Amsterdam Part Two

Tuesday morning at the hotel, checkout at eleven.  Breakfast in the hotel was almost 10 euros each, so we brought cereal from England and bought milk at the airport supermarket.  We had to use glasses as we hadn't taken bowls, but it was interesting and a lot less expensive than 20 euros...

Sorted, packed, checked out.  Secure storage at the hotel so, unencumbered, we set off once more for Amsterdam.

It's about 15-20 minutes on the train, some of which are double-deckers, and they're quite comfortable.  No photos from this trip, and it seems a bit like cheating to show ones from several years ago.

So.  Do you remember yesterday I mentioned finding a Leonidas shop at 'Dam Centraal Station but didn't have time to stop?

I was on a mission. I had promised to try to bring back an orange cream chocolate from Leonadis, so I was glad to find one.

Except... the shop had gone. Vanished. We walked through the station concourse several times with Terry pointing out the shop was not there, and suggesting maybe it had been Schipol station or concourse...

You know when you are absolutely, utterly, one hundred percent certain about something? And then this little voice (sometimes your OH's, sometimes your own) starts eroding that belief?  Yes?  That.

Except I knew we had been heading for platform 14b when I'd seen the shop...

Well.  Leaving that aside, we decided to head for the toilets first, and found they were on a different part of the concourse...

Different part of the concourse?

Indeed, the part of the concourse that serves the higher platform numbers... such as platform 14b...

...and there was Leonidas.  Right where I'd left it.


Amsterdam Centraal Station...

We'd spent ages trying to get a proper, facing-the-doors picture, but too many people in the way!  This was actually a Monday photo, too.

So, from here, we stopped to make sure we knew where we were going... Waterlooplein where there is a daily flea market - via the Bloemenmarkt, the floating flower market.  Actually, we'd been before, but when we were staying at a hotel in the city, so had walked a different way.

But it really was straightforward, even for me - along Damrak to Dam Square (where Madame Tussaud's and the Neiuw Kirk are)...

 Note the beautiful blue sky... it was a lovely day, if anything, too warm for coats...

 Terry carried my coat for me.  I was very grateful.

We went into the Neiuwe Kirk, but there was an exhibition on and so it cost money, so we left again... it did look beautiful, though...

From Dam Square I had to get my bearings once more - it's easy for me to get turned around - and there are tramlines right across the square so you have to watch out for traffic from unexpected directions... but we found the next street, Rokin, and headed along it.

And it was then that I fell in love...

 Terry took several photos for me, all the while pointing out the impossibility of getting such a large object a) in our hand luggage and b) home in one piece...

... and the lack of a price tag was a little worrying, too...

If you can take your eyes off the angel for a moment, you might notice the reflected buildings opposite...

Something about this figure is just so serene and calming, a moment of utter peace in the bustle of Rokin...

From there, our next landmark was Mundtoren and from there we could see the floating city of the Bloemenmarkt.  This stretches along the canals for several hundred yards (or metres), boat after boat (or float after float) of stalls with such an array of flowers, tulip bulbs, other bulbs, plants, decorations, tat, souvenirs...

A tip. The stalls at either end of the market tend to be a little more expensive and their bulb selection more homogenous than the stalls towards the centre of the run.  It was at one of these central stalls that I selected my tulips.  Because they are heavy, and our cases already near to their weight limit, I had to restrain myself to one sort.  Loose bulbs are better value, and you can examine them for yourself.

The variety I chose I did so because of the picture. The tulip is mostly white, but flushed with a stripe of pink up the petals.  It's called... 'Angel's Kiss', although when I search that tulip here, it seems to be mostly solid pale pink.

Well, I'll find out next spring...

Next spring!  That's the thing with gardening, you're always looking ahead...

We explored the year-round Christmas Shop, and laughed at some of the decorations, before heading along the Amstel towards Waterloobrug.

I feel another set of photographs coming on...

 The building above... and below  is the new modern Opera House and Theatre.  In the distance of the picture below you can just see a neoclassical frontage - the flea market was just there.

The market itself was great. A mix of new goods stalls, mostly tourist items and smoking paraphernalia of which I disapprove heartily, but there you go, that's me... some clothing, and many real flea market stalls.  Some lovely things, but you need suitcase space... we got a present for Terry's Dad, had lunch (a dodgyburger with cheese for me and a weird chickenburger for Terry) and wandered around.

In the Van Gogh museum we had seen T shirts made from fabric in the designs of some of the iconic paintings. They had them here as well, half price.  Thank you, Terry, for my Starry Night.

We headed back to the station, pausing for a coffee in a cafe bar where it was quiet and cool inside, found Rokin again and went in to look at my angel more closely, and Terry found a free catalogue from the company that makes him... that sounds wrong, somehow... anyway, point is, I have a catalogue picture and a company name and when I got home to England, I found out the price.

£600.

Maybe not.

However... ice cream-train-station-hotel-cases-sit down-airport shopping-time-killing.

You have to be there between two and three hours before your flight. New security checks mean everyone takes a little longer to go through.  Even though we had no checked baggage, just hand luggage, we didn't dare leave it too late... but there were lots of shops to keep me entertained, even though by now we were both tired out.

 Look! Funky new scanners at Schipol! Stand with your hands over your head like you're making a little roof of your arms and then get frisked anyway... better to travel safe, though, isn't it?

And then none of the passengers' barcodes would scan.  this caused consternation, until Member of Staff Two asked Member of Staff One had tried the other scanner...

And THEN they lost 11 passengers.  Or they may have done; they didn't know. So we had to be counted again, the spare luggage taken off, and all warned to sit in our allocates seats because the weight distribution was now off due to the extra fuel on board...

And flying, and the airport, and Our Friend Chris with his care.

And home.

:)