Had some trouble sleeping last night. A mosquito was bothering me all night and keeping me awake.

Breakfast was just ok – egg and orange juice were ok, but the toast wasn’t very good. The girls liked it pretty well, though.

We walked over to the national monument in the center of Amsterdam and waited there for a free walking tour. It started to rain as we waited and was really coming down by the time the tour started, but we went ahead with it anyway. Our tour guide was a young guy from Australia named Julian, who did a very nice job. Among the things we saw were:

The old church – located right in the red light district. Didn’t get to see much in the rain, but the guide said that it’s always been that way, going all the way back to sailers in the midle ages who would drink and see prostitutes and then purchase indulgences from the church.

The red light district – this seemed a little less sinister in the light of day. We walked past a drug shop and some women in windows, but I don’t think the girls noticed anythg at all. And seeing it with a bunch tourists and a tour guide made it all seem sort of harmless, if still sort of strange. According to the guide, the girls charge 50 euros for 15 minutes, and are working through school, supporting a family, etc. Sort of like strippers at home, I guess.

The Jewish quarter – we just got a glimpse. The area was mostly ruined after the war by letting modern architects build a series of really ugly yellow buildings amidst the older ones. Rembrandt painted back there.

The royal palace – this was originally built as a town hall under the Republic, until Napoleon conquered it.

The Dutch East India Company – we saw the administrative buildings. The first corporation in the world to sell shares.

The Anne Frank house – we just saw the outside. I’ve seen it before, and none of us was in the mood for a really depressing tour by the time we got there late afternoon.

The Begijnhof Convent – this was very neat. It’s no longer in use as a convent, but it was for 600 years occupied by an order of nuns. You enter through a door into a sort of hidden courtyard and gardens surrounded by living quarters, with an old church in the grounds. The church was the first reformed English church on the continent, and was a meeting place for the pilgrims before they went to America. Kind of fun to stand in the same place that they stood way back when. The whole convent was very quiet and peaceful compared to crazy Amsterdam.

Multatulis giant head – this was a statue on a bridge of a guy who wrote a book exposing the evil conduct of the east India company.

A hidden catholic church

The marijuana museum

And a tour of the canals and leaning houses – the houses lean because they are sinking into the swamp. Buildings in Amsterdam are all built on pylons driven into the ground. But when they rot, the buildings start to lean. Floors become crooked. Seems like every house in the city is leaning at some crazy angle.

The canals are freshwater from the Amstel river, hand dug through the centuries. The guide says that they are filled with thousands of old bicycles.

After the tour we walked through a flea market and then back to our room, where I crashed for an hour while the girls played cards with Phyllis and Judy. We then walked back to the square for dinner at an English place. Then Phyllis and I found a place to do laundry and catch up on emails etc at a wifi spot. We then had a chocolate Sunday at Haagandaz and came back to the room for cards and sleep.

My overriding image of Amsterdam is of bicycles everywhere, chained to everything, sitting in piles and masses on almost every spot of railing or sidewalk anywhere, and canals and stone bridges and crazy brick buildings leaning against each other.