Amsterdam

The day started with our easy access route from our parking place at Naarden’s golf course being closed for roadworks, and deteriorated from there! Nothing like trying to find your way to a big city on a 6 lane highway when the GPS insists you are on some rural road with a maximum speed of 30km/h, roundabouts that need attention and rights & lefts that simply don’t exist. Niki, trying her best to make sense of the map, tries to get her phone and tablet going to get some alternative facts … 🙂 … to find that nothing is connecting, while exits come and go and a couple of major decisions to be made. In the end we simply bailed off the freeway, found a side road with parking space and just breathed! Once we were under control we headed for our parking spot for the day, a public parking area next to a hotel. Turned in, full carpark, wiggled a bit to get out, and headed off. Took a right (why?) and found a parking area next to a woods and a farm which, I think, does tours in summer. So here we are for tonight, and tomorrow night we’ll spend with friends made in Nanjing, China. That does mean leaving the van unattended for 2 days …

Amsterdam: Crowded – seriously mate, it’s Autumn!! We spent the day taking in the sights, including the floating flower market:

Overall it’s an interesting city experience, but after spending time outside cities we are finding them to be a bit claustrophobic, dirty, and we will be cutting our three days down to two – with tomorrow mostly reserved for the Rijks Museum and some proper Art – Niki continues to fail in getting me to appreciate anything this side of 1860.