En route to Downtown, from the Amsterdam suburbs, the scale and texture of the architecture, the flowering gardens (even in the winter), and canals got better and better...the mid day traffic was heavy between the autos and cable cars especially with the "bicyclist terrorists"!!! My friend's wife would normally avoid the traffic by taking the buses to a point where she would cycle the rest of the way to her post-collegiate Dutch classes...
While walking toward the Van Gogh Museum, I ran into friends and joined them for a glass of wine, while observing the beautiful (tall) people and modern architectural elements of the museum zone. My camera was brought into action from posing in front of a full-scale mural of Van Gogh's childhood village, in front of the "I Luv Amsterdam" central park zone; in the sky-lit atrium of the Beautiful Riijks Museum; in front of the Bull Dog Cafe (where coffee wasn't the known menu item) while nearly getting a "contact high" while waiting for my friend to arrive; on top of some of the canal (in this city of canals) pedestrian bridges, en route to the infamous "red light" district; not in front of the street-front glass case partner selection sex booths; while trying to capture some of the essence of this special place.
We walked down a three foot wide alley to a small outdoor bougainvillea covered courtyard to one of my friend's favorite restaurants...Le Bleu. We sampled the red and white wines, rabbit, rock oysters, quill, and an incredible chocolate dessert!
Near midnight I was taken back to my third-story dormer bedroom to get some rest...the rise to run ratio of the open winding staircase never meet U.S. Codes...the bath was on the main floor...the windows were open (because the homes are not normally air-conditioned) for the unseasonably warm weather for Amsterdam which with my running cool system meant use a comforter! After viewing my photos this far, I fell asleep!
By the time I awoke the house was quiet, and I went down to a delightful continental breakfast (people have "tiny" refrigerators and shop daily for fresh foods). My friend brought out some of his clothes to take unless my luggage would not arrive. Then airline called to say that my luggage had arrived from Stockholm, so in lieu of joining my friends for a canal cruise tour, we went to the airport for the first of a few times before it actually did arrive about an hour before my cruise was to depart!
I boarded the beautifully recently "Solsticized" updated Celebrity ship, ran to the muster drill, had a late lunch, unpacked in the beautifully appointed balcony cabin, had a swim and cardio workout, enjoyed an incredible sunset over a flat sea "sail-away party", had a delightful dinner in the upper level Tuscan Grill, and enjoyed the welcome aboard show...
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