Sightseeing in Amsterdam

Wednesday 8th May 2019

A later start this morning and the forecast wasn't good. We took the train in to Amsterdam and then caught the city hop on hop off boat for a canal cruise. The one thing we wanted to do was to go to the Anne Frank house but we couldn't get tickets when we tried to book last week. As we aren't museum lovers and as it was raining we decided to do the whole boat route without getting off. We discovered it was 1hr 45mins and half way through I started to fall asleep. 

We got off one stop before the end for some fresh air and walked through the centre but then the light rain turned to a downpour and we got rather wet. I stopped at a small supermarket for some supplies, only to find myself looking at a display of "space cakes"!

Having walked back to the central station we then caught the hop on hop off bus and got off at the Gasson Diamond Factory where we had been promised a free tour. It was fascinating and well worth a visit. After showing us the diamonds being polished we then went into a small office where our guide taught us about the categories of diamonds and the prices. She then showed us five different diamonds, from the raw material upwards. Although only 1 carat, the most expensive one she showed us was 38,000 euros! She laid the five on the desk and there was 47,000E worth in front of our eyes! She then showed us lots of jewelry ranging from 300E to 5000E+. Needless to say, we didn't buy any! 

We hopped back on the bus to take us back to the station and our train. The weather had been grey and miserable all day. The train ride was only 10 minutes, by which time the sun came out and gave us a lovely evening but we were too exhausted to do anything else except sort our photos.