Our day started today with a bicycle tour of Amsterdam! Matty dropped us off in the museum district and Jaz led us to Mike’s Bike Tours where we met our tour guide for the morning. Another Topdeck group was there (a hostel group I think) and they were being issued with their bikes. Apparently they hadn’t booked their tour until this morning and the bike company had to call in another tour guide leader. The other group arrived first so they got our leader and we got the guy who was called in after he was out till 4:30am last night!
Anyhow, we got our bikes and our sleepy and what turned out to be kiwi tour guide led us off! I was a bit shakey at first but picked up quickly! Had to remember to stay on the right side of the road, that cars give way to bikes here, and to stay in single file! Some of the things our guide showed us included Von Lippel park, Leidesplein, the yuppy area, and some museums. He pointed out this public monument funded by taxpayers that looked quite elegant, kinda like a toned down Brandenberg Gate. He was rather cynical in pointing out that the latin inscription on the monument translated to ‘People do not piss against the wind’. How meaningful!
Di really enjoyed the bike tour but it finished all too soon at around 10:30am. After returning our bikes we were left to our own devices until the farewell dinner this evening. We decided to check out some markets in the south part of the museum district. Here we found stands mostly extentions of the shops behind them. All kinds of things were on sale including fresh fruit, meat, and seafood, clothing, and other typical market junk. We got ourselves a gelato and also bought some mixed nuts for snacking.
Around midday our stomachs were telling us to look for lunch so we started keeping an eye out for places to eat. Apparently traditional dutch food basically consists of lots of fried things but other cuisines they have there that are done well include Indonesian and Chinese.
We started walking towards central station where we intended to catch a bus back to the hotel for an afternoon nap, hoping to grab a bite somewhere along the way. We visited the flower markets along the way but still couldn’t find any food that looked appealing!
We ended up in Dam square and remembered that we could catch a tram from there to the hotel. We eventually found the right tram stop and were soon on the number 14 tram back to Bos en Lommerplein! The ride took around 20mins and when we got back, we had our hearts set on KFC! It turned out to be just as good as back home and it hit spot! Yeah!
Di spent the afternoon napping whilst I surfed the net (free wifi at last!). We had intended to go to A./nne Frank’s house before heading to dinner but Di was sleeping so peacefully and looked so wasted I didn’t have the heart to wake her.
At 6:15pm, we met most of the group out front on the coach and Matty drove us into town for dinner. We parked near Central station and walked to Sea Palace Chinese restaurant for dinner! Man I had my reservations about this floating restaurant with mostly non-chinese waiters but the food turned out to be quite good. We got rice and noodles (more like spaghetti!) with mains of sweet and sour pork, szechuan chicken, and seasonal veges on a huge platter. Dessert was icecream and fruit.
After dinner we went with the group to a nearby pub. Most of the group stopped by first at the coffee shop next door for a last joint/space cake/muffin and then joined us later. It was nice hanging out one last time and seeing the effects of the hash on the others!
At 10pm Matty drove us back to the hotel for the last night of the tour!
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