Impromptu Benelux adventure: Day five

I suppose I really should have foreseen how this day would pan out.

There was work to be done in the morning, so it wasn’t until after lunch that I ventured out into a sunny but slightly cool Amsterdam for a busy afternoon’s tourism. Host had previously suggested I download the Dérive App whose first suggestion was “follow something green” so I hopped on the tram to Leidseplein and walked to my favourite purveyor of coffee at the top of Reguliersdwarsstraat.

It was a most relaxing cup of coffee indeed, I thought, and I soon felt sufficiently energised for my busy afternoon’s tourism. What actually happened, somewhat inevitably, wasn’t quite what was planned and I walked round in circles for the first half hour or so as I tried to remember what it was I was supposed to be doing.

As I walked through the flower market I wondered whether I wanted to be there after all.

Then I thought I’d root out an emporium of tat for magnets and postcards, because there are plenty (almost nothing but) down Singel, but then had an interesting thought that ultimately, what are we, really, if we aren’t all just postcards? Deepness of thought dealt with, I could worry no more about postcards and get on with the busy afternoon’s tourism.

Once I’d remembered how not to look conspicuous or get hit by the cyclists, I set off in search of a door to photograph. Not by design, I was somewhat surprised when I ended up at the Homomonument and then realised I’ve still not been to the Anne Frank house, but there were queues, and I couldn’t stand around waiting as I had to do a busy afternoon’s tourism.

Churches are usually good, on the whole, but the sudden onset of a mysterious affliction that turned was what, let’s face it, an already limited attention span into absolutely no attention span whatsoever meant that while I somehow never actually got to any churches, I did manage to look at a door.

Once I’d adjusted to the slightly quieter canals, I miraculously ended up at De Nieuwe Kerk. De Nieuwe Kerk, it turns out, is not actually a church any more and therefore no, sir, you can’t look around without paying.

I decided I’d go and look at De Oude Kerk instead, but got distracted by a tram which for some reason looked very inviting and involved less walking. This also gave me an opportunity to use up a few of those unlimited journeys. It was a four, and I rode it past the Heineken brewery to Beethovenstraat where I got off because I thought I’d seen a church.

It’s leafy and calm round there, but two of the churches turned out to be schools, so I gave up on churches and rode a five to the museum district.

There are water fountains all over Amsterdam, and the water is lovely. I filled my bottle at the tram stop and then walked across the huge green space to the Rijksmuseum gardens where I sat and read my book.

The gardens closed at six, and I took advantage of being at the one end of the Vondelpaark to walk through it, dodging the squadrons of hurried cyclists looking at their phones, to the other. I had a beer, then went back to Host’s and had something to eat, apparently having had a busy afternoon’s tourism.

I’ll try again tomorrow.