Busy

Phew, today has been one busy day! We started this morning with breakfast at the hostel - a free breakfast is high on my list of hostel priorities (just slightly below safe, clean, and in the correct city), and this one does a nice choice of muesli, toast or french toast. So I had french toast with stroop, tea and juice and felt quite satisfactorily multi-cultural. After that Bridget and I went off to the Lord in the Attic Museum - a Catholic church hidden in the attic of three apartments in old merchant Amsterdam. It was really very interesting, and would be a lovely chapel if just a church but was quite magnificent in its clandestine context. As a museum it was very subtle, with small audio points and signs here and there but nothing intrusive. These are the Delft tiles lining the walls of the kitchen belonging to the 19th century concierge of one part of the house. Today's theme is patterns. If you want to see them individually you'd better go large..

We then went to meet Erica to go on a free walking tour of the city. It was fantastic but long, and left us feeling like we'd walked all 100km of the canals. I've now gone on six walking tours with Sandemans, and this was one of the best so far. I think I'm aiming to collect the whole set ;). Our guide was a local Amsterdamee and told us all about the history, both old and recent. A lot of the tour was in the red light district, being the oldest part of the city and where a lot of the history is, but our guide told us about how that area fits into the city generally as well. It was very interesting to find out things you wouldn't normally know, like about the bureaucracy of being a sex worker in Amsterdam. It was raining on and off all day, but that didn't dampen the fun of the tour.

Afterwards we followed our guide to a local pub for chips and tea, then set out to go to the Museum of Amsterdam. Unfortunately (maybe?) we were waylaid by pretty shops and made some purchases. Eventually we made it to the Museum half an hour before closing time, when it just wasn't worth going in. So we checked a few outdoor places, then went back to the hostel for a brief reprieve before dinner.

The brief reprieve turned into a short break during which we massaged our feet and perused the internet for a suitable eating destination. Eventually we decided on a place nearby, but quickly discovered it was full. Our backup was on the other side of town, but it was easier than trying to find somewhere else, so noodle box it was. Tasty yum yum.

Being proper young ladies it was only right that we followed our large meal with a stroll around the canals. No twittering or throwing our heads back and laughing outrageously was involved. But we did find a couple of interesting buildings, then it started to pour down with rain. So we made it a quick walk back to the hostel. And now we're seated with hot chocolates and books and phones, resting our feet and preparing for another day tomorrow. Rijksmuseum and hopefully the Museum of Amsterdam, then off to the Hague in the evening!

That's all now folks, I'm starting to ramble, should go and sleep before I say something ridiculous. Hooroo!