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Friday, January 2, 2004: We left Kiruna early in the morning
and flew to Amsterdam, with a layover in Stockholm again. First, we
checked into our room at the Crowne Plaza hotel. |
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We walked along the canals to the Anne
Frank House and passed the skinniest house in Amsterdam -- it's
the tiny building to the right of the white building, and is no wider
than a front door. |
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No photographs are allowed in the Anne Frank House, so you'll have
to take our word for it that we were there. Of course, we had to pick
up a copy of the diary of Anne Frank while we were leaving. We walked
to the Dam and enjoyed the look of Amsterdam's canals at night. |
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Here is one of the busy shopping streets just off of the Dam. |
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I was determined to have an Indonesian rijsttafel dinner, so we
found a restaurant that served both Chinese and Indonesian food. We
feasted on all of the delicious dishes included in a traditional rijsttafel
and quenched our thirst with not-so-traditional Coca Cola Light. We
then had a brisk walk through the Red Light District on the way back
to our hotel. |
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Saturday, January 3, 2004: Early the next morning, we went
out to take a canal tour, but the tours start an hour later in the
winter, so we came back later. |
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We finally were able to go on the tour, and it was well worth the
small fee. After Sweden, everything in the Netherlands seemed very
inexpensive! |
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From the window of our tour boat, we saw the line forming at the
Anne Frank House. It was much longer the night before when we were
there. |
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This is not a very interesting photograph, but I heard either the
German or Dutch translation mention that this is the home of Amsterdam's
burgermeister (spelled "burgemeester" in Dutch; it means
"mayor" to us Americans). I now have the word "burgermeister"
on my website. It's a fun word, isn't it? |
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We saw many of these cute black birds with white faces, but getting
a good photo of them proved elusive. This one's for you, Jill. |
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This is a museum called Nemo
in the harbour. We didn't have time to visit, but it was highly photogenic! |
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After our tour, we packed up and headed back to Central Station,
to take a train back to the airport.
** THE END **
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