Our Amsterdam Adventure: Day Four

As usual, the end of our trip arrived far too quickly, but without any particular destinations in mind today (marking the end of our well-worn I-Amsterdam cards), we were happy to spend our last day pounding the pavement, taking in more random sights and the busy Saturday ambiance. Actually, that's one thing that's worth noting, because I don't think I've been in a city where the feeling on the street changed so much from weekday to weekend. Whereas the first three days of our visit were characterised by quiet streets and businesses (well, except along the main drags of the Red Light District, but I already went over that contrast in an earlier post), today was buzzing with people enjoying their Saturdays by taking to shops, restaurants, and green spaces, making for an almost festival-feel. Of course, not everyone was feeling quite so energetic before noon:

I meant to take a photo of these popular bikes many times before now, and I'm glad that I finally remembered to do so, because I love the practicality of these "wheelbarrow" bikes with their ample storage space lodged between the handlebars and the front wheel. They're everywhere in Amsterdam, and I want one! (Okay, living in a city as flat as Amsterdam would help as well . . . .)

People may have still been lazing around the house before noon, but the animals were out in force, including cats,

bears (okay, I guess this particular bear hasn't exactly left home yet, but it's a start),

lizards aplenty,

and another cat (with mouse). This golden plaque is actually a replica of a plaque that used to hang here, but which disappeared (presumed stolen) during building renovations.

This building was having a bit of a tough time,

but the woman sitting in her third-floor window, enjoying a weekend paper, was not.

A beautiful bird landed near us and started singing, but it flew away again before I could get a better-framed shot.

Not your typical gallery owner:

Oh, oh!

This next bit of ornamentation marks housing with a private courtyard that Agneta Deutz had built as housing for the poor.

As we walked past this next building, I thought the flowers were beautiful, but what really took my breath away was the sight of a woman reading in her dark basement, with a perfectly framed window open to the sunny canal.

We grabbed one of the waterside tables at this charming spot,

where we shared a fantastic set of pancakes, with a nice balance of savoury (bacon) and sweet (apple). Mmm . . . butter . . .

When we passed this incredible cheese shop shortly after lunch, we agreed that it was too bad we were so full! The shop smelled incredible.

I was sad to see that we would be missing the arrival of this season's new herring by only three days! :-(

When we passed this next building, a small sign in the window reminded me that I had read about Katten Kabinet. We didn't go in, but it's one of the strangest sounding places I've heard of: a restored canalside house dedicated to, you guessed it, all things feline. I told you Amsterdam was a city of cats!

I almost didn't notice the reclining statue amongst the people enjoying the midday sun!

Amsterdam's flower market was filled with lovely blooms,

including an incredible deal for tulips!

As with my beloved cast-iron coffee grinders from yesterday, I stood here for a while, pondering whether there was any way we could get a bunch of fifty tulips home in relatively good condition (cut flowers are actually allowed on planes within the EU), but I reconciled myself to the fact that trekking back to the hotel to drop them off or carrying them around all day wouldn't be the best addition to our day, and the flowers would likely dry out in the nine hours before we got home. "You don't need fifty," Bob said, trying to console me. "It's not a question of need!" I said, as I had one last look at our passed-up bounty. Although we've seen many different boats on the canals, this was the only gondola we saw during our visit, and judging from the attention the boat got, it was an unusual sight.

In contrast, this type of boat was very common, and we saw many versions filled with families, friends, and in this case, a group of singing, accordion- and guitar-playing men in matching shirts.

When we stopped to watch them, we realised we were standing right at the table where we had enjoyed a coffee break on our first night in Amsterdam--except we didn't have a lovely dog sitting at our feet!

The singers charmed everyone around them with their folksy songs, garnering applause and waves from the appreciative crowd.

We browsed for a bit in this design shop,

which occupied an entire canalside house, complete with sunroof

and rooftop garden.

I quite liked these creative bookshelves--with the number of books we have in storage in Vancouver, we could make one respectable maze of books on the wall!

A neighbouring antique shop had a built-in birdhouse in its sign:

Even toothbrushes deserve a day out once in a while, and this pharmacy window was happy to oblige, complete with spinning ferris wheel.

Next door, this cheese shop (which I had forgotten that we had seen back in December, decked out in Christmas lights) was filled with the most amazing cheeses--and a staff happy to give out generous samples!

