Day 24 - The Twilight Zone

Jim and I woke up a little later this morning and headed first to the Rembrandt House. I officially admitted to myself that I have a cold this morning. I didn't sleep too well and my nose is completely stuffed up. It is not fun to be sick on vacation. :( We took a tour of the house, me with an audio-tour and Jim without. It was a very pretty house considering when it was built and it was set up just like it would have been used by Rembrandt. However at the top of the exhibit they had a large exhibit on Backer, which was Rembrandt's student. So it was really more focused on Backer than Rembrandt which was odd. It was a good tour though.

After the tour we walked around the Red Light District, but it doesn't have quite the same charm during the day. We stopped in a few shops for some shopping including a very fancy hat shop where we had a good time. There were so many hats in there that would be so fun to own! Jim had a wonderful time trying on all sorts of hats and actually decided to spring for one. Through the rest of the trip he would continuously mention how much he likes his hat. So I'm glad he was able to find something he liked.

We toured the shops and the sights for a while and made our way back towards the flower market. I spent a long time here deciding what to buy and what would be good to take home. We even took a little break to grab some lunch at Wok to Go. It was very good fast Thai food. After we ate and warmed up a bit we went back to the flower market and I was able to make some decisions on what I wanted. We made our way back to the houseboat but we spent most the time stopping in little shops along the way and looking at all the cool things they have to offer. Shopping is really great in Amsterdam, its filled with all sorts of boutiques and really great furniture and art shops.

We got back to the houseboat with our intention to warm up and head to the VanGough Museum. But we checked the times and it closed in a little over an hour, so we wouldn't make it anyway. So we settled with writing postcards and taking a nap before we went out later. The nap felt great and I was able to get warm again. We stayed at the houseboat for a long time and ended up watching a Dragon show called Merlin...not much is on Dutch television, but we found it entertaining.

We finally left the houseboat later in the evening and took the metro to the red light district. It was certainly more populated now and I will say it was very different at night. It was interesting to walk around and see everything. We were hungry at this point, but we couldn't find a cash machine so we spent a long time looking for one. We finally found one very close to where we had started and then continued our search for a nice place to eat. We finally agreed on a Pizzeria Steakhouse down an alley. The food ended up being okay, but nothing to cry home about. It was after all just a small place in the red light district. But it was nice to spend some time enjoying the evening.

After dinner we went next door to a coffee shop called The Twilight Zone. I enjoyed a nice piece of cake while we sat and took in the atmosphere. Jim and I were very excited about the name "The Twilight Zone" and we were very happy with our selection. It had a great crowd and we enjoyed ourselves. After The Twilight Zone we made the long walk back towards our part of town and tried to decide on a bar. Most of the bars were packed with people, but Jim and I weren't in the mood to jam ourselves in a loud bar, so we settled for a very quiet bar on the corner near our hotel. A little party was happening inside and the crowd was very entertaining. They were dancing and singing to old American music like Madonna, Prince, etc. It was hilarious. We sat for a long time and sipped our drinks, but the night was getting very late so we headed home. I was very happy to get to bed and take some medicine to help me breathe. It was a long day, but it was a great day to end our time in Amsterdam!