Beautiful Amsterdam and the Anne Frank museum

Thursday April 21, 2011 Day 295

Ugh - duvet with no sheet. We had to turn the fan on to try to keep the room cool so we could sleep. Otherwise we were much too hot.

We left the hotel for a pastry breakfast and to explore the city. We dropped by our excursion company to verify its location, then set out for the Anne Frank House. This was a really good museum, but we failed to purchase our tickets ahead of time and had a long wait in line.

A beautiful canal, graced by a lovely swan

We watched the swan navigate the canal while we ate breakfast

I like the curve of these buildings

Anne Frank

 We walked around Amsterdam some more, taking in the sights and the atmosphere. The houses are tall and very narrow - so narrow that each house has a beam protruding from the top of it, and many have hooks on those beams. The beams are for moving furniture into the houses, as it is impossible to move furniture up the narrow stairs inside.

Modern row houses in Amsterdam's old city - note the beams above each one

An enterprising business has found a way to advertise to bicyclists -
The Amsterdam equivalent of putting a flyer on the windshield.

We had a good lunch at cupcake bakery - ham and cheese sandwiches and cokes. I do hope the café has not staked its reputation on its cupcakes, because the cupcake we shared was lousy - too dry, and the icing was too greasy. We bought some Amsterdam cookies there - butter cookies in the shapes of the tall, narrow Amsterdam houses. Delightful!

We tired after a while, so we returned to the hotel for a nap. Refreshed, we went out again for dinner, this time at Indian restaurant, where the food was pretty good. Back to hotel afterward, we Skyped with Shelli and Brennan, then called it a night.

Throughout the day, Roger had to keep reminding me that I must use my eyes, not just my ears, when crossing the street or, indeed, even walking down the sidewalk. There are bicycles everywhere!