Many windows in Amsterdam are decorated with these delicate frames, usually filled with wallpaper or art--I'm not quite sure what the frames are (architectural fragments--maybe old windows?), but they lent a classy look to the houses.

An even more common sight in Amsterdam are these black stickers, with orange NEEs and green JAs on them--practically every residential mail slot has one, and they seem to tell the mail carrier what types of junk mail the residents will or will not accept.

Space Invader has been at work in Amsterdam too, and we saw quite a few of his mosaics around town.

The streets leading off from the canals in the Jordaan neighbourhood are filled with tiny shops and eateries, and although we had walked on a few of these streets earlier in our visit, the entire area really came to life on the weekend!

"O, Amsterdam, how beautiful you are," these words proclaim, and we really had to agree.

Located on Johnny Jordaanplein (itself named in honour of the popular folk singer), sculptures of Jordaan (his stage name) and three other folk musicians grace the small square. Apparently, Jordaan was well-known for his songs about Amsterdam and the Jordaan neighbourhood, so the tribute is quite fitting.

"Maybe they'll give us free ice cream if we show them our hotel keycards," I said to Bob hopefully, but somehow he didn't think they'd go for it.

This narrow passageway was too colourful to resist, although it ended up in a dead end and we just returned to the street.

Still, we were glad we did, because it was on that street that we saw this fantastic dog:

We've seen this particular stencil in London, although it seemed much more fitting under a dark east London rail bridge than it does beside a sunny Amsterdam canal.

You can see another one of those wheelbarrow bikes I like so much just behind the parking sign:

"He wants his picture taken," Bob said, and he did indeed seem to want something (although I suspect it had more to do with being let outside than any photo-related desire).

This restaurant had some very original canalside seating:

I liked this small clay figure decorating the side of a house:

In case any cows in need of milking happened by, this antique shop was more than ready!

Amsterdam is meant to have some pretty wonderful patat (fries) and we decided to try some at this stand just behind Westerkerk:

After we ordered our fries, I noticed this funny sign,

and when the proprietor saw me taking a photo,

he motioned for me to give him the camera so he could take a photo of us. "You visit Amsterdam, but you are alone, so you don't have any photos together! Let me take one! Okay, give him a kiss! Now your turn--give her a kiss!"

I asked if I could take a photo of him now, and he smiled for the picture above. All in all, he was a great character, and the patat? Well, there's nothing to say except "Wow."

The hand-cut, freshly made fries were an amazing treat, with an impressively textured crunch and none of that horrible powderiness that is the telltale sign of a previously frozen, reconstituted potato-product "fry." I had mine "Flemish-style," with a generous dollop of homemade mayo, while Bob stuck with ketchup, and we enjoyed our broiling hot snacks under the chiming bells in the square.

Even amongst a seemingly endless number of gorgeous buildings, this gently curved one stood out:

We noticed quite a few houses that had an outer foyer in which the residents stored their coats, shoes, and hats. These enclosed foyers were often completely or mostly visible from the street, nicley blurring the distinction betwen public and private space.

(The sculpture above the door was one-of-a-kind though.) Once we realised it was approaching 5:00 P.M., we begrudgingly agreed that it was time to start heading in the direction of the hotel to pick up our suitcase. We wouldn't have time for a proper dinner, but we wanted to eat something before we left Amsterdam, so we stopped under these typically charming decorations

and had some coffee (for me), beer (for bob), and snacks at this little spot. All the tables were full when we sat down, but I took this photo as we were leaving, after it started drizzling:

Luckily, we chose a table under the awning and enjoyed our delicious spicy meatballs and chewy bread before making our way back to the hotel.

We passed this oddly angled sight near the hotel many times, but only realised this afternoon that it was a climbing gym:

Today was the first day of the three-week Holland Festival, an amazing-looking festival of the arts, and as we (and our suitcase) took a shortcut through the Muziekgebouw complex toward Central Station, we stopped for a moment at this video installation of city scenes, meant to be watched while standing shoeless in the grass.

On our way to the station, Bob spotted this bird fishing under a bike-laden bridge, and the heron snatched some fish out of the water while we watched.

Even at Schiphol Airport, the sightseeing didn't end, since the Rijksmuseum has an exhibition space just beyond immigration that provides a wonderful way to pass the time before boarding.

With works from the Rijksmuseum's permanent collection and an additional eight Van Gogh paintings on temporary display, I can easily say that it was the most cultured time I've had just before getting on a plane!

"O, Amsterdam, wat ben je mooi . . . ."