30 September 2015 - Hop On - Hop Off Canal Tour of Amsterdam

Today was the perfect day for our canal tour of Amsterdam.  Anneke and Sandra van der Schaaf had kindly given us" their "two for one" vouchers for some tourist attractions in Amsterdam which we saved for a boat tour with Ali. 

Heading off on our boat!

 Karl wasn't keen on  a touristy type of tour but the rest of us were keen so cycled into town and locked our bikes on "our" bridge and walked to the Hop On Hop Off  boat stop.   The tour provided earphones and commentary about the sights we were  passing.  As it happened, the gas man was coming to check something in our house, so it was probably good that Karl stayed home to translate if needed!  He is loving putting his Dutch to good use!

Ticket!

Just under a low bridge

Listening to the audio

Cool!

Traffic jam in the canals

Love the scenery

Blue skies, beautiful buildings

 First stop - Anne Frank's house where the queues were long - but we hopped off there to find a spot for lunch in the sun before boarding the next boat.

Lunch spot by a canal

South Church

Relaxed!

Amsterdam has 250 bridges whereas Venice has 400!

My girl!!

Interesting architecture

On the Ij

Near Central Station

Bike park - you'd have to really remember where you parked your bike!

Wind clock at the station: showing North, East, South and West

Riding a dog - Central Station

Next stop: Central Station - where we also hopped off, took the ferry to North Amsterdam, bought some olie bollen, hopped back on the ferry and waited for our next Hop on Hop off boat.  We were in the right place at the right time to receive some Starbucks samples of frappaccinos!  Delicious!

Starbucks free sample!

Heading back to the canals from the Ij

The boat crossed the Ij passing the Eye Museum and NEMO and round about and back onto the canals.  It was very lovely just chugginf along.  I particularly liked peering inside some of the houseboats and checking out the inside of the boats!

Houseboats

Many of Amsterdam's buildings are on odd angles:  some because of the foundations being built in the marshes some centuries ago are now rotting and others were purposely built leaning a bit forward for the ease of transferring items through upper windows.  Many of the buildings have hooks to help lift furniture and we have seen a few removals/deliveries in progress.

Lovely little crooked cafe

On the Amstel

The Blue Bridge over the Amstel

 The Intercontinental Hotel is for the rich and famous after a physio who had the foresight to "treat the problems of the wealthy" established a health spa there.  We cycle past it most days when we ride into Amsterdam and it does look rather posh!

The Intercontinental Hotel

 Once we had done the whole circuit and were back near the Rijksmuseum we decided to get off the boat and make use of the facilities at the Rijksmuseum.  Tim and Luke played on the "Iamsterdam" sign whilst Ali and I sat in the Rijksmuseum gardens sipping coffee and Annika sat with us, whilst we watched kids played "dare" with the fountain there.

If your name starts with "A"!

"Dam" it if it doesn't!

And where is the taxi?  On the ffing of course!!

Nearly home on the Binnenweg

Unfortunately we hit the peak hour traffic again and the masses of bikes were on the bike tracks again but we made it home safely.