Touring around Amsterdam

Today is our last full day on the cruise. We sailed into Amsterdam around 6:00 AM this morning.
At 8:45 AM we left for a tour of Amsterdam's many canals.
Lovely scenery as we travelled at a slow pace.
Pictures below are some of the areas that we ventured into on our canal boat.

There are 2,500 houseboats on the canals. Some look very good and others appear to be falling apart.

2,500 is the maximum allowed on the canals and thus the price has risen quite high. The older ones may sell for between 100,000 and 200,000 Euros. The newer ones, near the downtown area, sell for up to 600,000 Euros.

This next picture is a skinny house. The white window is pretty much the width of the house. Taxes are calculated on the house width, so this one pays the least amount of taxes.

We passed the Anne Frank house and I think the house beside the red awning is the correct one.

There is an afternoon tour of the Anne Frank house but we decided to rest up for the "red light district" tour this evening.

I think it is time for a couple more pictures of the canals as we continued our city tour.

As you no doubt know there are many marijuana shops in Amsterdam. While it is not really legal, it is tolerated. The places that are called coffee houses do not serve coffee, but you can certainly light up a "joint" in these shops. If you want coffee you head to a cafe.

What do you think this one is?

Amsterdam has dozens of excellent museums, about 7,000 classified building on 90 islands linked by 1,200 bridges spanning the canals on either side of the Amstel River.

Amsterdam has a vibrant, yet laid back atmosphere and apparently, an outrageous nightlife that we will experience tonight.

After lunch, Bonnie, Jane and Dan headed to the cabin to do some packing. Joe decided to walk to the old downtown area to get some more pictures.

The next 3 pictures are the main street in Amsterdam, which I believe is called Damrak.

In Amsterdam there are people all over the place walking around but mostly biking.

The people riding bicycles are all over the place. They do not stop for pedestrians, cars or red lights.

If you are walking, you need to be constantly on the lookout.

Because the bikes are so numerous, they are parked all over the place as you can see.

Tonight we head for that outrageous nightlife (aka the red light district). Some of the guys (no names) were asking the cruise director if there was a senior discount.

Off we went to the famous red light district. Our guide, Martin, who was excellent, warned us that anyone taking pictures of the ladies could be thrown in the canal.

Perhaps that is why our pictures are of the canal area in the red light district and not the ladies.

It was extremely interesting to see the windows with the ladies trying to persuade you to come in to her "parlour".

The pictures below are canal pictures in the red light district.

Off to bed as tomorrow is a big day. We head home at 6:00 PM Amsterdam time and arrive in Toronto at around 7:30 PM Toronto time.