Advertisement
We made it to our hotel on the outskirts of Amsterdam about 4:45. We are heading out to do a canal cruise and dinner. We arrived in Amsterdam about 4:30. We are staying on the outskirts of Amsterdam at the Mercure Hotel. My room is on the 15
thfloor. The hotel lobby and dining areas are very modern.
Amsterdam has a population of 851,373 within the
city proper, 1,351,587 in the urban area, and 2,410,960 in the
Amsterdam metropolitan area. The city is located in the
province of
North Holland in the west of the country. Amsterdam is the Netherlands’ capital, known for its artistic heritage, elaborate canal system and narrow houses with gabled facades. Its Museum District houses the Van Gogh Museum, works by Rembrandt and Vermeer at the Rijksmuseum, and modern art at the Stedelijk (none of which we got to see sadly to say). Cycling is key to the city’s character, and there are NUMEROUS dedicated bike paths. Cyclists have the right of way, not cars. It was interesting to see the various kinds of bicycles. Some had little seats in the front, back or both for children. For toddlers, some had large tub like containers in the front called
buckets to hold the children or to place large items. I did notice that no one was wearing helmets or protection.
We toured part of the city before heading to the canals to take a dinner cruise. It was a little crowded with small tables, but we managed. The dinner cruise through Amsterdam lasted about 2 hours, during which a chef prepared a 4-course meal “live”. Beer, wine and soft drinks were included. We were served 4 types of cheese (I was surprised to see that mustard is used with the cheese.), bread, and traditional Amsterdam pickles (small round pickled onions (which were actually quite good even though I dislike the taste of pickles). Then they brought out a cauliflower soup. It was very grainy but warm and you drank it from a cup. I used a fork at first until I saw others drinking it straight from the cup. We were then served for the main meal which unfortunately was not a lot. However, it was very tasty. The vegetables had lots of mushrooms so I barely touched it. The pie dessert was fabulous. I really liked it. During the course of the dinner
we cruised along the canals of Amsterdam. We mostly saw the various styles of buildings as well the various watercrafts and floating homes. We did pass Anne Frank’s home where she lived before being captured during the Nazi occupation. We passed several landmarks but since the names were hard to understand, I’m not sure what I was seeing. I know some of these were pretty impressive. After the cruise we headed back to the hotel for the night.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.073s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 9; qc: 25; dbt: 0.0374s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb