Tulips and Hamster Jam!

The morning started bright and cool. We didn’t manage an ‘all you can eat’ breakfast, thankfully.

This was our view whilst we had a French style petit dejeuner.

Our first stop was at Leiden. It was a pretty city.

Very patriotic windmill.
Windmill number 2.
It is the birthplace of Rembrandt! I think he was born in 1615.

The city was also a temporary home to the Pilgrim Fathers. They left Nottingham area due to religious persecution, stayed in Leiden before sailing to Plymouth and then set off across the Atlantic to the New World.

We had our coffee stop and moved north. Our destination for today was Amsterdam. We were heading constantly into a strong cool north east wind. We can’t complain the sun was lovely.

We found a nice restaurant for lunch. The little trays were a nice touch. Peter had smoked eel. I suspect it was locally caught in one of the many canals.

The cycling was exceptionally flat but we had a varied route of city, forest and canal side cycle paths.

We passed Schiphol Airport….

And we had our first Anzac biscuit. David usually brings a supply but these had actually been made by his granddaughter, Zoe. They were the best ever!

I need to keep my grand niece happy!
Last windmill of the day! I will have a windmill of the week competition at the end of the tour! So, keep your favourite in mind.

We entered Amsterdam and passed he Rijks Museum. It’s a superb building. We haven’t got time to do the visit any justice so we just saw the exterior.

As you would expect we found plenty of tulips but so far there has been no ‘hamster jam’. I thought ‘Tulips and Hamster Jam’ was a song by Max Bygraves. Sorry, I’ve been corrected by David. It should be Tulips in Amsterdam. No hamsters were harmed!

Finally we went through the streets and canals of Amsterdam, carried through on a wave of cyclists and we found our small hotel without any problems.

This is our hotel. It has a Chinese Massage parlour next door! I think we could get more than a massage if we wanted??

A quick shower and back out for an evening on the City.

This is on Dam Square right in the centre of Amsterdam. I did a sportive cycle event from here in 2012. Good memories.
How’s this for a photo. I waited ages for the bird to fly over the church spire!

We had a wander around. Had a pizza. Then accidentally found the Red Light Area!

We were looking for an ice cream shop….honest!

Don’t worry we were good boys.

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