04-30 Diamonds, Concert Hall, Canal Tour

Started out the door a little earlier this morning, leaving at 9:30. We kind of had a 9:30 diamond tour at Costers Diamonds but we didn’t arrive until 9:55, but their email said it was OK to arrive any time, not 9:30 like we asked. So, we took our time and took pictures on the way over. Yes, really, we took pictures.

On the way to the diamond place we pass right under the Rijksmuseum. It's a beautiful building.

We passed the IAMSTERDAM sign and just had to take a picture (or two) here also.

When we walked into the diamond place they didn't have us down. But they opened the door for us anyway. We thought we would just be on our own because something got messed up so we stepped inside and were taking off our coats and putting them in the backpack and suddenly there she was, our own personal guide. She told us all about diamonds cut, clarity, carat weight and color. She also told us about the history of Costers and the new cut they are now making originally for the crown. It is the Royal and has 201 faucets instead of the normal 57. (My crown of Light has 90) She introduced us to the lady in front of us who is in the Guinness World Record Book for cutting the world’s smallest diamond. She talked to us about cutting diamonds 💎 and using diamond dust on her spinning cast iron disc.

We went on to a couple other stations and then to two men working on setting diamonds into settings. One was working on stud earrings and the other on a ring. It was interesting, but it would have been better if I didn't have to strain so much to understand her English through her accent.

We walked upstairs and over into the building next door where she walked us through all the different diamond collections. No selling like I expected. Then she left to do her next tour.

We wandered back through, looking at the collections again and a little museum exhibit with a magnify glass to see the loose diamonds. In the gift shop I found the frosted shot glass with Amsterdam and the gabbled houses.

Next we went back over to the “I Amsterdam” sign and took a couple of pictures. Lots of people here. It's a beautiful sunny day; the best weather day we've have had so far.

At the Concertgeboouw we picked up tickets to the 12:30 English tour. For lunch we ate at a little Italian place, Renzo’s Delicatessen. I had a spicy penne paste and meatballs. The noodles were dry but the meatballs were great and spicy. Pat had lasagna. It was excellent. We walked through the surrounding neighborhood on our way back to the Concert Hall for our tour.

We went in both the large concert hall and the small; both were beautiful. We got to go into the performer’s dressing room and the conductor’s ready rooms. We learned the history and how it was built; too far from town and no roads reached it for two years. Also it was sinking from as soon as it was built. They rebuilt it in 2008 and added a basement. We finished the tour at 2:15.

This would be what the conductor sees as he enters the auditorium.

Pat on the conductor's platform.

Back by the sign and get a couple more pictures. Then we went over to The Blue Boat Canal Cruises and the soonest we could get on a canal boat was 6:30pm. So we bought tickets and then we walked through part of Vondel Park and around Leidseplein Square and a neighborhood.

We had dinner at a burger place, Bar B, where you check off the items you want on your burger. These burgers are always too tall to fit in my mouth.

Yep, Bike Capital of the World!

Then it was back to do the Blue Boat City Canal Cruise. This is a great way to see this city. They have audio commentary, but it isn't continuous, which is good because we were taking a lot of pictures. Our tour took us right by OUR canal house! How cool is that. We have all 3 windows on the 3rd floor..

It’s a 1 ½ mile walk back to the room for ice cream and a chat with Jessica about the prom last night.