We spent three days In Amsterdam at a restored 1672 canal house. It was really great, we had the whole 4th floor, one very big l-shaped room with a kitchen, dining room, sitting area and bedroom overlooking a canal. There were two drawbacks, there were no real mirrors only a couple of those small round travel mirrors and then there were the stairs. I had read about how canal houses were built with hoisting posts because the stairs were too narrow and winding to get any furniture up beyond the ground floor. Reading is one thing but the reality is very much another.

Amsterdam is a city of bicycles, more bicycles than cars. The bikes are tied up along every sidewalk leaving only a narrow space for walking. There are even three-story parking garages — for bikes. On a canal cruise a guide told us that 200,000 bikes are fished out of the canals every year.

We got a city pass that gave us access to the trams, trains and buses and a free canal boat tour. We overdid it on our first day. We visited the Rembrandt house, the Jewish museum and then a canal tour. We topped it all off watching the Netherlands-Chile world cup match in a bar — I think the entire city was out in bars watching along with us. Netherlands won and everyone was out celebrating.

The next day we rested, we really needed it. The last full day we went to the Museumplein to see the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh museum. We’ve seen photos of all the major pieces but seeing them live is special. And there are works there by major artists that we’ve never seen. Later that day were took a walk along the canal near our B&B and had a good dinner in small brew pub. Their beer was very good. I had a very nice Belgian-style amber and Laura had a wheat beer which she liked — pretty unusual since she usually doesn’t like beer.

The next morning we took a taxi to the cruise port to board our ship.