Amsterdam and Bruges 18 - 24 Aug 2019 before our Bike & Barge trip

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

It was drizzling or first day. Our hotel, the Banks Mansion, was very central to the things we wanted to see and do. On our arrival day we visited the Flower Market and took a canal boat cruise to stay awake and adjust to the 9 hour time difference.

View from our hotel, the Banks Mansion

Canal cruise views

The rest of our visit we:

Rembrandt House Museum - etching making demo

 According to our walking food tour guide, prostitution was made legal during French rule to clean up and regulate an existing trade that was out of control. Interesting that the French never made it legal in France. The Red Light District is principally restaurants. We toured the area after dinner and found it too early to see too many women displayed. Never found out if the area included male prostitutes.

The Van Gogh collection was very well done. Nearby was the Rijksmuseum which included art from around the world from middle ages to the present.

Lauve arranged for the hotel to decorate our room celebrating my 75th birthday

Old theater converted to multiplex showing current US features

It’s rare to find people who don’t speak English. We are told this is because Holland has a culture of being a world trading country that needs to speak principal world languages and it is a minor European language so they need to speak a more universal language or languages. The US movies are shown in English with Dutch subtitles.

Dutch architecture

A big tourist draw

Can't have enough cool canal pictures - and sunny too!

Bruges, Belgium

View from our room at Grand Hotel Casselbergh

Markt Hall

Restaurant scene on Markt Square 

Lunch with Bill & Frances - Tucson Friends

The afternoon of the 24th we started our Bike & Barge trip with friends from Tucson - Bill and Frances, Peter and Barbara.