May 5

~ Amsterdam, day one continues . . . 

[It’s time to look for lunch . . . ]

[The Pancake place was rejected for reasons not remembered . . . ]

[Why don’t you guys scout out ahead . . .]

[Then come back and get me, but only if I’m still awake.]

[Wow, look at this!]

[And from Pam.]

[Darn, I must have been awake?]

[But I’ll get ya for it!]

[Something we don’t see on the streets of Alexandria . . . ]

[No, we didn’t bring any home . . . couldn’t find a male.]

[Destined to be on my headstone . . . if I ever had such a thing.]

[No room left on our refrigerator.]

[I can’t remember the place.  The food was pedestrian.]

[Nevertheless, after refueling, back on the streets again.]

[To those of us into such things, generally the best part of Europe . . . the ubiquitous sidewalk cafe.]

[Hi, I’m in Amsterdam!]

[American Hotel, famed in song and story (or so I’m told). This elegant hotel was built in 1900 and is officially listed as a monument. This hotel combines an elegant Art Deco heritage with modern facilities and a Roaring Twenties atmosphere (Booking.com).]

[A view from the outside . . . ]

[A view from the inside.]

[This is a canal.  I can tell because it has water and boats.]

[From Wikipedia: The Vondelpark is a public urban park of 47 hectares (120 acres) in Amsterdam.  It is part of the borough of Amsterdam-Zuid and situated west from the Leidseplein and the Museumplein. The park was opened in 1865 and originally named the “Nieuwe Park”, but later renamed to “Vondelpark”, after the 17th-century playwright and poet Joost van den Vondel.  Yearly, the park has around 10 million visitors. In the park is an open-air theatre, a playground and several ‘horeca’ facilities.  Using that truly modern invention called a map, we were able to determine that if we were ambitious enough to walk back to our hotel, a diagonal stroll through this park was the way to go.]

[My first one live and in person.]

[In museum land – you can read the signs.]

[Here you go!]

[I believe some of you may have heard of this gentleman.  He did something with paint.  And Don McLean wrote a song about him.]

[Pam and Tom captured 360 degrees of excitement.]

[The Super leads the charge down the excalator.  It’s such a treat given the limited number of them in Alex.]

[Patrons gather for the assault on “art.”]

[Starry, starry night . . . ]

[Multi-story and my throbbing leg syndrome kicked in big time here, which I’ve learned from these trips is a result of too much standing (between moving).  I decided I couldn’t do the “climb.”]

[But at least this was on Level I.]

[This “lobby” area is the only place where photos were allowed.]

[And Pam captures the whimsical guys.]

[Back outside the Super leads the assault toward the Rijksmuseum (more following).]

[Amster – Amster . . . ]

[dam – dam – dam!]

[The Professor’s good side going through the “m.”]

[As a recall we walked through the museum archway to come out the other side . . . ]

[But first the Super has to point out a . . . discus?]

[On the other side . . . ]

[The Super and I had visited here on a previous trip in the 90’s so we did not go in this time.  You have to be able to give it a lot of time . . . and this trip we mostly just wanted to see the city.]

[And now from Wikipedia:  The Rijksmuseum (English: National Museum) is a Dutch national museum dedicated to arts and history in Ansterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and the Concertgebouw.

The Rijksmuseum was founded in The Hague in 1800 and moved to Amsterdam in 1808, where it was first located in the Royal Palace and later in the Trippenhuis. The current main building was designed by Pierre Cuypers and first opened its doors in 1885. On 13 April 2013, after a ten-year renovation which cost € 375 million, the main building was reopened by Quenn Beatrix. In 2013 and 2014, it was the most visited museum in the Netherlands with record numbers of 2.2 million and 2.45 million visitors. It is also the largest art museum in the country.

The museum has on display 8,000 objects of art and history, from their total collection of 1 million objects from the years 1200–2000, among which are some masterpieces by Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and Johannes Vermeer. The museum also has a small Asian collection which is on display in the Asian pavilion.]

[Everybody studying maps, getting our bearings . . . where to next?]

[Back on a canal boat, bidding adieu to Rijksmuseum.]

[Another canal, per chance?]

[Melrose?]

[The Ann Frank House area . . . ]

[It’s nice when your boat has a skylight.]

[Kinda like the Darling-Carlos bridge?]

[Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy . . . ]

[In the spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of  . . . ]

[Inside Central Station]

[Going on a hike from Central Station.]

[Canal scene, crossing from Central Station to . . .]

[Street scene]

[Let there be people . . . and bicycles . . . and canals!]

[Oy, the crowds!]

[Window shopping?]

[We were admittedly looking for the Red Light District . . . ]

[Because it’s the touristy thing to do . . . ]

[But, again, we had been here before, it’s not a place where you want to hang around for long . . . ]

[Though for some reason we sat for a beverage at a sidewalk cafe . . . interesting people?  This is the place (photo by Pam).]

[Pastries . . . ]

[And condoms?  Too crowded to go in (well, that was our excuse).]

[Dam Square . . . from Amsterdam info:  Just a five-minute walk down the Damrak from Centraal Station takes you into this jam-packed square, jostling with locals and tourists day and night. It was created in the 13th century when a dam was built around the river Amstel to prevent the Zuiderzee sea from swarming the city. During the sixties, the square was renowned for its Dam Square hippies, and the laid back and relaxed character of this densely pigeon populated square lives on.]

[The National Monument . . . ]

[With the Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky in the background.  We were looking for a place to eat (aren’t we always?) and went into the Krasnapolsky twice.  Wonderful place, but we either decided it was too expensive for what we were looking for, or you needed reservations?  It was while we here, everyplace was overwhelmed, we finally discovered it was The Netherlands Cinco de Mayo.  Yes, May 5th is Independence Day here too!  Oy!]

[Wreaths around the monument were a clue as to the holiday.]

[We eventually found an outdoor place on the square, waited a long time to be waited on, waited a long time to be served (we found out the food for all the restaurants around the square came out of a singe kitchen), but generally were just happy to be sitting and people watching on a beautiful day.  Hey, that’s Ripley’s!]

[The Royal Palace across the square from where dined . . . well, noshed.]

[On our way home.  Did not partake – heard it’s good?]

[Actually it’s kind of fun to not quite know where, or why, we’re going, but Tom enjoyed finding hopscotch on a city sidewalk.]

[And again I believe we were looking for a dinner place, secure in the idea that we knew how to get to our hotel from here . . . ]

[Amsterdam is awash with statues, but I couldn’t find anything on this guy.  Maybe if I’d gone around to the other side . . . they appear to be reading something?  But we were done for this day.]

If God had really intended men to fly, he’d make it easier to get to the airport.  ~  George Winters

Up Next:  Dunno