Early to bed, early to rise. We were up before the sun (this is around 7:20), because we went to bed early (for me), and the sun rises late here in February (after 8 AM).
Here it is at 8:23 AM. Other than restaurants and cafes, almost nothing here opens before 9 AM (and some things not until 10).
Just after 9 AM: still kind of dark, still quite cold.
I got a hot tip about a local bakery chain to try (from Munroe), so that was my first stop on my way to Albert Cuyp Market. I had a ham and cheese croissant, and hid a cookie for later in my bag.
There's a joke in here somewhere... maybe about a doctor not being in. This was near the place I got coffee.
Walking around here, many sidewalks look like this one, packed full of bicycle parking. According to these fun facts, there are more bikes than people living in this city (both over 800k).
After wandering around De Pijp for a bit, I hopped a tram and rode it all the way to the end of the line at Amsterdam Centraal station. It wasn't even 10 AM yet, so the sun was still low in the sky, casting rather severe shadows.
While the station was beautiful, and I walked through at least half of it, I was really headed for the free ferry across... the inlet of the North Sea? to the North neighborhood.
It was a bit windy and cold down at the waterfront, but also a sunny and clear morning.
Once on the north side, I headed over to the A'DAM lookout to be a tourist. 20ish floors up, they have a scale model of the city to help one get oriented. It's probably just to distract people while they wait in line, but it's February and they had just opened at 10 AM, so there was no line at all.
The views from the top were impressive, because it's virtually flat in every direction for as far as one can see.
It was also quite windy and cold, with the floor still covered in (slippery) frost outside.
There's also a thrilling swing attachment, which I guess they were warming up or testing for the day.
I walked around the perimeter as the sun slowly rose, not in any sort of rush.
As I completed my circuit, a couple was the first to use the swings for the day, hanging over the edge almost 300 feet off the ground.
Whoever you are: if you ever find this, let me know,
I lasted about 10 minutes outside, before going one level down to the bar/viewing deck,
It, too, was empty. One more floor down was a revolving restaurant, which I don't think was open yet.
Even the bathrooms have an incredible view. That's one-way glass, as the bathrooms are in the middle, sort of overlooking the bar area.
On the ride back down, I got a few shots of the "light show" above the glass-roofed elevator car.
Once back at sea level, I took the ferry back to the central station, and began walking through the tourist area of the centrum/downtown district.
This is some of the bicycle parking at Centraal. The bike fun facts list says there are 10,000 bike spaces.
This is the central station from across the canal. I'm sort of heading back the way the tram came, about an hour later.
Rather than walk along a busy street, though, I wandered through the pedestrian-only alleys.
There's a lot of street food to be window-shopped, in the tourist-heavy area.
As I was walking by this automated vending machine, I saw hot krokets being loaded from the back, so I couldn't resist.
I recognized these because we had some at beach bars in Aruba (it's a Dutch territory or whatever they call it).
After a fair amount of meandering, I found Dam Square (named after the dam on the Amstel river, I just learned). This is the Royal Palace of Amsterdam, which was the only thing I saw that was crowded today (school tours/trips). I asked how much time was recommended for seeing it, but didn't feel that I could commit the "30 minutes to 2.5 hours" that it needed.
But outside, the square was sparsely populated. Still rather cold, but no longer dark.
No love for the Dutch herring; it was still before noon, in the poor guy's defense.
I managed to snap a photo of one of the tiny electric car-like things. They're quite spry and difficult to photograph, in my limited experience.
One of the many random attractions I encountered: the Lego store.
I figured out that Escher must've been Dutch, from this installation.
Other than Dunkin Donuts, oddly, I think the most-seen store I saw in the shopping areas was one of several cheese shop chains.
Here I am, chewing on a toothpick that came with a cheese sample. I rather liked this bit of canal, including the what I have just learned is the floating lower market.
Every available surface without a "no bicycles" sign has bikes locked onto it.
I was tempted by one of the canal tours, but resisted the urge today. But it's only Tuesday, so check back later.
Heading back towards the hotel, I passed the Rijksmuseum. It's absolutely enormous, and was more active than anything else I saw this morning.
I took a shortcut through the breezeway, which is also a tunnel for the bike paths, and went through the museum garden/grounds.
A few blocks from the hotel, I stopped to grab a sandwich for lunch. It was a ham, cheese, tomato, and cream cheese baguette, which I ate in the hotel room, overlooking the canal.
I was only out for about 4 hours this morning, but managed to wander almost 5 miles.
Back at the hotel, I put in a half day's work, and then started writing this at the hotel bar while I waited for the conference attendees to return from Cisco Live!. It was briefly nice and peaceful while I enjoyed a late cappuccino, before everyone else in the bar decided it was time for a drink between 5:30 and 6.
We eventually ventured out to get some dinner, at the sort-of upscale-but-casual pub ("brasserie") Cannibale Royale. I made everyone try the bitterballen (another bar food I recognized from Aruba). It was all good food, but very slow. We had flirted with the idea of trying to squeeze in an evening tourist activity after dinner, but time escaped us this evening.
I almost forgot the weird part about the Lookout visit. How can you tell if something is a tourist trap? If they take your picture in front of a green screen, and offer to sell you photo prints on the way out... that's a dead giveaway. I tried to refuse, but I was literally the only customer at the time, and it all happened so fast. The photos were free to download from the website, at least. (They made 4 different ones, with 4 different views.)
Tomorrow... I have no idea. It's going to be a bit warmer (I think it topped out in the upper 30s [F] today) and still sunny tomorrow, so I imagine there will be more strolling, and probably some cheese? That seems like a safe bet.
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