Last full day

We had another good breakfast and then did a dry run for the next day's trip to the airport via tram and train. We took the tram to the Centraal Station and then looked for a way to buy train tickets for the next day. What a hot mess. A new ticketing system had been mostly implemented -- we waited in line to discover that we could only buy tickets for that day, but we could use machines to buy those tickets. However, the machines only took chip and pin cards or coins -- I had neither. We went to the tourist information booth and got exact change and finally got 2 train tickets for the next day.

Back on the tram to the Van Gogh Museum, where I discovered that my pre-paid tickets were for July 1, not July 3. I thought it was open ended and good for one year. Wrong. So...we bought another 2 tickets; I'll fight with the online people when I get home. 

First, we checked out the "diamond" factory across the street, a thinly veiled showroom. Whatever. Bob also posed by the "I am Amsterdam" sign.

We arrived at the Van Gogh and had a beer to calm my frazzled nerves before going into the museum proper.

The museum was quite well-planned with lots of interesting things related to dating and validating various Van Gogh works of  art. Bob had read about some of the techniques already. We spent about 2 hours there.

I took one picture at the end, not noticing all the signs about not taking pictures...

Next we turned again to Trip Advisor for lunch opportunities. Another hot mess. The place was not where the trip advisor map said it was, and we asked directions from someone in Louis Vuitton, who poo-pooed the accuracy of trip advisor and google maps. Along the way Bob posed for some silly pictures.

We did find the place, but it was another bar with snacks -- not what we had in mind at all. So we shared a beer and had a cheese platter while the locals chatted with the server....

We went back to the hotel and I checked out the mall across the street -- not anything I would buy, so we stopped at the hotel briefly and then had Kaffee and kuchen across the street from our hotel.

We then walked through Dam Square on our way to the Red Light District.  No one was working at 6:30, but there were lots of high folks strolling the streets. We had expensive beer along the canal while watching the guy next to us smoke a joint like it was a cigarette. And then there was the guy who smoked a electronic cigarette followed by a real one -- why?? Party boats passed by, too -- a very different atmosphere than in the museum section of town.

We still hadn't managed to have Dutch food, but we found a place right off Dam Square for some sort of Dutch food. Here's chicken and chorizo.

Bob had a Thai/Dutch salad.

We finished off the evening with a final visit to Biercafe Gollem. We also found the street with the awesome art work.

We had a lovely visit with Cyril the bartender, Phil from the UK, and Paul from the Netherlands. Bob also had a chat with Adam, who was from Vancouver BC and had edited a book about pop up cities. Cyril recommended that we try Petrus beer (98 rating in a beer magazine), and it was delicious. A fun ending to the evening.  

I don't want to forget to say that I LOVE that there are so many places in Amsterdam that have free wifi.