Amsterdam sights and another blogger meetup!
Greetje marvels at how short I am. :-)
Sunday was our second full day in Amsterdam, and we’d arranged to meet lovely blogger Greetje of No Fear Of Fashion. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t conducive for the boat tour she’d arranged, but we had a marvelous time talking, laughing, drinking coffee, shopping, eating, drinking coffee, oh, and drinking coffee. (This is a great city for coffee lovers!) Greetje is fabulous company, open and straight-talking, with a great sense of humor. She took me on a tour of the “9 Streets” area which is full of lovely shops and boutiques, including some killer vintage shops. I’ve noticed some really great style on Dutch women of a certain age, and Greetje is no exception. She has an eye for detail, color and fit, and an adventurous sense of style. No Fear Of Fashion, indeed! Thank you again Greetje for a wonderful afternoon. It was such a pleasure getting to know you!
As sometimes happens when we travel, I was hit with a bit of “travelers’ tummy” Monday morning, so spent most of the day yesterday sleeping and relaxing. Fortunately I’m back to normal today, and we hope to get out and see some museums and explore more areas of the city. And there’s a handbag by Dutch leather designer Hester Van Eeghen that wants me to come have another look. Thanks to Greetje, we got an introduction to the tram system, and are now using it to get around over longer distances.
But I promised more pictures, yes?
These crooked buildings have stood leaning for centuries, and were actually built this way intentionally to make it easier to haul items up to the upper floors using a pulley system.
Have no idea what this was all about (suspect advertising promotion of some kind) but these folks seemed to be having quite a good time on the “Sauna Boat.”
We noticed a lot of groups of young people who seemed to be here celebrating Bachelor/Bachelorette parties, (the latter complete with “Bride” tee shirts or sashes and silly little veils), and drinking and whooping from the party boats. I remarked to le Monsieur that Amsterdam seems to have a bit of a Las Vegas vibe, sans the gambling and bright lights. Later I was talking to a Dutch woman at the hotel, and after exchanging the usual where-are-you-from’s she asked how I liked Amsterdam. “It’s very pretty and very fun,” I answered. “Yes,” she said, “it’s sort of the Las Vegas of Europe.”
We’ll be out and about today, and I’ll be snapping away. I’ve been very pleased with the quality of photos on my iPhone 6. We have two more full days here, then on to London.
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