Grand Tour, Day 18: Amsterdam Thursday

Throughout most of the trip, Mari and I had taken turns sleeping with various combinations of our kids, mostly to keep them from pestering each other after lights out. But Pauli was insistent that the three kids could handle sleeping together with each other on the first floor of her house, and this allowed Mari and I to sleep in the same bed upstairs (!). Woo hoo!

We got up at 8:30 and Artur had prepared a big breakfast for us that included a green salad. I have since accepted the good sense of the breakfast salad and try to start my day with one whenever it is convenient.

After breakfast, the kids recongregated in our room for some little screen time. Mari and Pauli went to a local supermarket to get travel passes that would allow the RB5 to use trams and buses in the Netherlands (60€ for the fam). We ended up leaving the house around 11 (a really late start for us!) and took the tram to the train station. We just missed the 11:33 train to Amsterdam, but were able to get on the 12:03.

It took us about an hour to get to Amsterdam--which is the first city I visited in Europe, almost 34 years ago!

Our first destination was the house where Anne Frank and her family lived during their years of captivity. All of my children have read books about Anne Frank, and last year we all saw a play about her. We did not brave the long lines to go in, but contented ourselves with seeing the building from the outside, the view that Anne herself missed having for all those years.

While I was taking the picture above, I realized that the wide angle camera lens I had been using for most of the picture I took on this trip was not working. Artur had installed a chip in my cellphone that allowed me to pick up wifi while we were in the Netherlands, so I used my phone to locate a camera shop in the Jordaan neighborhood that was not too far from away. The camera salesman, who spoke English fluently (of course), told me that the lens was irreparable. I believed him. The lens was second-hand when I bought it, so I wasn't particularly shocked when it stopped working.  I bought a replacement lens at the camera shop that was more than I wanted to pay, but it was a vital investment for my rest of the trip, and, as it turns out, I didn't have any trouble with it on the trip.

After our camera-shop excursion, we enjoyed lunch in canal-side terrace café: hummus, alioli, bread, a toasted cheese sandwich, a toasted cheese and tomato sandwich, and frieten.

And then we headed to the Van Gogh Museum.

Jaime and Maria Rosa bought entry passes for us to the Museum, which provided us with much appreciated savings.  The passes came with media guides and earphones.  Photography in the galleries was not permitted, so we contented ourselves with the above photo, taken on the lawn outside the Museum. This museum was not around when I was last in Amsterdam, so I was thrilled

A nearby museum featured an exhibit on Banksy and Dali, that I really would have loved to see, but our carriage was about to turn into a pumpkin, so we hoofed it back to the Amsterdam Central Station and took the 6:49 train back to Den Haag.

Pauli and Artur met us at the train station and Pauli insisted that we stop in a nearby Friet shop on our way to dinner because she knew how much Pablo likes fries. Pablo was very happy about this.

We later walked to a Chinese restaurant, where we had supper, and then headed to an ice cream parlor. On the way to the ice cream shop, we saw this strange gargoyle feature on one of the buildings we passed. It may have been outside the church that has been repurposed for secular functions.

We took a tram back to Pauli and Arthur's house and went to bed late!