Windmills, Cheese and Clogs

While Jeff was busy working, Amy caught a train to Amsterdam to pick up her dad and spend a few days touring the city. For the past week Richard sailed down the Rhine on a river cruise, stopping in several cities along the way and enjoying life as a royal.

Amy met her dad on the pier, taking a quick peek at Richard’s cruise ship before setting off to see the city. As we walked to the hotel, we cautiously dodged the bikes and tried to figure out the traffic system. We dropped our bags off at the hotel, stopped at a little corner café for lunch, and set off for the Rijkmuseum to admire art from the Dutch Golden age, including a few of Rememberant’s masterpieces. We saw the restoration of the renowned Night Watch in progress and enjoyed wandering through the countless rooms of the museum, admiring the paintings and catching a quick look at old wooden instruments, model ships, and fancy jewels as we searched for an exit at closing time. We need to spend at least another full day there to see everything!

 

The "real" sleeping beauty 

After the museum, we made our way to De Gooyer Windmill (the tallest wooden mill in the Netherlands) and enjoyed a tasty dinner next door. From there we wandered through the streets of Amsterdam, checking out the canals and house boats before hopping back on the tram and returning to the hotel. We made one last stop to savor a warm stroopwaffle before heading off to bed. Yum!

We woke early on Wednesday ready for a day of adventures. We grabbed breakfast at a local cafe and then set off for our Windmills, Cheese and Clogs bike tour. We ended up with a private tour since the other folks didn’t show up (Happy Birthday dad!). It was wonderful! We biked through the city, stopping at two windmills (one from the night before and one in the country). We took a break to hide from the rain, sample fresh Gouda cheese and watch true Dutch wooden clogs being made. We couldn’t resist, and bought some delicious cheese for our evening boat tour before biking back into the city. It was a little wetter than planned, but so fun to experience the Netherlands like a local, biking though the city and enjoying the countryside.

 

  

Following the bike tour, we grabbed lunch and hot tea, then made our way to the Church of Saint Nicholas along with a quick stop for some dinner goodies (meat, bread, wine and stroopwaffles to go with our fresh cheese). We ended the afternoon at the hotel, taking a few minutes to relax and dry off before setting sail on the canals.

On our way to our Dam Boat Guys tour, we stopped to admire the Anne Frank house and a few more canals. As we gathered with the other sailors, we learned that unfortunately one of the boats had broken down and was being repaired... as an apology, the guides bought a round of drinks for the sailors which we enjoyed while relaxing by the water. Around 8 pm, Captain Morgan arrived with our boat and we were finally able to set sail. We enjoyed watching the sunset, the glimmer of city lights, and the inhabitants of the “living museum” while cozied up in a blanket and munching on our meat, cheese and wine. Blissful!

On Thursday, we woke ready for another day adventuring through Amsterdam. We started the morning off with the Van Gough museum, dazzled by his vast collection of work and learning more about the artist himself (like how his brother was also into art and actually supported Vincent for several years). And how Vincent moved to Paris, settling in with a group of other artists, each of them improving their skills by learning from the friends around them. It was neat to see Van Gough’s masterpieces up close, admiring the different perspectives, brush strokes, and color choices. Beautiful!

Following the museum, we found another quaint cafe for lunch and then spent the afternoon wandering through more of the city. We stopped by the library, catching the elevator to the top floor to experience a bird’s eye view of the city. We continued on, stopping by Café Schreiertower (originally part of the medieval city wall of Amsterdam) for a hot tea and seat by the canal, providing the perfect setting for relaxing and people watching (thankfully the weather was much nicer today). We continued our adventure through the city and eventually ended up back at the hotel, picking up our bags, setting off to catch our train (Richard’s first time!) and eventually making our way to Düsseldorf. Once in Düsseldorf, we gave Richard a tour of the apartment, threw laundry in the machine and started packing for our trip to Normandy the next morning. There’s no time for relaxing around here!