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Canal Bikes
just coming under a bridge...pretty eh?There are cats everywhere in Amsterdam. They are SO CUTE! They all have collars and are all very well cared for. So many moggy's around, and ivy's, and white cats, black cats, all the colours! They are all very friendly too. This is what I have learned about them....
There is a big rat/mouse problem in Amsterdam, there has been for centuries (the plague hit this place really hard). So this is the only place that cats are allowed to enter restaurants and be in the streets as a form of rodent control. I have not seen a mouse yet, so apparently its working! There is a white cat that favours our hostel, a very cute one, purrs a lot and likes to roll over in under the bar stools. Its pretty funny. Reminds me of Moggy.
Other things...
Today we are going to see the tulips in a town not too far off. We have booked a tour to take us there and back and get us into the gardens. Apparently there is something like 34 hectares of tulips, they just keep going and going! All different colours, I'm very excited to take loads of pictures (which Dan is
Canal Bikes
Dan being very happy in the sun on the canal assuring me we will try to sort out soon... The electronics are sort of playing us up a bit. We are getting pictures and taking them fine, but its a bit tough to transfer them. Or we just havn't had the time to sort it out.)
Yesterday, we rented a paddle boat (canal bike they call them here) for 2 hours and explored all of the canals around the city. It was so cool to see everything from the water, quite a different perspective actually. Gorgeous weather for it, we are definatley getting tanned. Though I have odd tan lines from my tank top, so I think we are going to the park tomorrow for a 'chill day' and I'll wear a swim suit to sort out those lines... Very important things these. Lots of great pictures from this little self guided tour we took on the little boat. Its great, the houses and the architecture around here is spectacular... Well its just really different. I can't remember if I talked about it at all in the last blog, but all the buildings/houses in the city are super thin, and about 4 levels tall. They are built on a
Canal Bikes
and I'm very happy too boggy marsh too, so its pretty funny as a lot of the houses are starting to lean to one side. You can see as whole blocks of houses are being pushed down by one droopy house on the end. I can imagine that the neighbours must get very frustrated by this. It costs about 5 million Euros to fix this on one house because its all in the foundation. Also, to move anything into the houses they have to lift it (furniture, kitchen applicances, everything!) up the front of the house into the correct level window. There are winches on most of the houses just a little bit out from the houses to hook up a rope to lift whatever needs to go up! Our bike tour guide told us of a story where he tried to get his fridge up on a windy day and accidentally the fridge went through his downstairs neighbours living room window!!! Some of the houses actually lean forward to prevent this too. Very interesting.
Ok 2 minutes left on the internet and we have to get ready to see the flowers!
love to all
robyn and dan
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Stuey
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Coffee Shops
You should have gone to the coffee shop called De Rokerij... really nice in there and they serve cakes! :) I don't think you're going back via Amsterdam are you? I'll hopefully see you on your way back to London. You're not going to Poland are you? I'm going on Thursday and will be there a couple of nights. Enjoy your travelling!