Schlachtensee

Alexander has been attending theatre performances every Saturday and Sunday afternoon.  Today after he was dropped off, we went for a walk around Schlachtensee.

We bought some chips in a waffle cone and went for a walk.  It is so green at the moment, very beautiful!

The chips were delicious, and they were eaten far too quickly!

Nicole's Birthday

Nicole's 39th birthday.  Phil and the boys made a chocolate cake. 

Can you see anything interesting about the cake??

Take one cake, cut in half, put cream on one half, then place the other half on the top.

It was brilliant and Nicole laughed and laughed at how fantastic the cake was.

Just enough for the 4 of us! Perfect!!!

This is Nicole's new bike for her birthday. 

We took it for a test drive at Templehof Airport Runway.

It is a great bike. 

Around Amsterdam

On one of the canal boats

A lonely windmill along the canal

The flea market had lots of interesting things to see.

One of the busiest stands at the market was the bicycle repair man

Old wooden strap on ice skates.

Nicole really loves these Vespas, and is thinking about one for Melbourne.

Plenty of clogs everywhere, but these were the biggest ones we found.

We loved this bicycle, so handy for our weekly groceries, or children!

The condom shop windows gave us lots to laugh about

The new Amsterdam library

Vending machines for hot food.

Put your money in the slot, pick a window, open the window, and there is your dinner.

One of many cheese shops

House Boats

There were lots of house boats on the canals, some of them were fantastic. What a great place to live!

Some of them were quite plain.

Other house boats has lovely "gardens" on their "porches" and on their rooftops.

The guard dog.

A great sunny day to have a BBQ on the back of your house boat.

Each permanent house boat had a letter box attached somewhere.

Boats on the Canals

We decided to see Amsterdam from the canals.  We bought a 24 hour ticket which covered a number of different boats, complete with commentary and routes, and allowed us to hop on and hop off at any dock.

Travelling by boat in Amsterdam seems to be as common as travelling by bike.  There were some very interesting watercraft to watch.

This one has an Australian flag on the back

Not sure how long this one had been there?

Travelling under the bridges was nice.

Bigger boats and tour boats in the larger canals near the harbour.

Boats are as popular as bikes.

On a sunny day, everyone is out in a boat with a bottle of wine.

Some people have more than 1 bottle of wine.

And this guy was happy to wander around the canal playing his trumpet and piano in his tiny little boat.

He made everyone smile!

It was a great way to see more of Amsterdam.

Streets of Amsterdam.

We did a lot of walking around the streets of Amsterdam.  You needed to watch out for cars, bikes, vespas, and trams.

You can see the slant on these buildings.

Lots of bridges to walk over.

Cafe's galore

Love these Vespa's.  Thinking this might be a good way to get around Melbourne!

A great little cafe we found near our hotel.