Friday, Aug 17
Dinner last night was couple blocks from Hilton at Italian restaurant called Bellavista. It was a fantastic evening with clear skies and 70F at 7:30pm. Most people were dining outside at the places we saw because of the lovely evening. Bellavista made me feel like I was in Italy. All the staff seemed to be Italian as that is only language I heard them speak. Rebecca said her pasta dish was best she has ever had. I had to agree. Lights out was 10pm and enjoyed some much needed sleep.
I woke at 5:30am so decided to get up at 6:30. I peered out our window, as it was already light, at the little canal that passes by the Hilton. It was so peaceful looking out over the city. Rebecca was still asleep as I showered and wrote an email or two. I am now up on top floor at the club lounge waiting for her to come up for breakfast. You should see the breakfast spread. I did take some photos of it that I will post later on. Some very high, thin clouds this morning and 64F outside. High temp for today to be around 77F. We really lucked out with this great weather as usually rainy in Amsterdam.
Ok, back from a long day of seeing Amsterdam! Our poor feet are barking. The hotel concierge provided a map and some tips before leaving the Hilton. We walked a couple of blocks and got on the #16 tram like I did yesterday. We bought 24 hours passes $9 each. Used tram several times during the day and will use it again tonight to go to the restaurant. Anyway, took tram to "hop on hop off" canal boat place. Bought 24 hour passes on the boats for $27 each. Off we went on the "red" line boat. We hoped off at the Anne Frank house as we had pre-bought tickets for it on the internet. Good thing as line to buy tickets was over 100 yards long. It took about an hour to do this tour and was very interesting. After that back on the canal boat red line which we took to the Central Station (large train station near cruise terminals). There we changed to the blue line to continue our canal tour around the city. We got off finally got off at a market area. Very long street with all kinds of booths selling everything for cheese, fish, meats, clothes, and you name it. Our feet were getting worn out so back on tram to go back to canal boat place to get some brochures for our friends Barbara & Jerry who are coming here to do same cruise in October. We got back to our hotel at 5pm. Showered, changed and went up to club lounge at 6pm for cocktails. After that we were back on the tram for short ride to Cafe Leotje for dinner. The locals say this is best restaurant in Amsterdam for steaks. We had to wait about 30 minutes to get a table outside. Yes, I got Rebecca to eat outside! It was a beautiful evening and quite pleasant. Our filets were very good but not quite the quality of meat we have in Dallas.
Tomorrow we will checkout of the Hilton around noon and catch a taxi to our river boat.
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