First day in Amsterdam

This is going to be short.  I just spent about forty minutes typing this blog.  Then I tried to add pictures........and the whole blinking thing disappeared!  Needless to say,  I’m not happy.
Anyway,  after a very long day at the airport yesterday, waiting in lineups with lots of rude , noisy people and flight delays, we arrived in Copenhagen only one and a half hours late.  Woke up this morning to rain which was welcome. Spent the day wandering around the city, which is lovely but very expensive.  Got tickets for the Hop On Hop Off bus.  The tickets are good for tomorrow as well so that’s good.  Tomorrow there is rain in the forecast again so we’ll probably spend some time on the bus again.  Also want to visit the Tycho Brahe museum. (No relation!). They have wonderful markets here with just about every kind of food you can imagine so that’s where we will go for breakfast.
On Friday morning we pick up our car and move to Trelleborg Sweden.  It’s only about an hour and a half drive so we should be there in plenty of time to settle in and grocery shop, etc.  We are staying in a small cottage there that is just a short distance from the sea.  Should be nice.

Did I mention that it’s expensive here?  Well last night when we got to our hotel it was late.  We didn’t get dinner but the good news was that this hotel has a twenty four hour bar.  So no dinner but we did get drinks.  Bad news was that we weren’t sure about the value of the krone.  So we had no cash........put the drinks on MasterCard .  Turns out Ian’s 3 beers (small). And my 2 wine (6oz.) cost $62.00 Canadian!  More good news.......I got a bottle of wine at the grocery store for about $7.00 Canadian!

Still our last day in Amsterdam

Well this was probably the best day yet.  28 degrees didn’t happen......only 23 with a light breeze and plenty of sunshine!  Just perfect.  This morning we got our laundry done and spent the morning just strolling around our neighbourhood.  In the afternoon we took the train to Haarlem again.  Finally got our picture of the windmill.  

Then we took a walk over to the courtyards which were homes supplied by a wealthy benefactor to poor women and widows.  Ian being Ian thinks the benefactors had ulterior motives.  Very cynical but perhaps true.  Finished up the afternoon in an Irish pub and had a good visit with the bartender.  Who of course was from Limerick Ireland.  He really reminded us of Ian’s cousin George. 

Spent the rest of the day wandering the streets of Haarlem.  Just a beautiful picturesque small city.  Home by 8:00.  Cheese, chips, chocolate, wine and anything else we can find in the fridge for dinner. Tomorrow we’ll be up early to pack.  We can leave our luggage in our apartment until 2:30 because new people arrive at 4:30.  Our flight leaves at 6:40 tomorrow afternoon and arrives in Copenhagen at 8:40. Will be a busy day.  Sounds like we are in for rain for all three days but we are looking forward to it.  

7

Monday, July 29th

So this is our last full day in Amsterdam. The sun is shining this morning and the forecast is for 28 degrees so another hot muggy day.  But still ten degrees cooler than it’s been so it is at least bearable. Yesterday we got an early start and walked down to the train station with the intention of going to Delft. Just before the train was to arrive they announced a fifteen minute delay.....and then another delay and then finally cancelled.  As were many of the other destinations.  Even the short trip to the airport was cancelled. I’m glad we weren’t headed there.  We have decided we need a plan B in case it should happen again.  The trains are fantastic when they are running but delays and cancellations seem to be quite common.  At any rate,  we took a tram to the south station where we were finally able to get a train to Delft. It was well worth the trouble.  It’s like something out of a fairy tale.  Beautiful buildings and canals.  Flowers everywhere and not too many people.  If we had to do it again this is where we would have booked.  Live and learn eh?
When we left Amsterdam in the morning it was a mix of sun and cloud and quite a bit cooler than it had been. Ian decided to take a jacket, just in case.  No way, not me! I had been so hot for so long I couldn’t imagine wearing a jacket.  Shortly before the train reached Delft .......guess what?  It was raining!  But lucky me, it had stopped by the time we got there.  It wasn’t exactly cold but it was a lot cooler and the wind had picked up.  So I decided I needed to buy a sweater or light jacket.  Well, who knew?  Did you know that Amsterdam has the tallest men in the world.  And the second tallest women in the world.  No sweater or jacket for me.  So I settled for an umbrella.  One size fits all.
By the time we got back to Amsterdam it was about six o’clock so Happy Hour.  Off we went o our little brown pub.  Great people watching!  Then back to our apartment for a dinner of salad, leftover pizza (reheated in a frying pan because for the life of us we can’t figure out the microwave/oven), and chocolate bars.  Went to bed around ten.  Probably our latest night.
So today.......if the trains are running .......we are going to try another visit to Haarlem.

