Another day in Amsterdam! Arriving in the city after midday (we had a very lazy morning) we made our way straight to the tourist information office and bought a map of the city. We decided to go and take a look at some of the famous landmarks. First of all though we had to try to find a shop we’d seen last time we were here that sold some particular make up/moisturizer or magic age defying potion that Lynne just had to have. Once again I have no idea why she didn’t buy it the first time. Anyway, we couldn’t find it so we ended up wasting about 45 minutes walking around looking for it to no avail! Then we started our ‘guided tour’ of Amsterdam. First of all we headed for Anne Franks house.
When we got to it there were crowds of people milling about and a zigzag queue waiting to go into the museum. It has to be said, the house is very unassuming to say the least and we decided not to bother queueing to see inside. Next we headed for the Royal Palace. This was a similar experience to the one in Oslo as the Palace is in the middle of the city and you can literally sit on the front steps. I know nothing about Dutch royalty but it’s dificult to imagine them spending much time here. Also it looks grubby too. No self-respecting Queen should stand for such shabbiness! We carried on walking out towards the ‘skinny bridge’. Well, that was underwhelming too. Considering it’s regarded as an attraction I have to say it’s difficult to get excited about. Maybe when it’s lit up at night it might look a bit more interesting.
So far we felt like we had walked miles and the so-called attractions had left us less than impressed. Perversely though, whilst being unimpressed by the attractions we both found ourselves starting to quite like the place overall. We’d gotten over our dislike of the bikes, although they’re still a pain in the backside but I think with dusk starting to descend, the city took on a new atmosphere where everything that looked grubby before was now lit up and looked so much nicer than during daytime.
We walked back toward the central station to find somewhere to eat. We were both feeling the effects of a days walking now and we settled for an outdoor cafe/restaurant just to get off our feet. As we sat down there was a man with his group of friends about 20 meters away talking (shouting) and laughing very loudly with a lady who it turned out was working at the restaurant we were in. To say he was annoying would be an understatement. I’m pretty sure he was drunk otherwise I couldn’t imagine why he’d have to be so loud. We had already been given menus when this guy and his friends then came and sat at more or less the next table to us. That was it for me, we got up and left. The waiter who saw us leaving had a look on his face that said, I know exactly why you’re leaving. I apologized and told him we changed our minds. It didn’t take long to find somewhere else to eat as Amsterdam must have more restaurants per square kilometer than anywhere we’ve ever been. We settled for an Argentinian restaurant called Madre Maria. I don’t know why I should have been surprised that it was good but surprised I was. I’d got this idea in my head that a lot of the restaurants wouldn’t be very clean. I guess that’s because the whole city has a slightly grubby feel to it. Yeah, how to ingratiate yourself to a whole nation in one easy lesson. Slag off their capital city and question the hygiene standards of all their restaurants! Anyway, the food was very good and we were both grateful for the opportunity just to sit down for an hour. The problem was that when we left Madre Maria we’d both seized up in the time it took to eat. My legs felt so stiff I could hardly walk for a few minutes. Eventually though everything loosened up again and we made our way to the cheese shop we had seen earlier, in fact, earlier we had tried samples of almost every cheese on sale. So much so, that it almost counted as breakfast. I wonder what the proprietors must think when they see people like us come along eating all their samples without buying anything. Well, all’s well that ends well because this evening after eating out we went back and actually bought some. I’ve seen blue Stilton before but never a cheese that was blue all the way through but one of the ones we bought was indeed, blue, through and through. So after stocking up on cheeses that I’m not allowed to touch because Lynne insisted on having it all shrink wrapped we made our weary way back to Amsterdam City Camp. So having walked Amsterdam’s streets till our legs and feet ached, we finally came to the conclusion that, actually we really quite liked it now, unlike the first visit when we were on our way to Norway. However, we didn’t develop any kind of liking for all the bikes in Amsterdam. They’re still a pain in the butt!
Wandering Wildman 