We arrived in Sixhaven in Amsterdam having read the books and seeing it strongly recommended as THE place where visitors have to go to. It is meant to be tree lined – although the books do mention that the metro is being built nearby!! The trees are gone and replaced by a road with the structure for the new train so it has lost some of its charm but it does have a washing machine and Wifi and is very convenient for the centre being only a free ferry ride away form Central Station. The Harbour master summons boats sa they come in wit a whistle and indicates where they sghould go to although we phoned him up - still old fashioned!!! We are told that in 4 weeks time that you will not be able to see any water in the harbour there will be so many boats here.
Friends and family began arriving for Paul’s birthday celebration on Friday and we went out for a meal near to the red light area. The next day we visited the Van Gogh exhibition and the flower market – and went on a boat trip round the canals!!! WE were told that one car a week falls into the canals and that there are 100,000 bikes in Amstedam, 10% of them are stolen each year, 5% are resold at the markets and 5% fall in to the canals - apparently they say that the canals are 3m deep - a metre of water, a metre of mud and a metre of bikes........And then we went out for a meal in a fabulous restaurant (organised by Heather through the wonders of the world wide web) where the food and service were great and Paul felt very special. Not as special as one of our friends who thought this lovely young lady was waving at him and being particularly friendly until he realised she was wearing thigh high red boots and not a lot else – and happened to be standing in a window.
The next day was the Anne Frank museum which is extremely moving and a family day and then it started pouring so friends and family were pleased to be going home – although we think that the UK is as wet!!
Looking forward to seeing you - will bring waterproofs.