A weekend in Amsterdam

So, a few weekends ago Sam and I spent a lovely few days wandering around the beautiful city of Amsterdam.  We went to visit some friends of his and their lovely daughter who have moved there and who live just outside the main city centre.

This meant that on the first day we had a wander through the beautiful Vondelpark.

There were some extremely exciting playgrounds which I investigated although it was a bit too damp and muddy to play on the massive slides.  Sam pretended to read the 'information' available at the front of the park to avoid association with me...

We took a cruise on the canals, which was a very chilled out way to begin an exploration of the city.  Our various boat drivers pointed out all the land marks as we hopped on and off to get some lunch (and accidentally stumble across the red light district, with the most bored prostitutes you could imagine).

This is the narrowest house in Amsterdam, something of a feat given they're generally on the slim side.  This is 1 1/2 metres wide and you can see that someone was actually in the process of moving in!

There were bikes everywhere, it was so wonderful.  They don't even lock them up, or to anything and no one nicks them, stabs their tyres or makes off with their saddles while they're not looking.  Pretty different to East London basically.  They also had whole families on bikes, tandems with kiddie seats front and back, or massive carts on the front to put the sprogs in.  AND most importantly, cyclists have right of way.  So the cars  etc have to avoid hitting them, not vice versa as it is in the UK.  That and the lack of roads in the centre of town made it a cyclists heaven.

There were some interesting shops too.  This one was...a loo.  Literally.  You paid a Euro to go and use the (very posh) facilitites and them you could buy branded accessories on your way out.  Bit of a money-spinner frankly but necessary as their shops don't have loos so there's no nipping into the equivalent of John Lewis or Topshop.

This shop was on the edge of the red light district close to the very cute little cafe we found to have lunch in.  It's wares were not as romantic as you might assume from the name...

There seemed to be quite a few branches of Henry Willig.  Cheese.  AND more.  What more could you possibly ask for?!

And last but not least, the 'British Isles Food Emporium' that is...Arkwright's (Open many hours).  I didn't go in as I would have required there to be yells of G-g-g-g-g-granville! in order to avoid disappointment, and it seemed a bit unlikely.

Sam fulfilled his role of standing by things....

...and sitting on things so I could take pics.  Although, in fairness, no coaxing was required.

We checked out the Museum of Dutch Resistance, about the situation before, during and right after WW2, which was the most amazing museum I've been to in a very long time.  The lengths they went to, to protect people were truly inspiring and all from a population that pretty much acquiesced to the Germans to start with, working with them in government and even the Jewish population registering themselves when asked to do so.  The most amazing tale was their solution to the problem of people being caught with false ID cards to cover up their Jewish heritage or something, which led to the bearer being imprisoned or worse.  The resistance solved the problem by burning down the central records office, so no further checks could be made!  Definitely worth checking out if you happen to be there.

Now, because I suspect you're a bit bored of this post now, a series of things that amused me.

And, finally!  My new pretty (white) iphone 4 comes with a camera mode that allows you to see yourself whilst taking the picture, no more 'ye gads, what the hell do I look like!' moments.