Amsterdam Scenes

I have been sick the last days, my kids as well. Last weekend I had a lot of home work to do. Once I had accomplished it all, we decided it was time to pick up the car and go to Amsterdam in order to move our legs in the Vondelpark - and also check some December sales. On Sundays, we always park in the fancy area of Old South (Oud Zuid) and never get tired of walking around.


This is a very chic furniture shop. I just loooove this shop window - lots of rats !

This is at P.C. Hoofdstraat. Some shops have already Christmas decorations - beautiful and boring. This Hermes was quite original. Chapeau !

We decided it was a good idea to check the shops in Leidsestraat. First, we reached Leidseplein. I just had to photograph this saying, it amuses me for more than one decade.

Homo sapiens non urinat in ventum. Freely translated it becomes:

A wise man doesn't urinate in the wind. Big truth. Big, big truth.

There is enough room in Leidseplein for ice skating.

Kids learn how to iceskate pushing a chair. I've never learned how to do it. My kids practice in the canal behind their grandparents house, in our village. Beautiful open fields, but also dangerous. They get scared with the sound of some "cracks", me too. Specially after they have see Ice Age and all those "cracking" sounds, brrrr!

And our kids asked to have olie bollen.

It is a deep fried dough with dried raisins, typical during winter season.

Walking along Leidsestraat one couldn't avoid noticing a beautiful classical song. Some tourists were looking down the bridge, into the canal. I decided to break my way among them and saw this amazing man playing along - and sailing. Some tourists screamed during a brief pause: "Arlequin !" and others "Hey, clown !" But the artist was quite serious about what he was doing, and asked the tourists their preferences. My son joined me, and I could make a pair of stunning photos from him on the bridge on the left side an the artist on the right side. The artist started playing Mendelhsson and we decided to leave.

I am so satisfied I could make these pics - the boat was moving quite fast and the tourists were squeezing me. (And after all, this blog is all about photos.) I am always concerned about somebody stealing my camera. Touristical places are for me a synonim of potential theft - pick pockets and so on. My anthenas are always working. You can take the girl out of Rio but you cannot take Rio inside of the girl...

To make a long story short: hubby found good offers at Sissy-Boy and Matinique shops. I was not inspired at all - I prefer to shop alone. We walked back to the car via the Museumplein. I think Amsterdam is one of the most beautiful cities in the world - and I have quite seen the world. I always long for more of Amsterdam. I AMsterdam.