Amsterdam- Many Visits Never Enough Time

We have visited here a few times. It is a fantastic city, every visit is a treat and doesn't feel long enough. I had visited with my family as a child more than once. Amsterdam always delights even though the weather can be grey and rainy often. We stayed with my cousin Eva and her husband Marc. Marc goes out of his way to make us comfortable every time we are here. Their house is beautful, full of lovely things from their own travels. The newest improvement we got to try was the sauna, steam shower spa they had put in themselves. They have created an oasis from the cold, damp, grey Amsterdam weather in their own home. You know we liked that! We had a good time reconnecting again and hope to see them during their yearly visit to California in August. It was really nice to be in a house we where familiar with. It felt quite unusual to wake up and realize you recognized the place you were in and had been there before!

Eva and Marc's house

The Rijke's Museum across the canal from the house. this is one of several museums, including the excellent Van Gogh Museum in a museum park

The public pool, formally a bike factory, across the canal from the house.

We went to the street market near by one morning. This market I can remember from when we came here during my childhood. Of course the contents have changed over time. They were not selling live eels for example. The famous Dutch wooden shoes are now made of a stiff, plastic, foam in bright colors. But there is great variety and you can see the influence of the many groups of immigrants who now live in Holland.

Now I have to take a photo of every flower market

Modern clogs

This is an amazing cake shop where we stopped for a treat. It was goooood!

This only touristy thing we did in our few days was take a canal boat cruise. Their house is right on a canal just steps from a boat stop. This is a fun relaxing way to see the city from a view you don't normally get. We had done it before but it had been a while and we were happy we did it again. these are some of the things we saw from the boat below.

Central train station.

This is the most bike friendly city I have ever seen. Bikes are everywhere and there are not many cars in the town center.

 Here are a few typical canal views from the boat...

If the weather was better we could live here. We will always come back when we can. I can't comment on colors or dogs because this is the only part of Holland I have ever visited. I feel so lucky to have Eva and Marc in our life and that they live here and share it with us when we visit.

On to Jolly old England!