Last days

Tuesday morning we walked to our bus tour. I had booked the tour about a month before, thinking we might need something to do during our extended stay in Amsterdam. We rode on a big double decker bus, with separate morning and afternoon tours. The morning tour guide told us we were going to go to a cheese farm and a clog factory. Sounded a bit familiar, but because we were on a big tour, the destinations were much larger and more touristy than our stop on the bike tour. One of the stops was in an area with lots of wind mills and we were able to go up into one and enjoyed some nice views.

We drove back to Amsterdam and then got on another big double decker for our second tour. This one took us to Delft where we got to see certified Delft ceramics being made. Then we went further into the city and were able to walk around. I discovered that this was the town Vermeer lived in and I would have loved to have had more time to explore the streets where he painted. It is a very quaint town with canals and bridges like Amsterdam, but everything on a smaller, quieter scale. We drove through the Hague and had many important buildings pointed out to us, but we only stopped briefly at the Peace Center. We rushed through all this so that we could get to a miniature city. A rather odd place that would probably go out of business, if not for big tour buses pulling in. It was an interesting day, but we probably won't do many more of these package tours.

On Wednesday, we stayed near our hotel and walked to the van Gogh museum. The museum was very interesting with his works arranged in chronological order. We had lunch in the park and then went to the Rijksmuseum. You could see the roof of the museum out our hotel room window, so after many long walking days, we enjoyed staying nearby. It was great to see all the Rembrandts and Vermeers. We enjoyed the gift shop as well. After that, we walked to Vondelpark and enjoyed some nature. For our final night, we went back to the area we had been to our first night and had dinner in an Irish Pub. I got the Shepard's pie I was hoping for in London. It was an enjoyable final night in Europe.

Amsterdam

On Sunday, Shelly headed home and Mara and I went to Gare du Nord. We had reserved seats in first class and enjoyed a nice snack and then lunch on our way north to Amsterdam. When we arrived, we got on a tram toward our hotel. It wasn't clear how to pay, so after watching several people ask the driver directions, I finally asked her where we should get off and how we should pay. She said we wanted the next stop and not to worry about the fare. We easily found our hotel about a block from the stop and went to check in. Smooth sailing so far, but that was about to end.


I had paid for three nights in Paris that morning and my credit card was turned down when I tried to charge our next 4 nights in Amsterdam. My other card worked so we were in. When we got to our room, it was still dirty, so we headed back down and asked for another one. The second one was also dirty, so the clerk asked if we would like a larger room that he was certain was clean. We said sure! It was nice, but had no towels. The cleaning woman said she would try to find us some.


Then we went out to check out the area and get some cash, we had less than 10 Euro between the two of us. Every card I tried was declined at the ATM. We bought a couple cheap burgers and headed back to the hotel. It seems my two hotel bills had been all the money either card thought I should have in one day, so we would have to try again the next day. It would be a long four days with just a bit of change to live off of.


Monday we walked back to the ATM, my first card was turned down, but with the second, it gave me money! I was so excited, I put my card in again and got some more. We had some breakfast and then walked to Mike's Bikes where we joined a group for a biking tour around the city. Pip, our guide, took us through a nice city park and then through a man made forest on the outskirts of town. We stopped by a windmill often painted by Rembrandt and took some pictures and then we went to a farm where they make clogs and cheese. Very interesting place with nice, friendly cows. We had lots of cheese samples and then rode back through Amsterdam. After our tour, we walked to Ann Frank's house and stood in a very long line, but it moved along quickly. The tour was very interesting and well done. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at Sara's for a pancake dinner.