July 27th. Not sure what day it is🥴

So today’s plans changed due to delays and interruptions on the train lines. So we decided to take a ferry to an island just north of us.  Apparently they have a flea market that is the largest in the Netherlands.  We hate flea markets.  But it was something to do so off we went with thousands of other people.  So once in the lineup to pay we decided that Ian could have two beer and I could have two wine for the price.  So you can guess what we did.  We took the next ferry back and did a pub crawl instead.  We wanted to visit the “brown pubs” in the area.  In order to be called a brown pub the pub needs to be very old (maybe 100 yrs.). The bartender needs to be at least 60 yrs.old or look that old.  The walls need to be tobacco stained, the music needs to be oldies and the clientele must be eclectic.  In other words ........interesting.  So that was our day.  We also discovered the Jordaan district which was very interesting and not quite so busy.  So tomorrow we are hoping to take a train trip to Utrecht and Monday to Delft.  The temperature today was a full ten degrees cooler but still very hot and muggy.  Hoping to find cooler weather in Copenhagen.

Day two

Day two

Another scorcher of a day.  Thirty seven degrees.  So we hopped on a train and went to a smaller village called Haarlem.  A mere 150,00 people but it sure felt smaller than Amsterdam.  We had a lovely day just wandering around sightseeing.  With fewer people it was much easier as we weren’t dodging cars and bicycles all the time.  And the downtown square area is just pedestrians and bicycles which makes so much sense. Anyway, we spent the whole day and I think we will go back again one more time.  Had dinner at a little Japanese restaurant.  We didn’t get home until about 9:00. That was the first night we have stayed up until sunset.  We just found out last night that Gay Pride week starts here tomorrow.  150,000 people are expected. As if there’s not enough people here now.  We have decided that we would never come back here again.  Especially at this time of year.
So this morning we got an earlier start and went downtown and wandered around Old Town and the red light district.  Took a break from the heat and hopped on a canal boat for a tour.  We just got back to our apartment after lunch and are going to head over to the laundromat which fortunately is only about a three minute walk from here.   And then.......we are going to try to find a different pub.  We don’t want the people at our first favourite pub to think we have a problem.

First full day in Amsterdam

We landed in Amsterdam at 11:15 on Monday, July 23rd.  By the time we got through the airport and onto the train and to our apartment it was just after 1:00.  We were met by our host Peter and given lots of information about the apartment and the surrounding area.  We are in a great spot here. Just minutes walking to grocery stores, bars,restaurants, ferries, etc. Yesterday afternoon we took a short walk around our neighbourhood and happened to find just a perfect bar for us. It’s a small bar that serves mostly locals.  Nothing fancy but pretty good prices for both beer and wine.  Also the local grocery store has some very reasonably priced wines.  I bought a nice bottle of Malbec for 5.99 euros which is under nine dollars Canadian.  Can’t beat that!  It was 30 degrees when we arrived yesterday which is really hot for Amsterdam. Apparently it was 20 degrees and quite cool a few days before we arrived.  Anyway, with jet lag and heat , we were bushed.  Off to bed at 8:00 and I slept for 12 hours. Ian was in bed for 12 hours but had a pretty restless night.  So this morning we got up and out fairly early and walked down to Central station and just wandered around that area.  Today’s high was 37 degrees.  Brutally hot so we had to make several stops to cool down and hydrate.  And by hydrate I mean water.  That’s how hot it was!  For dinner tonight we found a really good Thai restaurant but rather than eat in the restaurant we brought our food home. Very few places have air conditioning and although our apartment doesn’t have A.C. either we are on the ground floor and we have two fans.  They have saved our lives. I don’t think I have ever been this hot in my life.  And tomorrow’s forecast is for 38 degrees.  We leave here for Copenhagen next Tuesday evening and that will be the coolest temperatures we will see.  And to boot, the humidity here is very high.  So I think tomorrow we will take a train trip out into the country to see some smaller villages and get away from the crowds.  I haven’t been hit by a car or bicycle yet but I’ve had a few close calls.  And I’ve only been yelled at by one driver.  So that’s pretty good don’t you think?  Anyway,  Ian’s been in bed since 7:30 and I think I’m going to follow shortly.

One more sleep!

Well here we are in Vancouver.  We arrived yesterday afternoon and had a great visit with Joey.  He is storing our car for us while we are away. He dropped us off at David and Chiyoko’s at around 4:30 where we celebrated David’s 60th birthday with them and Shaun.  Dinner was as usual delicious.  We may have had just a little too much wine but what the heck.........we’re on holidays.  It was a slow start to the day this morning but once we got going it was a very good day.  We took a long walk down to Kit’s Beach and along the walkway until we reached the Beachhouse restaurant where we just had to stop to enjoy the view and a nice cold beer.  Twenty nine degrees here today which is a real change from what the weather has been recently.  This evening we walked down Broadway to a noodle house that David and Chiyoko frequent.  It came highly recommended and now we know why.  I had to get into my jammies as soon as we got home because I was so full.  Just having a quiet evening now.  Going to bed early as it will be a long day tomorrow.  Our flight leaves at 4:35 tomorrow afternoon and arrives in Amsterdam at around 11:30 tomorrow morning.  I checked the weather forecast for Amsterdam and it looks like they are expecting a heat wave starting tomorrow.  Anyway, I’ll post again as soon as we are settled into our digs.