Gemeente Amsterdam

We were a bit too knackered to pack last night and thought we had it down to a fine art so were up about 7 and all ready packed and showered by 8. Trisha had a coffee in the square looking at the amazing Cologne cathedral which gave us a sitting spot. I went in search of something to eat on the train for lunch. We have really missed having a fridge. I found a Rewe to go which had a great salad bar amongst other things and even had fresh milk. So I got a salad and banana and then got lost in train station trying to get back. I was just thinking about googling the cathedral when I worked it out. Then finally remembered my middle of the night thought that Trish and I should share location on snap chat so we can find each other.

We were at our train platform pretty early, and Trish went and got her salad. No drama on the train today. We hadn’t reserved our seats but no one moved us on so was all good. We switched trains at Utrecht so we could go directly close to our accomodation and had a 1.2 km walk when we arrived and chose not to try the metro to get closer.

Our room is rather tiny. We are at an Airbnb which is a one bedroom flat. The owner, his wife and their 8 month old baby relocate to the lounge when they have guests. But Peter is really nice and been helpful when I contacted him before we arrived and part of the charm was having free bikes to use.

So after putting some washing on, didn’t realise the front loader would take 3 hours so my clothes for going out were limited, we were off on our bikes whizzing around Amsterdam. It was soooooo much fun! Trisha did really well, probably didn’t expect it to be nearly as chaotic as it was and also probably surprised that she survived the experience! Bikes, people, cars and trams were everywhere.

The sights were pretty cool. Lots of boats in the canals, pretty bridges, found the flea market, looked for optician shops, found some lens cleaner and basically just absorbed the atmosphere. Found a gelato shop and mine was limoncello and mango. They also sold hemp cookies, great combination!

So it just got busier and busier so we decided that we had had enough and started the bike back. Found a spot where lots of people were swimming in the canal which was a bit surprising.

We have access to a fridge here, so planned a supermarket visit. Trish stayed outside with the bikes and probably wanted to send out a search party for me. For a start it was a huge supermarket and I was feeling the responsibility of deciding what to buy. Then I used the self checkout and my Wise card wouldn’t work. There were several people waiting for assistance which took quite a while. The assistant told me that only European credit cards were accepted, really? But then said cash was ok and there was an atm at the entrance. Of course my Wise card wouldn’t give me cash - found out later that I had disabled it in the app. So it was outside to Trish who also didn’t have the 25 euros we needed. I had her Wise card and she kindly told me her pin which I have forgotten. So got cash out on her card and then had to try and find my shopping. I nearly fell over it on the floor and the lady who had it said do you still want this? At that stage not really! Then back to the cash lane and finally outside to Trish.

So back to our room and had a lovely dinner with some yummy chocolate for dessert. We had thought about going out tonight but have piked out. Maybe tomorrow.

30 degrees, 10,836 steps, but several hours of biking too.Read more