We got on the plane out of Cape Town around 10:10pm. We stayed awake long enough to take off, but then we were all sleeping. No point in staying awake because we'll be in the same time zone. KLM is nice because they gave us a little package with a sleep mask and earplugs. Sleep still wasn't great because it is a plane, but managed to doze until they brought around breakfast.
We said goodbye to the rest of the choir at the gate and made our way to baggage (already waiting for us) and through customs outside into the airport.
We got our rail passes validated and took the train into Amsterdam Centraal. We decided that with suitcases we didn't want to walk all the way to the hotel dragging them over cobblestones, so we got a taxi. It wasn't very far and we found the hotel easily enough. Just a small building and we had to lug our suitcases up a flight of stairs to check in. And of course they put us in the top room, so we had to drag our suitcases up three more flights on tiny stairs (the last one more like a ladder than anything else). Authentic Amsterdam!
We were pretty peckish after we'd settled into the room, so we set out to find a place to eat. There was one close by with decent prices, so we stopped at Des Jardin where we sat at a table that was on a dock out on the canal. It was lively. And the sandwiches we had (I had a goat cheese sandwich) were fantastic.
After lunch we walked back up to Amsterdam Centraal (about a 15 min walk) to find the boat cruise that we wanted. We timed it right and got on one of the boats really quickly after that. The canal cruise was actually very lovely. It was relaxing and we got to see a lot of the city (and hear the history) from the canals. It was kind of late when we were done, so we wandered back to our hotel in search of a supermarket. We found one nearby where we picked up some bread and jam to make lunch sandwiches for tomorrow. Hen we tried to find a cheap place to eat (difficult in central Amsterdam). But we found a neat pasta place close by with a system I've never seen before (you have chip cards and they scan it when you order something (that they make fresh I front of you) and you pay what's on the card at the end). We got pizzas to share which were all really tasty. Nothing much after supper - just a walk back to the hotel and talking about tomorrow's plans. !