Amsterdam Day 2 Dec 24

Woke up and it’s raining and windy 🤪😜 Marlon made us coffee 😀. Had some leisure time in the room and decided to explore the hotel and then get some breakfast. Pretty impressive that Carly Simon has stayed at our hotel.  

View from our room this morning. 

The stained glass is so beautiful!

Breakfast at the hotel.  I got a fried egg with ham and cheese on bread!  Sounded good till they brought it to the table.  The eggs were sunny side up I just could not eat it😛

Coffee and a nice piece of chocolate with caramel on the inside 😋

Back to the room and Audy is up now.  Didn’t mention this but today of my turn to be sick.  🤒 Little fever and cough😩 Thank goodness Audy brought some Day Quill and Night Quill tablets along with cough drops.  It’s time to venture out in the rain and wind. Thank goodness it’s 55 degrees F.

We have a I Amsterdam card that gives us transportation around the city.  Took the train to the flower market 😀

We have arrived at the Flower Market. The street is filled with vendors selling mostly tulips in various forms including bulbs.  Eden shows can be found at every stall also😀

Audy needs some food so we found a Starbucks that had a deal for $9.99.  You get a coffee, breakfast sandwich and a desert!  We also enjoyed a coffee and sandwich since I didn’t eat my breakfast at the hotel. We are on our way to The Red Light District.  

Heading to the Red Light District.

We have arrived.  I didn’t take photos of the ladies I saw in the windows!  You will have to use your imagination 😉

Many shops were sex toy shops and pot shops. The smell of pot was wafting in the air 😀

I think we got the munchies as we were all hungry🤣😂

It was so windy and raining we were looking hard to find a place to be dry.   Decided on this Dutch Bistro!  Very happy we did as the food was so good.

Found this Dutch Bistro called Rembrandt Corner. So happy to be out of the rain and cold.  Service and food were excellent.  When finished we will tour inside the Rembrandt Museum.

The rain had slowed down and our next stop was next door!!  Rembrandt Museum.  Audy knew about this free etching class at the museum but they said we were to late.  They started the class early which we didn’t know.  I think when we walked away holding our heads down in disappointment they felt short for us.   The guy at registration told us to go ahead to 4th floor where the class was being held. We are all happy campers!

We each did one etching and printed one with black ink and one with a brown ink!  Once printed he let them dry and bagged them up for us.   

The museum was getting ready to close and it’s about an hours until our Light Illumination canal tour!  Once we got there we were to early so we walked over to a museum but had to leave because it also was closing.   We found a really neat pub where we enjoyed some beverages 😀 It often happens that the name of an Amsterdam café has something to do with an old situation or an event that has taken place in the neighborhood. That´s how the name of Cafe ‘t Hooischip has also been created. Due to the supply of goods, most of the markets were located near the water, including the Hooimarkt on the eastern side of the Amstel between the Nieuwe Herengracht and the Keizersgracht. In the 18th century there was a constant need for Hay in Amsterdam.

Time for our boat canal tour!  

Arrival to Amsterdam Dec 23

Trains, bikes, cars, and people are everywhere. You must be very careful getting around or you will be run over!!

Going in and out of shops looking for unique souvenirs! We did stop at a waffle place and bought a stroopwafel with coffee.

Stopped in for a coffee and a Stroop waffle.  Very good tasting, like caramel in between waffles.

Now to find the Canal House Museum which is our next stop. 


Grachtenmuseum Amsterdam (The Museum of the Canals) is the starting point for visitors to Amsterdam! So this is where we are starting to learn about how Amsterdam was built. It was located in one of the most beautiful canalside houses. 

Looking through the window of the miniature version of the canal house.

After leaving the museum we walked down the street called the Flower Market.

Misc things in windows that got my attention.

Sampled some cheese in this huge cheese shop. Later in our trip, we ended up going to the farm where this cheese is made.

Several stores sold rubber ducks. Florentijn Hofman and his giant floating rubber duck traveled from harbor to harbor.  The love of ducks became contagious and this was the first step in opening the first duck store.

Hungry?  See something in the slots you want?  You can order here and pay the door opens and you get what you paid for.

The streets are narrow here.  Most cars park 1/2 on the sidewalk.

Lots of graffetti

The canal views throughout the city are so nice to look at. Peaceful, relaxing.....

I don't know what this is all about but I did find it interesting. It made me laugh. 

There was a demonstration of rioters shouting Hussein. A crowd was following them with a group of police close behind.

Time for lunch and decide what kind of food we want to eat.  We decided on a place called Wok to Walk.

We were not dissappointed in our choice to eat here.  The food was amazing. 

I  got phad Ti noodle with chicken.

It gets dark early. That is our hotel in the background.

Many streets have canopies of lights.  I feel Christmas in the air.

We have reached our destination of finding a Christmas Market.

Many stalls with lots of things to purchase. Food, trinkets, beverages. It's a little chilly tonight but it's not raining so that's good!

Spent time at the market and now we are cold and tired.  Time to find something to eat then get back to the hotel.

Love the lights reflecting on the river.

Dinner tonight at Gourmet Burger.  

Burgers were exceptionally delicious. Audy accidentally ordered two large fries.......lol

We are back at the Clayton Hotel formerly known as Hard Rock.  This is the view from my balcony.