Netherlands - Amsterdam

After rain in the evening and drizzle first thing we have been treated to perfect weather today in Amsterdam. We bused to the city from our B&B in Haarlem and walked the city until about 1pm then got into a hop on, hop off canel boat for about an hour, and did a canel circuit then returned and travelled a different circuit. I still think these are a great way to tour after you have done a bit of footwork first. 

We opted not to visit museums and cathedrals today, firstly it's a Sunday so mass is on, but we are a bit cathedraled and museumed out, need a wee break. But there was so much to see, Amsterdam would be one of our favourite cities. The Anne Frank Museum had queues for miles which was the only one I was interested in, but after Germany we felt we had seen as much as we needed too about the war etc...

The canels are busy with all sorts of boats from water taxis to private boats and canoes, and many people live on house boats even in the inner city canels, some are also for accommodation . Everyone bikes or walks everywhere in the city, so not much inner city traffic which is really nice, And it's also a Sunday, and not so busy, however the whole inner city had a real buzz too it with various street performers. 

I must mention that we did look along a couple of side streets and saw some very interesting window displays. 

Monday 

We hired bikes today from the train station and biked around Haarlem streets, many are dedicated to cyclists or pedestrian traffic only.  We saw several Dutch Street Organs being played. Explanation  below.

Dutch street organs (unlike the simple street organ) are large organs that playbook music. They are equipped with multiple ranks of pipes and percussion. As originally built the organ was operated by the 'organ grinder' turning a large handle to operate both the bellows/reservoir and the card feed mechanism. Almost all examples in the Netherlands have now been converted to belt drive from a small battery powered motor or donkey engine, allowing the organ grinder to collect money.

From there we biked to the Zuid Kennemerland National Park close to Haarlem city which is walking or biking only. There is a mixture of forests and then sand dunes out to the beach. Most of the area is flat so excellent for biking, though it was hot here today, 28c.  In the park there are wild horses and cattle which they introduced here to help control the weeds in the dunes. 

After dropping our bikes back we stopped for a beer, in one of the many places around the cathedral in the centre of Haarlem, and again it was busy as it is a public holiday today for Pentacost Monday.

We have also spotted some of the traditional windmills, but most are not fully working anymore and have been converted into homes, cafés, souvenir shops and so forth.