On our last day in Amsterdam, we decided to go Dutch and rent a couple of bicycles. It cost €15 for 24 hours (for each bike). So after having breakfast at a nearby cafe, we went to Black Bikes near our hotel and got the bikes. We then headed north to explore an area we hadn’t yet visited.

We arrived at NEMO around 12:30 PM. It’s a science and technology museum that’s really interactive and hands-on. It was a lot of fun. I’m glad we got to go but sad that I forgot to charge my camera and, therefore, couldn’t take photos.

After the museum, we pedaled south to Pompadour and got some coffee/tea and cakes. Oh, my god… The pastries were so good! Alex and I decided to be civil and not pig out… but we really wanted more. They were really delicious treats.

After the sweets, we headed down the street to De Kaaskamer (The Cheese Room) and Alex bought two hunks of cheese. We tried one of the cheeses later in our room and it’s an interesting flavor.

We didn’t want to bike with cheese on board so we headed back to the hotel and unloaded. Afterwards, we biked to the huge public library (Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam). It’s 6 stories tall (with a basement, so 7 floors in all) plus a rooftop cafe. Again, we didn’t have a camera with us so no photographic evidence of the greatness of the library and its scenic cafe… But trust me when I say it was awesome.

It started raining lightly so we just pedaled back to the hotel. After a short break, we just went walking around. We walked through the Jordaan neighborhood, which is mainly residential. It was very quiet. We were able to see into people’s homes — everyone seems to have such nice homes! In this neighborhood, at least.

We returned to our hotel around 11 PM and soon fell asleep.  We woke up early the next (this) morning to pack and return our bikes.  We had breakfast at a nearby cafe, ‘t Nieuwe Kafé, where Alex had a pancake with cheese and I had the apple & bacon pancake.  We then took our last walk around Dam Square before we headed back to the hotel to check out.

We’re on the plane now, waiting for take-off… so we’ll be home shortly. Amsterdam was beautiful and we’ll sorely miss it.

We’re so tired from all the walking that we usually have trouble getting out of bed in the morning. Yesterday was no exception. Alex and I left the hotel around 11:30 AM (after grabbing some coffee and pastries in the coffee place across the street from us) and headed to Albert Heijn, a supermarket, to get juice and snacks. And, wow, AH is so clean and all of the produce is so colorful.

First on our list was the Royal Palace, which is right across the street from our hotel and which we didn’t visit until yesterday. It is currently under construction (just as the Reijksmuseum was) so we’re not sure if we saw all there was to see, especially since we don’t know what’s public and what is not. The Palace was a lot like other palaces: lots of marble and lots of room. The coolest part was probably the judge/jury room, where prosecutions once took place.

After the Royal Palace, we walked to Begijnhof, the city’s oldest courtyard. It was originally used as early as the 14th century by Roman Catholic beguines (unwed women who prayed and worked with the sick but were not nuns as they took no vows and were free to leave at any time) who set up communities and worked together. There is also a little church there and one (of two) of the city’s last remaining wood houses. It was very quiet and peaceful, very serene.

Afterwards, Alex and I went to get lunch at the nearby cafe Dante. We split an order of bitterballen and each ordered a cheese sandwich with a beer. Yum. For dessert, we walked to Puccini, a place that makes and sells chocolates. We bought 4 pieces of chocolate and ate some of them on the boat.

Oh, yeah! After Puccini, we walked to Boathouse, a place on Prinsengracht (Prince’s Canal) that offers canal cruises for €12 per person. We were just in time for the 4 PM boat so we bought our tickets, walked to the boat, settled in, and indulged in some chocolates as we were taken through the city. We learned that boathouses are expensive (about €350,000 each) and have water + gas + electricity but no sewage system… so all their waste is flushed into the canal. However, the city cleans the water periodically so it’s all good ;)

After the tour, at 5 PM, we walked around and bought some souveniers. Then we went back to the hotel to shower and then left again for dinner. We went to Indrapura, an Indonesian restaurant in bustling Rembrantplein. Since it was a nice restaurant, Alex and I decided to splurge a little bit. We bought a bottle of red Argentinian wine, an appetizer, 2 soups, and 2 entrees. The total came to €103 — our most expensive meal yet. But it was totally worth it, everything was really, really good.

