Friday, another perfect day.
The hotel sent a bottle of wine to our room. Nice gift. Looked around for a corkscrew, when none was to be found I asked reception. “Will send one up with a bartender to open it”. No need I say, just need a corkscrew. “Sorry, we have only one in the hotel.”
Rather odd.
Nice train ride and walk through the town of Alkmar on the way to the cheese market fair area. Exceedingly crowded at the fair, lots of cheese of course and lots of high street, no chain store, browsing and eating.
Several more pictures of the market fair as well as QB in a newly purchased cheese hat with cheese being shown in a canal boat in the background.
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0L9Pns-nNynWIRFuoytEJutOw
In France and Spain one trips over pharmacies. Here one cannot find them; no supermarkets in the cities or none that we found even after asking.
Back in Amsterdam we took Michelles suggestion to visit the handbag museum. Another ball of string. 5000 bags in a canal house of the 17th century. High ceilings, large windows, large ornate fireplace, back yard reminiscent of the Jane Street village brownstone. A good example of why it was called New Amsterdam.
Museum is full of the history of items to carry on waist, hand and bags. Materials and changing fashions.
Went for drinks at In’l Aepjen, one of the oldest buildings in Amsterdam. Old bar with many very good beers. In earlier ages they accepted payment in monkeys which were eventually given away and led to the start of the local zoo.
Dinner at Brasserie FLO. A good chain but not here. Food was cold, service poor, preparation bad for QBs duck and these are the good points. In the review gave them a generous 2 stars.
Beautiful walk back to the hotel. Might have indulged in an apple tart, one of the Dutch treats. Have had, to date, the pancakes, the waffle, and the tart. No bitterballen as yet.
For the records, as if they are being kept, the first post of this trip did not go out with notifications, got posted but intertubes got stuck. So, there is one post earlier than this one for this current sacking.
Saturday, again a perfect day.
Almost everyone is outside. The beautiful weather is, apparently, so unusual that it is not to be missed. Insides of places have seats. Drinks at our hotel last night, we were the only ones in the bar, were and example of same. Bartender explained, no business until it rains again.
Day started with a visit to Museum Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder, Our Savior in the attic. A 17th century canal building, in its original state, mostly, with a Church on the 4th floor. Protestants took over in late 16th Century and permitted secret worship of other faiths. This is one of 20 or so Churches in the attic, only one still intact.
Picture below is the actual church with alter. Three houses long. The merchant bought three houses and had them joined on the 4th floor.
Another highlight recommended by Don’s friend. The lower floors, with their audio tour, shows well the architectural style.
Very steep staircases, very. Only remaining oak one, other have been replaced with other woods. One staircase, to a portion of the house used by the live in priest, was too steep for us to bother with.
Sign in front of our hotel, Interesting history of the building.
Indonesian dinner at Indrapura, recommended by the staff at the hotel. Fine place, good meal.
Now that photos are on the cloud it is possible to set up a link of the daily shots. Not too many but too many for the blog,
Link to other pictures of the day. Church, canals, buildings, dinner, menu of dinner items (17-18)
Boog's Blog 
The weather there is clearly better than we are getting at home this Saturday. A fascinating insight into the Nightwatch by Rembrandt. And, nice hat!