04-25 Amsterdam Walk

Started out today at 9:30 walking down to Amsterdam Central Station to start Rick Steve's Amsterdam City Walk. By the time we got to Dam Square it was pouring. All of the amusement rides were now gone and the square is a big open area again. Good for our tour, because now we can see all the things Rick talks about.

There is Karen all alone in the big Dam Square.

The Royal Palace

The plan was to follow Rick's tour till here, then tour the Palace, but the Palace is closed until May 4th. We later learned that the King and Queen would be using the Palace in a few days.

We toured the New Church like Rick suggested via the gift shop and up the stairs for a quick over view (we have toured so many famous European churches). The stairs have now been closed off though, so you can no longer go up to the balcony overlook from the gift shop. We could see enough of the church from the gift shop (the gift shop was INSIDE the church) to get a couple of pictures of the stained glass and the pulpit. While I was here I found a nice Amsterdam magnet with the different canal house gables.

Now back to the tour outside, where it was still raining. Making our way along the pedestrian-only street we came to another hidden church, the Papegaai Church. They were having church services so we just stood in the back and listened to the priest doing Mass in Latin. From the street this church is not as hidden as the church we visited yesterday. You could tell it was a church, but the width of the building on the street was only about 10' wide.

We took a few pictures and continued on our tour, entering the Begijnhot , a court yard with houses around it and two churches. The houses were occupied by unmarried women who cared for the sick and taught.

Having already visited the Amsterdam Museum, we moved on and we stopped for lunch at the Blue - one of those places you like to say you "found" even when you've been reading about Amsterdam sites for a year. It's on top of a shopping mall place that was all under construction. Blue has glass all around, is about on the 3rd floor, and has views looking out over the roof tops of the buildings surrounding it. Pat had a lamb meatball sandwich and Karen had a cheese and grilled onion burger.

After Spui Square and the Mint Tower we shopped the two little Delft shops under it. Next was the Singel Canal Flower Market. We shopped through most of the flower shops here. Lots of bulbs which I expected, but not nearly as many cut flowers as I had hoped for. I thought I would see as many cut flowers as the Seattle Public Market. Not even close. The amount of cut flowers I saw would only fill three vendors at the Pike Place Market. But they had lots of Amsterdam magnets, Delft ware and other Amsterdam souvenirs.

At Leidseplein Square we could see why this area was so busy. For about a block in every direction there were nothing but sidewalk cafes.

From the Square we walked a mile down to the Central Library (next to the Central Train Station) for the view and dinner. Pat and Karen split a medium bowl of potatoes and bowl of fruit and a banana orange Smoothie and a Pepsi Max. The view was weird because it was from under a cement roof jutting out over you. There was nice seating outside, but since it was 45 and windy, we ate inside at the window.

After dinner we walked back to our place (no groceries tonight) along the canal we are staying on. It rained off and on today and was very windy at times, but it was also sunny part of the day and we even had hail.