Amsterdam - Westerkerkstoren

These two shots were taken after 10pm last night, looking out the window and up and down the canal.

The little sloop belongs to Ben

There's a train crossing the bridge

This morning we took the bikes out again.  We decided to head for Westerkerk to see if we could climb the tower.

Het Scheepvaartmuseum (Maritime Museum) and the Amsterdam

Typical old buildings in Amsterdam

A lovely little canal.  Notice it's cold enough that both Kiri and I are wearing beanies.

Lovely architecture

Riding down the bike lane in a typical street.  Note the tram tracks

This house at no. 345a is only as wide as my star shape!

Fountains for people to drink from...

...and enterprising pigeons.

The organ in Westerkerk

Beautiful old flagstones on the floor.  This one was crafted.

The tower of Westerkerk is the highest church tower in Amsterdam.  There are 183 steps up to the viewing level, which is 42 metres above the ground.  The tower itself is 85 metres high.  The staircases are steep and spiralling; some of stone and some of wood.  Fantastic!  I love this sort of thing!

Stone spiral steps

and wooden spiral steps

One of the three main church bells, left intact by the Nazis because of intrinsic value

This is part of the old carillon

The largest bell

High above Amsterdam!

Prinsengracht (Princes canal) looking north

Prinsengracht directly below Westerkerk

Prinsengracht looking south

At midday, the local carilloner played the carillon, and Kiri and I hung around to listen.  With 15 minutes to go, this chap in a boat came along and played some unrehearsed duets with the carillon.  He played French horn, he stuck his fingers in his mouth and whistled, and he played the wooden hurdy-gurdy thingy in his boat.  He was very, very good, and the whole thing was fantastic!

Het Muziekboot; Reinier on the French horn

Westerkerkstoren

And it's anyone's guess what this chap was doing - without a harness!!

Cakes in the cafe where we bought lunch

The wildlife is very opportunistic - always looking for a handout

Hand-feeding the swan.  As in: feeding the swan hand.  Kiri's hand, to be specific.

The Mute Swan and our local Coot family

Departing in style

Our Coot family is in our backyard, with the windmill in the background

The de Gooyer windmill is the largest wooden windmill in Amsterdam

For tea tonight, we followed Ben's suggestion and rode to the Bibliothek, the library.  Six floors of books, then there's a cafe cum restaurant on the top floor with views over Amsterdam.

This is what we were forced to look at as we ate.  Such hardship!

Lovely views over Amsterdam

Lots of boats on the IJmeer, the lake to the north of Amsterdam city

We rode home over the bridge towards the Science Museum

Walking home after our (Kiri's) nightly ice-cream, we stopped to listen to a group of musicians playing some toe-tapping bluegrass.  As far as we could work out, they were just out practising.

We sat and listened for about an hour.

And one final shot - from inside our ice-cream shop!

This is only half of the flavours!