2nd October Amsterdam

 ** Welcome to a very quiet start to Sunday morning in contrast to last night. The large crowds of revellers seem to be still sleeping it off either in their beds or in jail. From a chat I had with a young police woman guarding one of the bridges last night, this madness in the streets on a Saturday night is a weekly event here. As I said to her, I would not have her job for anything. Even from my 3rd floor apartment, at the back of the building, I could hear them screaming and jeering well past 2am. 

** Off on my wanderings & I came across a flower market, and what type of flowers do they have in Amsterdam? I am suddenly reminded of that old Max Bygraves song,  "Tulips from Amsterdam" 

** During my whole trip I have not had to concern myself with booking for museums in advance. To date I only had one booking hiccup and that was the "last supper", but to be honest, it was a sedar and I have attended nearly 70 sedars in my life so I don't think I missed too much. After finding out that the Reichmuseum required booking and specific times I went to book for the Van Gogh and it was booked out for today but I found a spot for Monday. Went to pay on line and it refused to recognise my Mastercard. So I went to the museum and queued only to find that the bookings can only be done on line. I was directed to the back of the Reikmuseum ticket shop and an unofficial ticket company who charge a €2 extra for doing the booking sorted me out & now I am booked in tomorrow morning at 10:00 for the Moco museum, which is the contemporary art museum, and then the Van Gogh museum at 1:45. 

It's a good thing than many museums I have visited were only €1 entry as these two cost me $59. It's within my overall budget, but still 🤗🤓😱. The company only charged me an extra €2 for each ticket. Strange that they have access to tickets that the official business doesn't.

** Toilets are not normally a topic of discussion that goes down well but I have come across some interesting concepts. The self cleaning toilet seat in Eastern Germany, the reverse toilet in my hotel in Amsterdam and the see through glass doors in Amsterdam. These are really cool. The doors are see through glass until the door is locked and then the door glass goes opaque. Really good for when a toilet had to be part of the bathroom but privacy is a necessity.

What one might call, now you see it, now you don't

** Given that I had planned to walk around the city for a day, anyway,  I decided that today would be that wandering day. I did not expect, though, to suddenly find my self at the Wall of Names holocaust memorial site. I was not aware that over 120,000 Jews, Sinti & Roma were deported to the death camps. The memorial is extremely well designed and very emotional, as it should be. I was not expecting to find any names of family but there is a possibility that the family of Zucker on the wall may have been related to my great-grandmother, Sarah Zucker Amdur.

Further images from today's wandering through the canals.

This is a normal garbage pick up truck truck, very different to what we have back in Perth.

Amazing stockings for sale

PPE being put to good use?

A demonstration calling for war against Putin

A very small demonstration calling for the destruction of all Jees

Some Israelis being there to give a bit of balance 

I'm not too sure but I believe that this is the palace of the constitutional monarchy here in the Netherlands 

** Now, for the fourth or fifth time this journey, I have walked into a five star hotel and I have asked to use their toilets even though I am not one of their guests, and they have been more than happy to oblige. It may be that I use my best English diction, may be my Ozy hat, it may be my walking stick and limp, it may be be my age, it may be my magnetic personality, it may be my white beard, it may be my air of privilege or it may be my good looks. I honestly can't say, but what ever it is, it had never failed me. 🤗

Many buildings here look like they are falling over. The image below is one of the best examples I have seen.

** Spent the last two hours taking a very slow walk from the station area where I had a revolting chicken burger & chips to the memorial for Anna Franks

A number of things struck me about this memorial to her. The first was its placement, literally,  right in the shadow of a church/ cathedral; second the statue looks more like Alice Liddell the young girl used loosely by Louis Carroll as the model for his Alice in Wonderland, instead of the bright eyed, wild-haired teenager who came of age and then ceased to exist in that cruelest if cruel wars.