In one short flight...

Travelling these days is pretty amazing. We went from this:

to this in what seemed like a blink of the eye - well, actually more like 9+ hours in the air... but it was an amazingly easy flight. They always are going on a vacation, have you ever noticed that? 

 

We are loving this city. We had a wonderful, sunny warm day enjoyjng the sights and walking the city, round and round. We figured we clocked about 12-15 kms. today so this evening our feet are appreciating the break.

I would have never have believed all the canals, bicycles and coffee shops in this city. As many of you know, Pete has a SLIGHT fondness for coffee. When on a couple of occasions today he suggested going for one, he had to redirect me from going into what I thought, innocently enough of course, was a coffee shop. The correction being that these Dutch do things a little differently.  Coffee shops are actually where one goes to partake in the green stuff... if you get my gist. To get a coffee, one goes to a cafe instead. It is good to know how to act as the locals do, I figure.

Speaking of which, it seems no trip would be complete without me forgetting what the word is for woman in the current language. Today was no exception as I found myself in the "Herren" washroom; fortunately, a single stall. Note to self, brush up on this before getting to Italy!

Anyways, getting back to the canals and bikes - totally amazing. I would never have believed all the different versions of the bicycle over here and the volume of bikers on the roads. You have to be more alert for bikers than cars in this city. And the canals are so pretty - literally the Venice of the North. I will have some photos to support this story but not until tomorrow since my hired photographer dropped his camera in the canal. I think he may have sneaked into a "coffee shop" when I wasn't looking! He seemed a bit disoriented and dizzy before he dropped it. He will have to make up for lost services tomorrow. 

Mystery photographer

In the meanwhile, I hope you enjoy a few pics that depicted the city today.

This Vondelpark, a beautiful

 large park about 5 minutes walk from our B&B. There were tons of people, walking, running and of course, biking throughout.