We finished dinner around 10 PM and decided to call it a night so we headed back toward the hotel. We only have one more day here :(

Despite agreeing that we should leave the hotel by 10 AM, the four of us were out the door at 11:30 and heading toward a nearby cafe to get breakfast. (They all serve the same thing… and it’s all of similar quality. It no longer matters where we get breakfast.) By 12:30 PM, we were at Amsterdam Centraal station, confused by all of the timetables. Finally, we figured out that we needed Platform 1 if we wanted to get to Delft. The train was arriving in a few minutes so we got up to where we needed to be and boarded the train.

Around 1:40, we were in Delft, a city south of Amsterdam. (We passed by a lot of farms on our way. We saw lots of cows, horses, and sheep, as well as flowers.) It’s been described as a mini-Amsterdam with its tiny canals and churches. Yehuda and Kate went one way, Alex and I another. We agreed to meet back at the railway station at 3:30.

Having a limited amount of time in this city, Alex and I tried to do the quintessentially Delft things: see the churches (Nieuwe Kerk and Oude Kerk), the city hall (Stadhuis), and the town square (Markt). We first passed by the Oude Kerk but didn’t stop by because we wanted to see the other church and the city hall on the square. We were amazed by the huge market square (Markt) and all the people. On the nearby canal streets, there were also a lot of booths and tables set up with people selling all kinds of things. After gawking and browsing for a few minutes, we went to the Nieuwe Kerk and took photos, inside and out. We found the tomb of the Prince of Orange to be especially fascinating. The city hall (Stadhuis) is directly in front of the Nieuwe Kerk across the square, so we took exterior photos and started walking back toward the railway station.

The four of us got on the 3:47 train to Den Haag and arrived in the city at 4:02. Again, Kate & Yehuda and Alex & I split into 2 teams and agreed to meet back at the station at 6:30.

Since everything closes at 5 PM in Europe, we weren’t able to go to any museums or really see anything of worth. This was very disappointing as there are quite a few interesting museums we wanted to see. Instead, we wandered around the busy city center. Some of the narrow streets are just chock full of shops/stores on both sides. We even stumbled across something called “The Passage” (French pronunciation), which is pretty much exactly like “The Passage” in St. Petersburg. (Both are covered outdoor shopping malls that specialize in expensive boutique-y stores.) We also saw some parks (and evidence of a street market that occurred earlier in the day) and had beers on the terrace of a cafe, Bodega de Posthoorn.

Overall, The Hague was disappointing. There was nothing to see or do. Many of its citizens are older and wealthier, which probably explains why, at 9:30, we were so glad to be back in Amsterdam. (We were delayed in The Hague because we decided to have dinner there, at Cafe Brasserie Dudok, while Kate and Yehuda headed back to Amsterdam.)

On our way back to the hotel from the railway station, Alex and I stopped by the Grasshopper, another coffeeshop that lets its customers hang out on the terrace without buying marijuana — as long as they buy something. So Alex ordered a cappuccino and I just got a bottle of water. (Water is expensive, usually costing €2 for a 0.5L bottle.)

At the conclusion of day 5, Alex and I realize that there are a few things in Amsterdam that remain unseen or un-experienced:

• bakeries (Pompadour, Puccini, Winkel)
• Begijnhof (nun convent from the 14th century)
• seeing the city by bike
• canal boat tour
• Heineken brewery
• raw herring from a street vendor
• Amsterdam public library
• NEMO musem
• Bimhuis (jazz club) — closed in August, apparently

…We still have a lot to do & see.