Today we have no parties. No commitments. No schedules. I could stay in bed and not miss anythinga part from the girls last day, but I'm on auto pilot now and I'm up and raring to go. We decide to have a slow morning. We watch some DVD's and then it's off into town for a wander - we toy with the idea of going to a museum(The weather is pretty grotty), but instead decide that given the price and business of the Van Gogh museum and the closedness of the Rijksmuseum, we'll get as much out of looking round the shop.
Nina manages to buy some antique stamps for her postcards, and then we are off to find a canal boat tour.
Canal boat tours are one of the most touristy things available to do in Amsterdam, but like a bus tour, it;s a great way to see a lot of the city in a short time. It's also a good Sunday activity. Very Lazy:
All the canal boats take a similar route. They travel round part of the three ring canals until they get to central station and then go out in the harbour for a little while before going back into the canals. You get to see canal houses:
The harbour
Nemo Science Centre
The old replica ship at the Maritime(Scheepvaart) Museum:
The boat ride is good fun. In her effort to spread happiness around the world, Nina befriends a little girl who's on holiday with her dad. The girl's from Kentucky, so has a jen-yoo-ine southern accent. When we get off the canal boat they exchange photos and addresses.
We go off for a coffee and meet a few of my mates before we head back to the flat to catch our breath before dinner. When we get back to the flat, The Kiwi has returned from London. He's had a similar "weekend on the piss" as he calls it, so although the flat has become far more female in his absence, he fits into the pace perfectly.
This is the shortest beautifying session so far. Before the girls arrived Nina told me that her and Diddley often went for pampering weekends and that she very quickly undid all the girlie things straight after like a dog rolling in a puddle after it's bath. I told Diddley this story, so the girls have been arguing over who is the most high maintenance ever since. It would appear that Nina takes longest to get ready.
Tonight I want to show the girls something special for their last night, so I take them to a very good French Restaurant called Bistro Bonjour.
It's a French restaurant run by a Turkish family, and they do some of the most amazing steak's I've ever tasted. I't's one of those places that has such a nice Atmosphere and the food is so good that you can't help but laugh and joke and have great conversation. I always associate French food with good conversation. Tearing Good bread, quaffing good wine, gobbling down steak so tender you could eat it through a straw. The Kiwi and the girls fit well together. We laugh and joke together, and unsurprisingly end up rattling off Billy Connolly jokes. It's a such a great relaxing night - not a care in the world except good red wine, good steak and listening to good jokes. It's a great end to a great weekend.
There were many other paths the weekend could have taken, it was very spontaneous. We hardly stopped for breath, but managed to cover all the bases - from tourist pursuits, to local parties and restaurants which are a little off the beaten track. I hope to get to Prague before the end of the year to visit a mate and envision that I can get the same mix of seeing the tourist end of things while also getting off the beaten track to small local places.
I'm blown away by how wonderful the weekend was, and I look to similar in the future, the excitement of not knowing what will happen on those weekends.....
The weekend ain't over yet tho. We have an early night and are back at the flat for about 1am in order to get up early for the girls plane. The chosen DVD is.......... Star wars - what an end to a great weekend!!!!!!
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