Day 13 ... highlights exercise and relaxation

... today has to be one of my favourite vacation days so far ... Sabine and her Dad took a day trip to Nijmegen to the Canadian War Memorial and I stayed in Amsterdam and had a quasi-day to myself. I didn't really have too much on the agenda (that way there's no pressure ) ... so my day was comprised of:

1. grocery shopping [Beanie's fallen for some cinnamon bun pretzels here ... as well as their cherry yogurt]

2. completed a 6.42 KM jog around the perimeter of Vondelpark (did the perimeter x2) ... actually let me rewind slightly to give you the full effect of my exercise endeavours for today :

• started off by riding my rental bike to Vondelpark and made my way there in pretty good time [followed a pretty direct route … almost ran into a tram though]
• upon entering the park I thought I better make note of my entry point because it's a fairly big park
• yesterday I had Google'd the park to get an idea of the distance around the perimeter but felt I should ride around it first to ensure I knew what path I was going to run … so I rode around it, got my bearings, and then found a place to park and lock my bike
• jogged around the park once … stopped for yoga stretch-out and some H2O
• jogged around the park a second time … stopped and did more yoga and drank more H2O
• then decided to ride around the park a second time on my bike to cool down [nice cool breeze today]
• went for lunch (see #3)
• then spent about 30 minutes trying to find my entry point to exit out … couldn't find it for the life of me … ended up going around the park a third time on my bike and began a fourth then I just decided to take the next exit and wing it through the city streets on my bike …
• ended up exiting on the wrong side of the park so I had to navigate around the park in order to find a landmark to guide me back to my abode … took about another 30 minutes and I was home … not sure what was up with getting lost today … it's okay I stumbled across a couple of interesting art shops I`d like to go back to tomorrow
• P.S. on this section ... probably logged at least 20-22 KM on the bike ... with the 9.something KM in the park and getting to the park and around the outside of the park and back to the abode from the park!!!

3. lovely light lunch on a terrace overlooking a small lake in Vondelpark (green salad with feta, green olives, raisins / cappacino / water)

4. read my book

5. figured out how to text with a friend using Skype

6. had a nap

7. gave myself a facial / mask peel

8. had a bath in the condo's jet tub ... awesome! that was my first jet tub bath ... I like jet tubs

9. listened to Sabine and her Dad talk about their travels of the day ... and regaled them with my day

10. went for ice cream

11. blogged with the intent to be quick so I can get back to my book …

Today was an awesome "me day" … can't even remember the last time I had one even though it was only 8 hours it was still 8 hours I had to myself - didn't think at all, just "did stuff" and got lost

… tomorrow we're planning to tool around town on our rental bikes and use our "I AMsterdam" passes … gonna check out museums and attractions ...

Today's photo is from earlier in the trip while we were in Great Britain ... one of my favourites of "Bean & Me"

Cheers & Prost! - RGR