9 September 2015 - One of those days....

"Blue sky, nothing but blue sky do I see....!"  Our first sunny day since we've been in Holland and the day remained lovely all day. 

Fishermen outside

View from the supermarket!

Annika and I rode the bikes to a different supermarket,"Plus", for our shop.  Plus is in the town centre of Ouderkerk aan de Amstel which is a cute little town with 17th century buildings and of course waterways.  We found the post office and I gingerly asked at the counter whether she spoke English and the answer was: "Of course!"  Her English was as fluent as mine but I always ask before I launch into English as a matter of politeness.  Plus is currently handing out pieces of Lego like blocks to build a supermarket with every 15 Euros spent so Luke was delighted with our freebies!  He had heard about the blocks from the kids here and was very keen to have some.

Shopping Dutch style

We wondered how we'd get all the goods home but we managed.

 After a good day with schooling and some lovely feedback from the big kids' teachers and with the perfect weather, one would have thought it would be full of joy and smiles!  The stress of all living close together for so long, having to make group decisions and trying to please everyone is the hardest part for me some days.  It seems there was no pleasing everyone today!

Houseboats on the Amstel - lots of them permanent dwellings.

Houseboat with city views!

 My main goal was to get out in the sunshine!!!  In the end, the kids and I set off to the right down the road and under the motorway and then we passed all the residential houseboats.  What a life!  Tim had Luke on the rear of the bike he was riding and thought he knew where we were headed and took off at a speed.  Whilst I know he is a good rider, Amsterdam is a big city and of course we had no chance of catching up.  Oh the adolescent brain! 

Museumplein

We had vaguely mentioned the Diamond Museum so Annika and I rode there hoping to find the boys.  The Diamond Museum was hard to find and is close to the Van Gogh Museum and Rijksmuseum and we took ages to locate it.  I was unsuccessful in finding a spot to buy our Museum Cards but Annika and I did enjoy our ride and probably clocked up about 20kms on our round trip.  So now we know there are at least three ways to Amsterdam city from here as we went and returned on different paths than we had before!

"A" is for Annika and Amsterdam

From our driveway...a friendly cow

"Monster" the cat - love how cats find interesting positions to sit!

We were glad to find Tim and Luke safely at home when we returned.  It was a beautiful clear evening with a peachy pastel dusk, rowers on the river and the usual bikes and runners passing our windows.