AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS

Bitterly, Bitterly, Unbelievably Bitterly COLD!!!! At -1C and a wind that would rip off a witch's broomstick, we tried to do the walking tour, but so, so, cold. 
We stopped at one of the 'coffee' shops (aka pot house as opposed to a cafe ...coffee) and bought muffins laced with the big M, which is legal in Amsterdam. We stopped by a seed shop and thought about buying some...but realized we couldn't get it back to the States.

Anna wanted to see the 'red light district', so after a few wrong turns we finally found it...but alas, no pictures allowed.  

It was too cold to stay out so we headed back to the ship and after lunch ventured out again. We had tickets for the Anne Frank house, but went to the wrong place and have to travel by cab to get to the right place that was actually the wrong place, again. Long story short, I headed back into town (losing out on my $67 tour ticket) while Anna, Regina and Jack hung around for two hours to do the tour.

I was trying to find the 'hidden church', which is located on a major shopping street...the door is just a plain door but inside a beautiful church. Only problem was that it closed at 4 and I was 1/2 hour late. Guess I'll have to do it in December.

It was amazing to see the canals and the narrow homes of Amsterdam.  There are so many house boats on all of the canals and they use the canals to dump their 'water waste'. I witnessed a man who picked up his dog's droppings and just toss it into the canal. Guess being high they really don't care about the environment.

They have huge winch-like structures at the top of the homes that were used in the 'olden' days to get goods up to the upper stories. They still use them 
today to get furniture and other large items up to the third and fourth floors.

I'm busy packing as we need to leave the ship by 8a.m. We'll get a cab to the station and head on down to Paris where we'll meet up with Betty...hope she makes it to the City of Lights without any problems.

The river cruise was great, but the castles and churches were starting to run all together. I'll be glad to see the sites of Paris again and then onto Italy.



Till tomorrow....