May 9--Last day in Amsterdam: May 10--Homeward bound

May 9, 2012 to May 10, 2012

WEATHER: cloudy with rain showers

On Wednesday, our last full day in Amsterdam, we walked east from the hotel to the multicultural De Pijp area and the famous Albert Cuypmarkt, Amsterdam's largest and busiest street market, selling just about everything from cheese and fish to fabrics and kitchen gadgets. It's open six days a week from 10 to 5. We wandered past the booths on the pedestrianized streets, but didn't find the market terribly interesting, maybe because we're not shoppers.

Canal tour boats seemed to be very popular.

The only example that we saw of extensive ornate woodwork on a building.

We saw a few things in Amsterdam that we just couldn't explain.

For lunch we tried out another branch of La Place cafe located in a downtown department store. This one was closer to the hotel and larger than the cafe at the library, with more choice of sandwiches and desserts, and lots of seating upstairs under a skylit roof. It was raining when we returned to the hotel, and we spent a quiet afternoon there packing the Bike Fridays into their suitcases and organizing things for our flight tomorrow. We walked over to Pompa for a light dinner, and then had an early night.

Almost everywhere we went, fresh mint tea was on offer. Boiling water was poured into large glasses stuffed with leaves in order to make this treat.

The internationally known concert hall around the corner from the Hotel Verdi where we stayed.

Our plane on Thursday was scheduled to leave Schipol airport at 1:00, so we didn't have to rush in the morning, and our taxi arrived promptly at 10:30 for the 40 minute drive to the airport. We checked in and were told to report to the boarding lounge about an hour before the flight. At Schipol passengers travelling to North America go through security right at their boarding lounge, (with a small mobile crew) and not enough time is allowed to get everyone screened before the scheduled departure time. Bottlenecks develop if some passengers are questioned for longer than normal, and the whole procedure seems quite inefficient and annoying. We sat on the plane for awhile waiting for all the passengers, and then were told several people had not shown up and their checked bags would have to be found and removed from the cargo hold. This took another 45 minutes, and we finally departed about an hour late.

The rest of the flight went smoothly, and we arrived in Vancouver at about 3:00-—it had been a long afternoon! After a couple of days there to get over jet lag, we drove home to Nelson, marvelling at the continuous ups and downs of the mountain ranges as we crossed the province.

The view from our kitchen window at home.

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