Day 17 September 24th Amsterdam



The palace

It was a fine day as  we arrived into 

Nieuwe Kerk

Amsterdam and we had already planned what we wanted to do here.  We had visited the city before at the start of our Rhine/Danube river cruise several years ago.  We were moored in the city centre by the railway station and from there we avoided the red light district and walked along Damrak and eventually found the flower market. 

typical Dutch houses

We stopped to take photos of the Palace and Nieuwe Kerk  (16th century church) which we passed along the route.  Christine had looked forward to visiting the flower market but all that was there was a series of stalls mostly

munt clock tower

selling tulip bulbs.  We did stop to buy some roses and other souvenirs.  We had a coffee, 
wandered back via the Munt clock tower to the  main road and caught a tram to return to the station.  We then took the obligatory canal cruise which took 

a sail training boat

us past a lot of the famous sites of the city and under several low 

along the canals

bridges.  It was then a few minutes walk along the Rhine bank to our boat.  A good visit as there is plenty to see and do in a very interesting city, others on the boat had visited the Rembrandt house and the Van 

houseboats along the canal

Gogh museum.  All found that there were huge queues to the Anne Frank house on a Sunday and no one tried a visit. Plenty to return to see on another visit!  We were all aboard and left the quay at about 5pm.

Sunday picnic Amsterdam canal style

  We stayed on our balcony as we made our way to the mouth of the river, through a lock and out onto the open sea.

going through the lock