Day 30 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Diny's Hometown

Joan's View

We slept in a bit, so we did get some rest on our "rest day" before starting out walking around Amsterdam. Our first stop was for the best apple tart in Amsterdam at Koffiehuis De Hoek per our previous neighbor, Diny Albers. I had been waiting for this treat ever since Diny showed me pictures.

Diny's home on the 3rd floor

Diny grew up in Amsterdam and gave me some direction before we left on what to see. Diny has a fascinating story of which I only know a little about, but one amazing part of her life is that her mother pushed her in a baby carriage across Germany when she was a baby so that they could safely get to Amsterdam. Diny grew up with cousins in Amsterdam. We saw her childhood home which was on the 3rd floor of the building in the picture. We also saw where she went to school at the end of her street. I got to play on the playground near what was her school.

From there we went on another "Diny" adventure. She told me to walk through central station and take the ferry to the left at the back of the station. It is free and will take us out on the river IJ. It was a beautiful sunny day on our 15-minute ride each way with unique features of the area.

Want to own a submarine?

Bopel instead of a Hotel. The letters are rooms too

On the ferry

Central Station

Diny also suggested that we go visit St. Nicholas Basilica also. We got there before it opened so we sat on a bench and watched the bike impound patrol cut chains and load illegally parked bikes onto their truck. It was fascinating for us because with all of the bicycles in this city which seem to be parked everywhere, how do you know what is illegal bike parking? Even funnier is that right after the bike impound patrol left with their full truck, people started parking their bikes in the exact same place. 

Cutting the thick chains

Inside of St. Nicholas was majestic like many European churches. We ended up staying for mass and the priest even translated a little of his homily into English for us since Tony had talked to him earlier.

Lots of beauty

Heading back to our room off of someone's back patio, Tony checked the back tire as we walked by and discovered it was flat. He changed yet another flat even though he could not find the source of the leak this time. Better yet, the homeowners had a nice tire pump which made the job a little easier.

Later, we made the joint decision to do the touristy thing and go on a canal boat tour. We both enjoyed it and learned a little more about Amsterdam. For instance, about 15,000 bikes are pulled out of the canals each year, for a variety of reasons. Sometimes people get rid of bikes in their way, sometimes drunks throw bikes into the canals for fun, but most of the time per the guides, it is intentional.

We had a close encounter with another boat while driving underneath a bridge. Our captain had to put it in reverse rather quickly. It's kind of like a bicycle and a truck. The bicycle might have the right of way, but the truck is bigger.

Another point of interest are the crooked houses. The legend is that the people come home from the bars and never notice the house is crooked. The fact is that the houses are built on wood piles and the land underneath the piles is swamp, so the houses are shifting.

We also got to see the tiniest home in Amsterdam. We'll be sure to share this with Dan DeLand since years ago he pointed out the tiniest house in Sidney.

Tony's Extras

It was a blessing that Joan met with Diny before the trip. We had the opportunity to see so many wonderful things. Experiencing the best apple tart in the world was so much fun. The stainless-steel soccer field in the park was so cool and probably extremely expensive.

There was a swing like feature on the playground. I thought it was like a normal swing where all three swung together. Joan showed me it was a climbing thing and swings the other way. She is such a dare devil.