After yesterday, we opened the blinds with caution.. and were pleasantly pleased to see the sun. We strolled up the road, David wondering if he should go back and change into shorts. We jumped on the first bus which took us directly into the city and found a nice cafe to start our breakfast. It was sooooo nice sitting outside in the sun,,,, we even had to use sunglasses. ahhh. We then wandered over and jumped onto the Hop on Hop off bus. These buses are a great way to see a city. They have a commentary on board, so you learn heaps and you can stop at places of interest. The hop on hop off also applied to the canal cruise as well, so we spent the day having a really good look around.

We spent an hour or so at lunch time, with a glass of wine, just watching the canal boats at an interestion in the canal. Anyone can hire a boat, and it seemed that you hired them to drink wine on :) It was chaos. Pedal boats amongst motor boats, trying to negotiate with the long tourist barge boats. Was certainly entertaining.

I struggled with that roads - not just the fact that the cars drive on the wrong side, its more the cycle and motor bike lane. Let me explain how you must cross a road, firstly, there is the flat pavement, which just changes colour to tell you that its now motorbikes (that dont require helmets) and pushbikes, then there is another small pavement, then the cars , going the wrong wayt...and then another small pavement, then the motorbike and cyclelane going the other way, then you are safe! Just when you think you have it sorted, a horse and cart barrels thru. I was wondering how many people get hit each day from a motorbike or a pushbike... it was crazy

However, by about 3pm, it started to get cold and before long it was raining again. We werent that prepared for it, so we called on the emergency ponchos.... we found cover in a "coffee shop" in Amsterdam, weird they didnt sell coffee but we got a nice Chocolate brownie and nothing mattered too much after that.

We wandered,,,, around and around for a few hours... spent some time in Dam Square,,, between showers. The weather really was awful. We were damp and cold. Such a contrast from the morning. We had dinner and then as it got darker we arrived in the "red light district" The girls were just coming out into their windows and coaxing customers in. It was fun to just sit and watch them pick a prospect and whoo him in. Was interesting to see the number of guys taking up the offer.

We realised that we should have had a break in our day, as we both started to feel super tired. HIndsight, in future, we will take a Nana nap in the afternoon..... we decided to call it a night and ended up back at the hotel about 11pm.

All in all we got a good taste of Amsterdam. The stand out points are that there are heaps of push bikes, lots of boats and heaps of marijuana odours, and our first small 1/2 day glimpse of the sunshine