Our day started with taking Brontë for a walk whilst Ali had a game of tennis and poor Ads had to go to work – guess someone has to pay for all the retirees. Ali very kindly suggested that we might want to go into Amsterdam for a look around.
We have always enjoyed our visits to this very vibrant city. We took the train into the center of the city and it took 25 minutes and was most comfortable.
Firstly, we went to see the apartment in the university district of the city, where Ads and Al had bought an apartment. Currently, their daughter who is attending university lives in the studio flat. The steps up to the front door of the block of flats was extremely steep and then once through the front door there was basically a ladder up to the unit. Ali explained how they had to get a new washing machine up there and to us it just seemed like an impossible task.
We met up with Milla, Al and Ads daughter and went out for coffee and lunch. It has been seven years since we last saw her and she has now grown into a lovely young, sophisticated young lady – the world is her oyster.
We basically just wandered around the central canal area of the city take in the atmosphere.
A few fun facts about Amsterdam:
– Amsterdam sits two meters (6.6 feet) below sea level and is built on soft peat and clay which helps it stay above the water;
– There are 165 canals and you can travel 100 kilometers along them without ever leaving the city limits
– The Dutch can proudly claim to have the most popular beer in Europe – Heineken, of course.
– The houses in Amsterdam are narrow as they used to be taxed according to the width of their homes.
– The city stands on 11 million wooden beams which prevents the cities buildings from sinking.
After wandering around for a few hours and trying to avoid the crowds, we decided it was time to make our way home to Hilversum.
A quiet night sitting around the kitchen table sampling different wines and liqueurs, reliving old times and family/friend gatherings and having a lot of laughs.
Steps 19,063 – made up for lousy yesterday.
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