond. I thought I must have been going a bit loco at one point because the statue appeared to be moving, Then Chris noticed the same thing. Google came to the rescue and confirmed we were looking at a floating sculpture called The Wedding Dress, made by the Women's Collective in 1994, and can be seen between April and October every year.














I have to say I'm feeling kind of weary after all the riding and walking this week, but the ride back to Noorderpark was pretty easy. We stopped off at the pancake place at Centraal Station wharf and wolfed down some pofferijes,  then made our final pass of the serene canal on the way back to the B&B. We even managed to make a final ride to the shopping centre we walked to the other day. This trip was much quicker, and even the uphill bits coming back didn't seem so difficult, so maybe our fitness has improved this week. I used an ATM for the first time since leaving Australia. The pharmacy we went to didn't take either of our cards. Euros are kind of pretty anyway, so it was no hassle.


Gateaux seems to have settled in for the foreseeable future so it's time for a light snack for dinner, to pack our bags and turn in for an early rise, because tomorrow we fly to Stockholm!



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

UK and Europe '24 - Transit and Day 1 aka What Day Is It?

Image
Eyes on the prize...  Day 0 - Transit There were times when it felt like this trip would never happen, then times when it felt like departure day would never come, but here we are, ready to take in a fresh new adventure a long, ling way from home. When you're planning a holiday on the other side of the world, you want to get bang for buck, or at least make sure all of those hours in the air are worth it, so our twenty two nights on foreign soil will take us to London, Amsterdam, Stockholm and Paris. It's the trip that ABBA built, borne from a resolve to finally see ABBA in concert and, well, while we're on the neighbourhood, pop along to the ABBA Museum. A great excuse to head places we've been wanting to see for years, so here goes. Our trusty house-sitter arrived the night before we choofed off (hi Jiill!) so we know the boys will be safe and happy. I sometimes think they enjoy our hoildays, too. Surely that's not a look of disappointment when we barrel back throu
Read more

UK and Europe '24 - Day 3 at Portobello Markets, Kensington Gardens and Harrods

Image
We opted to have a fairly leisurely day today, not too much walking, just something easy and relaxing. 16,000 steps later, we're recuperating back at our lodgings after a day that kept presenting too many interesting options to ignore.  It all started fairly innocently with a bus to Westminster, and a plan to catch the Thames River hop on/hop off boat, then a wildcard suggestion came via the ether: "you have to check out Portobello Market!" so that's where today's wanderings started. We quickly found the line to Victoria station from where we connected to the Notting Hill bus, where the market sits.  We arrived early, of course, because we're early risers, and came across a French patisserie: Maison Puget. Ooh la la! The melt-in-the-mouth experience of French pastries made by a French baker- those supermarket croissants don't even come close! As we sat in a small nearby park, the sounds of kids playing on the swing sets, a local woman, Kelly, possibly in h
Read more

UK and Europe '24 - Day 2 At the National Gallery

Image
 Day 2 - The National Gallery and a wander around Camberwell Our feet might have been wrecked after so much walking yesterday, but we've got a pretty good sense of direction now, and the connections on the Tube make a lot more sense. We generally like to have some down time when we travel. Breathlessly moving from attraction to attraction doesn't really excite us, but finding our way around in a new place and using the local modes of transport makes for an interesting experience. The underground line we're close to is the Bakerloo line, which connects to most other Tube lines in the network (I don't want to say all, because I haven't run the figures!). The Tube is really cool. The tunnels are curved, including the pedestrian tunnels, and even the trains are rounded, like little tubes whooshing through their cylindrical containers. Someone had fun designing it, I reckon. Even the detail in the complexity of how to navigate the platforms is an adventure. You need to
Read more