Woke up and went to our lovely breakfast again. Jude is feeling rough. We were trying to decide what to do – options: canal paddle boat, war museum, Van Gogh Museum. Graeme discovered a little town outside of Amsterdam that has windmills – Zaandijk. Everyone was a bit weary of cities, so we hopped on a train and headed out. It was lovely and cool. When we got off the train and walked toward the town, we began to smell chocolate. Then we saw a sign that said, Smells Like Chocolate. Turns out there’s an actual chocolate factory there, so there air actually smells like chocolate. The town was quaint with lots of windmills along a canal. We got some groceries and had a windy picnic. Then we got a volunteer-run ferry, Voetveer Zaandijk – Zaanse Schans, to the other side of the river and had a little self guided tour thru the town. Turns out all the tourist stuff is pretty much closed on Mondays, but that was ok.
Lots of lovely houses, gardens, a converted church – Zaandijkerkerk, interesting architecture.
Back on the train to Amsterdam. Spent nearly 2 hours in our rooms resting. All feeling some sickness except Graeme. Becky got it, Colin and I are nearly over it, Jude in the thick of it and Zane just starting.
We wandered in a different direction and found the stock market and the royal palace – Royal Palace Amsterdam, Koninklijk Paleis, National Monument to the Dead. Visited a pharmacy to get more cold medicine, had a very helpful person try to help us and still ended up with the wrong type of medicine. It’s all a bit confusing.
We decided to have jacket potatoes for dinner. Went to the shop, argued about eating there, found out that they wouldn’t have any potatoes ready for another 50 minutes, so went looking for other options. Turns out we all really had our hearts set on jacket potatoes, so we returned to wait. Accidentally went thru a bit of the red light district, thankfully none of the women were out. So very sad – they are put on display in windows.
Had super yummy potatoes – green curry, chili con carne, and Dutch stew. Headed back to the hotel and packed as we had an earlier morning.
Lamppostings 