Took the public bus (lots of English speaking folks in Amsterdam–guess it doesn’t really count as foreign) to the Central Station and walked up the very busy Damrakstreet to Dam Square where I picked up my tour. Took pic’s around the square:
The City Hall / Place
The New Church (because it is 100 years younger than the Catholic Church):
The back of the War Memorial (loved how this little street framed it):
The walking tour was great. I was so confused….almost got hit by a bike….but got lots of good canal shots:
I had a picnic lunch on a bench by a canal and finally figured out where I was. I walked the pedestrian shopping street in the afternoon and right in the middle, across from McDonald’s I found the “church of the parrot”. Years ago, Catholic Churches were tolerated if they were not too obvious. This is the first I found. It is amazing; you walk thru a little revolving door and you are in a big church:
I loved the little pads that are hanging on the back of the pew in front of you.
And why I particularly liked this church is that they had St. Anthony candles for sale— of course, I bought one:
I took a canal boat ride and went “home” to have a picnic (potato/zucchini pizza, cheese and wine with a map of Amsterdam as my table cloth:
Some things I love about Amsterdam: all the little passageways, the canals, the beautiful buildings and homes, and that it is a pretty walkable city.
Something’s I don’t love about Amsterdam: the 1.5 million bikes (there are only 800,000 people-most have two bikes), citizens throw about 12,000 old/broken bikes in the canals every year, and another thing is not being able to find my way around—-besides the Dutch names this place is like a maze………next are some shots of this city:
A bike ramp on steps in the city:
The smallest house in the city ( the red house that has the door with the green garland):
Another door with a church behind it:
Barb Does The World 
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