Day Two - Morning Walking Tour in Amsterdam

We had booked the pre-trip in Amsterdam and you can read about Day one here. There were no activities planned for us on Day one so I had pre-purchased the tickets to the "Our Lord in the Attic" Museum so we wouldn't waste our first day. On the morning of Day two, we got up and grabbed a shower and went downstair for breakfast. The Barbizon Palace had a lovely breakfast buffet with lovely breads and spreads, eggs, bacon or sausage, granola, wonderful yogurt, fresh fruit, and more. I ate plain yogurt with PRUNES - yes, prunes - on two mornings. I would never have dreamed of putting prunes in my yogurt, but it tasted quite delicious. I also ate peanut butter and a banana one day. Mark enjoyed all of the traditional breakfast items. He loves breakfast.

After breakfast we gathered in the lobby for a guided walking tour. That is where we met three women from Utah and enjoyed chatting with them. They ended up becoming a really important part of our trip - more on them later. Our tour guide was Andy and he was so much fun. Our hotel was next door to a gorgeous church/basillica - that still is a church - where people worship. There was an Evensong one night when we were there. I started to go . . .but jet lag. I think I read that some of the spaces in the church - maybe a chapel - are used/owned by the hotel for weddings and events. I was thrilled that an actual church is still meeting there because so many churches in other countries are now restaurants or museums.

Zooming in on the details. We didn't get to go inside.

The architecture is so unique in Amsterdam. I will tell y'all more about that as we go. This photo was the buildings as we passed the Basillica.

Can you see the "jut out" at the top of the two buildings below? They had a crane to pull materials up to the top because the stairs were often so narrow. The cranes are actually still used today in many places.

Below is the weeping tower (incorrectly translated!). Andy gave us the history but here is what Wikipedia tells us (and it seems to match what Andy said).

The Schreierstoren (English incorrectly translated as: Weeper's Tower or Tower of Tears), originally part of the medieval city wall of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, was built in the 15th century. It is located at the Prins Hendrikkade 94 in the city center of Amsterdam. It was the location from which Henry Hudson set sail on his journey to Northern America. This expedition would lead to the discovery of the modern New York metropolitan area, which laid the foundation for Dutch colonization of the region. It was built as a defense tower in 1487.  It is currently a café and nautical bookstore.

Below is a neighborhood. There are thousands of apartments where people live. Our airport limo driver told us that most homes only have one bathroom - at the most 1 1/2 - but can have up to 5 bedrooms. Most people can only afford to buy an apartment. Evidently, due to land square mileage, there are not as many individual homes - most are at least duplexes. In 2023, only 11% of the population lived in single family dwellings. That may be more info than you wanted, but I thought it was so interesting.

Many of the houses in Amsterdam are leaning. They are built on water on wooden pilings and it is very expensive to repair. Below is a very crooked free-standing house. It was built in 1695 as the lockkeeper’s house, opposite the Rembrandt House museum. One of the oldest pictures of this lock was painted by Rembrandt when he still lived across from it. In the last twenty years Sluyswacht has been a cafe.

This was the view from the bridge over the canal right by the very crooked house. I love this pink bike covered in flowers.

Even though we were in Amsterdam in October, there were still beautiful flowers.

I love the canals.

We walked all over Amsterdam that morning.

This is Magere Brug - Skinny Bridge. The famous skinny bridge across the river Amstel and opposite of the Carré theatre, is an Old Dutch design wooden bridge known as a double-swipe (balanced) bridge. Tradition relates that the bridge was named after the sisters Mager, who were supposed to live on opposite sides of the river. They are said to have had the wooden bridge built to make it easier to visit one another. However it appears more likely, that the original bridge acquired the name from being so narrow (mager means skinny in Dutch), that it was hard for two pedestrians to pass one along another. (this info may be from Wikipedia - I found it somewhere online)

They have removed the love locks from the fence and made a piece of artwork.

Look at the picture below - it looks like a postcard! It was so beautiful!!

Below is De Aluminiumbrug (the aluminum bridge) and yes, it is named after the material with which it was built - 1955. I think the shot above that is so good . . .was taken from this bridge.

Bicycles, bicycles, and more bicycles!

Below is the Dam Square. The monument is in memory of those who died in WWII and other conflicts.

If you are easily offended, do not look at the next photo. That is exactly what you think it is. Yes, it is a condom store and that is their display window. I am still laughing.

I love the narrow streets in other countries.

That was just the morning! Whew! I'll write about the afternoon adventure in a separate post. Just let me say that this is the day that Mark and I walked over 8 miles . . .and oh my goodness, we were tired! Our morning tour ended back at our hotel - Andy was a great two hour tour guide!!