De Albert Cuypmarkt, that’s the street you want to be on in De Pijp. I went back and it’s a wonderful market, problem is they were still setting up when I arrived… I’ve learned that if you’re going to do anything before 10AM, it better be a park because nothing else is going to be open or set up for you until then. And anything after 6, same deal it’s probably not going to be open anymore unless it involves food. Oh well.
I circled from the Market up towards Rijksmuseum, that’s where the IAmsterdam sign is. There are some things you simply have to resign yourself to the fact that you’re not going to get a picture of just you and the thing and this is one of those things. It is literally crawling with people and I have a feeling even at midnight it would still be covered!
Now I didn’t actually go into the Rijksmuseum, I was meeting up with a friend at the train station later and I needed to get going because I still wanted to visit the flower market and get into St Nicholas’ before then. However, I did take a stroll around the outside and because the building itself isn’t impressive, there were some pretty interesting tree sculptures scattered around the grounds.
Well, I passed through the flower market and while the back is splendid, the greenhouses are just murals on the backs and the front looks like a tourist trap. It’s a good thing I’m not into flowers, I was able to walk a lap and be moving on towards the cathedral in no time.
As impressively large as the cathedral is from the outside, it felt fairly small once I got in. Beyond that, in respect to the signs that said quiet, I only took 1 picture since my camera is obnoxious and loud. But it’s worth a solid walk through to see the whole thing and admire all the little details.
I was at the train station about 10 minutes before my friend was set to arrive and about an hour and a half later I left with no sign of my friend. I thought I just missed Kiwi and so I went to her hostel and they were kind enough to tell me she hadn’t arrived yet… uh oh. Well as I was walking out the door I ran into her, turns out a train had broken down in front of her and so she was late and oh the joy of not having Wi-Fi to check messages with. But we did chat for a bit before parting ways again.
How I wish I had just one more day to spend in Amsterdam! I wanted to visit all the museums but I have to say, if you want to go to any of those you should book all of your tickets well in advance! I couldn’t get into the Anne Frank House if I tried and all the lines were ridiculous! One day I’m hoping to go back for a week so I can do Amsterdam right. In the meantime, I leave for Paris tomorrow!!!!! I haven’t been this excited since I left home!