An Afternoon in Amsterdam

We arrived in Holland so early that first day, that even after spending several hours walking around the suburb our hotel was located, we still had plenty of time to take the train into Amsterdam for a good chunk of the afternoon. 

Canal boat

After a quick coffee stop for caffeine (did I mention we all left VERY early that morning), we hopped on a canal boat tour. Time well spent! Unfortunately, the window at my seat wouldn't open, so there is a bit of glare in some of these photos. 

Canal

Every where you looked, the views were amazing! The architecture, boats, foliage, everything was just like out of a storybook. There was even a tall ship, but alas, it was on the other side of the boat and I only got a photo through out longboat's "sun roof.

Tall ship as seen through boat's roof

There were so many bridges. They seemed so low, but our boat was built to go through them easily. They warned us at the beginning of the tour, though, that it would be good not to stand up through the sun roof due to the low bridges. 

Canal bridge

Bridge after bridge after bridge

Some of these pictures are of specific things they were announcing, but after a while I forget what photo was of what. I'll just have to enjoy the photos as is. 

Yet another canal 

There were a lot of skinny, tilted buildings with dates on them dating as far back as the 1600s. If you look at the top of the two skinny buildings below, you may notice the arm and hook protruding off the building, just above the top window. Those hooks have been used since the build of the houses to move supplies and furniture into the upper stories of the buildings. 

And if you look really closely, each building is within inches of each other, but aren't actually attached! 

Tiny, wonky houses all in a row

After our boat tour, we started walking towards the Van Gogh museum. Along the way, we avoided the red light district, but still saw a brothel with a neglige-wearing working woman lazily dancing in the front picture window, looking bored out of her mind. We saw a few coffee shops that didn't sell coffee but had plenty of patrons (if you know what I mean!), pubs, shops, etc. We also saw a beautiful horse drawn carriage. 

Horsies

We walked and walked and walked for at least 20 minutes towards the Van Gogh museum and realized it was close to 6:00 and we still had at least 10 minutes to walk before arriving at the museum. We were all running out of steam, so we decided to turn around and head back toward the train station in search of dinner.  

View from a bridge

We found a great spot for a beer, but eventually made our way back to Leiden for dinner. Once back near our hotel it was after 8:00 and I was so tired. Like, really, really tired. I opted out of dinner and headed up to my room to call it a night. I wan't hungry and wanted to be well rested for the next day's adventure.

View from another bridge

It was a great first day, and I looked forward to the coming days! I was a little bummed we didn't get to either the Anne Frank house or the Van Gogh museum, but the friends I was with had either been there or, in the case of the Anne Frank house, didn't want to get majorly bummed out. I figure I may be able to talk Bill into going back for a weekend spent just in Amsterdam :-) 

Church tower