2014 EUROPE by Rail 31 - Smoke and Water

Woke up to cold and rain, which was pretty heavy throughout the day. By the time we were cleaned-up and dressed there was a lull. We had two chores before more sightseeing. That was to reconfirm our 07:45 Delta flight back home the next morning and to verify the train schedule to get us from Central Amsterdam to Schiphol Airport.

Our phone was still useless, so we checked the phone book and found a nearby KLM Travel Center. KLM is a partner with Delta, so we figured they could help us. We set off with umbrella and raincoat in hand. We took the location to be a ticket office, but when we got there it turned out to be a Health Center for KLM travelers. The receptionist laughed and said this situation happens all the time. She was able to reconfirm the flight for us.

We passed on a bagel breakfast, hoping to find something different for a change of pace. About 10:00 we headed toward the Amsterdam Central Train Station to find a breakfast spot and to scout out the airport transit situation ... but we got a little side tracked.

While in Amsterdam, we had passed by many coffee shops (in reality "coffee" meaning marijuana and hash smoke shops). I wanted to check one out. Hey, when in Amsterdam do as the Amsterdamians (is that the word?) do. And why not? It was legal.

Toking was not brand new to us as we grew up in the 60's. Who didn't at least try it back then. So we randomly stopped at The Bulldog. About half the seats were filled with "coffee" drinkers. 

There was a huge menu to choose from. Mike ordered 1.1 grams (smallest package to buy) of White Widow. We had to roll it ourselves. Everyone around us was rolling perfect long conically shaped doobies, but ours looked pretty raggedy. 

We leisurely shared some of it, along with a couple of cafe au laits. Ah, did I mention there was groovy music playing in the background?

We did not smoke the whole thing. It was pretty strong stuff. There are limits and we stopped at the delightfully giggly (not the weak kneed falling down) point.

That was breakfast and what a happy breakfast it was. We advised the order taker that there was a lot left over at our table (part of the doob and some unrolled product) and that he was welcome to it. We not not wish to take the leftovers in a doobie (ha ha) bag. He was a happy guy, too.

OK, we went merrily on our way to our second chore just a block away. At the train station, we verified the situation to connect to the airport. It was about 40 minutes away and only 7 euros each. We had hoped to buy our tickets in advance, but that was a no-go. Either way it seemed like little hassle, just a very early get up.

It was raining quite hard now, so rather than a continuation of our walking tour we decided to take a canal cruiseboat tour. It was glass topped so we could see fairly well. The big thing was we were warm and dry and seated. A nice load off of our feet for a change.

We bought our tour tickets at a little hut near the train station covered in blue and white Delft tiles. Very cute. The tour was about 1-½ hours. 

Captain Lieuwe (pronounced Louie, and a cute blonde like soooo many people in this town) did a fine job in covering the information for the four foreign speaker groups on board.

He first pointed out the location of the headquarters for the Dutch West India (Caribbean) Trading Company. Henry Hudson (for whom the Hudson River in New York is named) was an English explorer working for that company. His 1609 voyage linked together Amsterdam and the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island. Later it would be renamed New York (after the Duke of York) when the English took it over.

From here it is all by memory and not necessarily in order. We went past many towers and churches of note, but at that point I was not taking notes. No paper nor pen, just my camera which did not record well through the rainy windows.

We went past the Rembrandt House Museum (photo not shown) and Seven Bridges (a spot in the canals where you can see seven bridges all lined up in a row.

We saw many lovely  houseboats.

We cruised by the Mayor's house and the Dancing Houses of Damrak. They were originally built on swamp land and supported by stilts. As time passed they "wobbled" and are still wobbling and off kilter. It looked like rubber bumpers were wedged between some of the buildings to keep them from crashing into each other. (See the large black patch almost center and just to right of the tree.)

We saw NEMO, the national science and technology museum. It's kind of shaped like a giant whale ...

 

and the National Maritime Museum. In the bay nearby was the three masted replica of the tall ship Amsterdam. In 1749 during a storm the original cargo ship sank on its maiden voyage to Batavia through the English Channel.

I think we saw the Hermitage of Amsterdam Museum from afar. As it turns out the  State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia (one of the largest and oldest museums in the world) can display only about one-fifth of their over three million works at a time. So they have agreements with several places around the world to show their arts and artifacts on a revolving basis.

Amsterdam Hermitage and the Guggenheim Hermitage in Las Vegas are among them. The max time artifacts can be out of Russia is three months, so every three months a new batch of Russian items are on display here in Amsterdam. This was one site we did not want to miss, but we did. Hope there is a next time for us here.

We also passed by the Anne Frank House. Captain Lieuwe said it was the green one, but we didn't see any green house. I would check that out later. There was much more, but I guess you will have to take the cruise to see and hear about it.