We docked overnight in Amsterdam, after a delightful breakfast we had to wait for about an hour to board our busses to the Prestana Hotel. After we got organized and separated into groups, we started off on our walking tour of Amsterdam. We walked for two hours looking at the housing design, 16th century tax avoidance with minimized frontage.
We rode the tram line back towards the hotel, so we got a hands-on demonstration of riding the tram. After we got back to the hotel at about 11:30am, we were able check-in early so we went up to our room and rested for an hour.
After our rest we went back out and walked 5-6 block to the Number 4 tram line. This time we bought two 24-hour passes and we rode it three stops up near to where we saw some canal tour boats. After wandering around for a couple of blocks, we discovered the “Blue Boats” that offered 45minute cruses of the canals. We got signed up for the 4:00pm cruise.
See Kate’s website for the pictures. We spent 45 minutes driving up and down the canals of Amsterdam. We saw dozens of houses from the 1600’s and houseboat and boats lining the canals dated from the post=WWII housing shortage through the 1960’s when the city finally cracked down and stopped issuing permits.
After the boat we took two trams back to near the hotel and got two very expensive hamburgers and got back up to the room to plan our second full day. Tomorrow, we have tickets to the Van Gough Gallery at 9:30 am. We want to also see some Rembrandts, and maybe stop ty the New Church where Lindsay and I attended Midnight Mass on Christmas 1980.