Day 37

First full day in Amsterdam.  Decided today that I would hit up the Van Gogh museum first and then walk my way to the Anne Frank House before heading back to the boat.  I knew that would be enough walking alone.  In between I would go back and hit up the Leidsplein for a coffee shop.

Once I found the Van Gogh museum, the queue wasn’t too long to get in.  I heard that this was a must see, and everyone who said that was right.  I have always enjoyed Van Gogh’s works of art, but until you see one (or more) up close…you have no idea how beautiful and brilliant this man was.  The way he used his brush and the strokes he made with the paint…undescribable.  Van Gogh is now one of my favorite painters ever.  The unfortunate thing is that unless you have seen one of his works up close, you’ll never get the full impact of his brilliance.  I am still stunned by what I saw and could go back again and again to view his work.

After I left the Van Gogh museum, I made my way back up to the Leidsplein to find a coffee shop.  I was looking for a couple in particular and only found the Bull Dog.  There were several entrances into this venue and after walking into three of the four doors I was over it.  So I started to walk and found my way to a little shop called Rookies.  There I bought a Space Cake and a joint to go.  When in Amsterdam…one must partake in the fun and goods.  Since I knew I had a great bit of walking to do, and not knowing how strong the Space Cake would be…I opted to only eat half of it.  That was just perfect, at first.  I found my way up to the Anne Frank House taking my time.  Too bad the queue was massive otherwise I would have gone in.  However, I was in no mood to waste time standing in line when I could be seeing other parts of the city.  So down the hatch went the rest of the Space Cake and I went walking.  Now here’s where things started to go wrong.  I forgot that Amsterdam is not structured like most grid cities.  No, it’s more of a circular city where one can easily get lost if not paying attention.  And that’s what I did.  When I thought I was going one way, I was finding myself circling around and around.  Okay, it is pretty funny but my body didn’t think so when I found myself at the DAM a second time.  By now, I was a little spacey and my knees and feet were starting to really ache.  I was determined though to make my way all the way back to the boat by walking.  Of course I did it, but was ready to fall to the floor once I hit my cabin.

Once I settled in to the cabin to get off of my feet, I was seriously looking forward to a nap or to just fall asleep period.  It didn’t take long, for the Space Cake was in full force.  I curled up in a nice little ball and fell asleep until about 4 a.m. where I was wide awake.  With nothing to do, I chose to exit the boat and walk up the pier trying out my other purchase from the coffee shop.  Let me tell you…Amsterdam does not disappoint in the herbal area.  LMAO. 

Tomorrow, I will head out to the Zaanse Schans to go and see a cute little cheese farm and little village that dates back to the 1600s.