'dam days

This trip is a bit different from the last one to New Zealand and Fiji for which we had an itinerary. On this trip, we don’t have much of an itinerary. We don’t have anything scheduled to do until we go to Morocco in a month and some weekend stateside company saying they will drop by.
And it probably shows. No daily blog updates so far. I’ve taken less than 250 pictures.
This is a different kind of travel for us so far. Sleeping in late. In the 3 full days we have had here, today, Saturday, was the “busiest”. We started out after noon for the small park, Frederik HendrikPlantSoen, across the canal and the street from the apartment.



A small neighborhood park with some grass and a good number of crocus that have come up already. From Fred’s we headed for the open air market at Noordkerk (North Church). We were there last year with Mike and Vanessa. It’s a large open air market selling everything from fresh fruits and vegetables to meat, bread (yes, Vanessa there were 2 bread stalls with great selections), clothes, and sundry other junk. Popular place. Bikes, of course, were everywhere. Horse drawn carriages brought the lazier tourists to market.
From Noordkerk we headed out along the Prizengracht (gracht = canal) and headed slowly toward the Leidseplein area for our ritual Vlaamische Frittes (Flemish french fries) and mayo snack. From there we went through Vondelpark, a large park in the middle of the city that was “all tore up” last trip.
We wandered back toward the apartment via another open air market which occupied the entire street. Lots of women in hijabs at this market…not sure if we were in a Middle Eastern neighborhood.

We got back to the apartment a little after 5 and after awhile went out to the local Pizzeria for dinner.

An interesting place was Ben Cohen's Shawarma. Discuss.

Tomorrow? We’ll see when it gets here. Maybe a train ride to the beach.