As anticipated, we spent the day hopping on and off the hop on hop off bus and boat. The weather today was brilliant, a little cool but clear and sunny. Apparently there has been some rain recently so it seems that we have brought the delightful weather with us.
Our first destination on the bus was the Gassan diamond factory where, apart from watching the diamond cutters in action, we were shown a variety of diamonds up to a value of 29 thousand euros. Needless to say, we didn't buy any.
There
are two canal boat routes. We did one yesterday afternoon and the
other this morning after we finished on the bus. We are quite expert
at watching the busy weekend canal traffic all avoid hitting each
other but, as on all waterways, there were some sights to be seen.
There
are hundreds of canal boats permanently moored on which people live.
This family was spending some time in their back yard, albeit a very
public one.
There
are numerous opening bridges to allow those boats not designed to fit
under the low bridges to get around – very impressive to watch.
This photo shows a particular straight stretch of canal where there are seven bridges to navigate as a boat goes down it.
This photo shows a particular straight stretch of canal where there are seven bridges to navigate as a boat goes down it.
As
you would expect in Amsterdam, there is the obligatory windmill. It
was rotating but didn't appear to be serving any useful purpose. We
have also seen a few of the modern versions, wind turbines.
Apparently
there is quite a bike theft problem in Amsterdam. Obviously some of
the stolen ones end up in the canals from which these have been
retrieved.
Tomorrow
the ship.
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