Europe 2018 - August 5 - Amsterdam Adventure

Sunday - August 5
We recommended that Lori see the Anne Frank House. They only do online tickets now and we were able to get her a ticket for 9:30. We had to catch the 8:10 Sprinter train to get there in time.

It is about a mile from the train station to the Anne Frank House and it was only 8:30 so we had plenty of time to gawk along the way.

The Pride Week Canal parade was last night. From the looks of the trash everywhere, we were glad we couldn't be here yesterday. It must have been crazy!

After Lori started her tour, the two of us wandered some more around the area.

It was pretty sad that the neighborhood was so trashed.

There are quite a few houseboats along this canal.

After awhile we ended up at the Pancake House to wait for Lori.

This led to a wonderful conversation with Yasko, who was also waiting for her daughter to come out of the Anne Frank House. She is currently living in Japan, caring for her elderly mother but her husband and other daughter still live in Chicago. Since it was lunch time when the daughters arrived, we stayed and had pancakes for lunch.

After that we just played tourist some more.

We toured the Houseboat Museum.

It looked like it helps to be short when living on a houseboat.

St. Francis Xavier Church, built in 1881 after Catholic churches no longer needed to be secret. It was completely restored in 2000. We toured one of the secret churches when we were here in 2015.

Need any bulbs?

Or cheese?

Or anything else?

Knooppunts work for walking too!

The closing concert for Pride Week in front of the Royal Palace.

We mostly took the alleys since the main streets were so full of people.

Definitely Dutch postcards.

The Central Train Station: We caught the 4:00 train back to Hoofddorp and rested our tired feet the rest of the evening.

We are headed to Muiderslot Castle tomorrow.