Day 14 – July 10: The half-way point

We got off our overnight train and found our way to our hotel, just around the corner from the Van

Gogh Museum.  The tram would normally stop right in front of the museum, but today the Museumplein happened to be the start and finish line of a huge 10K run through the heart of the city center in celebration of the final day of the European Athletics Championship 2016, being held in Amsterdam as well.  Thousands of people signed up for this race and there were groups starting regularly throughout the day, blocking streets and shutting down the trams.  The city was crazy with people.  And, as there was no food on the train, we were hungry!  We dropped our bags and walked through the race course to get to a great brunch locale that Rachel had found for us – Bakers and Roasters – but it had hordes of people waiting outside.  We ate a great breakfast/lunch in a practically empty place two doors down.

This whole European Adventure began because my mom wanted to take Julia to Amsterdam as a graduation present.  We convinced her it would be a good idea to take Rachel as well.  With two tickets to Europe paid for, there was no way we were going to miss out on the opportunity for a family vacation.  But, I could not convince my mom that I should also join them on their trip to Amsterdam. I was permitted to bring them to Amsterdam in time for her arrival tomorrow (Monday) - but then I am no longer welcome in the city until I pick them up Friday night.  Tomorrow sadly also marks the end of Jim’s portion of the trip. We didn’t want to do anything with the girls today that my mom would want to do with them this week – and one thing she certainly wouldn’t want to do is take a bike tour of Amsterdam.  So, that’s what we did.

Before addresses

We found a three-hour tour leaving from near the train station at 1:30 pm.  We walked back through the race course to our hotel and were able to check in early but then had to get back through the runners to catch the tram back down to the station.  We made it just in time.  Our tour group was an interesting mix – guide Mathilda, a man from Glasgow traveling with his (girl)friend from Northern Ireland, and a married couple from India.  The Indian woman just learned to ride a bike 2 weeks ago!  It was a little touch and go at first; I can’t imagine trying to navigate the streets of Amsterdam on a bike as a new rider and I thought – hoped really since she was slowing the group - many times she would give up entirely, but she made it through the whole tour. I was happy for her in the end. The tour gave us a nice overview of the city and we learned some interesting facts about the way the buildings are built - leaning forward on purpose (not falling down) and super narrow because taxes are paid on frontage size, not total size. But mostly it was fun to experience being one of the thousands of bikers on the roads. It is true that there are more bikes in Amsterdam than people.  Bikers have to be super aggressive to get where they want to go and there seem to be almost no rules.  (I imagine there are rules and we just didn’t know to follow them.)  I much preferred the time we spent on the beautiful, quiet side streets to being part of the crowds vying for right of way.  Part of our three hours was spent in a café talking mostly politics which was fun given all the craziness happening in Great Britain and the US right now.

The tiny red house behind the tree isn't the narrowest in the city

We went back to the hotel after the bike tour since we really hadn’t cleaned up after the train ride and needed to.  On the bike tour the guide had mentioned a specific place that was beautiful at night – the skinny bridge – so we decided to head towards the bridge and find a place to eat dinner along the way.  For a change we choose a Thai restaurant.  

We continued on to the bridge (the city was much nicer without all the crowds from the day) and, just in time for kickoff, we walked down a street rowdy with soccer fans watching the Euro 2016 final match – mostly French fans.  By the time we got to the bridge it was after 9:00 and still no where near dark - it wasn't cute enough to seem worth waiting for it to get dark.  And it was starting to sprinkle a little.  So, we turned and walked toward the hotel and were greeted by the most amazing double rainbow. We got back to our room in time to catch the second half and overtime periods of the game.  Given Portugal’s unexpected victory, I’m glad we didn’t stay to watch with the crazy French fans!