After our wild night, we were able to still get up by 8 and out the door by 9ish. After taking the tram to the Dam, we made our way to Central Station to take the train to Alkmaar, a small town north of Amsterdam that is famous for its Friday cheese market.

The town of Alkmaar is busy with tourists but beautiful nonetheless. We wandered into the old centre where the cheese market was in full swing and the main square absolutely full with tourists. We watched some of the activities: the haggling over the price, the cheese porters in their coloured hats carrying and weighing the cheese and the cheese being loaded into wagons to be delivered to waiting trucks. It was quite interesting but soon we found ourselves escaping the crowds and exploring Alkmaar off the beaten track. After browsing some shops and buying some cheese we were back in the centre where we sat to eat our packed lunch and people watch. After lunch, we toured the fascinating cheese museum (cheese included with admission!) before slowly making our way back to the station via quiet little streets and a beautiful canal-side park. We arrived at the station just as the train back to Amsterdam was ready to pull out so we hopped on...we couldn't have timed it better!

Back in Amsterdam around 3, we wandered, found a sidewalk cafe for a drink and a snack, planned the next few days and headed off to rent bikes. Getting around like true Amsterdamers, we popped in to find information about canal cruises only to discover that the last tour of the day aboard the small, open-air boat that we wanted, was just about to leave and had two places remaining. Talk about timing today!

The tour was 75 minutes and because it was on a smaller boat (only about 12 passengers) than the other touristy boats, we were able to explore canals that aren't accessible to the bigger boats. As we passed the other boats, with their occupants trying to take photos out of tiny windows, I was thankful for our choice. The tour was casual and we learned little bits about Amsterdam, both past and present, but mostly we just took a lot of photos and enjoyed the cruise.

Back on dry land, we decided we'd had enough sight-seeing for the day and headed back to our flat on our bikes. Amsterdam is the most remarkable biking city and incredibly bike friendly with designated bike lanes on every street. No one wears helmets, including the scooter riders which also share the bike lanes, and bikes have priority. All the bikes have racks, front and back, and come with two locks to prevent theft. Every street is lined with bikes, bikes, and more bikes.

After grabbing a couple of things for dinner at the supermarket, we headed back to our flat. We had thought about going out again after dinner for some ice cream but we are both tired and I had two days of blogging to catch up on. Rod is enjoying the downtime to read the Times Colonist online, check in on opening day of the Vikes training camp and foolishly check his work email. It is now 11:00 (or 23:00 as they say here) and it's off to bed. We have another full day of sightseeing planned for tomorrow!