We bought Rick Steves’ tour book of Amsterdam and in the book he has a couple of walking tours that you can take. We began the day with an English breakfast, of all things, sitting outdoors next to a canal at Greenwoods. Then we took the trolley over to Centraal Station, the main train station and the start of the first walk. The tour took us through the Damrak, where Amsterdam began, and up to Dam Square, the cultural heart of the city and the location of the Royal Palace.
The next walking tour took us through the Jordaan District, a peaceful residential neighborhood traversed by rings of canals. We enjoyed seeing the beautiful old homes along the canals. We walked past the Anne Frank House but didn’t go in; it was mobbed with people.
We enjoyed Amsterdam very much but it was overrun with tourists due to the King’s Day celebration (I guess we contributed our part) which made it uncomfortably crowded. At times it seemed like being at Disneyland. We were glad we spent most of our time in peaceful Lyon and not in the hubub of Amsterdam or Paris.
In the evening, we went to an Indonesian restaurant, Indrapura. Andy had eaten there before and recommended it. Indonesia was a colony of the Netherlands, called the Spice Islands at the time, so Indonesian food is one of the common ethnic foods in Amsterdam. Their specialty is a rijsttafel (rice table), which consists of over 40 small plates served family style. It was delicious!
The restaurant was located at Rembrandtplein, a square located near a house where Rembrandt lived. The square contains impressive statues of the figures painted in Rembrandt’s famous work, The Night Watch.
