A few things to note about these few days in Amsterdam: on Monday we explored the Jordaan neighborhood, more with locals, and found some street markets and more canal views.
About the popularity of bicycles, I can show the multi-level bike parking lot at Centraal Station.
Instructions for the IJ ferry are only in Dutch, saying that one side was only for fietsers, which was the first Dutch word I learned on a warning sign entering Belgium at age seven: bicyclists.
Tuesday we went to the Rijksmuseum; rather than the easy metro or tram we were looking for the taxi or Bolt. Going over although I’d established where the taxi stand was, there were no cabs there, and I got a Bolt car to arrive.
We hadn’t previously established a time to reserve a visit, and needed to figure out that tickets could be bought at the museum shop outside for immediate entry. We ate at the museum cafe, with ordering and payment entirely done by QR code. We had the great art works to see in the museum, but the crowds were a distraction.
At the end, calling a Bolt again, we didn’t know about the designated pickup spot on a side street, and when we found the car the driver was taking off saying he’d cancelled. We did another call: just the wait was much longer than a public transportation trip would be, but the road routes gave us interesting looks at the city.
One more observation is that most payments here are cashless: the bakery where we get coffee and croissants demands payment by card.
One more walk to get pictures of Dam square:
We have a driver booked and hoping for the best for going to Madrid tomorrow for a night before returning home, hoping for the best.
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