Day 4... Amsterdam

We were up early for breakfast and then loaded into the bus to head into the city of Amsterdam. Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of The Netherlands. It is also known for its canals and bridges. So, first thing on the agenda was a canal cruise. It was a mild morning, so it was a nice cruise along the water. 

Our tour director, Bogi sending us off on our cruise.

  

House boats are very popular there so it was interesting to see how people lived.

A house boat made a brick! Explain to me how that is floating?

Along the way, we stopped at a diamond polishing factory. It was quite interesting- I had NO IDEA how manual that process is! They also showed us some diamonds that were more carats than I knew existed!! (No photos, of course.)

One of things that I found fascinating about Amsterdam is how the architecture really doesn't match their way of life. A lot of the major cities in Europe have large portions that were damaged during war. So, they re-build and have many different styles and eras of architecture. Since Amsterdam wasn't damaged during any battles, all the buildings are original and very old! This is very interesting for a modern and progressive city such as Amsterdam. 

Each house had a furniture pulley because the stairs would be too narrow.

That black door you see in the middle is the entrance to a home... it is 3 stories but SUPER skinny!!

 

Yep, that's a McDonald's you see!

Bicycles are EVERYWHERE. We had sidewalks and they had bike lanes.

Don't take that to mean that they don't have changes or construction. But they have a funny way of trying to hide the construction of the rail system. When I saw this, I was reminded of Kara's blog from their April visit to Amsterdam when she took this picture...

So I just HAD to take this picture!!

After the cruise and diamond factory, we jumped on the bus for a sight seeing tour through the streets of Amsterdam. No visit to Holland would be complete without a picture in front of a windmill!

After our tour we had a few hours of free time. The Netherlands is famous for their flowers... specifically tulips! So, when I heard that there was a floating flower market, I had to see it!  It ended up being quite a walk but it was so worth it! The flowers were beautiful and ENDLESS!

Bulbs galore!!!

The floating flower shops.

 Other than bridges and flowers, you can't talk about Amsterdam without the mention of the Red Light District and their tolerance of "soft" drugs. Brad and I didn't go to the District or check out any of the "Coffee Shops". This was as close as we came...

(NO... we didn't buy it!)

After the flower market, we stopped for lunch. By this time it was HOT outside (unusual for this time of year). So, our main objective was a place to eat with air conditioning!!! We found an Italian place and had some awesome pizza! Then we met with group and we were back on the bus and headed for Germany!