05-08 Royal Palace and NEMO

Visiting the Royal Palace was scheduled for the first day of our trip, but because the Royal Family was in town commemorating Remembrance Day and celebrating Liberation Day it was closed to the public. This is the first day it's been open.

We arrived a little after 10am at the Palace. We saw a lot of rooms but only on the 1st floor. Learned how they use the room now and what it was used for through the ages on the audio guide that came with the tour.

We learned about the statues and paintings and saw which room had the state dinners. The palace is highly decorated with marble, beautiful statues and paintings. It really was beautiful inside and out.

After finishing here, we stopped for lunch at Burger King where I had a chicken sandwich and Pat had a burger. There is a pedestrian-only area off of Dam Square that we shopped in on either side of the palace. We checked a couple of stores for a glasses repair kit and Pearl Optical for a special screw that Pat needed for his glasses.

Not finding anything, we walk over to NEMO, the science center, not to go inside, but to go on the roof for the views. We got some pictures and went into the cafe for WiFi and toilets. Didn't get anything to eat, but sat down for a while.

Next, on to one of the last things we are doing in Amsterdam; one more canal boat ride. Each one is just a little bit different than the others, but they all go past my window!!!! This time we are on the wrong side of the boat, so we get to see all of the buildings across from our gabled house, not a good view of our house. The narration on this boat is over the speakers in four different languages. This time we go out into the Ij River through a different canal and back in though another different canal. This tower is on our canal and is about 100 yards from our apartment on the canal.

We walked over to Nieuw Market Square, by where we live and had dinner, sitting outside, because it's nice. Not no-coat nice, but one-coat nice.