some more vacation photos -- Amsterdam

We went from Germany to Amsterdam, this time to spend about a week in the Netherlands. Here are some photos from Amsterdam.

quintessential Amsterdam -- tall, skinny row houses, flower market, canal, bicycles

wall art

One of the flower market shops. They have a few bulbs that have been treated and cleared to take into the US (and a few other countries) but not the bright blue (see below) that I wanted. :(

Cannabis starter kit. Can I just say that Amsterdam seems a couple of centuries ahead of even the most progressive parts of the US?

Mermaid house plaque

 

The Rufskin store across the street from some gay clubs.

Dam Square. I decided to have the characters in the Amsterdam story agree to meet at that lion, rather than at Centraal Station.

Decorative details on the most famous coffee shop in Amsterdam. Hard to see, but there are four little Ganeshas surrounding the middle square.

Cat that apparently lives in the coffee shop, or maybe it was visiting. Hard to tell if a cat is stoned or not.

Detail on a houseboat.

I know some people probably think it's gross to let animals into restaurants, but we loved hanging out with this calico while we had coffee and pastries.

poppyseed pastry

The cat visiting another table when the sun through the window got too hot

Shaved-head dude in underwear just hanging out on a balcony. First really nice day after days of rain and cold.

Our walking tour guide said that sometimes when the buildings appear to be leaning, well, they are. The houses are built to lean forward slightly, so that when they use the lifting arm pulley, whatever is being lifted doesn't hit the front the the building. But Some buildings are old, and the pilings upon which they're built are just settling into the soft ground.

toilet in the lobby restroom at our hotel. So beautiful, I'm not sure how anyone can bring themselves to use it.

Next up: Rotterdam, then Kinderdijk (windmill museum area), then the Bike Tour Where We Thought We Were Gonna Die.