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2017 09 19 - day 3 - Amsterdam.
Time to move hotels this morning. Originally we were going to the south of the Netherlands today to visit Wayne's friends but that got changed at the last minute due to Wayne's illness. We decided the first week will be all about taking it easy. This would lead into the cruise which would also be an easy time
The hotel we are moving to for one night is the Hotel Alfred which is in Amsterdam. Here for one night only as this was a last minute reservation and our next hotel is already paid for in advance.
We caught a taxi from Haarlem to the city which took about half an hour. It was about 11.30 am when we got to the hotel.
On our two taxi rides we had noticed thousands of push bike riders. The other thing we noticed was that none of them wore a helmet!
We pulled up at the hotel and as we were about to get out there was this loud bang. Then people rushing towards us. Didn't know what was going on. We then realised a young girl on a push bike had been hit by a car and was laying on the ground bleeding from cuts on her legs.
There was nothing we could do as we didn't speak Dutch. Checked in and of course the room was not ready until 2.00 pm! Coming back outside, all evidence of the accident had gone. Time for some sightseeing!
We headed in the direction of Amsterdam Central (the main railway station). Heaps of roadworks being done around the hotel so this meant a few detours which helped us find our bearings as well as seeing the different types of housing.
Any space that could be used for a car park was utilized! At times this made it difficult to cross the road. Plus, on many occasions we nearly got run over by either push bike riders or motor scooters! Even though there are designated roads and bikeways on every road, if they want to they'll just ride up on the footpath, so pedestrians get out of the way!
The first building of significance we came upon was the Royal Concertgebouw (a concert hall completed in late 1886). Across the road is a large park, the Museumplein which is also known as the Museum Quarter. Some of the museums are: the Police Museum, the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum (the Dutch national museum dedicated to arts and history).
In front of the Rijksmuseum is a garden with an outdoor café. The park is crowded with artists and student artists all sitting in canvas chairs busily sketching.
Also in the park is a dancing water fountain. It consists of a series of water jets in a circle as well as four straight rows of water jets forming a square. The water jets are random in their operation and people jump in and out as there is a space in the centre which remains dry!
From here we walked up to the Rijksmuseum and through the tunnel that runs underneath it. At the far end was a string quartet playing Vivaldi.
Opposite the Rijksmuseum was a canal that was used by tourist boats. Walking along the canal we admired several large willow trees as well as some old houses.
To our surprises, we stumbled upon the Amsterdam casino. No we did not go in! We admired it from afar and kept walking!
Further along we came to the Vondelpark which we decided to walk through in order to get back to our hotel. As we walked through the park we noticed a large black cloud. Sure enough it started raining. Fortunately, there was a road overpass so we took refuge under it. There was a busker under there as well so that helped pass the time.
Rain stopped so we continued on our way. Our next building was the Obrechtkerk (Church of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary completed in 1911).
Time for lunch so we found a café near the hotel. Then back to the hotel to get up to our room as we were b*****ed.
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