Day 2 - Canal Ride

Did the standard city bus tour which is ok but I'm not a huge fan. Fortunately , thanks to Google maps, I had downloaded an offline map of Amsterdam. Then I can pull it up anytime I want and see from the GPS exactly where the bus is en route and what direction it is moving. Helps to orient oneself. I can guarantee you most people would be clueless where they were. Personally I'd rather walk the city. If you know where you're going, you can plot the route on the map while still on wifi. Then just follow the little gps beacon as you walk. If you decide to alter the route, just jump on cellular for long enough for it to map the route, then put it back on airplane mode to avoid cellular charges. I also use iCloud for my photos so be sure to go into Settings/Photos/cellular Data and turn off uploading of photos while on cellular. That will stop it from auto uploading your photos if you happen to jump on cellular for a bit. So many things to remember!

After the city bus tour , we jumped on a canal boat for an hour+ tour of the canals with narration. Nice sunny day. Wear sunscreen - dang it was hot on that boat. Lots of cool houses along the banks and houseboats.(for an explanation of all the gabled houses you see in Amsterdam, here is an excellent site -http://www.amsterdamforvisitors.com/canal-house…) Living on a houseboat isn't cheap and they allow only so many and you have to have a permit, so if you want to do that, you'd have to get someone to sell you their permit and those can cost you all the way up to a million bucks - whew. Getting a parking permit for your car in Amsterdam can take you 8-10 years and you only get a permit for your neighborhood and you might need to circle the block for 20 minutes till you find a spot. No wonder everyone is on a bike! (Amsterdam is a great place if you have suicidal tendencies - just step off a curb without looking!).Read more