05-09 Day Off to See Diamonds

This is our last day in Amsterdam. We slept in a little bit late . A couple of loads of laundry were done last night and they are hanging around the room drying. We managed to get two more loads done this morning. The machine is a combo washer dryer and doesn't really dry very well, nor can it hold many clothes.

This place has an iron and an ironing board, so Karen got all of her shirts ironed this morning. At 12:30 we headed out for lunch. We ate at a cafe we have passed many times on our walks at the corner of the Amstel River and the Oudeschans Canal, our canal. We sat outside, even though it is kind of chilly, but it's sunny. Karen has a ham and young cheese on focaccia and Pat had chicken and onion and spices on sourdough bread. Karen saved half of her sandwich for dinner. Pat has nothing.

We stopped by an optical place, Richard Azijnman Opticiens, that Pat found online and he fixed Pat's glasses in 10 minutes at no charge. Made our final trip to our grocery store, yes even on our last day. You have to have ice cream. We picked up some Coke (caffeine free) for today and dinner. Ice cream bars for tonight, some snacks for hiking: almonds, M&M's, sugared nuts, snickers bar and a small bag of pretzels to go with my sandwich.

After dropping these off at our flat we go back to Gasson Diamonds which is one and a half blocks from us on our island. This is another diamond cutting factory in Amsterdam. They, too, have a special cut, it's the Gasson Cut and it has 121 facets. We get to see two diamond cutters working, hear about the 4 C's and see four different sized and clarity, loose diamonds and the Gasson Cut. Of course, the Gasson is 2 carats, so it shines 💎.

Next we see the people setting the stones. Then it's downstairs to see what they sell. No diamonds for me today, but I did get a scarf I can wear to dinner on the cruise ship in Delft blues with Holland scenes on it; windmills, flowers, boats and churches.

Back to the room for a Coke and a view and write this up.

One more couple found the GEO CACHE box this afternoon. The sun went away. Canal boats are still going back and forth. It's been fun to see the different way people transport their kids and their items. This place has the most amount of bicycles we have ever seen. Tonight after dinner we pack for our next adventure: Efteling 🎢.