The fourth day of our trip, Janneke’s brother Bert picked us up with his boat in the canal behind her house. We saw beautiful homes along the way. Lots of bike riders and joggers were on the paths and roads alongside the canals. Teams of rowers were practicing on the canals as well.
Houseboats of all shapes and sizes lined the water on the way to Amsterdam and as we entered the city. Some were gorgeous and others could have used some help. Most of them had large windows and the houses looked like ones you would see in a magazine. So pristine and well decorated. Some even had small gardens on their docks or roofs.
In Amsterdam, there were more houseboats to view a as well as the old, tall, narrow buildings. In all our travels around Spain, England, Scotland, and Ireland, Holland was the only place were we saw the tall narrow buildings. We spotted one building dated in the 1500s and more in the sixteen and seventeen hundreds.
The streets and bridges were filled with bicycles. Either ones that people were riding or ones that were parked. I think there were more bikes than cars. People sat along the canals enjoying a beverage or food at the restaurants.
The canals were narrow in some spots in the city. Because it was a weekend there were lots of people enjoying an outing on the canals. Several times I thought Bert would run into the back of another boat or get too close to one passing by. He would just grin and act as if he meant to get that close but I’m still not sure if he really could handle the boat that well or if we were just lucky.
Once we left the narrow canals and moved out into a large more open area with cruise ships, barges, fancy hotels and buildings along the edges of the waterway, we saw a large sailing vessel that would have been used in the 1800s.
We also saw a large building with swings on top of it. The contraption would load people on the swings on the rooftop, then tip out over the edge of the building swinging the people back and forth. That wasn’t something anyone in the boat wanted to do!
There were still so many flowers in bloom during our visit that the streets were a flurry of color. The flowers in planters along the bridges over the canals, in pots on balconies as well as the colorful buildings, modes of transportation, and people made every scene look like a painting.
After the boat ride, we drove to Nes aan de Amstel and climbed the church tower. The stairs weren’t too bad but the last part of the climb was straight up a metal ladder. There was one spot where the climb was through a tight spot. My fuzzy jacket caught on the old wood of the wall and for a moment I thought I was going to be stuck halfway up the ladder.
At the top were beautiful scenes of the countryside. Angie made it up and was glad she’d kept her fear in check as we looked out over the fields.
Rietta saw the tight space and the straight-up ladder and couldn’t quell her fear of heights, so she waited for us at the bottom of the ladder.
We ended the day with dinner at Tante Marie’s house. She ordered Chinese food and we had ice cream for dessert. Another fun day with family.
Writing Into The Sunset 