We were up early again to get to the sights as we have heard that the crowds really roll in around lunchtime.  The tram stop was right outside the B&B so we rugged up and waited for No 14 tram. Tina had said that if we get on this one, the tram driver will tell us when we arrive at the Anne Frank Museum, so we sat patiently on the tram while we went for a 30 minute trip to the end of the line, only to find out that that is one attraction they don’t mention on their announcements. We had a laugh and got back on to retrace our steps to find the museum, this time we had the conductor clued up and she told us where to get off.

The queue was relatively short so we were in after only a 20-minute wait. I had read this story as a youngen and always remembered how touching the story was, Marty however had never read it, but said at the end of the tour he was almost in tears.  When we left, it was raining so bought a couple of umbrellas & a new beanie for me; mine just wasn’t covering the ears well enough. We made our way to the Heineken Brewery and this time there was no queue.  We had a great tour, it is very comprehensive but I would say that the XXXX brewery tour at home is just as good.

We came out of that tour & were right in front of the Canal Cruise office, so bought tickets & jumped straight onto a ferry & spent the next 1 ½ hours touring round the canals. Amazing, amazing place, there are buildings still standing from the 17^th Century and some that are on an incredible lean. Cars are parked all along the canal edges, they have to be really good at parking otherwise they end up in the canal, which apparently happens quite a lot. At one stretch there is an iron railing along the edge, apparently this was put up by an insurance company that got sick of paying to fish cars out of the canal. They dump everything in the canals, including washing machines, cars, shopping trolleys & the city spends quite a bit of money cleaning the canals of all this stuff.

After we finished our cruise, we caught a tram back to the room for a quick relax then out again to find a restaurant that Tina had suggested. We were getting good at working out the trams by now, get a 10 or 14 to Dam square, then get on a 24 to the restaurant district. We had a bit of trouble finding it but it was worth the effort, this was an Indonesian Restaurant and Tina had suggested we try the ‘rijsttafel”, otherwise known as Rice Taffal. It was absolutely delicious, a first for both of us.

On the way to the restaurant we had seen a ‘Smokey Café’ and it wasn’t hard to work out what it was, so we stopped in and participated in the local joint smoking. Marty got a ‘White Widow” and it was mild enough for me to not make me too stoned, but strong enough for him to get a real buzz, and for only 15 euro.