Smooth on time flight from Atlanta to Amsterdam - our first leg to Africa. Checked into NH Amsterdam Centre in the heart of the city and headed for the Pancake House where we watched the USA Basketball Team claim the Gold Medal on the closing day of the Beijing Olympic Games. We enjoyed the Rijksmuseum with its magnificent Rembrants collection - the high points being The Night Watch (1642) on an enormous canvas in its own room - the artist's best known painting and one of the world's most famous; Jewish Bride (1662); and Self Portrait as the Apostle Paul (1661). We weren't three hours in Amsterdam and I made my first purchase - handsome Italian watch!
We walked around this magnificent canaled city people watching - the Dutch are a handsome people with a live and let live spirit! We walked to the main square, past the floating flower market and to Anne Frank's House (263 Prinsengracht Street) where we toured young Anne's secret 2 year hideout from the Nazis. Walking back to our hotel, we stopped at a wonderful outdoor cafe beside a canal for a delicious lunch. After a two hour nap, we enjoyed cocktails at Cafe American at The American Hotel just across the street from our hotel. We had a scrumptous Indonesia Rystaafel dinner. Conveniently located next door to the restaurant was a Coffee Shoppe where we enjoyed a retro 60's scene complete with mellow music and "cigar bar" - another first at 60! We made it back to the hotel for a nite cap thanks to Hilary's navigational skills. Retired for nine uninterrupted hours of sleep.
We walked around this magnificent canaled city people watching - the Dutch are a handsome people with a live and let live spirit! We walked to the main square, past the floating flower market and to Anne Frank's House (263 Prinsengracht Street) where we toured young Anne's secret 2 year hideout from the Nazis. Walking back to our hotel, we stopped at a wonderful outdoor cafe beside a canal for a delicious lunch. After a two hour nap, we enjoyed cocktails at Cafe American at The American Hotel just across the street from our hotel. We had a scrumptous Indonesia Rystaafel dinner. Conveniently located next door to the restaurant was a Coffee Shoppe where we enjoyed a retro 60's scene complete with mellow music and "cigar bar" - another first at 60! We made it back to the hotel for a nite cap thanks to Hilary's navigational skills. Retired for nine uninterrupted hours of sleep.
Great breakfast at the hotel before a fabulous tour of the Van Gogh Museum - a truly fantastic collection. We rented bikes for five hours of Amsterdam's best on a picture perfect day - got to see windmills on the edge of town and covered much of the city with highpoints being the canal scenes, lunch at a restaurant Hilary had previously enjoyed during a 2002 visit to Amsterdam. We rode through the red light district - seeing the Monday afternoon shift of "doggies in the windows"! The cutest was playing a ukulele. We stopped to see Oude Kerk, the towering church with its rolls royce of carillons cast in the 17th century by the French Hemony brothers. We had 7pm reservations on the Blue Boat sunset canal tour which we enjoyed sitting in the open air back of the boat! An outstanding Dutch dinner was enjoyed at Claes Claesz in the Jordan Distrtict which was followed by after-dinner drinks at Cafe t'Smalle, a favored watering hole since it first opened in 1786 as a liquor distillery and "tasting house". It's waterside terrace is a delightful alternative to the murkey smoke-filled interior. It was also the place from which we made our get-away to the Anne Frank House! Seems the Cafe only accepted Euro and we had none! After several attempts to find a working ATM, we decided to leave a $20 greenback on the table and make our dash! A short six hours of sleep before our 6:30am wakeup call, breakfast and limo to airport for our 10:05am on-time departure for Cape Town. It was a beautiful clear day for flying the length of Europe and Africa.
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