Up Close and Personal

 Up Close and Personal

The only glitch on the trip over was that my plane was delayed by half an hour. The Burns KLM flight left Toronto 15 minutes early, so they had to wait for me. The good news is, due to the bet, they had to buy the first round of drinks LOL. 

The best news was that the Internet predicted 2-3 hour wait  standing in line for the EES (European Eye Scan biometric) was 8 minutes. Glad my plane was delayed! The eye and fingerprints scan takes 2 minutes. The 20 minute taxi ride to the hotel was 70 Euros. 

Our Chasse Boutique hotel was originally a church and a rectory, the latter which is now a dance studio. Our room wasn't ready so our luggage was locked into a secure room. 

There is a bicycle under all the flowers 

We wanted to purchase Iamsterdam cards which give free public transportation - tram, bus, train and Metro - within the city. Many attractions and museums are free as well. It was a 90 minute walk to the Central Railway station Iamsterdam store, but after sitting and trying to sleep on the plane (I got maybe 3 hours), we decided to walk. 

This is one magical city. Flowers, bicycles and canals everywhere. Street names are hard to find, and as our guide was Apple maps we did take a few wrong terms. Apple recalculated and got us on our path again. We did not see a gas station, any police cars or wo(men) at all. Police women that is. 😉 And only 3 obvious homeless men. 

We saw many Anita clones - tall, oval faced and blondish. I told Michael not to mistakenly walk behind an Anita look alike and lose us. As Dutch men are taller on average than any culture on the planet, Michael and I were like the two dwarves. There in no scientific reason for that height. My guess is that over years of historical flooding the men grew taller to keep their heads above water. 😅

We got our cards and browsed the river area. It started to rain lightly, and we walked by a one hour canal tour on a plexiglass-roofed boat. It was not part of our card. The ticket taker told us at the next pier was "the Titanic tour company and was it was free, but has lost a lot of clients through sinking, and we'd be much safer to go with his tour".😂 We told him we'd risk it. 

There are over 100 km of canals here. The captain gave us a lot of history of the city and its architecture. The canals were originally built to cope with frequent flooding and we passed through a number of no longer used "locks" - massive wooden floodgates - that could be closed against incoming North Sea storm surges or opened to outflowing river floods. 

 During the 1950s and the 1970s, there was a dire need for housing. The government allowed houseboats to be used as permanent homes. They were very inexpensive. Now many are serviced with water, electricity and natural gas and are no longer less expensive than much of the regular housing. 

 Realizing we hadn't had any food since breakfast on the planes, we asked a local to suggest a nearby restaurant. My stampot duo (mashed cheesy potatoes and sauerkraut) and  sausage and a Meyer hazy IPA with Ekuanot, Sorachi Ace and Citra hops made for a delicious first Dutch meal. 

The washrooms were down a steep stairway. I navigated carefully, mindful that I was going 2 metres father below sea level. Yikes. 

We strolled off our supper back to the hotel for a 10ish km walking tour all told. Sat on the balcony too tired to plan our next day's adventure. But I know I'm gonna love exploring this city and this country.